The second war game I ever purchased was also of the Crimean War. This was around the time Malcolm Fraser defeated Gough's government, forcing my family to move to Sydney in search of work. (From memory, the options were Sydney, Munich or somewhere in the US.) I spent many a long evening in Sydney honing my skills on this on this campaign. There were some wargamers at my new school, but there were more interested in the technical efficiency of the treads on a Tiger tank.
I vaguely recall that I chose the game because it was close the Napoleonic (there is an Imperial Guard!) and had a very high rating in an S&T magazine at the time. I chose wisely!
This game attempted to solve the grand tactical problem by creating a number of maps that were joined by Line of Communication Boxes. There are rules for fighting in those boxes, but the point is that only skirmishes happened away from the cities and towns. This allowed for more terrain detail on the parts of the maps that battles happened on.
As you can see below, it is still just the the Crimean peninsula, with maps for Sevastopol, Simferpol, Ketch and Evpatoria. There is also a box for Odessa, but no map although there was action there at the end of the war. (It was an Allied invasion against minimal defence just to force the Tzar to some to the table. The war was over by then.
What I particularly loved about the game was how they portrayed the differences in the armies. The French went for strong melee, the English from strong firepower and the Russians for big guns covering hordes of serfs.
Also, I loved the set up that let you see everything laid out but also ensured you did not have the niggle of wondering if a piece was missing.
What is particularly charming about this game is how it is two games in one. Once the strategic moving finishes, the units all move around (one hex per turn) fighting a tactical engagement, but I'll need to get the pieces on the board to demonstrate this.
This will be my next cab off the rank.
Comments