Operation Typhoon (cf review on page 18 -ed) is not strictly speaking a member of Victory in the West series but, for me, belongs because, first, the Moscow counter-offensive was a Victory in the West for the Soviets, and second, the game system rules are 90% the same as the next members of the system. The CRT and the sequence of play are the same, the main difference being the two sets of combat chits, one for each side, instead of one for both for the following games.The system is rather simple, written on an eight-page rule folder, but with interesting tricks in re movement, intelligence and combat modifiers. The sequence of play is the usual IGO-UGO with tests for weather, combat supply and some specific details regarding each game of the system. During movement, each unit can choose between tactical and strategic movement, reminiscent of the Atlantic Wall system (the fact that the designer is the same is perhaps not pure coincidence). The ZOC are locking and combat mandatory, and to disengage from a ZOC, the unit has to spend half of its movement allowance. The stacking limits are three units of any size per hex, but only one regiment/brigade can combat, the others providing an integrity bonus.
As many historical fighting reports mention, and as is true for the games, each combat is like gambling with a lot of unpredictable events. At the beginning of the game, the troops don’t have a fixed combat value; instead, each counter has a strength (between 1 and 3) and a morale value (between A and C). For the unit’s first combat, the player picks a strength marker from the right strength container, and reads the combat value depending on the morale of the unit. On each marker is written one combat value per morale letter, with reduced values on the back. The range of combat value can vary from zero to 20 according to the different parameters. The unit gets a marker only for the first combat of the game and keeps it until its death, but for Sicily, as the time frame is longer, the designer proposed to pick a marker every turn. Depending on its initial strength and the marker picked, the unit could have between one and three steps. It should be noticed that this system is used only for infantry, mech and armor regiments or brigades; lesser sized units and artillery have only one step.
The system acts perfectly for limited intelligence because the strength marker is below the unit and cannot be seen between combat, and as new units have no combat value yet, it’s difficult to remember or guess the enemy value and rationalize the combat odds. Combat is especially hard because there are few combat modifiers like combined arms, terrain, divisional integrity, artillery and airpower support to deal with, and two dice are used on a terrible CRT where the attacker can suffer losses as great as 8 to 1. So in conclusion, the players will execute few but well-prepared attacks and should be ready to shed tears. All in all, the system, in spite of it’s age (14 years now), is still fully playable and interesting to follow through four real games on three theaters of operation: East, Mediterranean and West. It’s time for a specific presentation of each game, rideau!
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