This is a first look, a quicky look, at Dave Waxtel's THEY DIED FOR GLORY (TDFG), a rules set for the Franco-Prussian War era. About three months ago, Bob Hurst suddenly became enamored of this period, and Bob, who does nothing by halves, tooled up for the era by buying out all the Franco-Prussian 15mm figures at every flea market within 300 miles of Washington, DC. On Saturday, October 2, we piled into the Hurst gaming area, and there, on the 6' by 12' table, were all the Franco-Prussian figures in the world. The TDFG book is a professionally published, 8.5 x 11", slick paged, glossy, multi-color, soft cover effort; it follows along the lines of TACTICA and FIRE AND FURY. Aside from its prettiness, however, it seemed to me that TDFG didn't quite make it up to the standards of these other rules sets. Too many things left unsaid, too many questions arising unanswered, too many unexplained procedures. The sequence flows thusly, in 9 basic phases: During the 9 phases of the bound, all units get 2 actions, which they may use to either move or fire. Thus a French unit may fire twice on Phase 3, but this leaves it with no potential for movement on Phase 6. Units must be marked, therefore, to note which of them have used up all their actions, which of them still have one action left, and which of them have 2 actions left. During Phase 9, the last phase in the bound, all units on the field remove their markers and start anew for the next bound. On occasion, dealinq with these action markers becomes a wee bit confusing. For example, after the Prussians fire on Phase 7, the targeted French units take a morale test. If a French unit tosses a "1", it must charge any enemy unit within range. Note that this charge takes place almost in the last phase in the bound. The rules book states, in effect, that in the charge, the French unit expends 2 actions... which we translated as referring to the 2 actions the unit would receive in the next bound. In other words, during the entire next bound, having prematurely "used up" its actions, the charging unit will be completely impotent, not able to either fire nor move. There was one other instance in closing to contact, in which a unit had to expend an action, and apparently was forced to "grab" the action from the next bound. None present at tableside were content with the "grabbing" routine. Six-sided dice were used for all procedures, and due to the lack of sufficient gradations on this type of die, the firing results were all "scrunched up". For example, a 5 or 6 on the die scored a hit on a target if it was in skirmish formation, if it was in woods, if it was in cover, if it was behind works. Use of a 10-sided die would have allowed a little more leeway. The only advantage given the French was the fact that their rifles outranged those of the Prussians, 18 inches to 12 inches. But, in practice, the advantage turned out to be no advantage at all. Prussian columns moved 12 inches, and they could zip right through the outer 6-inch region (12 to 18 inches)... once within 12 inches of the enemy, all units fired alike. I commanded a French brigade of 6 battalions; they ranged from 12 figures to 16 figures. Prussian battalions seemed to have 20 figures in them. This superiority showed up in both firing and melee capabilities. The author warns the player that Prussian units are much superior, in fact, overwhelmingly superior, to French units, and this proved to be the case. The rules are crafted for the Prussians to attack, and the French to defend. In defiance of the laws of nature, I sent out 2 of my battalions to cross bayonets with the oncoming Prussians. My first 12-man unit I cleverly placed in skirmish order... unfortunately, there are no "evade" provisions; my troops got one volley at the Prussian column, which then swooped in from 12 inches away. Each 2 French figures gets a combat die, while each 3 Prussian figures receives 2 combat dice. I had shot up the oncoming Prussians, causing 4 casualties out of their 20 man unit. The remaining 16 figures still gave them 12 combat dice to my own unit's 6. As the author stated... no contest. As I remember, the Prussians scored a hit on a toss of anything but a "1"... it was hard for them to miss. My boys scored on a toss of 4, 5, or 6. Not only did I not win the melee, but my unit was annihilated. Not to be deterred, I formed my next French infantry unit in a closed formation of 2 lines, and again crossed bayonets with the Prussians. There wasn't too much of a difference from the results of the first encounter... again, my unit was wiped out. Yes, as stated by the author, the Prussians were definitely superior. The only way a French unit can stand up to a Prussian one in combat is to hit it in the flank, or defend by standing behind works. Otherwise, it's a wipeout. The winner in melee is determined by seeing which unit caused the most casualties on its opponent. Here, a triple whammy is put on the French. Due to (a) the larger size of the Prussian units, (b) the greater number of combat dice per figure, and (c) the higher percentage of scoring per die, there was rarely any contest. Each time a unit is hit, it must take a morale test. All the battalions in my brigade had an initial morale level of "6", indicating that until they suffered 3 casualties, they'd pass, automatically, i.e., on a toss 1 to 6. Every 3 casualties on a unit reduced the morale level by 1 pip. When a unit fails its test, it moves back 12 inches, remaining in its formation. One special situation was defined if a unit took 4 hits on one valley... not only did it take a morale test, but it was forced to "go to ground" in place. This, several times, gave rise to the situation in which 4 hits were taken, the unit went to ground, it took a morale test, and it failed. We moved the unit back its 12 inches, but the question arose as to whether or not it still went to ground, i.e., which factor overrode which... the fall back or the "go to ground"? The same problem arose when a unit reached the 50 percent casualties mark... here, too, the "go to ground" requirement was imposed. When a unit went to ground and was subsequently charged, it could rise up "for free" prior to contact, and here, too, since the "rising up" constituted an action, many times the unit, having used up all its actions on the current bound, had to "grab" its action from the next bound. Or so we thought. A couple of years ago, TDFG came out as a 4-page centerfold production in one of the issues of the COURIER. The current version, although expanded, still doesn't seem to have expanded enough. In short, on this first outing, TDFG made the list of rules which seem "not quite ready for prime time". A second look at TDFG is warranted. As Bob Hurst said: "We're gonna do it again until we get it right!" Back to PW Review October 1993 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com