What is it about English figure rules that so often requires they be edited and presented in such a poor fashion? These rules look awful and the editing and proof reading make PA look good. They are also a very interesting piece of design work, which begins to approach the Courtney Allen impulse system games.
The topic is the Great War and the game is played on a table divided into foot square sections. Each of these is a single location for movement and positioning of units and for range. At a stroke we can get rid of that most flexible of instruments – the wargamer's ruler. You can of course position lots of jolly terrain in each area but it is essentially immaterial, if it's a fortification square then that is what it is, irrespective of your scenic skills.
You purchase elements of units together with artillery and gas attacks fortifications and commanders. Most artillery units are off map. Having selected your armies the system then identifies who is the attack. You each bid for a level of offensive from "The Big Push" to "Dig in and hold on" the difference in levels of offensive then conditions the number of units the defender has. Let's imagine both sides chose forty stands of infantry. At the biggest extreme in offensive level (four levels) the defender would throw four dice for each stand, a six removing it from the game. I think that comes to a 48% survival level so 19 stands will face 40 (on average).
The defender gets all the rows on terrain except one (which goes to the attacker) plus three areas are unoccupied on the second row. Other terrain is set up as agreed (so you can have Russian marshes and forest or the Somme entrenchments).
The game starts with barrages that have been purchased by the attackers and then in go the stosstruppen. The latter are handled not as combat units but as a device that moves the defenders out of the way, so that the main attack will be going into terrain abandoned by defenders flanked by the assault troops.
Movement is one or two squares a turn with the usual jollity for roads and rivers. Finer grading in movement can be handled by a dice to leave a "heavy going" area.
Each turn has a die-roll for who goes first (so the double turn is a regular feature). Both sides then move, followed by simultaneous bombardment and fighting.
Artillery units on the map will kill on 5 or 6 (subject to saving dice) but major barrages have different effects from mere killing to freezing movement. Infantry combat is very reminiscent of the Impulse system. You can only use a certain number of units they each have a value and are modified. For each 5 points of value you throw a dice and these dice kill on various numbers based on the kind of target (a 6 kills a tank but a 3-6 will finish the infantry). The player with the largest number of kills has won. If it is the attacker then the defender vacates the square. If the defender wins he gets some extra fire dice (D6-2). Losses will then generate morale tests (one dice per deadie) leaving a number of "morale failures" that can freeze movement, cause retreats or even further losses. You can imagine the failed attack, the collapse of morale and the units trapped in no-mans-land or breaking.
There are lots of special bits and bobs – trenches and gas to add to the basic model. The victory points promise to factor in the offensive level but I am not sure they do.
A very interesting approach indeed, but I must say I think the use of foot square tiles is a little profligate, to give a longer game something smaller is required. Without this the maximum area of activity may be 15 locations – not a lot really.
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© Copyright 1999 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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