AESTHETICS
Board
The game board is big, in two parts that fold out. When looking at it spread out on the table you get the impression that you are looking at a large map of the area rather than a game board. The map is split into locales of differing shape and size, but the edges of these locales are faint, though still easy to see if you are looking for them, and so fade into the background. There are woods, rivers, hills, towns, minor and major roads etc marked on the board, as one would expect, but one of the great things about the board is that the game effects of these geographical features are shown by symbols on the locale’s borders (called approaches in the game), showing whether that approach is obstructed, impassable, or gives a penalty to attacking infantry, cavalry or artillery. This means that the effects of the terrain on fighting are easily seen just by looking at the map. All in all, I was greatly impressed by the board – as I said above, more of a map really than a traditional game board.
Pieces
There are two types of pieces: rectangular wooden blocks for regular infantry, guards, cavalry and artillery, and metal corps commander pieces, made of a flag attached to a flat metal shelf, that sits on top of the wooden army blocks. Each of the wooden blocks has printed symbols, showing whether it is infantry, guard, cavalry or artillery and how strong the piece is (measured in how many symbols are printed on the piece, from 1 to 3). The rules say that a full strength infantry unit (3 infantry symbols in game terms) is approximately 2000 men, a full strength cavalry unit about 1400 troopers and an artillery unit represents about 30 massed guns and crew.
One thing I noticed with my copy was that some of the printing of the symbols on some of the blocks was a little hazy and off centre. Not enough to make any real difference to game play though. In addition, the allies use red blocks and some of them were a slightly different shade of red. Luckily these were not all of one unit type, so it doesn’t give any information away to your opponent, and the colour difference is not large and so not apparent on the board unless looked for. Another slight quibble I have with the pieces is that the corps commander pieces need sticky labels attached to them for the flags and the commander’s name on the metal shelf, and with my fingers this was easier said than done, but I did get there in the end.
Overall
With the board (map) laid out and the unit and corps commander pieces in place the whole shebang looks fantastic, like some old fashioned map of a battle field. 993
I felt that all I needed to complete the look was a stick to push my units across the map, like those used for moving ships and planes on maps in WWII, a suitable hat and some gold braid!
SYSTEM
Rules
There is a fairly large learning curve to these rules. It is not that the rules are badly written - in fact, I think the rules are very well written and elegant - but it is hard to see at first the effects of some them on your play and how they fit together. Over time you do get the hang of them and realise that they are logically laid out and clear, if you follow them closely (it took us only one full game before we understood them properly). So far as I am aware, there are no errata, not because they haven’t got around to them but because there is no need for them. The only complaint I have about the rules is that they need an index, but I think one is available here somewhere on this site.
Gameplay
I won’t go into too much detail of how the rules actually work, as you can download them from the files section, but I will give a brief overview. Each side has a limited amount of commands they can give per turn (each turn is 1 hour long). The French can issue one order for each of their corps commanders and have four independent orders as well. The allies can only give out 5 corps commands a turn and only three independent commands. An independent command is used to order a unit that is not attached to a corps. Units can be detached from a corps by giving a command to do so or are detached when the corps is forced to retreat in battle. Detaching units is relatively easy but it takes a whole corps command to reattach each independent unit, so it is very time consuming to bring a detached corps back together – keeping corps in one piece is a valuable thing in this game.
Units can move 1 locale per turn, unless moving by road. In a locale a corps / unit can either be in reserve or on one of that locale’s approaches (borders). 993