Verdun review series#

These points are what make the game so playable, challenging, and bloody difficult to master. This is also another case where the rules could have done with another sentence of explanation (had there been room), as while I can make a case as to why being entrenched can lead to more wear and tear (more anon), without any further clarity, I am merely making a supposition from how the relevant mechanisms present themselves to my eye.ДЄt the absolute heart of the game, however, is the function of the Administrative Point pool. This is one example of the model presenting players with a quandary вЂ“ being mobile makes you vulnerable, but you must be mobile to attack on the other hand, being static also carries the negative of making dug-in units more susceptible to attrition as they are likely to see their increased strength shift them a column up on the attrition table. Entrenched units have a stronger strength point value, but cannot move or attack. Infantry divisions have two sides вЂ“ mobile and entrenched. Smaller ordnance is carried by the infantry divisions as a second unit value to the right of their strength point integer вЂ“ thus no need for the massive artillery parks found in my other Verdun game. The game operates at divisional level, with divisions colour-coded for corps organization and the heavier calibers of artillery grouped into divisional-sized units. There are some rather clever and slick aspects to this design that have a distinctly modern feel about them

If this is followed up with an amended set of online rules and a few accessible extras (like some kind of track to enable you to work through the combat modifiers), all will be well. But these are certainly not fatal flaws, because first and foremost, as I have already said, this is a very clever design, and I found its creator to be very approachable and positive about offering clarifications. In places the rules could do with a sentence or two more of exposition, and in other places what I suspect is the consequence of a very tight budget means we are one of two aids and listings short of complete gaming ease. This is certainly not a game that is a literal/mechanical rendering of what was often a terribly mechanical battle of process rather the designer has picked out what he believes is the essence of the battle and brought that to the fore with some simple mechanisms that have the potential to cause players (like me) some very serious nightmares. But however much nostalgia Ray has for an earlier epoch in the hobbyвЂ™s history (that he is too young to remember directly, so I am remembering it for him), what he has created in his Verdun offering is rather more than a celebration of вЂњLetвЂ™s Bang Some Factors Together.вЂќ There are some rather clever and slick aspects to this design that have a distinctly modern feel about them.

Verdun review series#

Part of that philosophy has to do with the designerвЂ™s (Ray Weiss) intention to create a series of games (called 2140) whereby players can enjoy the sort of unfussy simulation models that belonged to the vintage era of SPI as well as GDWвЂ™s Series 120 titles.

In short, it just was what it was.Д¬SLвЂ™s new treatment of the battle certainly does have a philosophy, and it is a philosophy that is worth becoming acquainted with if you have any sort of interest in the battle. Everything became a vast repetitive exercise in counting up factors, and it was hard to distinguish a design philosophy moving the game forward. Its main fault, at least in my opinion, was that it was all a bit too literal вЂ“ there was lots of artillery at the battle, so the game gave you lots of artillery units, and by the time they had all been squeezed onto the playing surface, those same units came to resemble cars parked around Wembley Stadium on FA Cup Final day. It was certainly interesting, and after its own fashion it was probably fairly faithful to its theme. This was a design I had first played shortly after its publication in 1978, and forty years on, I had to report that my feelings about the game had not really changed much. I posted my turn reports on the Vintage Wargames page over on Facebook. Some readers of this article may recall that I spent time last summer playing the old Conflict Games design, Verdun: Dagger at The Heart of France.