the franco-prussian war - Strategy & Tactics

terrain that is more difficult than most wargame terrainsince the effects accumulate: attacking acrossa river into a city halves the attacker and triples thedefender. The units in the game are regiments andbrigades. There are several kinds of units but there isonly one distinction among the different kinds ofunits: the armor has a particularly tough time withswamps. Since the allied paratroops have alreadydropped when the game begins, there is no specialrule for them. The CRT is about the same as theclassic AH CRT although there are two slightlydifferent tables: a July-August CRT replaces theJune CRT to show the increasing battle fatigue ofthe two armies. There are simple rules for supply,tactical and strategic airpower, naval gunfire andweather. In fact, all the rules are simple and fairlyclear. The mapboard is printed in 4 colors on a plasticflexible material which is guaranteed to last forever- yes, forever. On the whole, Overlord is awell-balanced, simple game, good to introducepeople to wargaming and moderately historical giventhe limits of the classic game format.153b. Breakout and Pursuit: The Battle for France,1944 (1972, SPI, $7.03, by James F. Dunnigan,graphics by Redmond A. Simonsen, deals with thebattle from July 25, by which time the allies had afirm lodgement in Normandy and had takenCherbourg, Caen, and St. Lo and were ready to try tobreak out completely, to September 10, by whichtime the original German forces were reduced towhat General Bradley called "a disorganizedcorporal's guard." The game follows the fortunes ofthe main Allied armies in northern France throughthis time. The minor effect of the invasion ofSouthern France is ignored. The level is divisionalwhich means that ordinarily each side has amanageable number of units. Theexception to this isat the beginning of the campaign when theNormandy are is so packed with sometimesinterlocking units of friend and foe and the alliedtroops are in three high stacks three deep behind theline. Even people normally endowed with serviceablefingernails go insane trying to manipulate thesituation. I am not so endowed and I am practicallyhors de combat for this particular game. Fortunatelythe campaign game using the fixed historical set-updoes move beyond the stacked area, and there is aset of scenarios built around the last 2% weeks ofthe whole period - the pursuit instead the breakout.I can only speak in any detail of two of the scenarios:the historical campaign scenarios with either free orfixed deployment. The trouble is that the conclusionseems to be foregone in either case. With the fixeddeployment, several important German units areimmediately trapped and it is little trouble to keep itup to better than duplicate the original allied feat. Butwith a free German set up the Germans can presentthe allies with what is virtually an impenetrable wallof units. Perhaps a more interesting game is to befound by working the large assortment of what-ifssupplied with the game. Many of the game's rulesand mechanics are quite fresh and realistic;particularly those on supply; but the whole is mildlydisappointing at this point.157a. Westfronr PanzerBlitz Variants (1972, Sparta,$4.001, by Norman Beveridge, Jr., is an excellentaddition to anyone's PanzerBlitz game. It isimportant to note that it is no more than that - youneed to have the boards, the German units and therules from the parent game WPBV supplies four mapsheets (the equivalent of two sections of thePanzerBlitz board and compatible with any of them),a sheet of US counters, a few new rules (covering airpower and crossings of the rivers that are includedon the new map sheets), some backgroundinformation, and 12 situations dated from July 31,1944 to December 24, 1944, from the breakout to theBulge. The situations are done pretty much in thestyle of the original, but most of them contain morearea because of the availability of more boards.However, most of the situations come in twovariations: with historical forces, or with lessnumerous forces of convenience. The counter sheetis well done but unmounted. The map sheets areuncolored but quite readable and also unmounted.This is a game that everyone of those who keepvoting for PanzerBlirz as their favorite wargameshould have. It does not correct any of the faults ofPanzerBlitz, but it adds to it greatly. It is the gamethat many people expected Combar Command to be,i.e., it is compatible with its predecessor.162. Bataan, The Battle for the Philippines (1972,BGC, $4.50), by George Munson, deals with the laststand of the American-Filipino army on the peninsulaof Bataan from January to April, 1942. The mapshows only Bataan and Corregidor. The unitsinvolved are mostly battalions and regiments, with afew scratch units for the allies. The Japanese haveup to 23 units in the historical scenario, while theallies have 46. The invaders are no stronger than thedefenders, but lack of supplies weakens the combateffectiveness of the allies beginning with the 6th turnand starts to slow them down on the 7th turn. TheJapanese player has 14 turns to virtually wipe out theallies. Meanwhile, the Japanese player has theadvantage of movement over mountains which areforbidden terrain to the allies and full artillery supply.The Japanese player seems to be heavily favored,but several what-ifs give the players a chance tobalance or overbalance the game. The rules of thegame are basically not difficult, but there are a fewpuzzles. Some of the procedures are timeconsuming. Setting up the game is quite tedious forthe Allied player as he has to put specific units onspecific hexes. The artillery is hard to handle withassorted ranges from 4 to 9 hexes not printed on thecounters (but after a short time, I wrote the rangeson the counters myself). The components areprofessionally drawn and printed and the countersare die-cut, but the map is sometimes difficult to readbecause the terrain features are too subtle. In all,however, a good representation of a hopelesscampaign.167. Suribachi: The Battle for Iwo Jima (1972,Spartan 3, Sparta, $2.50). by Norman Beveridge, Jr.,is. so far, the last published of Beveridge's excellentPanzerBlitz variants. It is the most self-containedsince it includes all necessary maps and unit counters(on unmounted sheets), and uses only the rules fromthe original game. The map sheet contains the wholeisland of Iwo Jima drawn to the 250 m. per hex scale.But the counters furnished only represent about onethird of the available forces - "only," that is, 93Japanese units and 249 U.S. Marine units, and thesedeployed on an area somewhat smaller than half thePanzerBlitz board. So even with the reduction offorces, the board is crowded. The author furnishesfigures and victory conditions for fighting thehistorical battle, but he doesn't recommend theexperience and doesn't furnish the huge number ofcounters necessary. Otherwise, there is a "basicgame," consisting of one day, the fourth, startingwith the difficult process of landing over, or a"tournament game," starting with the first landingsand going for four days. There are extra rulescovering the landings, air power, naval firepower,firing without spotters, and optionally, banzai attacksand a few others. Mostly, however, the game isplayed like PanzerBlirz but with a much differentsituation than any of PanzerBlirz situations. The dayis only 10 moves long on the reasonable assumptionthat the vast majority of a man's time during thebattle was spent on just staying alive. The game iswell worth the price. It is a realistic and bloodyreflection of the actual battle.174. Year of the Rat (1972, SPI: S&T #35, $7.00for the boxed issue-game), by John Prados andJames F. Dunnigan, graphics by Redmond A.Simonsen, deals with a 13 week period in the war inVietnam in 1972. The North Vietnamese begin theiroffensive and carry it on to the end of June. Theobject is to acquire towns, bases and provincesworth points. The object of the South Vietnam playeris to hold the enemy to a few gains. One of the bestfeatures of the game is a half-hidden movementsystem. The North Vietnam player operates his unitsupside-down with a few dummies while the SouthVietnam player's units are always out in the open.This is apparently an accurate reflection of theintelligence situation in the war. The North has theadvantage of secrecy, of getting in the first blow, andof more tactical mobility in rough terrain. The Southhas the advantage of the defensive, of greaterstrategic mobility with its airmobile units, and mostlyof American airpower which regularly blasts apartconcentrations of Northern troops. The game seemsto tend toward a draw since each side has moredisadvantages than advantages. Therefore, sincestalemate seems to be the nature of the real war, thismight be an accurate simulation. There are assortedhypothetical situations for those who tire of thehistorical situations.188. Invasion (1971, ADA, $1.00). by StephenMarsland, is a very slight game showing ahypothetical World War II type invasion of a sectionof German-held coast line. The units are regimentsand the forces are 12 allied divisions opposing 12German divisions. The game has very few strategicdecisions in it. It has no supply rule and few thingsaffect the strength of units. The task of the invadersis simply to take cities and destroy defenders. Thegame offers little challenge and no historicalinstruction and does not even carry the endorsementof its designer who recommends it only as a badexample.188a. Armored Assault (1972, ADA, $2.00). by GuyHail, deals with an imaginary World War II typesituation, with some oddities, and on an indeterminatescale. The units are battalions, the forcesinvolved are one armored division, one armoredinfantry division and supporting units against oneinfantry division and its supports. But the distanceand time scales, if any, are not stated. The offensiveside adopts varied objectives and the defender triesto prevent their seizure without knowing exactlywhich objectives are being sought. There is anattempt to take into account a variety of differencesin styles of fighting between different kinds of units.But tank guns, anti-tank guns and field artillery aregiven equal range, and tank guns are given morepower at this range, while anti-tank guns and fieldartillery are exactly equal. Thus the functions ofdifferent kindsof units are confused and the attemptto make them different is based on wrong premises.There is no supply problem and very weak zones ofcontrol so the battle can get very free wheeling. Thegame has a few good ideas, but they should havebeen developed more thoroughly.195. Alien Space (1972, Zo, $4.001, by Louis B.Zocchi, is a fast-moving representation of warfare inouter space. There are eight large counters, eachrepresenting one star ship. The game is played on afloor with at least a 12 foot diameter of cleared space.Each person in the game pilots one ship andtherefore up to eight may participate (but morepeople need more room), playing either free-for-all ora fleet action. All of the ships have engines capableof generating a certain amount of power which canbe used in movement, defense or offense. Thetrickiest part of playing the game is deciding how touse your energy. If any attack is made, the playermust state the compass bearing at which he is firing(a compass is printed around each counter). Then astring is laid out from the center of the firing counteralong the bearing. If it intersects the drawing ofanother ship, that ship is hit in that place (but hisdefenses may be strong enough to prevent anydamage). Each ship has special weapons with a largeassortment of different capabilities. The rules aresimple but occasionally debatable. Much recordkeeping is necessary, but it is made simple by recordsheets which are to be encased in plastic and writtenon with a grease pencil. The game is enjoyable andthe fact that the battlefield is actually twodimensional rather than three dimensional does notdetract from the illusion created by the game.196. Spacewar (1972, TTA, $10.00), by Erwin S.Strauss, is a unique wargame involving 2 to 20spaceships fighting in a solar system. If they go tothe center of the system (board) they are destroyedby. the sun; if they go to the edges, they aredestroyed by aliens. The board and charts in thegame make up what is practically a paper computerfor figuring movement and fire. The board has 10,000spaces each identified by the intersection ofnumbered lines (some of these spaces cannot beused because of the sun and alien threats). Eachspace has two numbers in it indicating thegravitational effect on a coasting space ship ofbeginning a move in that space. Each ship can haveone of 12 headings. So the player decides whether tochange his heading (by one either way) and whether(continued on page 26)