1. On the MAGWEB, in a recent MWAN magazine (Number 93), is a set of rules called IRONSIDES, English Civil War rules by Howard Whitehouse. These caught my eye, because well over two years ago, Tony Figlia showed up at the house with IRONSIDES and we tried it. "These are great rules!" said Tony. Our two-battle encounter with IRONSIDES told us that IRONSIDES had no redeeming qualities. Too much nitty-gritty under the guise of historical veracity. Why Whitehouse, after all this time, chose to inflict it on the readership of MWAN is unknown. What's most interesting is the description Whitehouse applies to his rules: It is, he says, a "... near imbecilic ... (set of)... rules for the... Great Civil War." I'll buy that. 2. Jim Butters has exposed us to VICTORY, a very pretty boxed boardgame by Columbia Games. VICTORY is in the style of NAPOLEON (some 10 to 15 years old), an area game (hexes) played with wooden blocks, on one side of which you note your force strength, keeping it a secret from your opponent. VICTORY is a modern game... tanks, aircraft, parachute units, battle ships, etc. The basic cost is $39, and so taken with VICTORY were Jim and a dozen friends that they each bought a copy (at a vast discount, around half-price). I looked at the rules quite closely... in the 95/96/97 era, I had generated a number of ping-pong table-size area games, also with aircraft, ships, little tanks, etc., I wanted to see what I could 'borrow' from VICTORY for incorporation in the Simon creations. And the answer?... not too much. An area game is an area game, and can be stretched only so many ways. VICTORY uses 3-inch hexes, I use areas around 6-inches square; VICTORY has stacking limits per area, I have stacking limits; VICTORY uses 6-sided dice, I use 10-sided dice; VICTORY uses wooden blocks, I use 15mm or 6mm tokens; VICTORY uses step reduction per block, I use a "repair zone" to attempt to rejuvenate units, and so on. But I did note one thing lacking in VICTORY... in the rules booklet describing the combat procedures, there was no explanation defining which side won a battle. A battle has 3 rounds of combat... in each round, each side tosses dice, reducing the opponent's strength... and then what? Who wins? Who retreats? It kinda leaves one hanging for one's $39 purchase... even for a nicely boxed half-price bargain. When I queried Jim about this, he jumped up and down and enthusiastically waved the rules... "It's all here! It's very clear! It's obvious!" Obvious to him, but not to me. I gave Jim a 95% for enthusiasm and assigned a grade of 55% to VICTORY. And I'll put off my purchase of VICTORY for a wee bit. Back to PW Review July 1998 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 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