The

o 74470 85048 9
 •

The Battles for Alexander's Empire

BABYLON,
323 Be,
ALEXANDER
THE GREAT
DIED.
HE LEFT NO
CLEAR HEIR
AND NO
INSTRUCTIONS
ON WHO IS
TO SUCCEED
HIM.
10 ZEUS HAVE
MERCY.

SAMPLE ROYAL FAMILY UNITS: -

SAMPLE COMBAT UNITS:

Egyptian Fleet
1

SUCCESSORS is a 2- to 4-player strategy game of conquest and civil

war in the Macedonian and Greek world. Players control a faction of
two or more generals and try to win through conquest or by gaining
Avalon Hill Game Company
DIVISION OF MONARCH AVALON, INC.
legitimacy through the royal family. The game comes with a large 32" 4517 Harford Road
x 22" game board, 64 event cards, 100+ die-cut combat pieces, and Baltimore, MD 21214
© 1997 Avalon Hill Game Company
200+ die-cut political markers.
4-page Quick-Start Scenario Included! Ton Free: 1m800m
999m
3222 • www.avalonhill.com
 VOL.32, NO.1· The GENERAL

ONTENT Features
Arachnid Strategy 6
Bug primer for STARSHIP TROOPERS • J.c. Connors
SERIES REPLAY-STARSHIP TROOPERS 7
Battle 6 • Christopher Lawrence, H. Connors and Stuart K. Tucker

New Battles for STARSHIP TROOPERS 9

Battles 14 and 15 • Christopher Lawrence and H. Connors

No Guts, No Glory 11
Sitrep for PRINCESS RYAN'S STAR MARINES • Michael Welker

Fight Like a Man, Not an Ore 13

Laptop reference for WAR(RAFT 1/. Mark G. McLaughlin

Going for the Throat 16

Handicapping TITAN: THE ARENA • Michael Welker

Alone in Outer Space 17

Solitaire STELLAR CONQUEST • Charles E. Duke

Grand DUNE 19
The 9-player variant revisited • Alan Arvold

Contracting the Expansion 21

Varying the DUNE variants • Stuart K. Tucker

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This 24

The AvalonCon'97 Report • Stuart K. Tucker

Ten Tactics and TIps for HEROES OF MIGHT & MAGIC /I 38

Refining your skills in this classic • Rick Moscatello

Raiders and Rivets 42

Columns
TIps for THE GREAT WAR AT SEA • Charles Bahl AH Philosophy # 179 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5
Letters to the Editor • • • • • .'. • • • • • • • • • • • • 12
Beach by Beach, Part 2 44 At the Kiosk . . . . . . . . . . ' . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Gold, Juno and Sword in BREAKOUT: NORMANDY. Alan Applebaum Contest # 184 ••••••••••••••••••••••• 32
AvalonCon '97 Team Tournament• • • • • • • • • • • 33
Zone of Control 49 Question Box: MACHIAVELLI ('95 ed.) •••••••• 43
Boardgame Review Section • ed. by John W. Kisner and John A. Walker Up Periscope • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . . • . • • • • 59
Infiltrator's Report • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 60
Firing from the Hip 58 Coming Attractions ••••••• ' • • • • • • • • • • • • • 61
First impressions of IMPERIALISM • Mark G. McLaughlin Whispers. . . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • . . • • • • • 61
Firefight ••••...•••••••.••••••••••• 62
Alien Metamorphosis 61 Convention Calendar• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 62
Variants for ALIENS • Stuart K. Tucker

.~
 •

Game Play is Fun and Fast!

Prepare yourself for quick and fierce battles of
survival. This is the exclusive board game based on
this fall's blockbuster movie. As a Starship Trooper it's
your duty to stop these giant alien bugs by destroying
them one by one with your Morita assault rifle. You
might even risk a brave assault on their lair by tactical
nuke. As a bug, you're a deadly killer cutting down
anything foolish enough to stand in your path.
Easy-to-Iearn rules and the twenty battle scenarios
present endless challenges for exciting game play.
More Bugs . .. Will they ever
stop attacking?
You'll kill lots of bugs, but they keep bringing in more
and more reserves! The gigantic alien insects have
one relentless mission-survival! Each trooper and
each bug has special abilities that determine the
! startling outcome of each game.
Starship Troopers-The Movie Game has a flexible
game system where you can create unique battlefields
and terrain. Game equipment includes a full-color
battle mapboard, terrain tiles, and 24 vinyl stand-up
bug and trooper pieces.

©1997 TriStar
Call to Battle!
Pictures, Inc. Starship Troopers is the latest game creation from
All Rights Reserved Avalon Hill, the leading publisher of games of skill.
Designed for 2 to 4 players, the game is suitable for
ages 10 to adult. A typical game can be played in just
under an hour.
Starship TrooperS is available atyour local game stOTe, or call
Avalon Hill Game Company
DIVISION OF MONARCH AVALON, INC.
4517 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD 21214
• 410-254-9200 • 1-800-999-3222 • www.avalonhill.com
 5

~~litg~g~~l
The GENERAL is dedicated to the presentation ot authoritalive
articles on the strategy, tactics and variations of games of skill.
Historicai articles are included only insomuch as they provide use-
ful background information on covered games. The GENERAL is
pUblished by The Avalon Hill Game Company solely for the cul-
tural edification of the serious game aficionado, in the hopes of
improving the game owner's proficiency of play and providing
Part 179
services not otherwise available to the game buff. The Avalon Hill
Game Company is a division of Monarch-Avalon Industries, Inc.
The shares of Monarch-Avalon, Inc. are publicly traded on the
:.::~. The Obsolescent Gamer
NASDAQ System under the symbol MAHI. For information about
the company, write Marshall Chadwell at the executive offices
(4517 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD 21214).
Publication is bi-monlhly with mailings made close to the begin-
ning of January, March, May, July, September and November. All
editorial and general mail should be sent to: It was just the most thrilling convention yet. of conventions are replaced with holiday
Avalon Hill Game Company
o matter what coverage is given to preparations, I realize that my task is no

N
4517 Harford Road' Bait/more, MD 21214
One-year subscriptions are $18.00. Two-year subscriptions AvalonCon, the offices of The GEN- easier. Therefore, instead of sinking into the
are $29.00. All domestic subscriptions sent via bUlk permit.
Domestic First Class Delivery and all subscriptions to Canada and ERAL will receive complaints. If no dead-of-the-winter blues, let us redefine the
Mexico must pay an additional $18.00 per year postage charge. coverage is provided, still there will be com- task. I'll personalize the report. This will jilt
All overseas subscribers must add an additional $30.00 per year
postage charge. Send checks or money orders only. Avalon Hill plaints. Given this lose-lose situation, what's a few gamers who were off playing in a
Game Company is not responsible for cash lost in transit. Those an editor to do? How is it possible to please different dimension than I (seemingly in the
with a current American Express, ViSA or MasterCard may call
800-999-3222 toll free to renew subscriptions or order such a diverse magazine readership? Some of same time and space, but not exactly), but
merchandise. Absolutely no complaints or questions will be you never want to hear a word more about this report will have a few more juicy details
handled on this extension. Any business other than a credit card
purchase must be handled by mail. Address changes must be AvalonCon, others crave the deepest details, about individual events-details which may
submitted at least six weeks in advance to guarantee delivery. and still others find the format not balanced tell you something about the experiences
Convention announcements must be received at least six months
in advance and contain information pertaining to Avalon Hill to the right level of coverage of their favorite people have at the convention. Rather than
Game Company's games in use. events. In 1996, I provided a three-part sum- distill the whole convention into an inedible
Articles are considered for publication at the discretion of our
editorial staff. For detailed information on how to prepare a manu- mary (including one on Juniors events) of as mass, I provide in the article on page 24 a
script, please request a copy at our "submission gUidelines." many events as were reported to me-which smorgasboard of my activities, with the
Online Service Addresses:
You may now order through our company Website: didn't fit into one issue of the magazine. I caveat that much more happened than met
www.avalonhill.com E-Mail: [email protected] (Magazine), found it inadequate (in that details were min- my eyes. I offer it for the curious-for the
[email protected] (Company)
EDITOR-iN-CHIEF: Stuart K. Tucker imal), yet overwhelming (in that AvalonCon tentative ones who still haven't taken the
ZOC EDITOR: John Kisner
has so many events that the whole summary plunge-and for those who like to remember
LAYOUT: Georgia Wilson
GRAPHICS: Jean Baer, Jason Behnke, J.C. Connors, Kurt Miller is hard to digest). I pared it to what I thought and relive a few of the convention's
and Georgia Wilson was the absolute minimum, yet I still moments.
AVALONCON PHOTOS: Kurt Miller
COVER ART: Trl-Star Pictures, Inc. received reader complaints that it took up too A great many of you will skip the Avalon-
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Donna Engle
much space (which should have been devoted Con report. After all, the gaming industry of
ADVERTISING: Ed Weiss
Purchase of Games, and Magazines: 1-800-999-3222 to game strategy articles). today is more into gigabytes, sound cards and
FOREIGN DISTRIBUTORS: Readers are urged to make sub-
Determined to continue to propound about RAM management than the thrill of human
scription arrangements with their appropriate agent (address
shown where phone number not available). (PC) before name the hobby's best gaming convention, I competition (computer game sales in millions
denotes software games only: Austratia: (PC) Directsoft-
returned to my office in August, and sent out versus boardgame sales in thousands). Many
Wahroonga NSW 2076, 482-3455, Jedko Games Ltd. (Victoria)
555-1022; Belgium: SPRL Prolude (32 Ave. de Teruuren, Box the usual letters reminding game masters to readers are happy to play their games in the
32, 1040 Bruxelles); Canada: (PC) Beamscope (Scarborough)
send me summary material. As time-consum- midnight glow of their monitor, rather than
416-291-0000, (PC) Durcom Micro (Quebec) 416-292-0094, Multi
Micro Dist. (Scarborough) 514-354-3810, Lion Rampart (Ontario) ing as the effort was in 1996, it looked like search to fit human players and playing time
905-572-6446, Dractus (Ottawa) 744-5225, E&K Kroeger (Scar-
1997 would be worse-fewer submissions, into their busy lives. Call me an obsolescent
borough) 416-752-5382, L'Avenir (Montreal) 341-1561, Northwest
Game Traders (Cambridge) 623-5282, TO Imports (Alberta) 403- slower responses to requests, very uneven gamer, but I fully understand the tyranny of
252-2006, (Ontario) 905-624-2301; Denmark: Fafner Games
material. I concluded one thing from the situ- hardware capitalism. While my brain remains
(Gentofle) 453-165-5625, Faros Cigarer (Copenhagen) 332-2211;
Fintand: Fantasiapelit Tudeer Oy (Vantaa) 872-5950; France: ation-GMs are just as interested in playing sound-and some might say improved from
(PC) Alsyd (Meylan) 4 76 41 8505, Ludis International (Balma)
the games as the rest of you. The competi- 1992-my home computer is considered
56124-7878, Jeux Actuels (Caillquet) 3226-2257, Jeux Descartes
(Paris) 4648-4820; Germany: Das Spiel (Hamberg) 4044-8687, tion, comradery and plaque count the most. A defunct (has been for some time, from the
Games In (Munich) 89555767, Welt der Spiel (Frankfurt) 699-502-
summary blurb is a lower priority. Perhaps point of view of playing games). Computer
1141; Great Britain: Chart Hobbies (Littlehampton) 0-1903-
773170, Esdevium Games 1252-26116, Hobby Games Ltd. (W. after many years of volunteerism, GMs are gaming has dwindled to less than five per cent
Sussex) 1903-730998; Greece: P. Mamalis Ludo (Athens) 293-
coming to believe that this great convention of my hobby time (and dependent upon bor-
2203, Kaissa Chess & Games (Athens) 3606488; Hong Kong:
rowing equipment). The tluill of the unpre-
Wargames Club (Hong Kong) 417-1587; Italy: Fernando Ferrarri has to be experienced to be believed, and that
(Verona) 8000319, Stratelibri (Milano) 295-10317; Japan: Post dictable, but adaptable, human opponent still
Hobby (Tokyo) 3351-0471; Netherlands: 999 Games (Amster- preaching to the converted serves little pur-
holds the greatest allure for me.
dam) 644-5794, Capful Books (Amsterdam) 625-5537; New pose, while the skeptics won't read anyway.
Zealand: Unicorn 377-4248; Norway: AEH Hobby (Pilestredel 7, I consistently buy on the technological
0180 Oslo 1); Portugal: Frente Crl (P.C. Duque de Saldanha 20, As much as I'd like to believe that many a
cutting edge and then hold as long as the
RICO 1000, Lisboa) 1545153; Singapore: Wong International participant cares to hear what happened in the
(Singapore) 545-3995, South Africa: Gamma Games ltd. (P.O. equipment remains viable before buying
Box 2904, Capetown 8000), Wizards Warehouse (Capetown) final rounds after he or she was eliminated,
again. As a certified penny pincher, I don't
461-9719; Spain: Joe Internacional (Barcelona) 345-8565, Naipe does that justify printing these summaries for
Juegos (Madrid) 544-4319, Distrimagen (Madrid) 3889898 per let the industry tell me that I should upgrade
WW 388-7282, (PC) System 4 (Madrid) 383·2480; Sweden: Top others to read?
constantly (spending $lOOO/year to be able to
Games 3177-42225. With volume 31, number 6 stuffed with
IF YOU CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS: Inform us immediately! The play the latest and greatest game). From a
Post Office destroys undeliverable magazines even if you leave material to the point of having no series
work point of view, my 1992 PC still
a forwarding address. The Avalon Hill Game Company replay, and with many GMs delinquent with
assumes no responsibility for issues lost due to an invalid manages (and is finally depreciated by IRS
address. Please state both your new and old address. their responses, I opted in September to pub-
standards). Sure, I could have benefitted from
Copyright 1998 ISSN 0888·1081
lish only the list of champions and photos.
Now, as the weather turns cold and thoughts ~~~~~ (Continued on p. 58)

.
 •
6

Arachnid Strategy
By J.C. Connors

T
he Arachnids of STARSHIP TROOPERS keep your bugs out of attack range. In situations HEAD HDPPER!!i V ARIAI\IT
are always working at a disadvantage. like this, ignore the telTain and stick to the "five- In the movie "Starship Troopers," the Hop-
Bugs are completely ineffective at long yard stand" tactic. pers had the unnerving ability to swoop down
range, and even when the bugs are mana a mana and use their razor-sharp legs to decapitate a
with a trooper, the MI will usually manage to kill HOPPER TACTIC!!i trooper. This deadly tactic is difficult to emulate
it before the bug has a chance to attack. Many With high speed and an excellent defense, in the game because Hoppers (like all bugs)
Arachnid players will find themselves charging Hoppers are the deadliest weapon in the bugs' must stop before they attack.
headlong at the troopers hoping a few bugs break arsenal. Their seven-hex movement ability Try this variant. Hoppers may try to decapitate
through to get a kill or two. This is a desperate makes it tempting to attack with them alone, a trooper on the move. In order to do this, the Hop-
strategy that rarely works. Even if a bug does launching them before the arrival of slower per may not have moved during the bug move-
manage to get an unlucky trooper, the tremen- Warriors and Tankers to attack a trooper. Gen- ment phase. During the bug attack phase, the Hop-
dous loss of bugs will cripple the Arachnids for erally, this isn't a smart tactic (unless you can per moves over the hex of the trooper and contin-
the rest of the scenario. receive no other reinforcement and the bug holes ues to move, landing on an unoccupied space. The
All-out "bug charges" have their place in are conveniently placed). Without the Warriors Hopper attacks the trooper (as if at a range of one
STARSHIP TROOPERS, but the bugs must time to absorb MI firepower, the great defense value hex) as it flies by, costing an extra movement
them pelfectly. Timing and positioning are the of a Hopper won't save it. Instead, wait for the point to conduct the attack. If the attack hits and
keys to bug strategy. Oftentimes, a game of Warriors to get into position. Then use your the trooper fails its defense roll, the trooper's head
STARSHlP TROOPERS will be over in less than Hoppers to attack with them. falls to the ground severed from his body. Any
five turns. Even though the bugs get constant rein- When choosing the Hopper's target, pick trooper that did not fire in the trooper attack phase
forcements, the short nature of scenarios often either the deadliest MI (usually Nuke or Sugar) may fire a single round at such a Hopper at any
make these reinforcements ineffectual. Arachnid or the weakest (Carmen and Zander-"fleet and one point along its flight path. Any trooper which
players can never afford to waste their hordes on MI don't mix"). Always try to use your two did not fire and is also the target of a Hopper's
anything less than a well-timed, full-scale, com- Hoppers together to threaten a single opponent. flying attack can fire two rounds, but in so doing
bined attack of Warriors, Hoppers and Tankers. The advantage of picking a target like Nuke is does not get a defense die roll when the Hopper
that the Hoppers are more likely to withstand a attacks. Any trooper covering his buddies against
THE FIVE-YARD !!iTAI\ID trooper counterattack, because Nuke can't fire at flying attacks shouldn't be thinking of ducking,
Bugs should never recklessly charge the MI. close range. When the troopers see their vital anyway!
In good movie fashion, the bugs should take a unit endangered, they'll open fire on the Hop-
Firepower Effectiveness
cinematic pause before their attack, scream a pers. With some luck, one of your Hoppers will (percentage chance of killing target)
fierce battle cry, and then charge headlong into survive the burst to kill Nuke. Even if both Hop-
the humans. pers are killed, the troopers will have wasted Attack Defense Value:
In game telms, this means stopping five hexes enough firepower to allow some of your War- Value ,2 1: 3. 2 1
away from the troopers. If a trooper is not within riors to survive and pick them off. 5 @ 1 roll 14% 28% 42% 56% 69%
your Wani.ors' movement range, stop five hexes Picking a weak target is also a smart tactic. I_(grenade)
away. Trooper fire is very inaccurate at this range, Trooper players are more likely to ignore tlle
and your bugs will probably be able to strike the weaker MI and concentrate firepower on the 4 @ I roll 11 22 33 44 56
troopers on their next movement. You can usually Warriors endangering their better units. This 2 rolls 21 40 56 69 80
hover with most of your bugs at this range until almost guarantees the Hoppers a quick kill. It 3 rolls 30 53 70 83 91
they are all in position to attack. When they are all doesn't take many losses to cripple the troopers. 4 rolls 38 63 80 90 96
in range, attack mercilessly from all sides. Every
trooper should have a bug on him.
Plus, this leaves your Hoppers around for a sec-
ond assault. 3 1 roll
@ 8
~

17 25 33 42
-
Never, ever, position a bug two hexes from a 2 rolls 16 31 44 56 66
trooper who can see him. The MI will waste your TAI\IKER TACTIC!!i 3 rolls 23 42 58 70 80
bug at that range. Tankers are the only exception Troopers fear the plodding Tankers. With a --1.1<2 l1s 29 52 68 80 88
to this rule, because their fiery spray can hit tough armored shell, Tankers can usually walk
troopers from this range. right up to the line of troopers without much fear. 2 @ I roll 6 11 17 22 28
2 rolls 11 21 31 40 48
Though a Tanker has a high defense value, never
CLiFFHAl\llill\l1i 3 rolls 16 30 42 53 62
allow more than three troopers to get a shot at
If the troopers are on the high ground and 4 rolls 20 38 52 63 73
one. Even if it means sacrificing a Warrior or two
your bug holes are on low ground, move your in a suicidal rush to draw trooper fire, don't let I @ 1 roll 3 6 8 II 14
bugs in the valley and hug the edges of the cliffs. your Tanker make too many saving rolls. 21 26
2 rolls 5 11 16
Whether preparing for an attack, or simply dri- Try not to give the MI a chance to knock 3 rolls 8 16 23 30 36
ving to another position, stay close to those one out from a distance. Like all of the other 4 rolls 11 20 29 38 45
cliffs. Warriors can usually catch up with the bugs, Tankers should stay five hexes from the
troopers from these cliffsides, even considering troopers. Because of their slow movement, Jam Probabilities
the movement penalty. Hoppers have no prob- Tankers usually can't get immediately into Nuke 2.8%
lems at all operating from below the cliffsides striking range from this distance. Launch a Other Weapons
(often jumping behind the troopers, possibly into massive assault with your Wan'iors and Hop- @ 1-2 rounds -
a low-ground valley adjacent to a trooper). pers, while your Tankers follow in the rear. The @ 3 rounds 2.8
This strategy must be altered when the troop- main assault will give the Tanker the time to @ 4 rounds 4.2
ers are on the low ground and the Arachnids are close with the MI. Furthermore, the Tanker
Grenade 16.7
on the high ground. Hexes adjacent to the edge should be able to hit a trooper with his fiery
will draw fire. Stay away from an edge hex to spit from a two-hex range.
*
 7

. SERIES REPL.AY .
STARSHIP TRDDPERS:
Battle 6
Troopers: Christopher Lawrence
Arachnids: J.C. Connors
Neutral Commentary: Stuart K. Thcker

his series replay covers Battle 6 from the leap onto the high ground and barrage the troop- cant firepower. It is best to soften the MI up with

T new STARSHIP TROOPERS game

based on the movie. The action of this
battle isn't seen in the movie, but is typical ofthe
er's from medium to long range-good odds in
my favor. However, since the troopers always fire
first, there's a good chance of Nuke being able to
plasma shots, while moving under cover of the
ravines to positions that will threaten Nuke's
group. As long as Nuke is operational, the bugs
action on Planet P. Plasma bolts have knocked wipe out one of my plasma bugs before it could will be in big trouble in this battle.
down d drop ship carrying very important psy- cause a casualty. That's not a chance I want to
chics (VIPs). A retrieval boat is sent to the scene take, so I decide on a more conservative plan. SETUP COMMENTARY
(the Green Squad), but dares not lift off in the Bug victory is all about timing. Charging a Chris chooses to set up his WI forces behind
proximity ofplasma bugs. A nearby squad of the few of my Arachnids at the troopers will the smoke of the downed drop ship. He wisely
Mobile Infantry (the Black Squad) is sent onfoot undoubtedly fail. Charging all of the bugs at the splits the two wounded bodies apart, but con-
to the rescue, with the role of nuking the plasma troopers will cause a quick bug victory. I realize centrates the rest of the force. I'd recommend
bugs and helping save the wounded from bugs that my plasma bugs are no exception to this that Chris split up these Green Squad troops in
popping out of the ground. The goal of the rule. Rather than leaping into attack positions by the first movement phase, just in case the plasma
Arachnid player is to kill the VIPs or destroy the themselves, I decide to inch them along the sides bugs take to the high ground.
retrieval boat and functioning drop ship. of the canyon to get them into short range from J.e. has spread his forces around the setup
The rules of the game are introduced in the wounded psychics. Once there, a full assault locations in an appropriately ambiguous manner,
stages, allowing play of battles without mastery of walriors, hoppers and plasma bugs will over- disguising his true intentions. Each plasma bug
of every rule. For this replay, Chris and J. C. opt whelm the Mobile Infantry (Ml). The fact that can move several directions toward high ground.
to use all game rules (most importantly includ- there are no tanker bugs to lead the assault is
ing jams and split fire). much lamented! TURN 1
Black Squad troopers move west, hugging
PRE-GAME COMMENTARY NEUTRAL COMMENTATOR the crater rim. Green bugs move south toward
Despite Chtis' desire to choose the battle the plateau. Black bugs split into two forces.
TROOPERS based upon which scenario his MI could win, we One, consisting of the hopper and two war-
I hate this scenario. I hate plasma bugs. The decided to tackle Battle 6: The Crash Site. This riors, moves onto the plateau at a range offive
only good thing about this mission is the lack of battle puts half of the troopers in the role of res- from the troopers. The others move west under
tanker bugs. Although the black sub-colony is cuing the other half, all under the fire of plasma cover of the cliffs.
closer than I could have hoped, I'm glad to see bugs. It's a nasty but exciting situation, but by The exposed black bugs come under fire. One
that J.C. hasn't set his plasma bugs on the no means pro-bug. The MI gets the firepower trooper at a time designates target(s) and fires
nearby high ground. The longer he delays mov- and defensive cover of the retrieval boat and rounds (rolling a six-sided die for each attack
ing them forward, the longer I have to prune drop ship. Furthermore, the plasma bug arriving round), followed by the target rolling a saving die
down his forces. I plan to keep Green Squad sta- in the R sector may find few targets without for each hit. Attack phase notation will be in this
tionary, guarding the wounded VIPs, while rush- climbing the main plateau, putting it danger- form: R#(#) (range number, attack value in
ing Black Squad toward them as quickly as pos- ously close to the ships' guns. The biggest parentheses)=- #,# (die roll values and effects),
sible. Time to move out. On the bounce! advantage is that they can post the green plasma s=-#, # (defender's saving die rolls and effects).
bug on the distant plateau near Rl and lob a
BUGS series of scattered shots in the direction of Wl. Dizzy vs. near warrior R6( 1)=- 6,4 (miss).
My plasma bugs are my greatest strength and This necessitates that the MI disperse his setup Shujumi same warrior R5(l)=- 5,5 (miss).
greatest vulnerability. With an amazing long- to avoid giving the missed plasma shots a high Sugar vs. hopper R8(l)=- 1,2,5 (l hit), s=-3
range attack, the plasma bugs are capable of probability of hitting adjacent targets. It is (save).
causing immediate casualties to Chris' troopers. tempting to ring the MI together near W 1, using Johnny vs. hopper R5(l)=- 3,3 (miss).
They are also far more reliable than the hordes the destroyed drop ship and the retrieval boat as Drop ship splitting fire, vs. hopper R6(3)=- 5,5
of warriors and hoppers who are usually des- movement barriers to protect a flank. This must (miss); vs. near warrior) R6(3)= 4
tined to die just a few feet from a trooper. The be carefully weighed against the risks of con- (miss).
plasma bugs are the key to this scenario. centration in the face of plasma fire.
Looking at Chris' setup, I opt to keep my bug The second key for the MI is getting Nuke TROOPER TURN 1
holes close to the high ground. My wanior bugs into a firing position that will quickly protect the As planned, I rush Black Squad toward the
will probably be mowed down fairly quickly forces being rescued. While MI can trade blasts retrieval boat without fear of bug attack, while
given all the trooper firepower that Chris has at with plasma bugs, never miss an opportunity to Green Squad holds in place. I would normally
his disposal (including an ungodly Drop ship can- drop the nuke shot on a cluster of warriors. move both squads together, but this battle
non). My dead warriors (as reinforcements) need Given the large MI firepower arrayed against requires me to guard the immobilized psychics
to be able to jump right back into the fray. Bug the bugs, J.e. will have to orchestrate his waves (curse you, Doogie Howser). As it is, I hope
holes positioned farther away would cause them of warriors to maximum effect. After the initial brain bug J.e. will order an attack with the green
to be a full tum from the high ground. onslaught, the bugs will be primarily relying warriors, trapping them between my two squads.
With my bugs in place, I see two radically dif- upon plasma shots. I advocate rushing Nuke as I can't remember a more ineffective tum of
ferent strategies. Knowing that plasma bugs are he moves towards the rescue area. A warrior trooper fire. Did we leave the ammo on board
the key, I can use them either offensively or rush of the retrieval zone can be blown away if the drop ships? If my poor luck continues, this
defensively. The offensive plan would see them done too soon, while the MI still have signifi- should be a brief game.

I
 •
8
BUG TURN 1 would leave Chris wondering whether my next plasma bug that fast. Nuke would have about a
The drop ship is far too dangerous a target. target would be the wounded psychics or the 50 per cent chance of hitting me, and then, if I
Its cannons can blow apart bugs reliably within drop ship. survived, I'd have the same to hit him. Not great
medium range, and I don't want to risk my I'm very tempted to pop up my black plasma odds. I choose the high ground hex adjacent to
plasma bugs that close to Nuke. It is a far better bug on to the high ground to get a quick shot at W6 for my black plasma bug. It may take a while
strategy to destroy the retrieval boat, which Nuke. However, I don't want to endanger my to get there, but if I can coordinate my combined
attack, the green troopers
don't have a chance.
Good thing Chris' aim is
lousy. With a little bit of luck,
a hopper next turn will take
out Nuke and end this battle
real fast. If not, my hoppers
will be back next turn to leap
right back into position for
another attack.

NEUTRAL
Chris kept a tight forma-
tion with his rescue forces and
moved toward the wounded in
the retrieval zone, being sure
to keep Nuke away from any
slopes where he could find
himself under attack with no
help from his backside.
J.e. missed a golden oppor-
tunity to rain plasma down on
the compact retrieval zone.
The retrieval boat doesn't
block line of sight (LOS) and
the scatter of a missed shot is
very likely to hit something
valuable-like a wounded
body. His move of the green
plasma b&g south is a big mis-
take. It'll take way too long to
reach high ground; in the
meantime, he'll miss many an
opportunity. On the other
hand, the MI must take out the
plasma bugs to win, so perhaps
I.e. is playing for the long
term, hoping to have the
plasma bugs in a position to
support each other. His move-
ment of black bugs indicates
that he'd like to get the black
plasma bug into accurate range
of the retrieval zone. This too
may be a mistake. The concen-
tration of MI in the retrieval
zone could be hammered even
from the B3 plateau.
I.e. "sticks out a hip" by
placing two warriors and the
hopper on the plateau. These
are at a distant range and will
probably survive MI fire. It
looks like J.C. is preparing to
rush Nuke's group.
As it turns out, the MI
can't find the range. The
attacks against the hopper
were at low kill probabilities
(23, 16 and 44 per cent, see
the firepower effectiveness
J.c. decides against putting the plasma table on page 6), as were those
bug on the plateau south of B3. The bug against the lead warrior (21,
hole would have better served his purposes 21 and 33 per cent). Although
Chris has some reason to
one more hex to the west and further south,
complain, at least he doesn't
to stay away from Nuke's sight lines. lose anybody as a result of
these misfires.
 9
TURN 2 Shujumi vs. same Rl(4)= 2,4 (two hits), s= 2,4 ficient forces with "overwatch" duty. Separated
Again, Green Squad holds, while Black (kill). as the troopers are, however, doesn't leave me
Squad moves toward it. Nuke moves to the Dizzy vs. black hopper R2(4) = 4,4 (two hits), s= with much choice but to push ahead with Black
plateau's edge where he can target the green 2,2 (save). Squad, so all but Johnny move. I position Nuke
bug hole. Zander vs. same R2(3)= 1,3,3 (three hits), s= where he can take a shot at the green bug hole.
The hoppers jump next to Nuke, while two 3,3,5 (kill). Plugging that will significantly improve my odds
black warriors attack the other end of Black Zim vs. near black warrior R6(1)= 1,1,3 (two (by stopping green bug reinforcements).
Squad. One green warrior takes advantage of hits), s= 4,4 (kill). Success! The bug attack on Black Squad is
the smoke to edge closer to the wounded, with Carmen vs. green warrior R3(1)= 4,4,4,6 (miss, easily repulsed, and Nuke manages to blast that
only Carmen having a sight line for a shot. The jam). bug hole. Killing the two hoppers raises my
rest ofthe green and black warriors snuggle into Nuke vs. green bug hole R7= 11 (plugs hole). morale considerably, particularly since the green
ravines close to the retrieval zone. Blast effect: Warrior s=2 (save). hopper is out for good. I think J.e. may have
TROOPER TURN 2 en-ed here by not waiting to hit me in force. He
Drop ship splits fire, vs. near hopper R3(4)= 6 Green Squad continues to hold its ground and will attack Green Squad next turn with seven
(miss); vs.far hopper R4(4)= 4,4 (two hits), Black Squad is moving forward at top speed. Sta- warriors, but as they still won't have the support
s= 5,5 (kill). tionary troopers gain an extra die in combat. of the plasma bugs or the losses from this turn, I
Ace vs. far black warrior R5( 1)= 4,5 (miss). Thus, I prefer to advance by squads, leaving suf- think I can hold them off.

The first question you may ask about the battles below is "where is Battle 13?" We've posted that one exclusively to our Web
site: www.avalon.com. We plan on putting additional battles on the Web site and in The GENERAL. Send us your ideas.

MAPWllOCAT

BACKGROUND: Hoping to live in peace with the Bugs, and ignoring Federal warnings, Mormon settlers
established Port Joe Smith in the Arachnid Quarantine Zone. The presence of the humans on a planet MAP ROUGHNECK
colonized by the Arachnids led to an Arachnid raid on the settlement.
Black Squad: Rasczak and four unarmed colonists (Defense Value 1) on or N +
adjacent to a Building or Listening Post.
e ugs set up, the Troopers .
Sql1lad: Sugar and four unarmed colonists on or adjacent to a Building shouldplace the following cutouts:
or Listening Post.
• three 3-hex bUildings next to B6,
Black Colony: 1 Hopper, 2 Warriors, 1 Bug Hole on or adjacent to R3. W4andR2.
{~OJlonv: 1 Hopper, 2 Warriors, 1 Bug Hole on or adjacent to B4. • three I-hex listening posts next to
VICTORY CONDITIONS: Each turn starting with turn 5, the Trooper player B5, B3 and W6.
rolls a die. On a 4-6, a Retrieval Boat lands to rescue the remaining In this scenario, these hexes !Jrclvia(e
colonists. The Bugs win by killing all the colonists before the boat arrives.
+2 to defense and block
Bugs may not enter.

MAP ROUGHNECK

BACKGROUND: The assault on Planet P is in full swing. In order to track the underground movement of
the Bugs, the Mobile Infantry is establishing listening posts across P. Can the Troopers prevent a Bug
t
I-MAP-WI-lOC-AT---I

surprise attack?
Black Squad: Nuke (6 rounds), johnny, Dizzy, Shujumi on or adjacent to w6.
:: g. g g g ,_ _· _ ·.-r ·:,
~ql..1lan: Rasczak, Zim, Sugar, Ace on or adjacent to W3. lifore the Troopers set up, the Bugs shouldplace
Black Colony: 1 Hopper, 1 Tanker, 4 Warriors, 2 Bug Holes. thefollowingcutouts:
(;oll~mv: 1 Hopper, 1 Tanker, 4 Warriors, 2 Bug Holes. • 3-bex boulderfield: one hex on Wi.
VICTORY CONDITIONS: The Troopers must establish and main- .7-hexlavafield nexttoB3 andB5.
tain two-man listening posts at R4, H4 and B4, and must close . •• 4-hex boulderfield: one h'e~ on H5.
existing bug holes Alistening post is considered to be in oper- IJJuringtheBugReinforcemimtphaset the Bug
.. : , .. :player rolls a diefor each quadrant having no lis:
atlOn ~ a Trooper IS on the post s ~ex and a~other Trooper IS III • • teningpost(except ll7;). Ona 1 or 2, a hole is
an adjacent hex. Any other result IS a Bug VIctOry. .• placedonardndom.drop zone in thatquadrant;
 •
10
BUG TURN 2 bug hole was threatened. However, had he not Zander vs. same R4(1)= 1,1,5 (two hits), s=4,5
Needing to distract the Black Squad, I send rushed, he would still have the hopper for his big (kill).
four bugs to their deaths. Chris needs to feel wave attack next turn. The lack of a plasma bug Johnny vs. northern green warrior R6( 1)= 1,5
threatened. Plus, if I can take out a trooper or on high ground really hurt. The MI was in a tight (hit), s= 1 (save).
two, it could make a big difference later. formation which made this kind of mutual fire Ace splitting fire, vs. western black warrior
My plasma bugs continue to get into posi- support deadly. J.e. had to soften up the MI or R3(2)= 1 (hit), s= 5 (kill); vs. southem
tion. It's too late to change their strategy, which at least scatter them a bit before trying to rush black warrior R3(2)= 1,1 (two hits, jam), s=
is unfortunate because now Chris knows that them. He is playing into Chris' strongest posi- 1,1 (save).
they won't be in firing positions for a few turns. tion-where both squads and the drop ship cre- Rasczak vs. southern green warrior R2(1)=
I can see that my warriors crawling along the ate a deadly ground for the bugs. 3,5,5,6 (miss). "Shoot off a leg and a warrior
cliffsides are making him nervous. In a turn I'll is still 87 per cent effective!"
have the Green Squad troopers almost com-
TURN 3 Zim splitting fire, vs. same R1(4)= 2,3 (two hits)
Carmen's weapon repair roll (6) fails. Black s= 4,5 (kill); vs. other adjacent warrior
pletely surrounded. Squad moves forward, with Shujumi holding in
Whatever I thought about the drop ship can- R1 (4)= 4 (hit), s=6 (kill).
the overwatch role this time. The bugs launch Sugar vs. southern black warrior R2(4)= 1,4,5
nons before is doubly reinforced. I need to stay their wave assault against the western side of the
far away from those things! One bug hole is (two hits), s= 6,6 (kill).
retrieval area, while the plasma bugs inch for- Dizzy vs. northern green warrior R5(1)= 2,5
gone. Fortunately, a hopper is the only perma- ward closer to their high-ground destinations.
nent casualty at this point. While that hurts my (miss).
bug's mobility and chances to catch Nuke off- Shujumi vs. nearest black warrior R6( 1)= 2,4,6
guard, my warriors are in a perfect tactical posi- (miss). ~~~~~ (continued pg. 30)
tion to eliminate Green Squad.

NEUTRAL COMMENTARY
Chris gets conservative with movement,
letting Johnny stand to gain an extra attack
roll (but his other firepower deflects the
attack without Johnny's ammo). Nuke
moved one hex to view the green bug hole
from a range of seven (showing the folly of
placing that bug hole anywhere but to the
extreme SW).
J.e. decided to rush at Nuke with both
hoppers while two warriors hit the rescue
party from the south. This may be premature,
but with Nuke sighting the green bug hole,
he didn't have much choice. I fault his place-
ment of the hoppers, however. They could
have attacked Nuke from below (using the
cliffs for cover). Only Dizzy would have had
a shot (and with a LOS to only one of them).
Chris did not adequately flank Nuke, but he \
got away with it this time.
Meanwhile, lC. used the cover of smoke
from the WI drop ship to move closer to the
wounded. Only Carmen had a LOS on the
warrior, but I question this. He should have
awaited the arrival of the black warriors for
a simultaneous rush. This warrior, if he sur-
vived, would not get a melee attack until
next turn anyway. On the other hand, Car-
men jammed her carbine, lifting J.C.'s spir-
its. Of course, the four-dice roll was used to
up the odds in what is a fairly tough shot for
the carbine at range 3 (38 per cent chance to
kill even with four attack rolls).
Chris killed the hoppers, saving Nuke
from death. Good thing, too-otherwise this
battle would be over. He split fIre from his
most effective weapon, the H4 drop ship,
managing to kill the green hopper. One of
Zander's three hits finally killed the other
hopper. Zim and Zander both nearly
jammed their guns, too.
Nuke, with a breath of relief, let loose a
shot on the green hole and plugged it. The
nearby warrior saved himself from blast
effects. Apparently J.C was holding bac;k
that warrior to keep a trooper from standing
on the bug hole to plug it. However, he could
have guarded against this and been in a safer
place at the same time. He lucked out here.
J.e. was left with no melee attacks and a
plugged hole. Things are not looking great.
It is hard to fault him for rushing Nuke; his
 11

TABLE 1

No Guts, No Glory Dispatch

Type
Guard Only
Number
of Cards
6
Proportion
of Cards
10.0%
Marine Only* 32 53.3
By Michael Welker Guard or Marine 22 36.7
Total 60 100.0

*including two shuttle Dispatch cards

we will have only limited opportunities to

T
en hut! Now listen up, you people!
Any Star Marine worth his weight in regroup and refit. If you get caught with- Marine Number of Usable Proportion
out weapons, suffer insurmountable casu- Rank Non-Shuttle Dispatches Usable
body armor would eat a bug to be in 1 4 7.7%
your baby shoes. We've got big trouble and alties, or cannot advance without undue 2 6 11.5
we're the only people in the parsec with risk, the ranking Marine on the surface 3 8 15.4
enough firepower to handle the situation. needs to order a regroup. This will cost us 4 10 19.2
time but enable us to insert a fresh unit. 5 12 23.1
Her royal highness, your beloved Princess 6 14 26.9
Ryan, has been abducted. We have orders to Realize that half of the Marines have 7 16 30.8
rescue her within 15 Terran days, otherwise values of 2, while a third have values of 3 8 18 34.6
the navy will make this sector of space or 4. Two Marines are outstanding with val- 9 20 38.5
ues of 5 or 6. Our highly-trained officers 10 22 42.3
uninhabitable for eternity. Do you under- 11 24 46.2
stand me! I can't hear you! GOOD! round out our complement-let's keep 12 26 50.0
We have intelligence reports on the them away from the firefights, so that they 13 28 53.8
forces protecting their bounty, as well as can use their brains and coordinate commu- 14 30 57.7
15 32 61.5
this really nice looking map of the most nication and fire support (Dispatches). As 16 34 65.4
likely routes to her holding place. The you can see from Table l, not every Marine 17 36 69.2
Princess is in the heart of Yamaguchi's is qualified to use all the resources avail- 18 38 73.1
Citadel. We will insert a team at Drop Zone able to us (more on that later). 19 40 76.9
20 42 80.8
Alpha, battle our way to the Citadel, and Flexibility in command and control 21 45 86.5
rescue Princess Ryan. We shall collect will be a critical asset for our eventual 22 47 90.4
intelligence along the way as to the exact success. Successful skirmishes will be 23 49 94.2
location of the Princess. Our superiors have amply rewarded. Table 2 shows the pro- 24 52 100.0
ordered our immediate insertion. We must motion points (PPs) we expect to allocate,
rely upon the weapons here aboard the if resistance is as expected. More PPs are TABLE 2
Schenectady, but the generous use of field available when more Marines are fielded.
promotions has been authorized. The You'll gain these depending on the results Promotion Points Per Guard Faced
of each skirmish. No. of
marine who rescues the Princess will get 30 Players 0 1 2 3 4
days R'n'R, a 100,000 credit combat bonus, You should expect varying degrees of
enemy opposition, a variety of skirmish 6 22.9% 20~0% 14.3% 28.6% 14.3%
and a juicy promotion.
Let me draw your attention to the environs and some nasty enemy traps. The 5 25.8 22.6 16.1 32.3 3.2
details of the mission. We have 24 trained Republic's Black Guard is protecting the 4 30.8 26.9 19.2 19.2 3.8
Marines, but only a smaller force will be Princess, but our drop zone is far enough 3 40.0 35.0 20.0 0.0 5.0
inserted on the planet surface, with the away from the Citadel to allow us an oppor- 2 40.9 31.8 22.7 0.0 4.5
remainder in reserve on the Schenectady. tunity to look for the easy paths to our goal. 1 38.1 33.3 23.8 0.0 4.8
The ranking Marine on the surface will We can be sure that the enemy will do
call the shots. Each of you should exer- everything in its power to prevent the
cise your abilities with caution, because rescue. Our intelligence personnel have ~~~~~ (continued pg. 37)
 •
12

Kudos for zoe, etc. ing magazines exist today that are top notch as compete. However, I will never buy it
Kisner's joining of forces with The and outclass all others? There are none that because I don't think it is a game that my
GENERAL is an added plus for readers. I I have read that can ever equal the quality wife and our circle of friends would really
am quite pleased to see intelligent reviews and finesse that The GENERAL carries with enjoy. The trouble is the subject matter.
of games published by Clash of Arms, it. I wouldn't mind paying extra for a page Again, it's run-and-shoot, Star Wars type
Decision Games and The Gamers. I most expansion to ensure that computer material of affair. We're not kids anymore and this
definitely think there is a place for reviews doesn't upstage board wargaming. kind of subject is not appealing. Why not
and tips for strategy-based computer -Alfredo M. Battaglia, Jennings, MO think of another game where there is a ten-
games. Moscatello's treatise on MASTER OF sion between cooperation and competition
ORION II was certainly appreciated. While I As long as most of the magazine is where the subject matter is more interest-
would not want to see THE GENERAL turn about Avalon Hill products, I am more than ing? Mind you, I recognize that games
into Computer Gaming World, I must say I happy to see other games reviewed. In fact, need elements of conflict to be interesting.
am extremely happy with the recent broad- I welcome articles about board games from .. I find it dismaying when you get reader
ening of horizons the magazine has taken. other companies, since I have a stronger comments complaining that you are not
-Ed Caylor, Hampton, NH interest in board games than computer focusing enough on wargames. Well, those
games. wargame grognards may be the most vocal,
The articles on the other games are -David Brooks, Memphis, TN but I believe you'll be shooting yourself in
interesting and give a broader perspective the foot if you listen too much to them.
on the whole industry. Your new strategy Achtung Writers Other adult gamers are turning to the imag-
makes good business sense and hopefully I have played Avalon Hill games since I inative German type of abstract game and I
will help to keep our hobby alive. I look was about twelve years old (almost 21 think it would serve you well to try to reach
forward to receiving my issues and I read years ago), and I currently own around 50 out to that audience.
them from cover to cover---even the articles games and associated modules with a small -Togu Oppusunggu, Brooklyn, NY
on games that are not of interest to me, just number from other lesser companies. I
because they are written well. have just become computer literate and Kudos to the AH staff on the release of
-Charles Ellsworth have acquired OVER THE REICH. TITAN: THE ARENA. It is very popular
Superb!!! I love this and I am very sur-
right now with the members of our game
I thought this issue (volume 31, number prised that The GENERAL has not covered
club. We had three 4-player games going
5) looked good and had a nice balance. My this game in any depth. I must say that I
simultaneously at last Saturday's meeting.
favorite has to be the return of ZOC, as it is enjoy the new magazine look-after being
Most members thought that the fantasy
always fun to read about games that you very apprehensive about the change.
free-for-all was the perfect thematic real-
don't get to see in the local shop (if you Please, please, keep it centered on
ization for this kind of cardlbetting game.
have one). boardgames, new and old. Thanks for all
the gaming pleasure you have given over They also thought it should make a good
The letter from Alzenshi shows that if
you play ASL for too long, you forget there ttie years (your games are quite expensive "crossover" hit with the general gaming
are other games. I liked the letter on the first over here but well worth the money). Keep public looking for a superior family/social
time AvalonCon experience. This was me up the good work. game. Easy to learn, and chock full of
five years ago and I'll come back every -Gary Barr, Belfast, N.Ireland tough, fun decisions on each and every
chance I get. The gaming experience at tum. I hope AH considers publishing more
AvalonCon is the best there is. Everyone 1, too, am surprised that 1 haven't been of these "German-style" cardlboard games.
who is a gamer should come and see what it flooded with articles on this superb -Charles Bah!,
is really all about. wargamer's game and its sequel, The Quake Coast Game Club, San Jose, CA
-John W. Clere, Kentucky ACHTUNG SPITFIRE. 1 guess players are
still very absorbed with it. When you come Gaming Innovation
I was in constant debate with myself as up for air, send me articlesl-SKT Thank you for producing excellent
to whether some of the changes in the mag- games at great prices! The games that have
azine were for the better, if this magazine is The German Wave really caught the attention of my family
to survive into the next century as a fore- Thank you for all the effort you put into and friends have been WE THE PEOPLE
most publication of the wargaming hobby. the magazine. I've enjoyed them very and HANNIBAL. This game system is the
Clearly, though, the trend is toward com- much, because they are full of strategy tips, best to corne along in years-a major
puter gaming, and I agree that the magazine replays and variants. Personally, I love cov- development in playability, competitive-
must appeal also to the next generation of erage of non-wargames and would support ness and realism. I can only hope that the
the wargaming public. Can it appeal to both more of that. I have also enjoyed historical system is being applied to other great cam-
the board wargamers as well as the com- articles. paigns such as the Civil War, Napoleon and
puter game players without succumbing to My main misgiving about your com- Frederick the Great. The simple mechanics
the "robbing Peter to pay Paul" syndrome? pany is that it, too, is caught up with topics allow players to concentrate on turn strat-
The GENERAL is first and foremost a mag- of violence or money-making. Take for egy. No two games are alike. We find that
azine for board wargamers. There are a example PRINCESS RYAN'S STAR more often than not, the outcome hangs in
plethora of computer game magazines in MARINES. The game truly does intrigue the balance until the very end.
the market, but how many board wargam- me because of the need to cooperate as well -Mark Gray, Glenwood Springs, CO
 13

Fight Like A Mao,

Not an Ore
•
Crafting Your War Effort In
WJlRCRJlFT II
By Mark G. McLaughlin

our army is marshaled. Big knights each side (human mages and paladins, orc the game. For the price of an Archer/Axe-

Y on even bigger chargers, both

straining at the bit, cluster around
behind a mass of burly foot soldiers clad in
ogre-mages and death-knights) have similar
powers, yet each has its own unique spells
that are available only to that side. Spells,
Thrower you can upgrade the Tower to a
Guard Tower. These have arrows. The
Guard Towers have more armor and can
burnished steel armor. A troop of elven like special weapons and other improve- take more hits than almost any other unit. In
archers, their long blond locks streaking out ments, require the establishment of key addition, they have a longer sighting and
beneath their plumed helms, capes flutter- buildings and the expenditure of resources firing range than any ground or sea unit.
ing in the breeze, cock their arrows in antic- to research those advances. They are repairable (at no cost in
ipation. Lightning crackles from the wands resources). They can even be fixed by peas-
of wild-eyed mages while a holy glow BE A BUILDER, NOT A R~IDER ants while under attack.
emanates from the golden paladins by their The WARCRAFT system requires a player Guard Towers work best in pairs or even
side. Mighty bolt-throwers creak at the to invest time and resources in creating a triplets on the perimeter and at choke points
strain of holding back their giant arrows, base of operations. This base will grow into (defiles, channels, mountain passes). The
while dwarven demolition squads ready the a medieval town, complete with farms, towers will buy you time to marshal mobile
fuses on their powder barrels. The anticipa- blacksmith shops, lumber mills, barracks, reinforcements to back them up. They can
tion builds as flapping wings and crowing shipyards, etc. This is more than just a
cries of the giant Gryphons urge you to rush "SimCity" set up; it is the key to victory.
WARCRAFT II by Blizzard Entertainment
forward against the slathering, drooling How you allocate your initial pool of lim-
System Requirements: MS-DOS 5.0,
orcs, ogres, goblins, berserkers, skeletons, ited resources will set the tone for the game,
Windows 95 or Windows 3.1, Super
dragons, death-knights and demons of the and will determine not only if you can win,
VGA graphics, 33 MHz 486, 8 mb
evil horde. A fleet of wooden warships but how long it will take you (and, con-
RAM, Hard Drive, CD-ROM (double
bristling with antique bombards and versely, on how many times you might
speed highly recommended). Supports
escorted by armored submarines is coming have to go back to a saved game). Although
the major sound systems. Mouse pre-
up the channel. The holds of the transports seemingly plentiful, the resources on the
ferred but may be played with Key-
following behind are filled with longbow- map get used up very quickly. You have to
board. Supports modem play. Easy sce-
wielding rangers eager to take on the can- manage your resources intelligently.
narios take under two hours to play;
non towers and arrow platforms that protect The computer plays a "raiding" game. It
more difficult scenarios may require
the harbor wherein lie the foundries, ship- sends individual or small groups of units in four hours or more.
yards, oil refineries and other buildings that . frequent and annoying attacks on your
make up the enemy fortress city that has
grown like a blight on the land.
patrols and your towns. You can usually
kill every single one of these units each e Mental
Challenge

~liiJ~
WAR CRA FT II (TIDES OF DARKNESS) keeps time, but they will take out a few of your
all the good things from the first game, but people and destroy some of your buildings. AI Ability
goes several steps farther. It adds many
more kinds of buildings and unit types,
This is a war of attrition which your com-
puter opponent can win, because it has peo- 0 ill 0 __
III Realism
including flying scouts, fire-breathing drag- ple and resources to waste. It doesn't cheat,
ons and the gryphon rider (a dwarf with
exploding throwing axes mounted on a
but it simply starts with more stuff than you
do (cities and fortresses are already built).
¥¥¥., Excitement

$ ~ $ ~ ~Artistic Appeal
really big eagle). There are also sailing
ships armed with cannons (destroyers, bat-
tleships, juggernauts, transports and sub-
TRAPPING THE RAIDERS 0

The best way to deal with raiders is to 0000 ORePlayability

marines) and a long list of new ground set traps for them. The best traps involve Rating icons range from one (wretched or ten years
units, most of them with magic abilities. towers. For less than it costs to build a nor- behind the state of the industry) to five (top 10% of
As in the original game, most of the mal foot soldier, you can build a industry). Four is good, three is passable (middle of
units and scenarios in WARCRAFT II mirror Scout/Watch Tower. Although this has no the road for the industry) and two is not great
(bottom third).
each other. The two top magic types on weapomy, it has the highest armor factor in
 --
14
also provide cover for your Archers/Axe- You can turn this to your advantage by lay- ONE BIG BLOW
Throwers and artillery (Catapults, Bolt- ing a trap. You can never afford to attack in
Throwers or Spell Casters). Your foes Unfortunately, there are times and penny-packets or small groups. Your
waste their energies chipping away at the places where you can not use this because losses will be heavy and, most of the time,
Towers, while you pepper them. of the terrain, path of approach or density of your attack will fail. By the time you have
Cannon Towers pack much more wallop enemy forces and buildings. This is espe- regrouped and raised another army, any
than Guard Towers, but they have two cially true when you make a landing under damage you did to the enemy position will
drawbacks: 1) they are overly costly and 2) fire on an island or beach that is being either have been repaired or replaced, and
they can not shoot up. swept by their towers, catapults and new enemies will be ready and waiting. To
archers. In this kind of fight, you must prevent this, strike hard with as big a force
ARMS FOR SHIELDS carve out an area for yourself. It is no dif- as you can muster. Resist the temptation to
While towers make the best defense, ferent than a river crossing or amphibious strike with a small, tough group. Waiting
farms actually make the best walls. They landing in modern war. Use long-range is well worth the time. Get a big force
take a lot of punishment and draw the com- weapons and naval/air bombardment to together, advance, set up a shooting
puter like flies to honey. The farms grow sweep an area. They then move off to the gallery trap, build up a little more, and
food (which you need to support units) and flanks to intercept enemy counterattacks, then go for the kill.
you can hide bowmenlaxeman behind them while you set up in the middle. If you can,
to fire as the enemy advances. A peasant or this middle ground is the best place to put a THE SHORT LEASH
two can repair the farms as fast as the tower or two. You can then set up the Your units are not terribly smart. Ifthey
enemy damages them. shooting gallery trap. see an enemy, they will charge him. This
can undo your position. Your knights will
BUILDINGS ON THE ATTACK rush headlong to engage in hand-to-hand
TOWERS IN THE HEART
Architectural advances come in two combat, and as the enemy flees they will
OF DARKNESS
forms. The most obvious is to create build- follow up. They will usually follow up
The cheapest, easiest and most effective
ings that support each other and provide the into the kind of trap you should be setting
way to deal with an enemy town is to build
materials, resources, research base and pre- for the computer. Suddenly it is Agincourt
your own Guard Towers and Cannon Tow-
requisites for the next type of advance. That all over again, with your knights lying in
ers right in the heart of that town. These
advance can be the creation of or improve- the dust. The footmen are no better or
towers will fire continuously and automati-
ment of existing units or the acquisition of smarter, just slower. Even the Gryphon
cally at every building and unit in their
magic knowledge. Some buildings are also riders and battleships will seek to close
range. You can build them and leave them
"force multipliers." with the enemy.
to do their duty while your army is else-
The second way to advance through Fortunately, you can give the "stand
where. While the towers slowly blast and
architecture is to build your way forward. ground" command to units. This glues
batter away, your army can search for
When you put together an attack force, the them to one spot. It prevents reckless
enemy units or smash the buildings that lie
second wave (and sometimes the rear rank charges but can be fatal if they come under
beyond the range of the towers. The towers
of the fIrst wave) should include at least fire and thus cannot respond. This com-
also act as a fall-back position (providing
one or two peasants. The peasants can build mand is best used on the reserve units that
covering fire) should an enemy counterat-
a simple farm to act as a shield for your you want to hold back from the battle or
tack come from an unexpected or unex-
units, or they can build towers to provide for those men guarding a gateway, defile
plored quarter.
you with covering fire to deal with a coun- or other nanow path. They will need to
terattack. Occupation of key points on the have someone or something provide cov-
perimeter of enemy towns will always draw DEALING WITH THE UNKNOWN ering fire, however, or else they will get
the computer forces into a counterattack As in many games of this type, most of picked off by enemy missile throwers or
(such as along the path to a gold mine). the map is shrouded in black. As you magic users.
Find these points, set up towers within move and explore, more of the map is
range of them, and then send one man into revealed. As soon as you leave the area a USING RANGED WEAPONS
the enemy town as bait. Keep your hand on gray shadow passes over it. You see build- A catapult, for example, out-ranges
the mouse and the move command, because ings and terrain, but will not be able to see every tower on the map, but only by one or
he will have to run to stay ahead of the any enemy units or their movements two spaces. As there are no spaces marked
crowd. Do not stop and fight with him-the unless someone or a friendly tower is there on the map, you have to gauge the distance
farther he runs, the farther the computer to watch. by trial and error. Instead of giving a unit an
wili follow. With a pair of towers and such Use the patrol command (pick a unit attack order, move it one step at a time
archers, you can set up a shooting gallery. and set it to march back and forth to keep towards the enemy. As soon as it is in
The computer will keep throwing troops at an eye out for the enemy). Flying range, the unit will start shooting. In this
this as long as it can. machines can also be set to patrol a wider manner you can use a catapult to blow
area. The best system, however, is to away a tower or two at no loss to yourself.
ATTACK IN ECHELON establish a line of pickets. Small groups or The enemy will send a counterattack force
The computer has creatures and at least pairs of units should be spread out to hit the catapult, so you will need to have
resources to waste and can afford to attack to cover a broad area. The pickets have to units standing by to provide cover.
in piecemeal, "banzai" charges. Its favorite be backed by mobile forces to respond to Only battleships/juggernauts have
method of defense is to keep units clumped a threat, or the picket line will be longer ranges than archers and axethrow-
around a key site and, when you come breached and the enemy will rush upon ers. Destroyers at the shore will find them-
within sight of them, those units will launch you. A good picket line will give you a selves under a withering fire from infantry,
a vicious counterattack. You should learn breather to harvest, build and marshal a while battleships can stand off and blast
from this slaughter not to fight this way. main force for a key strike. away with impunity. No ship, however, can

.._. ~L
 lS
out-range a tower. One tower can beat one your people deep behind their lines. Unfor- to get finished. They allow you to explore
ship. Only a massive bombardment by tunately, casting a fire-shield or invisibility those scenarios to see if you really want to
three or more ships will do the trick. spell on a dwarven demolition squad causes play them.
its powder barrel to ignite. Poof. No more
Table 1: Support for the Real-Time ChalIenged
STRIKE GROUPS demolition squad!
Death-knights can raise the dead and (aka "Cheat" Codes)
Air units (GryphonslDragons) move fast
Code Effect
and hit hard, but do not have staying power, make them into skeleton warriors, but this It is a Good Day To Die your units and buildings
and tend to respond slowly to commands to is almost a waste of their powers. The are invulnerable
disengage. They also have an annoying ten- skeletons die easily. Death-knights are bet- Glittering Prizes gives you a large amount
dency to hit each other with friendly fire. ter used to unleash whirlwinds and Death of gold, oil and timber
Use lots of air units, either in one long, coils. They can, however, cast an "unholy On Screen reveals the entire map and
spread-out line or in numerous small armor" protective spell on a unit. This is all units present
Make It So Immediately builds chosen
groups. To move the units in line you have especially useful if an Ogre-mage is nearby
building/unit
to move each piece separately to avoid to cast a bloodlust spell to make a unit Unite the Clans grants you victory NOW
clumping (tedious and problematic). Usu- extremely vicious in combat. Add a haste
ally you will move flying units in pairs or spell to this combination and you can create To Use These codes hit the Enter key. A "Mes-
sage:" line will come up at the bottom of the screen.
triplets, with other "squadrons" off to the a swirling demon of destruction.
Type in the appropriate code and hit enter again.
side for support. While one squadron bom- Speaking of demons, they are the one WARNING: Use of any cheat code reduces your vic-
bards a target, move another to patrol its unit in the game that only the computer can tory level to that of "Cheater."
flanks to intercept enemy units. create (unless you use the map editor to
Magic users are best used in even build your own scenario). They appear in a SPEAKING SILLY
smaller groups. A single magic user sends few scenarios, but always on the Qrc side If you click on a piece it acknowledges
in a blistering rain of death with a fireball, and then only if the computer is the Orcs. you with a "yes, my lord" or "what is it"
death coil, whirlwind, blizzard or any other They fly, they move pretty fast, and they voice reply, and then you move it. My
long-range spell. He must then immediately can cause a good deal of damage, but they seven-year old showed me that if you keep
run to safety, as the computer will rush him. die easily to flames and missile fire. They clicking on that piece it will keep talking.
A magic user in a second line can provide do not range very far from where the com- The more it talks, the ruder it gets. Each unit
covering fire, but it is best for regular puterplaces them. Their mission seems to on each side has a unique string of about a
troops or towers to do that job. One of the be to guard dark portals, tombs and other dozen dialogue sentences. The deeper you
best "covering fires" is the Polymorph resting places of arcane interest. get into the conversation, the more unpleas-
spell. A human mage can use this to turn ant they become. Peasants get confused.
any enemy into a pig (or sheep or seal or THE CHEAT CODES Soldiers get edgy. Magic users get angry.
whatever the main type of innocent critter WARCRAFT II is not impossible to win. Ogres burp and fart, elves tell you to "quit
will be found in the scenario). This is par- Almost every scenario has two or more touching me!" and sailors get seasick. My
ticularly gratifying when used on a death- paths to victory, and these are usually fairly favorite of all, however, are the two demoli-
knight, ogre-mage or dragon. Unfortu- obvious. Unlike some games that force you tion squads. The dwarves (all of whom have
nately, it requires almost all of the 255 to find one solution, WARCRAFT II almost bad Scottish accents) are particularly nasty
magic points a magic user can store up, and never dictates your strategy to win. while the goblin sappers are like Munchkins
there is a chance it will not work against a For those players who get frustrated, on helium. They say things like "Wheeeee,"
really strong dragon. cheat codes exist. These codes should not "I got a bomb," and "Kabooooooom."
be used in the campaign games, because if Name me one other computer game
SPELLS AND DEMOLITIONS you win with a cheat code your victory where your soldiers talk back to you? Even
The most powerful spell of the game is, screen labels you as a "Cheater." These are if it wasn't a great game (which it is), I
in my opinion, the "Healing" spell of the best used in the stand-alone scenarios would like it just for the conversation.
Paladins. Human Paladins, though mighty where you are either frustrated or just want These little guys have spunk and character.
warriors, are best used as doctors. They are
the M.A.S.H. units of the game (no such Table 2. WarCraft to MoreCraft Games in the WarCraft System
skills exist on the Orc side). Build a bunch Title Topic Scenarios per Side Publisher
of them, set them up in a safe, open space,
WARCRAFT Original game 10 Blizzard
and send wounded units back to them to
(land units only)
heal. The Paladins regenerate their magic at
no cost, and every six points of magic they WARCRAFT II Second game 14 Blizzard
use brings back one hit point to the (TIDES OF DARKNESS) (land, air and sea units)
wounded unit.
Paladins also have a good offensive WARCRAFT II EXPANSION * Additional story line and scenarios 12 Blizzard
spell: Exorcism. This power is really of use (BEYOND THE DARK PORTAL)

only against skeletons and death-knights, WARCRAFT BATTLE CHEST* All three for one price 36 Blizzard
neither of whom can take much punishment
anyway. Let your regulars deal with the MORECRAFT FOR WARCRAFT 11* 200 levels, 8-player modem, tips not reviewed Microforum
undead-the Paladins are better as doctors Software
than killers.
W!ZONE FOR WARCRAFT 11* more scenarios not reviewed Wizard Works
Death-Knights, Ogre-Mages and Mages
are more offensive spellcasters. The W!ZONE RETRIBUTION* more scenarios/battlegrounds not reviewed Wizard Works
Human Mage spells of fire-shield and
*WARCRAFT II required for use.
invisibility are best used to sneak one of
 •
16
depend greatly upon the idiosyncracies of
®@o~® [?@..~ lJ[}{)[3 lJ[}{)·~@£lJ your group.
Troll (survival rate of 35 per cent): The

The Nasties of TITAN: THE ARENA Troll is not a great secret bet. The first
round play is a problem, because the power
can only be used if the Warlock has just
By Mike Welker discarded a Troll Strength card. In later
rounds, the ability to retrieve revealed
mies. They'll see the opportunity to kill Strength cards helps protect him. However,
ere, Mr. Welker gives us a different

H slant (from my own found in last

issue) on how to play this recent
hot seller. As you can see from comparing
your creature as a sure way to reduce your
victory points. This is the equivalent of
drawing a big bull's eye on that poor Crea-
this can be difficult to accomplish if the
Backer only has low Troll cards and the
empty slots are filling up quickly.
Dragon (20 per cent): Players don't
the two, we have a difference of opinion ture. However, concentration of bets isn't
seem to like that fiery breath. Its power
about some aspects of the strategy sur- so bad when one of the bets is your secret
leads to late game uncertainties. Any secret
rounding the secret bet.-SKT bet. If your secret bet is revealed, you often
bets on the Dragon must involve an ability
On the day I bought this gem (at Aval- become the Backer. The key to revealing
to protect him with at least a few high-value
onCon '97), I played it ten times. Our group the secret bet is timing. A general rule of
Spectators and Dragon cards.
at home regularly plays AGE OF RENAIS- thumb is to keep the secret hidden until you
Titan (45 per cent): His ability to view
SANCE or SE7TLERS OF CATAN, but after we believe that you can protect your Creature.
other player's cards, coupled with the
are done, someone always says, "Hey, we Our group has different opinions, but we
snatch-away choice, makes him strong and
have some time for TITAN: THE ARENA." think two or three high-value Strength versatile in assessing enemy hands. This is
Out the cards and chips come, along with cards is a minimum for protecting the mul- especially helpful in the late game.
poker faces and the beginnings of monster tiple bet after revealing the secret bet. Unicorn (40 per cent): The Unicorn is
imitations. As of this writing, we've proba- By far, the better strategy for betting is weak at the start, but has the ability to "tele-
bly played the game 40 times. This sample to get cozy with the other players. If you port" other Creature cards. This makes it
witnessed a wild array of twists of fate, spread your bets so that other players will strong and therefore likely to holds its own.
with no two games ever playing the same. lose victory points to hurt you, this will A secret bet on the Unicorn is our group's
The distribution of winnings was about obviously make them think twice. You also second favorite.
even across the players. The beauty of this gain the potential advantage of appearing in Ranger (60 per cent): This is our group's
game is its sheer compactness coupled with league (at least for a while). Later, near the favorite secret bet, not to mention my wife's
potentially infinite combinations of player end game, you might want to kill a creature favorite first-round bet. The three-card draw
interactions. with your own bets revealed, as long as the helps to build resources for protecting the
leading players lose more than you. Ranger or other bets (especially a secret bet
THE LUCK OF THE DRAW on another creature). In several games we
Every game differs because your particu- TIMING have played, multiple secret bets have
lar hand of eight cards is one of millions of The game moves faster at the fourth and backed the Ranger, which boosted the sur-
possible card combinations. The flow of fifth rounds than at the first and second. In vival rate. The late game is a problem,
cards played, discarded, and drawn to fill fact, in some cases, you may not be able to though, because the Ranger's power to draw
hand capacity creates yet more diverse out- playa card in the fifth round. Other players is not as likely to help (you may discover
comes. This means an important skill to may systematically pounce on your unpro- you are filling your hand with dead
exercise is counting the cards. This is easier tected Creature. The key to protecting your- Creatures' cards).
than it sounds, considering that the last self from this peril is reducing the likeli- Warlock (45 per cent): Our group tends
played card of each surviving creature hood you will be out of the loop, so to to have multiple secret bets on the Warlock.
remains visible on the table. If you keep speak. You may need to prolong a previous The ability to drop powerful Strength cards
track of the cards that get buried, you will round (for example, by playing Strength helps you avoid a forced play that would
have a good idea what cards are yet to be cards on top of visible cards). This will probably save an enemy's bets. Our group
played. slow down the filling up of the empty slots. always sees a lot of jockeying to become
Keeping track of all creatures can be In another case, you may want to use a his Backer.
tedious, especially at first. As the rounds Creature's power so that a previous round Cyclops (35 per cent): The Cyclops can
proceed and fewer of your creatures sur- ends more quickly. create temporary weaknesses at crucial
vive, counting gets easier. The benefit of moments in the game. This is helpful espe-
knowing the unplayed cards is obvious. HANDICAPPING THE SECRET BETS cially in cases when the next player is
However, do not count on unplayed cards Our group favors a secret bet when a forced to play a card which might favor
alone. Remember that the Troll can pick up first round hand has several (often three or your distribution of bets. Our group has
a visible Troll card, a Unicorn can switch more) of the Creature's Strength cards. The tended to kill the Cyclops early, usually in
any creature's cards, and the Warlock real issue is one of long-run uncertainty a sort of "neutral" killing (no open bets on
allows players to dump unwanted cards. about the likelihood of survival. The fol- it at the time).
Along with the Spectator cards, these fac- lowing Creature-by-Creature analysis is Hydra (20 per cent): Never place a
tors make it hard to count on a forced play based on the results of our latest playings. secret bet on the Hydra. Players' fear the
of a card on a Creature. As you read the survival rates given below, multiple strike ability greatly. This moti-
remember that 37.5 per cent of the Crea- vates their ambitions to do it in as quickly
SPREAD THE RISK tures survive each game. The trick with the as possible.
If you place multiple bets on one crea- secret bet is to back a Creature that beats
ture, you are inviting the wrath of your ene- the average. Obviously, survival rates may ~~~~~ (Continued on p. 21)
 17
Population Growth. Allow Minimal
Terran planets to increase population at
the rate of one for every 15 million. Frac-
tions of population smaller than the num-
ber required for growth may still grow by
Solitaire Variant for STELLAR CONQUEST one if you roll less than or equal to the
fraction. Roll one die for Terran planets,
By Charles E. Duke two dice for Sub-Terran and three dice for
Minimal Terran. For example, a Subterran
n the galaxy far, far in the future, let it solitaire). Now, however, you may be planet holds 27 million souls. Normally, it

I not be forgotten that a vast number of

computer strategy games trace their
ancestry to STELLAR CONQUEST. Many
restrained by that power's current policy.
For example, you can't use its forces to
attack a neutral neighbor unless the politi-
will produce two million new colonists for
its 20 million base, while the seven million
leftover is sterile. Now, if you roll seven
ofthe early computerized galactic conquest cians declare war. or less with two dice, a third million will
games mimicked it. Unusual for board GENERAL RULE VARIATIONS be produced.
wargaming, STELLAR CONQUEST pro- The following general rules variations
duced the aura offighting an unseen enemy SOLITAIRE VARIANT DEFINITIONS
can be used in both solitaire and multi- Power. Each of the four sides in the
under conditions of extremely limited and player games.
constantly outdated intelligence in which game.
Planet Shields. Developing and building Claims. Every time that a
technology drives war success and popula- planetary shields is a primary strategy in
tion growth requires expansion. In short, it or~it power explores a star for the
Minimal Terran
the normal game, but in a solitaire game the 20M;"'oo first time it "claims" it as its
is a tense game of cat and mouse among appearance of invulnerable planets may Orbi!

human opponents (face-to-face or by mail), 5 ~~r;;~lion territory. Note this by giving

lead to boredom (a problem that plagues the star's card to the power
but a wistful flop for those who largely play multi-player games as well).
their games solitaire. Rather than forking (as a sort of deed of ownership). A star
In this variant, planet shields may be remains claimed by a power until a nego-
over vast sums of money for a computer attacked as if they were fighters. As long as
(and frequent upgrades), Mr. Duke offers a tiation or treaty mandates that it must be
the shield is up, bases and population on the transferred to another power. Star cards
boardgame solution.-SKT surface may not be attacked, but bases may
One of STELLAR CONQUEST's most are kept by a power even if an enemy mil-
fire against the attacking ships. If the itarily conquers the star during a conflict.
fascinating features is its "fog of war" (or attackers get five or more hits in the same
should I say "nebula of war"?). It is chal- Conquered colonies are considered to be
round of combat, the shield overloads cata- friendly territory currently under enemy
lenging to be completely in the dark about strophically and is destroyed. Surface
your opponent's forces, defenses, popula- occupation. A planet may be colonized
forces may then be attacked in subsequent only by the power which holds the corre-
tion and intentions. Gathering intelligence rounds. If the attackers score three or four sponding star card (either through explo-
is mandatory, costly, and part of the fun. hits in the same round, the shield receives a ration or via peace treaty). Otherwise,
All this is small consolation, however, damage point. An accumulation of four normal conquest rules apply.
for the not uncommon gamer who must rely damage points will destroy the shield. One Border Star. A friendly star is a border
primarily on solitaire play due to lack of or two hits in a round has no effect. How- star relative to an enemy if it is closer (or as
live opponents. He's dying to play STEL- ever, if no hits are scored in a given round close) to an enemy star as any other star
LAR CONQUEST (STC), but the solitaire of combat, the shield's gene;ators may be that is as close to the friendly star. Stars
player will usually find that he has built all used by the defenders as a tractor beam in closer to the enemy, but which are on the
four empires in a very similar manner. Con- an attempt to disrupt (and destroy) one far side of the enemy, are consequently not
flicts are dull. Will the Red Empire invade attacking ship, using the death star column close enough to the friendly star. For exam-
the Yellow Confederation next turn, where, of the Attack Table. If no hits are achieved ple, Hydrae borders Aurigae, Sadir and
and why? Red has death stars, Yellow against the shield in two consecutive Alcor, but not Lupi. Lupi borders Aurigae,
doesn't. You feel guilty if you don't rounds of combat, the attacker must call off Scheat, Lacaille and Sadir, but not Draco-
strengthen Yellow for the upcoming his assault and the battle ends. At the end of nis. Draconis borders Canopus, Almach,
assault, and you also feel guilty if you arm each battle, damaged shields are fully Scheat and Lacaille. Scheat and Lacaille
Yellow and deprive Red from a probably repaired. Destroyed shields remain are both closer to Lupi than Draconis, pre-

I'' ' ' I

deserved surprise attack. Furthermore, destroyed and must be rebuilt. venting Lupi from bordering Draconis.
intelligence gathering seems pointless in a
Scou". Tn a ,nlitai" game,
solo game unless you follow the mind-bog- .Ii . 1 unarmed scouts quickly become BEGINNING THE GAME
gling policy of making an empire act only <J • worthless. I find the changes Set up the game in the normal manner.
upon what it is supposed to know. Now let below make starfleets more var- Each power determines its initial spending
me see, did Green discover three turns ago ied, interesting, and balanced, even for independently. All powers will automati-
that Red already has fighters? multi-player games. cally spend 15 points to buy three-hex
This article presents a system that con- In this variant, scouts are small war- speed. The remaining ten points are
trols most of the political and economic ships which may fight. They hit colony invested in research determined by the
decision-making in STC. You still move transports on a die roll of 1-2, other scouts Research Priority Table, using the peace
ships around, decide on strategy and tactics with a die roll of 1, and corvettes or mis- column. Roll two dice to determine the cho-
during conflicts, transfer colonists, etc. As sile bases on a two-dice roll of 10. The hit sen class and then roll two dice to deter-
you take each empire's turn, you should use probability against scouts is also modi- mine the chosen research level. If more
it as fairly as possible (just as you do when fied: missile bases and corvettes hit them than one research title remains at that level,
you try to use both sides efficiently while with 1-3, fighters and advanced missile then determine which is chosen according
playing ASL or THE RUSSIAN FRONT bases with 1-4 and death stars with 1-5. to an odd/even die roll.
 •
18
DIPLOMATIC ROUTINES
Research Priority Table Economic Priority Table
Research Class The general diplomatic situation among
(roll one die, +1 ifin truce or incident, +2 if at war)
(sum of two dice) the powers is affected by the particular
Peace: War: Priority Secondary Tertiary stage of the game.
2-5 Speed* Technology Neutrality and 1ncidents. Unless a
I Factories* Research Weapons
6-7 Weapons Speed*
8-12 Technology Weapons 2-4 Research Weapons Factories'" power is involved in limited or total war, it
5+ Weapons Research Factories" is considered neutral. All powers enter the
*If maximum speed (8) has been achieved, give
priority to technology class during peace, to game neutral and remain so until diplo-
Note: Weapons are ships (inclnding scouts) and
weapons class during war. matic events in stage III or later alter that
bases. If aU research items have been acquired,
Research Level research spending goes towards weapons. circumstance. Misunderstandings, politi-
(sum of two dice, + 1 if at war) *If industrial tech is still not available, output goes cal blunders, clashes and border disputes
into research. are incidents and are not considered to be
2-5 Lowest unfinished level
6-8 Highest possible level a war for any purpose, although they may
9+ Highest level related to owned predecessor lead to one.
(otherwise highest possible level) In the case of weapons, buy as many Stage 1: Expansion. In this stage, powers
The particular research title of the appropriate of the most costly ship or base as possi- are settling into the sector. At first, each
level is determined by odd/even die roll if nec- ble with the funds. Then, allocate the
essary.
doesn't know that other powers exist, and
remaining weapons spending toward even when an encounter occurs it tends to
PRODUCTION ROUTINES cheaper ships and/or bases to fully spend be peaceful. There is no need or desire for
In every production turn, after diplo- the minimum. conflict. This stage lasts until the last star
matic events have been determined, each In the case of research, all spending on the mapboard has been claimed by a
colony calculates industrial output, builds goes toward finishing a partially-com- power.
colony transports and spends on equipment pleted research item before a new one is Ships may not be sent voluntarily
and research independently, but according started. New research is determined by towards a star that has already been claimed
to the overall economic priority determined the Research Priority Table (see above). by another power. If ships are already on
for its power. Start with the most recent For example, Red has a Terran planet the way when the star becomes claimed by
colony and proceed to the oldest colony of on Alcor which has a population of 50 another power, the ships must continue to
the power. million (planet has a capacity of 80) with their destination. Then, after surviving
Colonization Policy. Under certain 5 factories. Red is at peace. The Alcor exploration risks, if no enemy ships are pre-
conditions, each unbesieged colony's planet grows to 60 million and must emi- sent, place the latecoming ships in an adja-
first priority is to emigrate colonists, buy- cent hex with a new destination. If enemies
grate 12 million to gain the full popula-
ing the necessary transports to send them are present, roll two dice and consult the
tion bonus of four million (costing 16 of
to another planet claimed by the power. Encounters Table.,
The planet nearest to a below-capacity the planets 65 i.p. 's for the transports).
mineral rich planet will emigrate enough Red rolled a 5 for an economic priority of
weapons, so at least 25 i.p.' s must be Encounter Table
population to fill the mineral rich planet to
spent on weapons. Red buys one man- (sum the roll of two dice)
capacity.
All non-mineral-rich planets colonized dated fighter, plus one missile base and 2-10: Peaceful Encounter. After an
above 80 per cent of capacity will emigrate one scout (27 i.p. 's). The remaining 22 exchange of greetings and knowl-
enough population to fully utilize the popu- i.p. 's are divided between research and edge, place the arriving ships in
lation bonus. factories, resulting in the building of two an adjacent hex with a new desti-
During peace, all Terran, non-mineral- factories and the expenditure of 14 i.p. 's nation.
rich planets colonized to 50 per cent of on Red's current research priority. 11-12: Misunderstanding. Shots are
capacity will emigrate enough population to exchanged! Fight one round of
fully utilize the population bonus (but never combat, then place surviving
reducing population below 20 million). TRANSPORT POLICY arriving ships in an adjacent hex
After a war victory, all Sub-Terran, non- During movement, colonists are with a new destination.
mineral-rich planets will emigrate half of moved in transports to a habitable planet
claimed by the power which fulfills the Stage 11: Growth. The powers have
their population plus the population bonus
to Terran planets newly evacuated by the earliest condition set forth below and is defined their turf, and although disputes
losing power. within command range and within four may arise, generally speaking they are
Economic Priorities. Roll a die once satisfied with developing what they
turns of movement. If a destination
for each power (not each colony) to see already possess. There is little need for
doesn't have the capacity to accommo-
how the higher authorities have decided to looking over the neighbor's fence. More
date all of the colonists, divide the trans-
invest the remainder of their industrial or less peaceful relations exist. This
ports among separate task forces with
points at their colonies. Consult the Eco- stage lasts until the combined population
different destinations as necessary.
nomic Priority Table. The result indicates of all powers first reaches or exceeds
the area to receive priority at each colony. 1. Mineral rich planet, colonized 600 million.
The priority area utilizes at least 50 per 2. Mineral rich planet, uncolonized On every production turn, calculate pop-
cent of the colony's remaining industrial 3. T planet, uncolonized ulation growth for every colony of every
output. After conducting that spending, power, and sum the total to determine the
4. T planet, colonized < 50%
the next remainder is divided as evenly as stage of the game. Then, roll two dice and
possible between secondary and tertiary 5. T planet, colonized < 75%
consult the Diplomatic Events Table and
expenditures (with the secondary focus 6. ST planet, colonized < 75%
getting the benefit of any uneven split 7. ST planet, uncolonized
caused by item prices). 8. MT planet ~~~~~ (Continued on p. 35)
 19
or in a War of Assassins, your faction is
not out of the game. You still maintain
Grand DUNE your holdings and all spice in your pos-
session. However, your faction will lose
certain advantages and/or have certain
By Alan Arvold
limitations laid upon it (see below). These
advantages will be restored and the limita-
tions will be removed only when the Main
s one of the nine players who joined EQUIPMENT

A
Character Leader is revived from the
Mr. Arvold several years ago at Extra cards and leaders are provided on "tanks." A player may revive (for the
GenCon to play this appealing vari- the insert of this magazine. However, usual cost) his Main Character Leader on
ant, I can attest to its superiority over play- when a War of Assassins is declared in a any turn in which he has at least one
ing with the various expansions and vari- game with more than six players, you will Leader alive. If a player has only his Main
ant article rules as they were written. need to add a second deck of Dueling Character Leader left alive, then he may
Although many "purists" will defend the cards from THE DUEL. Alternatively, you start reviving his other Leaders at the rate
elegance and balance of a six-player must limit each player to holding no more of one per tum.
game, the politicking in a nine-player than three Dueling cards. When all of the Leaders, including the
game is truly enriching and, in my opinion, Main Character Leader, of a faction are in
more representative of the turbulent and MAIN CHARACTER LEADERS the tanks at the same time, that faction is
dangerous galaxy portrayed in Herbert's In Section VII of the THE DUEL, it out of the game. All of that faction's
novels. As in that construct, nobody can states that if the main leader of the owning tokens are removed from the board and all
win the nine-player game without allies. players faction is killed in battle whether treachery cards are discarded. The
Efforts to get DUNE reprinted (perhaps on Dune, in a Kanly Duel, or in a War of Harkonnen retain captured Leaders.
the new collectible card game will spark Assassins, the owning player and his fac- Organizations such as the Bene
consumer interest in this elegant tion are out of the game. Such a rule leads Gesserit, the Lansraad and the House Cor-
boardgame) are not likely to produce an a player to keep from using his main rina each have many contenders for the
all-in-one package, so the expansion mod- leader in anything but a last ditch battle at top leadership position when it becomes
ules and this variant will remain vital which point he is probably losing the vacant. Thus each faction will have an
accessories to our cult. If you do not have game anyway. Also, this rule is not literar- internal succession war to fill the seat. In
the modules, snap them up.-SKT ily accurate, as far as the Dune novels are DUNE, this means that the player's fac-
One of the longest-surviving cult concerned, where factions carried on tion has many smaller factions within the
games (remaining popular despite the fact despite the death of their main leaders. main one which are not acting as a unified
that it has been out of print for some Liet Kynes, the leader of the Fremen, was whole. This in turn brings on restrictions
years) is the game DUNE. Based on the left to die in the desert by the Harkonnens and causes advantages to be lost. Edric is
science fiction novel by the late Frank halfway through the first novel. His death a third stage Guild Navigator who is the
Herbert, this game can still be seen in did not cause the Fremen to break up or manager of Guild operations on Dune and
tournaments at various wargame conven- dissolve. On the contrary, the Fremen in the surrounding space. In the event of
tions around the country every year. At the went on to do bigger things under the his death, local Guild operations suffer
height of its popularity in the mid-1980s, leadership of Paul Muad'Dib. When the disruption but not at a catastrophic level.
the game spawned two expansions, SPICE Baron Harkonnen was killed in the battle The smugglers and lower level navigators
HARVEST and THE DUEL. These expan- of Arrakeen towards the end of the first take more than their share of the spice,
sions greatly emiched the main game but novel, his nephew Feyd-Rautha assumed using the disruption as a cover for their
for various reasons did not catch the inter- leadership of what was left of the Harkon- embezzlements. Baron Harkonnen holds
est of players who like the parent game. nen faction. (He lost it to Muad'Dib in a all secrets to himself. While some of his
One reason was that they increased the Kanly Duel a few pages later.) When the lieutenants, such as Feyd-Rautha and Piter
playing time of the average game (making Reverend Mother Mohiam was executed DeVries, may know some of those secrets,
tournament use difficult). Another reason at the end of the second novel, the Bene they are usually the same few secrets that
is that the variant powers which were Gesserit order did not dissolve or lose the Baron will share. When the Baron
introduced in magazine articles (the their influence. When the Emperor Shad- dies, knowledge of traitors in his pay and
Lansraad, the Bene Tleilaxu and the Ixi- dam IV died in exile on the planet Salusa of how to get extra weapons (treachery
ans-see The GENERAL, volume 26, Secundus, his daughter Wensicia Corrina cards) is lost and can not be regained until
number 1, and volume 18, number 5, and carried on the fight throughout the third the Baron is brought back to life. Paul
Heroes, volume 1, number 1) were not novel using espionage, occasional Sar- Muad'Dib is the gifted individual who
integrated into these expansions. Finally, daukar uprisings and an assasination gives the Atreides faction its advantages.
THE DUEL has rules that effectively attempt on the children of Muad'Dib When he dies, all of those powers go with
inhibit its use, causing players to discard (which failed), in hopes of getting her son him and will not come back until he is
the expansion from the game. Often, how- Farad'n on the throne to restore the Cor- brought back to life. Liet Kynes is a leader
ever, you will find players adding to their rina dynasty. The point of the matter is who brought all of the Fremen sietches
game the new treachery cards that were that when the main leader dies, the faction together as a united whole. When he dies,
included in the expansion modules. continues on. various Fremen groups go back to their
This article brings into one grand sys- Alter Section VII of the rules for THE sietches. Only when Liet Kynes is brought
tem the three variant powers and the two DUEL. If your Main Character Leader is back to life will the Fremen again have a
expansions in a more playable format. killed in battle on Dune, in a Kanly Duel, fanatical leader to whip them up into a
 •
20
religious frenzy and transform the war All tokens on the board are treated as nor- no home planet, but their main headquar-
into a Jihad. The Ixian Inquisitor coordi- mal tokens. ters is on the planet Kaitan which is also
nates the operations of all Ixian military • You may not ship one token free with the seat of the Imperial Court.
forces. When she dies, the various military another faction's shipments. Bene Tleilaxu. The Bene Tleilaxu may
units act in an uncoordinated fashion and • You may not "voice" an ally's opponent. get their ten spice like everybody else
various Ixian functionaries embezzle does in the module. They may give spice
spice into their own private fortunes. Lansraad. If the Speaker of the Lansraad to one or more other players before the
Each faction's advantages are reduced (see insert) is dead: players determine who will be the first
whenever lacking its Main Character • You lose the power to influence the other Manager in return for future considera-
Leader in the following ways. major powers during the revival/move- tions during the normal game. Any spice
ment and battle rounds. left over at the end of the Spice Harvest
Fremen. If Liet Kynes is dead: • You lose the power to restrict non-sietch "section" of the game does not have to be
• Token revival isn't free, but instead costs territories to other major powers. turned in; instead, it is the spice with
two spice per token (to the spice bank). which the Bene Tleilaxu start the normal
• Fedaykin counters on the board are Ixians. If the Inquisitor of the Ixian Con- game. The Bene Tleilaxu do not receive
treated as regular troops. Fedaykin in federacy (see insert) is dead: any spice during harvest distribution nor
reserve are placed in the tanks. • Your tokens may only move one terri- do they bid for any Access cards. For the
tory per turn. record, the home planet for the Bene
Atreides. If Paul Muad'Dib is dead: • You may not receive your automatic ten Tleilaxu is the planet Tleilax.
• The Kwisatz Haderach may not be used. spice per turn. They are considered to
Note: Paul Muad'Dib is also killed when be lost. NEW TREACHERY CARDS
the Kwisatz Haderach is blown up in a • The Inquisitor cannot be revived for Semuta Drug-used as a poison
free. weapon. This weapon is played in a bat-
lasegun-shield explosion.
Bene Tleilaxu. This power does not tle normally and can be blocked by a
• Treachery cards can not be previewed.
get a Main Character Leader. The only snooper. If not blocked, it does not
• The top card of the Spice deck cannot be change to the Bene Tleilaxu rules is that immediately kill the opposing leader.
previewed. they may not make traitors of Main Char- Instead, it reduces the fighting strength
• You may not force your opponent to acter Leaders who are revived from the of the leader by one. The Semuta card
show you any element of his battle plan tanks. Having no leaders, the Bene remains with the leader after the battle,
nor allow your allies the same privilege. Tleilaxu may not participate in Kanly unless the leader is killed. At the begin-
duels and Wars of Assassins nor may ning of each following game turn, that
Harkonnen. If Baron Harkonnen is dead: they threaten any player with Kanly. leader's fighting strength is further
• Only one of the four traitors picked at They do not get dueling cards. reduced by one until the turn reaches
the beginning of the game may be used. When using the Bene Tleilaxu variant, zero, in which case the leader is sent to
The Harkonnen player must record only the Fremen, Harkonnen, and the the tanks and the Semuta card is dis-
which traitor is the active one at the time Atreides players have to pay the Bene carded. Such a leader is revived normally
the Baron is killed. That active traitor Tleilaxu to bring their Main Character and at full strength. Leaders who have a
must be a revealed one if any have been Leader back from the tanks. The other fac- Semuta card on them lead battle and duel
revealed. The others are inactive. tions pay their spice to the spice bank to at their reduced strength. When the
• You may not pick up the extra treachery bring their Main Character Leaders back drugged leader is killed, the winner of
card when you buy one. from the tanks. the battle collects only the amount of
• You may not randomly select one leader spice equal to their current reduced
from a loser of a battle for any purpose. HARVEST FOR NINE strength at the time of death.
The following rules apply THE SPICE Semuta is a powerful narcotic derived
Guild. If Edric is dead: HARVEST expansion rules to the Ixians, from the Ellaca Drug. One dose causes per-
• You must take your move when it occurs the Lansraad and the Bene Tleilaxu. manent addiction. The drug causes the
in sequence. Ixians. If the Ixians are the Manager, all addict to slowly lose his or her abilities as
• Your allies must pay one spice for each Harvest card values that the Ixians draw the addict spends more and more time in
token shipped to a stronghold and two are increased by 50 per cent (fractions drug-induced euphoria. Addicts do not die
for shipment to a non-stronghold. rounded down). For the record, the home from the drug itself but from deprivation of
• All spice paid for shipment of tokens of planet for the Ixians is the planet Komos, food, sleep and other necessities that the
better known as Ix. addict denies himself.
your allies are paid to the spice bank.
Lansraad. If a Dune Manager is Stone Burner-used as a special
Emperor. If Emperor Shaddam IV is dead:
relieved of his duties, the Lansraad may weapon. This weapon, played normally in
• All spice paid for treachery cards goes to
block the appointment of the new Man- battle, automatically kills an opponent's
the spice bank. ager. In this case, then it is the second leader and all of his tokens in the territory,
• Sardaukar counters on the board are player to the right of the old Manager plus the friendly leader. Both players may
treated as regular troops. Sardaukar in who becomes the new Manager. The use shields to protect their leaders against a
reserve are placed in the tanks. Lansraad may not block the automatic stone burner, but all of the opponent's
Bene Gesserit. If Reverend Mother appointment of the Fremen to the Dune tokens are still removed to the tanks. A
Mohiam is dead: Manager position brought on by the player who uses a stone burner in battle
• Your faction loses the power to coexist appearance of a Worm in the Harvest still loses the number of tokens he dials for
with other factions in the same territory. Deck. For the record, the Lansraad has the battle. If a lasegun/shield explosion
 21
occurs in the same battle, the lasegun/ was so blinded, but used prescience and ing the same battle round. The Kwisatz
shield explosion takes precedence, the eyes of his children to function. Haderach counter may not be used in a
destroying all leaders, tokens and spice in Kanly Duel. Exception: The Main Charac-
the territory. Optional rule: Unless a CLARIFICATIONS ter Leader and the Kwisatz Haderach
Karama card has been used in the same All but the Ixians, Guild and Tleilaxu counter could be used in multiple battles in
battle to prevent Atreides prescience, Paul are assigned dots. These three take perma- the same territory during a battle round, but
Muad'Dib is not affected by the blast of nent seats at the table to fix the treachery only one or the other could be used in a
the stone burner. card bidding order. The Guild fights in the particular battle.
A stone burner is a small nuclear same order in which it moved. The Guild In the situation in which both the Bene
device which is used to bore through can not move before the Ixians, who Tleilaxu and another player declare the
solid rock. While not a very powerful always move and fight first. same leader a traitor at the same moment,
explosive device, it emits a particular When the Atreides are in the game, the the Bene Tleilaxu claim takes precedence.
radiation over a wide radius, which per- Atreides player may either use the Kwisatz Leaders can not be declared as traitors
manently blinds any unshielded person, Haderach counter or the Main Character when they are in a Kanly Duel or a War of
thus neutralizing any force in the vicin- Leader disc once during the battle round of Assassins as fighters or supporters.
ity of the blast. In Dune Messiah, Paul each game tum. He may not use both dur-
*
CONTRACTING THE EXPANSION
By Stuart K. Tucker

Sometimes it is hard to find the time or card deck and deal an equal number of cards Guild player using a Karama card to stop one
opponents to play the full-fledged game of to each player (but no more than five cards shipment. Early stronghold access, no matter
DUNE, with all of its expansions and vari- with six or fewer players and no more than how risky, should not be undervalued.
ants. Even with the time, differences in player four cards with seven or more players). The
knowledge may lead to unsatisfactory imbal- Bene Tleilaxu receives none. The Emperor INFLUENCE RESTRICTIONS
ances. Yet, you'd like to use more than just then draws one extra card. The Atreides The Lansraad powers, as published, upset
the Treachery cards from the expansion. Here player then may pick a random card from any the delicate balance of the game. The follow-
are a few suggestions to make more palatable other player, giving that player a chosen card ing changes bring the powers into better bal-
the use of these extra goodies. ance.
from his own hand. The Harkonnen player
may decide to receive two extra cards, but in • Restrict the use of the Influence advantage
ACCESS VARIANT such that it can not be used to order the
that case must draw a card randomly from the
While THE SPICE HARVEST module sanle player to hold in place in two consec-
Harvest deck. If that card is a worm, he for-
adds an enjoyable dimension to DUNE, it utive turns.
feits and discards his Access cards, including
adds considerably to the playing time. You
the extra draws. The Fremen player then • Change the Influence advantage during a
can "spice up" your play of the game without
openly selects one of the discarded Access battle round (l.b.) to affect the Bene
adding much to the playing time by altering
cards and adds it to his hand. Tleilaxu alone, who thereby cannot spring
the use of Access cards in THE SPICE HAR-
Play then proceeds immediately to "IV. 4) their traps.
VEST to establish a variable setup. No longer
do you have to start each game in the same Trading" and continues as described in the The Lansraad does have Influence over
setup locations, nor do you have to take the rules of THE SPICE HARVEST. After all the Ixians.
time to play through five spice harvests to players have placed their tokens in strong- The Lansraad remains a potent player to
alter the setup. This variant has the advantage holds they have won (and negated tokens into be watched carefully in a game using alliance
of allowing players to initially jockey for their reserve), the Fremen may place additional rules. At least with this rule, he can't blud-
stronghold starting positions, while only tokens on False Walls West or South, as long geon one player out of the game, though the
adding a few minutes to basic game playing as he retains at least ten tokens in reserve. every-other-turn use of Influence against one
time. Players should beware taking all of their player can still be a mighty inducement to
Ignore rules IV through V.3 of THE Access points as Spice, as this may open the join the Lansraad in alliance.
SPICE HARVEST. Instead, shuffle the Access way to a first turn victory, especially by a
*

~~~~~ (jromp.16) bets (as well as play order tied to that dis- group's experience with it has been nothing
tribution). Finally, you have to play the less than repeated joy. We heartily recom-
Thus, our experience says to bet on the game over and over again to get an intuitive mend it even to the die-hard grognard. It'll
Ranger, Titan and Warlock to generate the feel for what card or cards need to be play out in a lunch hour, and it brings the
best chance of attaining victory. However, played at the appropriate times, especially wife and kids into the hobby.
take this advice with great caution. You to change the chances of a round ending.
must get the right cards and count the cards. TITAN: THE ARENA comes in a small
You have to watch the distribution of the package and has the right price. Our
*
 •
22
My toughest challenge as a GM using
Swiss has been to impress upon players the
need for a strict time limit. Hourly time
announcements may be of marginal use, but in
practice, you have no means of enforcing a
time limit unless the game is one that lends
itself to the use of a chess clock. Even then,
few GMs could provide one for all players.
One suggestion is to make the first round or
two longer than your "standard" round, on the
theory that the slowest players are the inexpe-
rienced ones who will only play a round or
two. I generally don't impose any time limit on
the semifinals and final. However, you cannot

SYliss Elimination afford to accommodate the slowest players at

everyone else's expense.
Choosing Sides. Next up is the question of
Alan Applebaum is a well-known hobby loses a game still has a chance to qualify for the how sides are chosen. Generally, there will be
name. His writings have graced the pages of semifinal. Otherwise, the event suffers from one a consensus among experienced players of
The GENERAL and other hobby publications of the major defects of Single Elim-namely, any wargame that one side or the other is
numerous times. He is a top competitor, and a that players who lose in the first round have no favored using the standard victory conditions.
regular GM. Alan and I have been friends and chance to win the event. Unfortunately, the only Don't try to assign sides. If you are lucky,
rivals since AvalonCon '91. Alan has been my way to guarantee that every player with only a your top players may get to play each side
sharpest critic, yet his input remains more than single loss will qualify is to play an unacceptable approximately the same number of times.
welcome.-Glenn EL Petroski number of rounds. The best compromise is to However, generally one or two players will
A gamemaster (GM) for a face-to-face tour- ensure that most of the one-loss players will get the favored side for most, if not all, of
nament faces a number of challenges in planning qualify. I recommend the same number of their games. The GM can ensure that each
the event. Swiss rounds as you would need for a single player gets the side he wants through a simple,
• Each player should get a chance to play at least elimination tournament-that is, four rounds elegant mechanism: the auction. This "free
a few games, for 9-16 players, five rounds for 17-32 players market" approach is preferable to attempting
• the format should reward skill as much as pos- and six rounds for 33-64 players. For the elim- to adjust the victory conditions yourself to
sible, ination round qualifiers, the tournament will be create game balance.
• the tournament must fit into a predictable time one or two additional rounds, which can be Almost all modern wargames have some
slot, scheduled at the players' convenience. For kind of point system for determining victory.
• odd numbers of players must be handled, example, assuming no tied games and no drop- The players "bid" points if both want the same
• players leaving and showing up unexpectedly outs, if you have 32 players, after five Swiss side. Without such a point system, the players
must be handled, rounds, one person will be undefeated, five will can "bid" forces instead, within reason. This
• the final standings should be definite (avoid be 4-1, ten will be 3-2, ten will be 2-3, five will can be done incrementally, or through a single
ties in final rankings), and be 1-4, and one will be 0-5. Yom four semifi- "blind" bid. With the incremental system, the
• players should neither be rushed nor forced to nalists for the elimination rounds include the option passes back and forth. In a blind bid,
wait many hours for a game. undefeated player, plus three of the five players each player writes down a single bid. The
No format will solve all these problems. At who are 4-1. Therefore, you will need a tie- blind bid can give one player a huge and
AvalonCon, I have run five two-player tourna- breaking mechanism. unnecessary windfall. Either way, you should
ments: WAR AT SEA four times and BREAK- With enough Swiss rounds, you have created record the bids for each game, so that each
OUT: NORMANDY once. The format I will a tournament in which any player losing an early player can see what his opponent did earlier in
describe below is a result of the lessons learned round will have a better-than-even chance to win the tournament.
in those five tournaments. It is far from perfect, the tournament, if he wins the rest of his games. Pairings. Everyone plays someone with an
but I think it is about as close as you can come That should be enough incentive to keep most identical win-loss record, if possible. You start
given the limited time available for a face-to- people playing until they have two losses if they by pairing the undefeated players. If you have an
face tournament. are at all serious about the game. If you have to odd number of undefeated players, one of them
Swiss elimination (Swiss Elim) is a combi- advance someone with two losses to the elimi- is paired against a player with one loss. If you
nation of the Swiss system and single elimina- nation rounds, that's fine too-he will be a have an odd number of one-loss players remain-
tion. A Swiss system is a tournament in which deserving champion if he beats the competition ing, you pair the last one with a player with two
all the players playa fixed number of rounds. in those rounds. losses, and so on.
Each round, each player is matched against a Length of Round. Probably the toughest part With regard to matching people with identi-
player who has the same win-loss record. At the of running a Swiss system is that, with a few cal records, the traditional, hard-boiled approach
end of the fixed number of rounds, the player exceptions, no one can start a round until all the is to match the presumed best player against the
with the best win-loss record is the winner. In games in the previous round are done, because, presumed worst player. The advantage of this
some Bridge and Chess tournaments, each unlike in single elimination, the pairings for system is that it preserves the key matches
player is required to play all the rounds, but in a each round cannot be done without the results of between the best players until the end of the
wargame tournament this is neither practical nor all of the games of the last round. In order for the Swiss segment, so that they don't knock each
necessary. system to work, you must either allow enough other out of contention early, allowing an
Swiss Elim begins as a Swiss System, but time for even the slowest players to finish, or be unknown player with a weak schedule to sneak
after the Swiss rounds are completed, the top willing to adjudicate games. If you are running through to the elimination rounds. I freely
four players (or eight, for a very large event) play three games per day, you must limit the rounds acknowledge that some may regard this as a dis-
single elimination rounds to determine the win- to five hours each. If your game does not lend advantage, not an advantage. The major disad-
ner. Swiss Elim seems to combine the best fea- itself to adjudication, you are going to have a vantage is that the early matches will be mostly
tures-and avoid the worst--of both Swiss and difficult time. Be sure to have a committee of one-sided affairs that discomage the newer or
single elimination. three (including yourself and two known expert marginally interested players.
Number of Rounds. Ideally, you should players, if possible) to adjudicate games so you The reverse approach is to match best
schedule enough rounds so that a player who don't have to bear the entire responsibility. against second-best, third against fourth, etc.
 23
This may annoy some of the top players who ner advances. If you have twice as many tied should reward the player with the best Swiss
may feel either that they shouldn't be handi- players as positions (for example, four players record by pairing him against the player with the
capped with a tougher schedule, or that the tied and two positions available) or two players worst Swiss record of the four, or let the top
elimination rounds will be anticlimactic who haven't played each other, the best answer qualifier choose his opponent from among the
because all the key games will have been is to add a playoff round for the tied players other three.
played early. Most weaker players will appre- before the semi-finals and finals. Well, that is how it is done. All of my tour-
ciate a few games at their own level, however, However, often you won't have time for that, naments have run fairly smoothly, everyone gets
and some top players may even be glad to or you will have three players tied for one or two to playas many rounds as they want, anyone can
know early in the tournament whether they are qualifying positions. If your game has "points" quit whenever he wants, no one gets assigned a
going to do well so that they have the option to you can break ties by giving out Victory Points side he doesn't want, and skill is rewarded to the
play something else. Reasonable people can (VP) for each game. For example, in my WAR greatest extent possible.
differ, but I think a tournament is more exciting AT SEA tournaments I required a player to win -Alan Applebaum
for players and spectators alike if the top play- by 2 Points of Control (POC), after adjusting for
Thank you, Alan.
ers face each other at the end. The whole issue the bid, to get the maximum 10 VPs for touma-
is much less significant for Swiss Elim than for ment ranking. A win by 1 POC gained 8 VPs At your service,
straight Swiss, because, in a Swiss Elim, the while a tie gained 5 VPs. WAR AT SEA was not Glenn E. L. Petroski
semifinals and finals will be climactic anyway. too well suited to this form of tie-breaker 6829 23rd Avenue
For a game with a short history (or suspect because a win by exactly I POC was such a rare Kenosha, Wisconsin 53143-1233
player ratings) a random draw is as good as any- event that ties among contenders were rarely Home phone: 414-654-5044
thing. However, if you are going to take player broken. Other games like BREAKOUT: NOR- Em: [email protected]
strength into account to make the pairings, you MANDY, with a VP scale that only goes in one
need to rate the players. Now that game-specific direction, also have some trouble with this LADDERS REPORTING IN:
AREA ratings exist, they are a reasonable method-you can measure by how much some-
method of rating players as long as they cover at one "beat the bid," but this may work asymmet- ADVANCED THIRD REICH: Michael
least ten or so games. Personally, I prefer to use rically to favor one side or the other. The more Reffue wants to know if there is sufficient inter-
past tournament performance, primarily because points in the game, the better the system works est for an email competition. Contact him at
AREA ratings have a heavy PBM component or because players with equal win-loss records are 6800 NW 39 Ave. #392, Coconut Creek, FL
may reflect someone preying repeatedly on a more likely to have differing VP scores. 33073 or 954-570-7755 or [email protected].
small number of weak opponents. A third Another method is "Swiss Points," whereby
method, possibly the most controversial, is to players with tougher schedules will rank ahead AGE OF RENAISSANCE: This is Jared
ask the top tier of players to rank the top half of of others with identical win-loss records but Scarborough's game. He really wants to put
the field by secret ballot (each player excluding weaker schedules. Rank would be determined together a pbm competition in this one. Who is
himself, of course). I would say this is the most by the total win-loss record (or just win record), interested? Jared Scarborough, 1 Scarborough
accurate method for a game with a long history, of either all their opponents, or just their victims. Road, Payson, IL 62360-9743.
but takes extra time. Some GMs, instead of This method should be used only as a last
using the pre-tournament ranking, match players resort, because the strength of competition is EMPIRES IN ARMS: Experienced GM
within by Swiss Points accumulated at that point not in a player's control. Also, a player's skill is searching for players to begin a new game.
in the event (described below), but this too is a being measured over too short a period of time. Lance Jones, 3095 Robbiedon, Memphis, TN
time-consuming exercise. In any case, any Victory Point or Swiss Point 38128 or 901-372-7890 after 6pm CDT.
Odd Number of Players. I believe that if a tie-breakers should not allow a player with a
bye is needed, the lowest-ranking player in the worse win-loss record to finish ahead of a GANGSTERS: John Pack is looking for
lowest score-group should get it. I believe fair- player with a better win-loss record. some "Untouchables." Believes that he can run
ness requires that a bye be treated as a win; play- Nuts and Bolts. Plan to arrive at the game site a competition either pbm or email. Bring your
ers should not be penalized through no fault of early, especially if using player rankings to long-range squirt guns! Contact John at 1216 E.
their own. Giving the free win to the lowest- establish matches. When players begin to arrive, Tamara St., Sandy, UT 84094-4039 or 801-523-
ranked player is less likely to affect the stand- hand them an entry slip, which should ask the 0571 or [email protected].
ings of the top finishers. A better solution is to players for their name and address (you should
have a volunteer available to even out the field already possess their ranking). Write the player THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN: BJ Bjorum
(if that is you, be sure to have assistant GMs ratings on the slips and sort the entry slips in hands over the pbm ladder to Larry Earhart,
handle situations involving you). order of player rating. Each player gets a num- 1111 Bagby, Suite 2020, Houston, TX 77002
A related problem is that, at wargame tour- ber indicating his relative rank (the top-ranked or 281-261-9504. Most of you know that BJ
naments, people tend to come and go without player is Player 1, the second-ranked player is has struggled with a myriad of personal
warning. You must make it clear to your play- Player 2, etc.) After all the players with ranking tragedies over the past two years. We all salute
ers that if they are not present within a few have been entered, assign succeeding player him and pray that his situations will abate in
minutes of the announced starting time for a numbers to unrated players at random. Then the near future.
round, they will be presumed to have dropped write the names on your master chart in player
out. Similarly, if someone walks on after the number order. Unlimited CIVILIZATION: William Lentz
first round, or skips a round and returns later, As each game result comes in, transfer the has taken over organization from Jared Scarbor-
win-loss or VP results to your master chart. Fif- ough. Still searching for enough interested par-
he should play only if there is an odd number
ties to put together a few pbm games. William
of players without him. teen or twenty minutes before the end of the
D. Lentz, 104 Pulley Road, Havelock, NC
Breaking Ties. Personally, I am content to round, circulate among your players and adjudi-
28532-2526 or 919-447-8246.
be tied for fifth, sixth, seventh and the like, cate any games still in progress. Ideally, at least
without worrying too much about it (and the five minutes before the start of the next round,
VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC: John Pack has
AvalonCon prize structure treats fifth through you should have all the results. At the pre-
an e-mail competition up and running! Contact
eighth alike, so within the same prize level the announced time for the next round, you call the
John at 1216 E. Tamara St., Sandy, UT 84094-
GM may just decide not to break ties). How- roll of all players who gave you a result in the
4039 or 801-523-0571 or [email protected].
ever, ties for the last qualifying position for the last round.
elimination rounds are a serious problem. If Once all the Swiss rounds have been com-
you have just two players who are tied for the pleted, the top four players play Single Elim. If
last qualifying position who have played each exactly two of the four have played each other,
split them up for the semifinal. Otherwise, you
other already, its easy-the head-to-head win-
*
24
probably be sick of the
It Doesll't Get AllY Better game I played repeat-
edly. Of course, I am a

Iball IbiS...Ulltil Next Year glutton for plaques and

would continue playing
any game which met
The AvalonCon '97 Report with victory. However, I
can remember many a
By Stuart K. Tucker previous convention where
o I wondered if I really wanted to play HISTORY
ell .. a plaque or two would be nice, o
W too.
I always approach a convention with a
certain amount of foreboding. I have had such
','';''·,0
,-''''\'\
o OF THE WORLD three times in 24 hours.
Pulling out the pre-registration form and
scratch pad, I jotted down the starting times of
first-round heats for every short and sweet event
great experiences in the past, that I try to be real- I might care to enter, should a time slot be avail-
istic and expect a few things to go wrong. The able. I committed to my team members to play
typical convention has dealers' rooms (maybe MARCH MADNESS (on the theory that a two-
nothing of interest will be for sale this year). It player game would give a better chance of scor-
has auctions (maybe the prices will be outra- ing points for the team than a multi-player diplo-
geous or the whole collecting thing will be matic game in which name identification could
falling on its face). It has boardgame tourna- be my undoing) and consequently planned to
ments (maybe my favorites won't be offered- enter two of its heats. With four heats from
or worse, the convention will be overrun by non- which to choose, that really didn't limit my
boardgamers, and no games will be offered). other game options much at all. (I am happy to
Yes, the typical convention offers so many report that the multiple heat format is likely to
things that quality control is a real issue. For the playa larger role in future AvalonCons.)
dabbler, it usually works out fine in the end. I then highlighted those events that con-
AvalonCon is not the typical convention. flicted least with others and seemed to be rea-
Opening up the pre-registration form, you will sonably high priorities. Thursday morning
not find mention of dealers and auctions. You other conventions, I typically pre-register events turned out to be in the most conflict (few
won't even find some of your favorite games months in advance, and, by the time of the con, having alternative heats to attend), but I was
(we forgive those who don't buy exclusively I am often not in the mood for the particular already in a quandary for that time slot (DUNE
from Avalon Hill). You won't be wondering event for which I purchased a ticket. At least at vs. HANNIBAL). I tossed overboard any hope of
which hotel is closest to the convention center, AvalonCon I can change my mind, rush to a playing CANDIDATE, MAHARAJA and KiNG-
arena or other featured hotel which at a typIcal room by an event stmt time, and still get to play. MAKER and searched for alternative time slots
convention harbor the three-ring circuses that I find this aspect of AvalonCon very appealing. for the other games. That put TYRANNO EX in
big conventions have become. You will be So why worry? I am still kicking myself for direct conflict with one heat to AGE OF
pleasantly surprised by the modest room cost not volunteering to be a GM. By being greedy RENAISSANCE and the other heats were a no
and the centralized location of all events within and wanting to play in events more than running go, too. I wanted the rubber match with Bruce
a single hotel. them, I unwittingly allowed the most egregious of Reiff in FOOTBALL STRATEGY and had to
Most astounding of all, however, is the num- errors to happen: my top two priority events were teach the new rules of STOCK MARKET GURU
ber of board game events at AvalonCon---each offered at the same time. Now, mind you, I try to (limiting the choice of heats, yet again, and
with no limitations on the number of entrants play in a dozen or so events at AvalonCon. Miss- removing the chance to play REPUBLIC OF
and no ticket price. Over 100 different events are ing one is not exactly the end of the world. ROME). Given the late-night schedule of sports
offered over a five day period. Astoundingly Nonetheless, I refused to decide between DUNE games, I was going to have a tough time fitting
enough, they are all run by volunteer game mas- and HANNIBAL: ROME VS. CARTHAGE until TITAN: THE ARENA in the schedule if I didn't
ters (GMs) who show up and stick with their the last minute (still hoping an alternate reality give it priority, so I locked myself into its Thurs-
events. Did I mention that there is no event would kick into gear). The choice was so diffi- day night heat, leaving time to hit the PRO
price? One registration price covers all. That cult, I nearly decided to "punt" and play GOLF circuit at llpm. Six games in two days,
means convention-goers can rush around and EMPIRES IN ARMS for five days straight and I was just rolling up my sleeves. Let's see,
enter as many events as they can, without worry instead (something that I've always wanted to what happens if I win anything in those days?
about price or being bumped out of the tourna- do). I nixed that idea due to tl1e job. I am the Fortunately, the finals for each seemed to be at
ment by entry limits. All you have to do is show standby GM in case disaster or delinquency manageable times later in the weekend (usually
up on time. befalls an official GM-a remarkably under- Sunday morning).
From past experience, I knew that attending worked role at this convention. In fact, for two Friday was the big day for two heats of
AvalonCon'97 would also mean playing in well- years running, no event has gone without an MARCH MADNESS and anything else that fit
attended events-none of this "ghost event" official GM and only once have I had to depart in between or after (maybe some AIR BARON,
stuff you sometimes see at other conventions. a game (a pickup one at that) midstream to go maybe CIRCUS MAXIM US, possibly
My favorite game events usually gather 25-70 fill in (and that was simply to teach beginners DECATHLON). Then, I received the call. A
participants, ensuring a pleasurable time playing during the hour before the event). good old friend wants to swing by to see me
games. The GMs show. The players show. The Yes, I could count on lots of playing time. and an out-of-town friend at one spot, so din-
space is well managed to ensure reasonable The question was what not to play. The choices ner it was. Dinner? Who eats a sit-down dinner
room and tables for each event. AvalonCon were so delectable. In the end, I made the strate- at AvalonCon? I haven't in four years straight.
emphasizes the game-playing environment of gic choice to enter many short events and to Hah! This can be pushed into the more appro-
your dreams. Here, you get a high concentration emphasize the kinds of games that my gaming priate "midnight snack" dash to the local
of people who want to play the same games as group at home doesn't play (sports, for IHOP. So, I lose a little sleep-I doubt I'll
you. That's entertainment. instance). Truth be told, I planned my conven- notice amidst the rest of the planned sleep
Still, I approached AvalonCon'97 with a lit- tion around losing. In this manner, I wouldn't go deprivation. Have I mentioned that I usually
tle apprehension. Having not chosen a central through the heartache of playing well for half a corral some friends after the formal events for
focus in advance, I was still in a quandary as to tournament, but losing long before getting "into a little pickup play around midnight? That
which of the many events I should attend. In a the money." If I were to win a multi-round tour- reminds me. Always, always bring a reliable
way, this is an advantage of AvalonCon. For nament, I'd end up playing far fewer games and alarm to AvalonCon.
 _ .. _-------------------------------

25
Saturday's schedule would probably accom- Unusual moves saw Paris reach the Mediterranean five people playing quick hands of the game
modate WE THE PEOPLE, PAY DIRT, WIN, through Belgrade and London fail to advance beyond between tournaments. In the end, the formal
PLACE & SHOW and SLAPSHOT. If all went as a Galley 6 until the game's final turn. At the approxi- tournament of TITAN: THE ARENA was the
planned (that is, defeat in everything), then Sun- mate halfway point, Venice had occupied the Black convention's largest (126 entrants), but that
Sea along with Hamburg, while Genoa and Hamburg
day was open for GUERILLA (got trounced in was less than half of the games of it being
shared the E. Med.
that last year) or, better yet, DINOSAURS OF By turn 6, London had the most advances, but lost played. I get ahead of myself.
THE LOST WORLD (playing with my six-year- a War and was hit with Civil War. Genoa found his The morning brought the moment of truth.
old daughter had given me a greater appreciation hand full of leaders with little money available and so With much anguish, I decided to try to back up
for the game system for adult play). Somewhere heaved them all overboard, leaving each unprotected my pro-Carthaginian boasting and entered HAN-
amidst all this, I'd hold a meeting with some from Patronage (Note: Genoa's Misery ended up NIBAL. Play of the greatest multi-player politi-
playtesters and make myself available for break- being 1000-holding the cards would have meant cal/military game of all time (DUNE) would
fast meetings as necessary. Sleep, you ask? The Chaos). This allowed George Sauer's Paris to turn his have to await some other time. Besides, I had to
marginal lead into a decisive win with 1761 Victory challenge one of my new roommates to see if
plan called for about five-and-a-half hours a
Points. Defending champion Mike May
night. Very doable, although my WE THE came in second with 1508. Bret Min-
PEOPLE game would probably suffer signifi- go's London was third with I J91, fol-
cantly, coming so late in the convention. lowed by Stephen Koehler's Venice at
All in all, I turned in a registration sheet to 925, Nick Anner's Barcelona at 911 and
Don for about 15 games. At that, I had great Phil Mason's Genoa at 346.
regrets about a number of events which didn't
fit. No doubt, I'd be lucky if 80 per cent of the FOOTBALL STRA TEGY (32)
Okay, nobody used the Flair Pass to
plan came off as scheduled.
nail defending champion Bruce Reiff in
this year's tournament. However, Bruce
WEDNESDAY did accept Stuart Tucker's first-round
While my experience with AGE OF challenge and they sat down for their
RENAISSANCE at Origins the previous month third meeting of their FBS careers (the
made me wonder jf I wanted to play with any- grudge match). Bruce ate up the clock
body less experienced at the game, I kept to with his vaunted ball-control offense,
schedule and hit it as well as FOOTBALL but it was Tucker's aerial offense and
his repeated use of bombs on 2nd or 3rd
STRATEGY. and short that prevailed by providing
the field position necessary to kick four
field goals and march to an 18-3 vic-
tory. Tucker's euphoria carried him to a
nine-point lead against fellow Balti-
more League member, Bill Cleary, only
to have an unbelievable blocked punt and a crucial either of us could get the HANNIBAL plaque (he
third down call allow Cleary to pull out a 23-22 almost won it last year). Of all the tournaments,
squeaker. Cleary managed to blow away his other this was the one I most wanted to win. I have
competition to go to the semi-final against another never yet tired of playing the game repeatedly,
Baltimore Leaguer, Paul O'Neil (who had also scored
because each time it has a different flavor, due to
easy victories). O'Niel scored an impressive 37-21
victory to earn the bid to the final. the strategy deck. Karsten and I split up and
In the other heat, Dave Terry survived close games headed to different ends of the huge pack of
including a 10-9 victory over Jim Vroom to get to the players registering with the GM standing on the
semi-final. George Holland snuck past Don Green- chair (if at all possible, we wanted to meet each
wood 21-17 in the first round and then rolled up other in the final). If necessary, I'd work out a
impressive victories on the way to the semi-final deal with the GM to fulfill my demonstration
where he crushed Terry. Holland couldn't put together obligations for STOCK MARKET GURU.
yet one more 33-point performance, succumbing to
O'Niel 20-17 in the championship game. This makes HANNIBAL (52)
two years in a row that a Holland has lost in the final. This year's expanded tournament length allowed
full games to be played in each round. As a result,
most of the bidding was for control of the favored
After a meeting with playtesters of a sports Romans. Nonetheless, Hannibal and his cousins won
finance game at eleven, followed by a relatively plenty of the games. A number of first-round
early bedtime, my day was complete: 1-2 for the Carthaginian winners had bid for control of Hanni-
day, and no advances to finals to schedule. bal, a practice they stopped when they saw opponents
giving them PCs for playing Rome against them.
Using published rules errata, the death of Hannibal
AGE OF RENAISSANCE 006 entrants) THURSDAY did not bring games to an abrupt end. Many Roman
A total of 24 tables of six players each saw the ris- Okay, I snored a bit and my roommate is a players thus faced the task of surviving against very
ing tide of western civilization triumph during the light sleeper. No big deal. I know a fair number daring and desperate attacks by Hasdrubal and his
tournament's initial three heats. A semi-final round of garners at this convention, so without much many successors. Despite some creative tactics by
then narrowed the field from 36 (including 16 second- ado, I arranged a few bed swaps to ease my Carthaginian players, the early death of Hannibal
place finishers) to six finalists. roommate's plight for the rest of the conven- usually led to slow, but definite defeat.
In the final, opening bids were clustered in the tion, while tying up with a room of people who The championship game between James Doughan
two-to-three range with a single zero. Mike May, the keep the same hours as I-we all turned on the and Martin Sampler came down to a close province
defending champion, quickly concluded deals with count at the start of turn 9, with Hannibal well-
afterburners at midnight and logged hours at a
Paris, played by George Sauer, and London's Brent entrenched in Gallia Cisalpina facing Scipio Africanus
few non-Avalon Hill games in the hallways.
Mingo. Meanwhile, the Italian powers failed to reach and the endless reserves of Roman troops (in fact,
agreement on who would take Crete. Genoa bounded We also joined the TITAN: THE ARENA craze.
except for a minor aberration in Etruria, PCs on the
into an early lead, soon to be pounded mercilessly. It Every convention has its "newest thing," but board looked much like they do on turn 2 of a typical
was then London's turn to be hammered, following a this one truly bowled over participants. The game). Rome could expect to easily reclaim Etruria.
successful reach around the Iberian coast to North first set off the presses arrived on Thursday and Carthage had to worry about a major move into Spain.
Africa, coupled with a wool payoff. The Black Death were sold out long before Saturday morning. Alas, the Roman player was dealt a hand of strategy
soon descended on merry England. Every hallway was occupied by sets of four and cards without naval movement ability. Deciding
26
prize winner. The players were so engrossed in the surprise. She emerged victorious from the talent-rich
game that on more than one occasion the players for- first heat with the first bid to the final four champi-
got to wield the power of the creature they backed or onship round. Michael Metcalf won the second heat
forgot to draw after playing (right Ken?). Congratula- and Bruno Passacantando won the third (foreclosing
tions to the victor, Peter Staab, for his narrow win. both efforts by defending champion Joe Diminnie to
enter the final four). The competition for the final spot
PRO GOLF (65) brought together four new hopefuls and twelve losers
Occupying the usual raucous Friday night, over: from previous heats (hoping to get lucky from low
stuffed Salon F slot, this tournament gathered another draft slots). Editor Stuart Tucker's promising second
strong crowd of dice magicians. To make it to the final effort fell upon the rocks when his opponent's fmal
foursome, contestants played a round at Pebble Beach timeout against his Duke 1990 team engineered a 16-
and a round at Augusta. Nothing worse than a score of point swing to win the game. One-time champ Bruce
"-7" earned entry into the final. Reiff's second effort was more fruitful, gaining him
The final featured one round of the skins game the final spot. In the semi-final game, Carrie Lewis'
(hole winner taking the points of accumulated unwon cinderella team finally fell. Bruce Reiff defeated
holes)-with enormous, green, foam dice. Bruce Reiff Bruno Passacantando for his second MARCH MAD-
birdied the first hole for the lead. Then nobody could NESS championship.
win the next seven holes. With eight points and near
certain victory up for grabs on the ninth hole, Reiff Meeting with enough success in the morning
eagled. However, Mike Metcalf also eagled to deny heat to miss an AIR BARON heat, I sat around in
the points. With ten points on the line at the eleventh
Salon F playing TITAN: THE ARENA with all
hole, Reiff again eagled, but Metcalf came through
with his own eagle. Meanwhile, Ken Guttermuth and the other sports game also-rans, awaiting the
Dave Metzger, who spent a number of these crucial mid-afternoon heat. Then, a worried Don Green-
holes in sand and water, saw victory in their grasp. At wood snagged me for a duty-time to go teach
the thirteenth hole, Metzger's birdie was enough to the kids how to play PRINCESS RYAN'S STAR
claim the accumulated twelve points and victory. Gut- MARINES. A growing mob was gathering
termuth finished out the round claiming a handful of before the Junior's event starting time. Arriving
holes, thus pushing the spectacular-shot-hitting Reiff just moments before the game's designer, we
against a long trek to Spain along the coast, Sampler and Metcalf into third and fourth. dove into the most promotion-hungry pack of
did the only option remaining: repeated assaults
against Hannibal in which both players received about marines you could imagine. Kid's game? Huh.
I managed initially to win in HANNIBAL, but
the same number of cards (around 16). Battle after bat- These boys and girls would eat some playtesters
success did not last long. Early in my second-
tle resulted in no weaknesses in Hannibal's tactical alive. Some people think that the Junior's events
round game, my Hannibal lost unexpectedly in a
plans, leaving Doughan in control of Gallia and eight are an exalted form of babysitting. No way.
provinces in Spain and Africa necessary to win by the battle with no place to retreat. I managed to
These entrants are garners to the core. I pitied
narrowest of margins. extend the game to the final turn (largely
the occasional frazzled mother that I saw shut-
through daring use of Hasdrubal and H. Gisgo),
tling to and from such dens of competition. One
STOCK MARKET GURU (18) but by the start of turn 9, the Carthaginians
was clearly doing double takes at her checkbook
This newly-released revised version of STOCKS & clearly had no chance to recover enough
BONDS caught a few players unprepared for the after seeing how excited her kids were about
provinces. I was only slightly relieved to hear of
expanded ways to win. Hall-of-famer and one-time the games.
a similar fate for my friend in his third-round
STOCKS & BONDS champion Ken Gutermuth was Conventions do have a habit of eliciting
game. At least, the Carthaginians won the cham-
seen shaking his head after losing in the first round; game expenditures. I always come prepared to
pionship game.
"Buying on margin is no longer the way to win this drop a few hundred bucks. Even at A valonCon,
game." Indeed, each preliminary game dealt with With the print run just beginning for TITAN:
where no other companies are represented, you
extremely different business cycles. Nathan Kilbert THE ARENA, our early heats were caught a bit
will find a few game sellers playing in the open
narrowly won his game with growth-oriented stocks, off-balance (not enough decks and not enough
gaming area (often they have an assortment of
despite the hyper-inflationary climate which was tables for the arriving entrants). We squeezed
used ganles, but some are pushing their latest
shelling out over 16 per cent earnings per year to into the room tighter than the survivors of the
bondholders (who shrewdly kept plowing interest design). In my case, I found a few rare issues of
Titanic and I bowed out of a game to become a
earnings back into bonds, even during bull markets). rules teacher. Tough luck-"I coulda been a
Strategy & Tactics to buy. In previous years, a
At another table, interest rates plummeted to low lev- contenda." handful of European games caught my attention.
els and stuck, preventing potential bondholders from Although I reserve my game collecting for the
What can be said about PRO GOLF? I went
earning money on bond price fluctuations as well as auctions at Origins or GenCon, I was not dis-
for the green. After missing the cut for the skins
interest. In this game, the stocks were more actively pleased by stumbling across these opportunities.
traded, and a number of players were nailed by busi- game by two shots, I trundled off to bed satisfied
ness failures along the way. Stryker Oil gamblers at yet again with my performance: 1-3 for the day,
AIR BARON (112)
every table found few opportunities for big profit, no finals. This second-year tournament drew another large
although the occasional partial position in Stryker crowd of entrants over the course of four heats. Game
helped a number of players with fortunate timing dur- FRIDAY
ing Stryker's unusual countercyclical ups. In the final, With no good news reported by my
Debbie Otto was the Wall Street guru who showed teammates (Boys on the Hill), the pres-
Kilbert, Danny Robinson and John Quarto how to use sure to do well was acute. I'd have to
stock tips. The game's designer was seen leaving with
devote myself to a second heat of
a smile after losing his first round game, but finishing
with nearly quadruple his starting cash. According to MARCH MADNESS if! didn't make the
SEC records, none of the players learned the hard way final four via the morning heat. It
the penalties of getting caught using insider informa- looked like I might not get out of Salon
tion for their trading. F that day.

TITAN: THE ARENA (126) MARCH MADNESS (47)

The first heat Wednesday drew approximately 20 The feminization of basketball fandom
people, many of which were unsure what this card continued at AvalonCon. Inspired by the
game entailed. By heat three and four, the participants recent printing in The GENERAL of the 1997
topped 50 in each heat, some coming back for a sec- women's final four (and perhaps a few tele-
ond time. It didn't seem to matter whether people won vised women's games), Carrie Lewis learned
or not. The prevailing factor was that everyone had the game from her husband and charged into
fun! In the end, a fierce game of five players ensued the tournament with a fully-steamed fast-
from the 25 final round players to determine the grand break that caught a number of veterans by
 •
28
winners in each heat advanced to the semi-final round. Tyson won by TKO. Later, Reiff was seen biting his dice stopped tumbling. The final also featured expert
Defending champion Jack Jaeger was denied victory plaque (outside the ring). art connoisseurs Bruce Reiff, Marilyn Koleszar and
in both heats he entered. This year saw a number of Ken Gutermuth. Despite his deceptive poker grin,
father/son rivalries surviving into the semi-final round. Having missed the afternoon heat of MARCH Monnin did not have the quick victory nearly dealt to
The 22 semi-finalists met on Sunday morning to play MADNESS, I decided to play a few pickup him this time, and then suffered when he lost needed
the final two rounds in quick succession. In a raucous games of TITAN: THE ARENA in the hallways items to the Collector. Reiff and Koleszar managed to
final round, James Garvey's persistence yielded vic- and then go out to dinner with a friend and fel- collect items whose matches were near the bottom of
tory. Not only did he gain his berth into the semi-final the deck, giving Hall-of-Famer Gutermuth a chance to
low game designer, thereby missing the TITLE do something about his kaleidoscopic initial deal-an
round in heat four, after three previous failures, but he
also adopted the conservative, JFK hub strategy in the BOUT and CIRCUS MAXIMUS tournaments opportunity he exploited well to claim his second
final, letting others battle over the tough-to-hold ATL that evening. I returned to find a midnight AUCTION plaque.
and DFW hubs. pickup game of Railway Rivals, where I man-
aged to blow race leads in the final two die rolls WIN, PLACE & SHOW (15)
PRINCESS RYAN'S STAR MARINES more times than I'll live down. Take a hint, A veteran group of race-fixers tried to outwit a few
More than 70 gamers played in the Adult and don't let me roll for you on any joint runs we newcomers to the tournament in this two-round affair.
Junior's tournaments. Like the Marine card deck, one- may ever share. Day's score: 4-4, no finals. The newcomers all managed to lose a few too many
third of which is made up of female Marines, girls bucks on Daily Double bets that had no chance among
accounted for about a third of the gamers in the the sharks at the tables. Nonetheless, several newcom-
Junior's tourney. About a dozen of the kids who
SATURDAY ers managed to come out of the first round with first or
played in the Junior's tournament were veterans (par-
Getting up was beginning to tax my room- second place (two players from each preliminary five-
ticipated in the AvalonCon'96 demo). First place went mates at this time, but the competitive juices player game advanced). Jim Bell pulled ahead at one
to Brad Garman, who led the Marines to victory in started flowing over breakfast. For team and table on the basis of sound betting on the favorites in
both rounds. Second place went to Adam Clark, while honor, I decided to skip the WE THE PEOPLE the first four races. Stuart Tucker managed a spectac-
Erica Kirchner was third, both of which led victorious tournament and enter the fourth and final ular comeback on the back of Mona Lisa in the sixth
Marines in one round and had played the Guards in MARCH MADNESS heat. If I had time, maybe race, falling a few dollars short of second (but gaining
another round. I'd make the final heat of AIR BARON that after- entry into the final due to the departure from the tour-
Several of the juniors came back on the second day noon. Being a former WIN, PLACE & SHOW nament of the second-place player). At another table,
to play in the regular tourney. The field of 38 players champion and having the dubious honor of hav-
was beaten by John Ellsworth. Christopher Bodkin
ing "The Stuart K. Tucker Memorial I Got
placed second, while Brian Kirchner, Stephen Shed-
don and Jeremy Billones rounded out the top five.
Pucked Award" renamed for me for SLAP-
Honorable mention goes to Christina Hancock as the SHOT, my evening plans seemed solid.
most enthusiastic marine, and to Verity Hitchings, as However, fate always throws you a twist.
the most bloodthirsty, yet surprisingly cheerful, Once again, I did well enough in MARCH MAD-
marine (her team of marines also suffered the highest NESS with the 1990 Duke team to be drained
casualties while defeating the Guard). In the true "It' s from the experience-but not well enough to
Better That Way" spirit, Deborah Osborne remained make the Final Four. I also missed the AIR
cheerful and helpful, despite playing in two games BARON start. Quick, what's up next that will
where the marines were slaughtered. finish before WPS. My colleagues informed me
that two short events beckoned: AUCTION and
TITLE BOUT (24)
Sluggers dominated the bouts this year, with few ORIGINS OF WW II. Alas, I said, I knew the
fights lasting the distance. One of the biggest sur- rules to neither-fostering a spontaneous out-
prises in the course of the event was Ken Good's break of game teaching combustion. In a matter
George Foreman scoring a first-round technical of minutes, I was primed to play AUCTION.
knockout over David Anderson's Joe Louis. How- Gleefully, I dashed off to the event.
ever, Foreman's "stamina" showed as he lost a first-
round TKO to Jeff Henckels' Sonny Liston. Henckel
WE THE PEOPLE (40)
went on to win his semi-final bout with former tour-
Forty-seven per cent of the games in the double-
nament champ Terry Coleman. Meanwhile, the other
elimination tournament resulted in an American win.
semi-final featured two former champs, Bruce Reiff
Thirty-seven per cent were British wins while fifteen
and Ken Gutermuth. Reiff's Mike Tyson scored a
per cent of games played were drawn. Slightly more
first-round TKO over Gutermuth's Rocky Marciano.
than half of the British wins were caused by the cap-
The final bet\veen Reiff's Tyson and Henckel's Lis-
ture of George Washington, although most of these AvalonCon veteran (but tournament newcomer) Jim
ton managed to run into the fourth round before
occurred during the first round. The average bid of Garvey, having been alerted to the race-fixing he could
PCs given to the British player in order to play the expect to see in the first two races and packing a copy
American side was 2.8, increasing as the contest of Tucker's Speed Figures, managed to stay in the
progressed to the later rounds. money and get into the final along with veteran John
Thomas Drueding, the 1996 HANNIBAL:
Coussis and Hall-of-Famers Ken Gutermuth and Bruce
ROME VS. CARTHAGE champion, prevailed as the
Reiff.
British over GM Jim Falling in the final round
The final quickly turned into a rout, when John
game which lasted through the 1782 War Ends
card. The other top players were Brian Mountford, Coussis hit it big in the first four races, piling up more
Peter Fecurka, Marvin Birnbaum, Chris Rice, Mike than a $100,000 lead. Meanwhile, wiley Reiff, Guter-
Lochtefeld and Nicholas Anner. Brian Mountford muth and Tucker gave new meaning to the phrase "the
made an impressive AvalonCon debut by taking jockey is maneuvering his horse," managing to find
third place with a 5-1-1 record in his first-ever tour- ways to foil the anticipated bets of each other. Jim Bell
nament. and Jim Garvey looked on in puzzlement, but stayed
clear of the horse banging, and held second and third
AUCTION (16) place going into the fifth race. With Coussis so clearly
Scheduled opposite the ACQUIRE tournament ahead, Reiff (the 1996 chan1p), Gutermuth and Tucker,
this year, attendance was halved. Tournament new- thinking alike, piled their last bucks on Cockroach (10-
comer Stuart Tucker proved that you don't need to 1) across the board. Tucker, after placing his bets, had
be too tired to memorize the cards to lose this but $500 remaining with which to own a horse in the
game-managing to make five successive miser- final race. Coussis, recognizing the desperate situation
able sales rolls (three rejected and two at 25 per cent of his opponents, knew that he had to try to bet in a
value) in his first round game. In the meantime, similar manner in order to keep them from catching up.
1996 champ, Bruce Monnin was able to wrap up a Not knowing whether to bet the favorite or the long-
first round victory at another table before Tucker's shot, he split his money on the two (not usually a win-
 29
Hunsinger's humorous reading of the decided in his favor. So goes war. Sean Cousins, 1996
rules, a birthday singing and the offi- champ, was eliminated in the first round at the hand of
cial unveiling of the newly-named Gordon Rodgers.
Stuart K. Tucker I Got Pucked
Awards. (Alas, Stuart having been DINOSAURS OF THE LOST WORLD (20)
"pucked" repeatedly throughout the Having been turned onto this excellent game by
convention at a wide variety of officemates, editor Stuart Tucker ventured onto the
games, was busily engaged in scor- dangerous plateau in the weary Sunday morning
ing his only points of the convention: hours. Little did he know that his young competition
drinking a glass of Port with an out- entered this game after years of tournament experience
of-town guest. Rumor has it that his and top-notch preparatory "home" work. Tucker's pre-
teammates are looking for a new liminary game proved that John Poniske, Jr. could
fourth after his abysmal failures at equal the feat of his father (who beat Tucker in WE
MARCH MADNESS this year.) Dan THE PEOPLE at AvalonCon'95). In this game,
Metzger won the plaque, surviving Poniske used a daunting stack of Dinosaurs to keep a
the final round game against Mike gun-shy front-runner from getting to her exit route.
Garton, Ray Stakenas, Bruno Wolff, Tucker racked up the points necessary to leave the
Verity Hitchings, Mark Bailey, Mike plateau for victory, but found that Poniske had
May and Dan Dolan, Jr. scooped up all the easily-found exit items. Poniske
ning proposition, but this time a good way to not lose adeptly kept the focus of attention away from his
much of his huge lead). After the roller-coaster games of WIN, come-from-behind point scoring and won, despite
In that fifth race, Cockroach is actually a better bet PLACE & SHOW, my "dinner date" friend Tucker's repeated efforts to blunder into events that
than appears on quick glance. If the racing pace is finally showed, and I lamentably missed the might find the final exit item (buried as the penulti-
slow, he can hit the turn on the inside lane and may start of the SLAPSHOT tournament. Feeling mate card in the deck). Poniske went on to win the
benefit from his low-probability bonus at the same plaque in the final against Robert Navolis, Devon Gin-
myself coming down with something, I turned in nard and Michael Dwyer. Maybe the adults can get
time. Furthermore, the three horses wi th apprentice
for what was to be a miserable night of sickness. into the finals against the Junior tournament graduates
jockeys can get tangled in the turn. Sure enough, the
owners' boxes were full of people chanting for "five,"
Day's score: 3-5, including one lost final. next year!
the 'Roach's bonus number, which obligingly came up
in three of the first four rolls, allowing the 'Roach to SUNDAY That left nothing but the door-prize drawing
crush the field. Suddenly the game was a game again, With no invitations to a fmal round, I was and the lamentations of the losers...
as the three lagging players cashed in betting tickets still determined to take one more shot at a Not quite. Despite my ailing stomach,
for $70-90,000 each. Coussis' hedging kept him sub- plaque. I decided to pass on GUERILLA (which another pickup game or two of TITAN: THE
stantially ahead, but the sixth race could now sink him. I've only played twice). I walked slowly off to ARENA beckoned that afternoon. It would be a
As the horses for the sixth race were being bought, DINOSAURS OF THE LOST WORLD, where tough drive home that evening, but little did
Tucker kept up the illusion with his chat that, of the no-longer-eligible-to-be-juniors opponents that weigh against the long, 359-day wait for
course, Mona Lisa was the only bet in town in the tolerated my occasional dashes to the bathroom.
sixth. Coussis, wanting to ensure a fair running of her,
AvalonCon'98. Ending with a combined
bid for ownership, but then let Tucker take her for record of 9-17, with no plaque to show for the
GUERILLA (36) effort, I achieved my convention objective of
SIO,OOO, thinking he'd jockey her well. Garvey and The would-be dictators vied for top honors in a
Coussis bet her across the board, but with conservative having a blast.
two-round tourney. This year saw a complete reversal
levels of cash. Gutermuth, too, fell for Tucker's ruse from the previous year's tournament. The dominance I certainly logged plenty of preparation time
and bet fully on Mona Lisa. Into the backstretch, all of the guerilla factions was evident, as they won all the for TITAN: THE ARENA. That is one tourna-
looked true-to-form, with Reiff and Gutermuth realiz- first round games. The second and final round was ment about which I need have no foreboding in
ing that they probably weren't going to win enough played with three chits each of the government and 1998. This time, I will arrive at the tourney with
more than Coussis to close the gap, but doing all they gueri lla factions. A mere four victory points in the a deck and teach my opponents through the
could to keep their horses from tangling. Meanwhile, final game decided first (Gordon Rodgers) and second school of hard knocks. Son'y friends, get outta
Tucker had gambled on another long shot, Hannibal place. If only John Sonderman had played one less my way-I'm overdue for another plaque.
(8-1), which isn't a great horse, but has the most prob-
able bonus number and a very fortunate moving order
that can get a lucky entrance into the final tum along
the rail to save ground. Going into the final turn,
atrocity on Nicholas, the results would have been
*
Tucker had Mona Lisa hug the rail, seemingly to save
ground and crush the field on the metch. However, it
was clearly a foolish gamble, which failed-as Tucker
had long planned-with Mona Lisa getting hung up
behind the pack and losing precious running speed.
Hannibal gained the necessary bonus number in the
stretch and, to the shock of the other players, won the
race. When the count was done, it turned out that
Tucker's maneuver had wrecked the chances of most,
but left him a few thousand short of second place. John
Coussis and Jim Garvey let out sighs of relief when
Mona Lisa still managed to finish in the money, to
earn them the necessary bucks to win the tournament
in first and second place, respectively. Through
maneuvers and extraordinary luck, this final trans-
formed from a boring rout into one of the most
exciting in years.
Winners and losers alike walked away with a
better understanding that in horse racing, you are
betting against other bettors more than you are betting
on a particular horse. Who says sports games don't
involve warfare?

SLAPSHOT (106)
The sleepy late-night Saturday crowd gathered for
another stab at being the largest tournament of the
year. The event was opened hilariously by Keith

.
 •
30
bugs. Chris' worst shots happened on the least
important part of the battlefield. Nuke hoped that
a scattered shot or the blast effects would get him
a plasma bug, but failed.
J.C.'s wave has been decimated. It is up to
the plasma bugs now. He has a few reserve bugs
to shield them, but he'll be hard pressed now as
the MI goes over to the attack, having success-
fully merged his two groups. The jams won't
hun Chris much now that the main wave of bugs
has been repelled. J.C.'s strategy now rests on
raining accurate plasma blasts on the wounded
while playing the game of "evade the bug
hunters." The W5 promontory is an excellent
ground for this, as it will take awhile for Chris to
cover it with effective fire. Nuke will need a
lucky shot. I still think I.C. blew the battle early
by not climbing the Rl plateau. Chris hasn't paid
the usual price for remaining so concentrated.
Now the only price he is paying is that he hasn't
covered the W5 promontory well.
TURN 4
Part of Black Squad takes up positions cov-
ering the bug hole. Carmen unjams her
weapon, but Ace fails. The hopper jumps to
attack Nuke from the cover of the ravine. Both
plasma bugs reach high ground from which
they threaten the wounded.
Johnny vs. hopper R1(4)= 2,6 (hit), s= 5 (kill).
Drop ship vs. green plasma R12(l)= 4,5,5
(miss).
Rasczak vs. eastern green warrior R3(l)=
1,1,1,2 (three hits, jams), s= 4,4,6 (kill).
Sugar vs. black plasma R7( 1)= 3,4,6 (miss).
Zim vs. green plasma R3(2)= 3,4,6 (miss).
Carmen vs. same R3(l)= 1,5,6 (hit), s= 5 (save).
Shujumi vs. same R5(l)= 4,5 (miss).
Dizzy vs. same R6(l)= 4,5,6 (miss).
zander vs. black warrior on hole R4(l)= 1,2,4
(hit), s= 5 (kill).
Nuke vs. green plasma R8= 8 (kill); Blast effect:
warrior s= 2 (save).
~~~~~(fromp.lO) can reduce trooper firepower here, my warriors Note: post-mortem analysis reveals that this shot
may be able to get to one of the wounded, which was illegal-LOS being blocked by the smoke
Nuke vs. western green warrior R7= 7 (kill); would take the burden off of my plasma bugs
Blast effect: Plasma s= 5 (save); Warrior s=1 of the retrieval boat. Of course, the outcome
(and leave Nuke a target). might not have been affected much, as Nuke
(save). After seeing fire effects like that, I have to
Drop ship vs. northern green warrior R7(2)= could target the black bug instead and have an
say that those troopers were a lot more experi- easy time in turn 5 running down the green
1,3,4 (hit), s= 1 (save). enced than my brain bug imagined! plasma bug. Nonetheless, a word to the wise,
TROOPER TURN 3 NEUTRAL COMMENTARY check on your opponent's LOS.
There is potential for casualties here, as Car- Chris wisely didn't move Shujumi in case Black plasma bug vs. Ace/wounded R7= 8 (kill).
men's carbine is jammed and she will most the bugs rushed Nuke again. Carmen failed to
likely be surrounded by bugs. I still don't think I unjam her weapon. She still had the positive TROOPER TURN 4
should move Green Squad, preferring to gain the role of standing over the wounded body to It is time for Black Squad to earn its pay.
fire bonus. If I can hold out another turn, the keep it from being squished by the onrushing Nuke moves to cover both the remaining bug
bugs will be spent. Hurry up, Johnny! bugs, but she was likely to receive the brunt of hole and the plasma bugs, leaving Zander and
I may not be abte to hit at long range, but I the attack. Oddly, Chris failed to have any Dizzy to cover him. Johnny heroically jumps
more than make up for it in close quarters. Five trooper take cover under the wings of the down into the ravine, poised to rush to the bug
warriors rush up and five warriors fall. Zander is retrieval boat. If the bugs break through, this hole if Nuke fails to close it. Green Squad is
the man, twice taking out bugs at long range. 1'm error could cost him later in the battle. recovering from the bug attack, and can hear the
sure J.e. is wondering when he will be able to J.e. indeed rushed Zim and Carmen's end of ponderous steps of an approaching plasma bug...
roll some melee attacks. The plasma bugs are the rescue zone. His move of the plasma bugs Zander riddles the bug guarding the bug hole,
moving closer, though, and I don't trust my luck finally made it clear that he planned on using clearing the way for Johnny to rush forward to
to hold once he starts dropping plasma down on plasma from the W5 promontory to nail the res- plug the hole. This leaves Nuke free to take a
my troopers. cue zone. The green plasma crept onto the shot at a plasma bug, which disappears in a sat-
plateau on the same turn, making for a dicey sit- isfactory nuclear glow. However, a VIP is now
BUG TURN 3 uation for the VIP wounded, as Nuke could only R.I.P. as J.C. trades shot for shot, tmning Ace
I immediately see the drawback of my origi- fire at one plasma per tum. and the wounded psychic (bye-bye, Doogie) into
nal plan. My plasma bugs are still not in place Zander, from long range, took out one of the hot plasma.
for firing, and yet all of my warriors are hiding threats to Carmen. Chris experienced another gun After all my withering fire, the bugs are still
under the cliffsides ready for the assault. The jam, but not before Ace took out another warrior. in this grone.
fact that Carmen has her weapon jammed makes Sugar was Carmen's laslchance and made his hit
the green troopers all too tempting a meal. If I count. Zim's split fire amazingly finished off two ~~~~~ (continued pg. 33)
 •
The GENERAL 32-1
CONTEST #184-Sound Advice
One of the drawing points of this magazine is its excellent strategic 7. To avert loss of morale, subordinate the Master of Horse to the
advice. Now, it is time for a pop quiz on how well this advice has been Dictator before calculating the TK number.
absorbed by readers. This contest asks you to identify the games to which Game: _
the following quotes from past issues of The GENERAL apply. If you
8. Poor leaders should be sacked immediately and sent somewhere
don't recognize all of them, don't feel bad-some may be red herrings,
where they can't hurt anybody; I usually reserve Bonham (Texas) for
false quotes intended to throw you off. In the lines provided, either write
this purpose.
"False" or identify the correct game in which to utilize the advice.
Game: _
1. Whenever possible, attack into lands containing monuments, capi-
tals and cities. 9. Plan your political status as carefully as you plan your cam-
Game: _ paigns.
Game: _
2. Good Russian play at the outset is a study in how to retreat from the
weak + 1 TEM areas to better defenses closer to the river. 10. Once these Task Forces have been generated, you can insert these
Game: _ tiny units into the ZOC of German units, thus denying them the
opportunity to make use of their maximum potential movement on
3. Unless your crew is unhappy, you should not declare Debauchery any given turn.
and Revelry. Game: _
Game: _
4. Placing a PC here assists in preventing a British middle-states $15 MERCHANDISE CERTIFICATE IS PRIZE!
invasion. Send entries via email to [email protected] or mail to:
Game: _ Stuart K. Tucker, Editor of The GENERAL, The Avalon Hill Game
5. First, it is generally not a good idea to roll to reduce your infantry Company, 4517 Harford Road, Baltimore, MD 21214
cost to "2" until the German has reduced his to "1." Name _
Game: _
Address _
6. At some point in the beginning or middle of the game, a player
should buy the one shield he can carry in his ship's hull. City ,State Zip _
Game: _

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 33

ASL Submissions
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ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER for publica-
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use in the other.

TEAM TOURNAMENT STANDINGS

1. Pillage, Then Burn: S. Pfeiffer AOR 0, D. Gantt
BRI 8, Emery UPF 8, E. Anderson PXB 0=8 [212]
2. Men in Black: Byron Stingley TPS 6, Michael
AITighi WTP 0, Joe Bellas HCR 7, Jeffrey Otto RTG
0=13 [91]
3. Team Black Bear: A. Lewis MOV 2, C. Lewis
PGF 0, S. Cousins RKL 8, P. Mason AOR 2=12 [291]
4. St. Paul's Rejects: J. Pack GSR 2. M. Backstrom
HWD I, S. Packwood 776 6, N. Pack RBN 1=10 [261]
5. Team Doily: D. Greenwood BKN 0, S. Greenwood
FIS 7, R. Pfeiffer ADV 0, B. Cleary FBS 2=9 [158]
+-+--+-~~(from pg. 30) averted by positioning Johnny in that other low- 6. Team Delaware: T. Hitchings WAS 8, K. Hitchings
ground hex next to Nuke, thereby ensuring that TYX 0, V. Meconi GBG O. W. Rohrbeck WSM 1=9 [99]
BUG TURN 4 Chris would have two troopers protecting Nuke 7. South Jersey Game Knights I: T. DeMarco ADV
All is not over yet. I need to quickly move from a hopper attack from below. He also could 0, D. Wagner BRIO, T. Stokes CMS 2, K. Welsh SQL
6=8 [191]
my plasma bugs into position. If they survive the have put Zander on the exact opposite side of
8. Reservoir Dogs: J. Tracy ASL I, M. Fagan DUN 7,
trooper's next attack, I can kill both wounded Nuke to achieve the same effect. Both J.C. and P. Barcafer BRIO, J. Doughan BKN 0=8 [161]
psychics with ease. I see a fantastic opportunity: Chris seemed a little confused about the line-of- 9. Bunker Boys II: D. Metzger WSM 7, D. Metzger
my remaining hopper can leap from his bug hole sight rules, which are very significant in this HWD 0, M. Metzger WZQ O. P. Maloney EIA 0=7 [166]
to position himself between Johnny and Nuke, game-the spine of a high ground hex blocks 10. Bunker Boys I: M. Bailey SLB 0, P. Gaberson
with no fear of allied fire. If Mr. Rico can't blow LOS to the low ground. HRC 0, J. Metzger ACV 0, D. Metzger A5A 7=7 [94]
that bug apart, Nuke is doomed, which may Carmen, with the benefit of the extra-tum 11. Missouri Garners: G. Moss ACQ I, R. Schilb FSE
guarantee my plasma bugs another turn. 6, J. Jacobs BRIO. K. Small VIP 0=7 [66]
modifier, repaired her jammed weapon. This was 12. JOMMS: J. Ohlinger CDT I, J. Lux ACQ 0, K.
Johnny proves himself worthy of the stan- one more nail in the coffin, signifying the end of Rothstein ABN I, M. May AOR 4=6 [294]
dards of cinematic heroism. The hopper is any bug hopes to rush the wounded bodies with 13. AHIKS Europe: M. Cowles BKN 0, T. Oleson
dead, and one plasma bug is out of play. I retain warriors again. J.e. must now rely upon the ANZ 6, N. Frydas W&P 0, H. Gratz GBL 0=6 [101]
some optimism-a bug victory isn't totally plasma bugs to get the job done. His strategy has 14. Bent Bayonets: A. Kaplan TRC 0, C. Stapp WAS 0,
impossible here, and Chris' hot dice are bound been to maneuver the plasma bugs under cover of D. Zimmerman GBG 0, K. McCarthy B91 6=6 [75]
to even out sometime. My remaining plasma the slopes and into positions where they would 15. Koleszar Plot: M. Koleszar AUC I, L. Koleszar
bug has no trouble picking a target: the MOV 2, J. Koleszar GUE 0, S. Koleszar TIN 2=5 [166]
get high probability shots at the wounded bodies. 16. Old Guard: T. Scharmark B81 0, R. Heller B91 I,
wounded psychic. As he moved his bugs onto the plateau, J.C. put J. Beard AFK 2, R. Beyma TRC 2=5 [72]
NEUTRAL COMMENTARY Chris into the moment of the most severe crisis. 17. Game Knights: B. Crenshaw AOR I, S. Crenshaw
Chris moved Nuke to a position where he In this game, a seemingly little failure can MOV I, C. Lopez RBN 2, R. Sands HWB 0=4 [310]
lead to big disaster for the Ml. This battle sce- 18. Body Bags: S. Koehler DIP 0, R. Carpenter DUN 0,
could plug the black bug hole and cover the high A. Kutzy HWD I, E. Rothenheber TIN 3=4 [224]
ground where the plasma bugs moved. In so nario is particularly unforgiving for the Ml.
19. Fellowship of the Plaque: K. Wojtasczyk TI2 0, J.
doing, he left lC. a better opportunity to take Much rests on the shoulders of Johnny's ability Levine HWB 0, T. Dunning RBN 4, N. Anner BRI 0=4
out the wounded in the rescue zone. Nuke could to save Nuke from the hopper (56 per cent) and [211]
have been moved closer to the rescue zone to Nuke's ability to nail each plasma bug without 20. Hitchhikers: L. York WSM I, J. Schufeldt ACV 0,
ensure a better chance of hitting the plasma bugs a missed shot (56 and 66 per cent respectively). T. Vanderpluym 8303, S. Scott MMS 0=4 [104]
when they gained the plateau. This could come All-in-all, the situation was none too good for
back to haunt him. Even more of a problem is the troopers despite having met with consider- *****
64 teams took part. The scores for the remaining teams ranged
his positioning of Johnny and Zander around able fire success in previous turns. Fortunately from 0 to 3 points. The number of entrants [in brackets] served as
Nuke. The high ground blocked Zander's line of for Chris, his key shots hit. a tie breaker. Players who failed to pre-register automatically
sight to the low ground below Nuke two hexes J.C.'s black plasma bug hit one of the scored a regardless of standing in individual event.

away from Zander. This could have been wounded, putting pressure on the MI to take it
 •
34
out next turn. This was another crucial decision
point. J.C. had another option. He could have
targeted Nuke at range nine. The odds were low,
but then again, so were his odds of getting off
two successful shots on the wounded. Nuke will
move to a range of six next turn and probably
put an end to the ganle. J.C.'s shot on Nuke at
range nine could have ended his biggest threat
and give him time to nail the wounded while the
MI mounted a rush of the plasma bug with their
Moritas. The plasma bug has excellent survival
odds against moving men firing Moritas. In all
probability, J.e. would get off his shots on the
wounded in turns 5 and 6. J.C.'s strategy has
been to go for the high-odds shots on the
wounded rather than taking out Nuke or using
scatter shots to nail some MI, so I wouldn't
argue that he should change horses midstream. I
mention this option to note that in this scenario,
the bugs can deal the MI a very effective blow Johnny runs to plug the bug hole, pre-
by threatening Nuke with both plasma bugs venting bug reinforcements. The final
simultaneously. Fortunately for J.e., his hopes
action of the battle, the pivotal nuclear
remain alive as he hits the first wounded target.
attack against the last plasma bug, turns
out to be another twist of wicked fate. The
TURN 5 shot misses, but the blast effect from the
Black Squad moves south to support Nuke
adjacent hex has the unlikely result of
and take low-odds shots. If he fails. Johnny
killing the plasma bug.
plugs the bug hole to prevent reinforcements.
Rasczakfails to unjam his weapon. Sugar runs
south to get a closer scoped shot. The green
warrior moves on Sugar in case both Nuke and
the plasma bug miss their targets. battlefield of plasma bugs and the rescue mission NEUTRAL COMMENTATOR
Nuke vs. black plasma bug R6= 5 (miss and was a success. Troopers and wounded alike piled The aftermath looked bad for the bugs: only
scatters). Blast effect: plasma s= 6 (kill). into the retrieval boat and dusted off. Ace and one wounded were killed. However, the
The game ends instantly with the death of result was far closer. J.e. failed to take advan-
the last plasma bug. The troopers load up in POST-GAME COMMENTARY tage of Chris' early concentration by getting the
the retrieval boat andfly to safety with no fear Christopher Lawrence (Troopers) plasma bugs to high ground early. Of course, the
of being shot down by a nearby plasma bug. I think J.e. committed his bugs piecemeal, flip side of that is that J.C. did rush his plasma
Having saved one VIP, they declare victory. allowing me to deal with them in small groups bugs into good ground for the turn 4-5 situatiou
rather than as a solid wave of chitin and pincers. in which J.e. had a reasonable chance at victory.
TROOPER TURN Even then, I was very lucky to escape with only J.C.'s strategy was solely focused upon the
One last warrior is lingering around the one casualty. Had he been able to inflict one or plasma bugs taking out the wounded and doing
retrieval boat, forcing me to split my troopers two losses before bringing up his plasma bugs, I it in the surest way he could see. There is noth-
again. Johnny closes the black colony bug hole, would have been hard pressed to defend the ing wrong with that. In fact, had the LOS rules
while everyone who can be spared from guard- VIPs at the end. As it was, it still made for an been fully enforced, Nuke might have missed a
ing the wounded rushes after the plasma bug. uncomfortably close battle decided by the last shot and the battle could have turned out differ-
It's do or die! roll. Like I said, I hate plasma bugs. ently. The lesson for the MI is that pillars of
I'm not sure whose luck is worse, lnine or smoke can hurt as much as help.
J.C.'s: I manage to miss a "sure" shot with the You have to take advantage of situations
J.C. Connors (Bugs)
nuke, but J.e. manages to fail a "sure" save after presented to you. Here, an alternate bug strat-
Despite my bugs proving to be little more
the scatter. How's that for a Hollywood ending? egy would have had a better chance: take out
than cannon fodder, I felt that bug victory was
the MI with scattered plasma shots and keep
close at hand. Unfortunately, Chris' die rolls
BUG TURN 5 the plasma bugs far separated so as to necessi-
bested my own, and always kept victory a turn
Not many options for me here. I'll optimize tate more movement by Nuke to take them both
away. I still feel that my strategy was sound,
out. Such an approach probably would have
my shot at Carmen, and send my last bug on a though there were small problems with it. I left one or both of the wounded alive for a long
suicide run at Sugar. severely underestimated the drop ship's can- time. However, it could have given the bugs the
He missed! Oops, no he didn't. Sigh. nons, which made my four-bug rush at Nuke a numbers advantage they needed to make multi-
futile attack. If those hoppers had lived to join ple wave assaults by the warriors more devas-
NEUTRAL COMMENTARY my rush at the jammed Carmen, I might have tating. Furthermore, the two bug holes might
Johnny ran down to occupy the bug hole and been able to take out enough troopers to kill have remained open for a longer time, as Nuke
stop bug reinforcements. Sugar moved towards one of the wounded psychics with a warrior. would have had to take out the plasma bug
the plasma bug to get a better shot, in case the I never really considered moving a plasma threats first. The battle might have dragged on
nuclear shot failed. The retrieval boat acted as a bug to the far high ground areas (the lO-hex high with Nuke and one plasma bug dead and the
nice movement balTier to help shield Nuke as he ground piece or the corner of RI) to bombard warriors bugs threatening the wounded while
moved closer. J.C.'s warrior couldn't do much the green trooper squad. While that might have the MI were forced to rush the second plasma
at this moment. caused the green troopers to spread out, the vul- bug with Moritas. I prefer this latter approach,
As it turned out, Nuke missed, but as has been nerable plasma bug would have quickly become particularly when the MI bunch up like Chris
the luck of J.C. in this battle, the blast effects on a target for Nuke. With both of my plasma bugs did. To me, such would have been a better
the adjacent plasma bug managed to kill it any- in play until the bitter end, the bugs always had "combined arms" approach for the bugs. And
way (only a 17 per cent chance of that misfor- a chance of seizing victory. Chris's Roughnecks bugs have lots of arms!
tune). Chris is saved from having to take desper- won this time, but there are always more bugs
ate shots with his Moritas. The MI cleared the waiting for him.
*
 35
++~~~ (frompg.18) War Success Table • If one of the powers is at war and the
Success Pts. other is neutral, the latter joins the war
Conquest of*: against the former.
any successive table so indicated. This may T planet 12 • If both are neutral, the incident forces a
alter the diplomatic stance of one or more STplanet 8
MT planet w/minerals 6
clash.
powers. Then, continue with the production Clash. Each involved power may con-
MT planet 3
routine at each colony and the normal Barren, minerals 4 duct one raid per turn against any star sys-
sequence of play. Barren 2 tem of the enemy. Take forces from any
Stage III: Tension. The colonization of Star with no planets I one friendly star (a maximum of five ships,
planets is almost complete. Powers begin to Destruction of including no death stars) and move them
look elsewhere for room to expand. Clashes Planet Shield, Death Star 4 towards the target star system. It reaches
and conflicts become common. This stage Advanced Missile Base, Fighter 2 the destination during the same turn, or the
lasts until the combined population of all Missile Base, Corvette 1 raid cannot be conducted. One or two
Scout 1/2
powers first reaches or exceeds 1200 rounds of combat may be fought (but a
million. *You receive success points for conquest of planet should not be bombarded or. con-
planets if the star system was totally conquered. quered). Then, the raiders are placed in an
As in Stage II, roll dice and consult on
the Diplomatic Events Table, but apply a adjacent hex with their original base as
Peace Terms Chart
(success point differential in parentheses)
their destination. Keep a tally of the sum of
"+2" during stage III.
Stalemate (0-10): Both sides must evacuate
the number of raids conducted by both
Stage IV: Empire. There is little space to sides and the number of ships and missile
any enemy stars they occupy as soon as possible.
grow within each power's borders. Con- Marginal Victory (11-25): One star among bases destroyed. This is the Tension Num-
quest is a must. Dreams of "Empire" infect those conquered by the winner is annexed. The ber. On the next production turn, just before
every power's leaders. This stage lasts until ceded star must be the one that is closest to a
friendly star (choose randomly if equidistant),
rolling on the Diplomatic Event Table, roll
the end of the game. regardless of military conquests during the war. If two dice. If the result is two less than the
As in Stage II, roll dice and consult on two or more powers are on the victorious side, give Tension Number, limited war ensues. If the
the Diplomatic Events Table, but apply a the star to the one that you feel contributed most to roll is equal to or one less than the Tension
victory. If no star was conquered, the loser must Number, the incident continues. If the
"+4" during stage IV. give away a star anyway. The victor's ships and
populatiou must depart any other stars of the result is greater, the incident ends.
Diplomatic Events Table defeated power. The loser must do likewise vis-a- During a clash, raids should be con-
vis the stars of the victorious power. ducted whenever the power is able. How-
(sum of two dice, +2 in Stage III, +4 in Stage IV)
Substantial Victory (26-50). As in marginal ever, you are free not to conduct a raid if it
victory, except that two stars aTe annexed. If the
2-8 Peace talks victOlious side has two powers, each receives one would be suicidal. You should use each
9 Political Blunder system. side to its best interest. For instance, a weak
Decisive Victory (51+). Same as above, except power may perceive that it is to its advan-
10-11 Border Dispute that half (fractions rounded up, with a minimum of
12-13 Limited War
tage to keep the Tension Number low-
three) of conquered stars are annexed. In adclition,
the loser does not evacuate his colonists-they even to the point of not firing back at
14+ Total War
remain as slaves. Planet defenses aTe destroyed, but enemy raiders-to avoid the risk of an
Peace Talks. If any war currently
factories are confiscated by the winner. If two or escalation to war. Only light reinforce-
more powers were victorious, each gets a roughly ments should be sent to the area.
exists, roll two dice and consult the Peace equal share of the annexed slaTs.
Border Dispute. A randomly determined
Talks Table. If no war currently exists, Annexation of Stars. Transfer the star power claims that a border star of another
peace continues. card, establishing a new claimant to the power (also randomly determined) is its
planets. Colonists in the annexed system God-given, manifest destiny, historical and
Peace Talks Table remain in control of the loser, but are evac- universal real estate.
(sum of two dice, +1 per neuu'al power and +2 if uated. Transports must be built and all pop-
war is limited) ulation must leave. No emigration bonus • If the powers are cUlTently enemies in a
occurs. The industrial output of the war, the war continues.
annexed planets cannot be spent on any • If the powers are currently allies in a war,
2-5 Failure-War Continues
other purpose in this production turn. the owner of the disputed star feels disap-
6 Truce
Planet defenses and factories are destroyed pointed with his ally and switches sides,
7+ Peace Treaty
before departure. becoming an ally of the former enemy.
Truce. Hostilities cease. Powers may Political Blunder. A squabble over some The former enemies (now allied) must
not attack each other or move forces into minor issue (the extradition of a criminal, depart any of each other's stars that they
star systems that the enemy currently mistreatment of citizens of one power by may have conquered.
controls or besieges. Star claims are not authorities of the other, excessive import • If one power is at war and the other is
taxes, etc.), cause an incident between two neutral, the latter joins the war against the
exchanged. In the next production turn,
randomly determined powers. former.
do not roll for diplomatic events. Instead,
• If the powers are currently enemies in a • If both are neutral, a border dispute
peace talks resume. Roll again on Peace erupts. Choose at random one border star
war, there is no further effect-the war
Talks Table. that the first power is claiming (if there
continues.
Peace Treaty. Determine which side is are no border stars due to a lack of com-
• If the powers are currently allies in a war,
the winner by counting success points (see one of them (randomly determined) feels mon borders, treat this event as a Political
War Success Table). Subtract the loser's insulted by the other and makes a sepa- Blunder and conduct a clash). The claim-
points from the winner's to yield the suc- rate peace, becoming neutral (implement ing power may attack the disputed star
cess point differential. Then, look up the the effects of Stalement on the Peace system in an attempt to conquer it, but
peace terms on the Peace Terms Chart. Terms Chart). other enemy stars may not be invaded.
 •
36
The defender may counterattack in the • If both are already involved in any war • If one power is already at war and the
disputed star, but may not attack other (as allies or enemies), there is no effect. other is neutral, the latter joins the war
enemy stars. In other words, conflict will • If one is at war and the other is neutral, against the former, and limited war
be limited to the star system that is the the latter joins the war against the former. becomes total war.
cause of contention. In the next produc- • If the two are neutral and a war is already • If a war already exists between the other
tion turn, before diplomatic events, roll occurring between the other two powers, two powers, each neutral will join one of
two dice, adding two to the result if the each neutral will join one of the sides in the sides in that war, and limited war
star is under the claimant's control (i.e., that war. becomes total war.
conquered) and consult the Dispute • If all powers are neutral, limited war • If all powers are neutral, total war erupts
Resolution Table. erupts between the two. During limited between the two determined powers.
During a border dispute, control of the war, both sides may invade border stars During total war there are no limitations.
star system should be fought for vigor- of the enemy, but may not escalate by Any enemy star may be invaded. Fight as
ously. Moderate reinforcements may be invading other stars. If the power has an you see fit.
sent to the area. Keep track of losses of bases, shields
ally, it may attack enemy stars on its
and ships during a war, as this will be used
Dispute Resolution Table ally's border, even if they would not be
to determine the peace terms in the event of
(sum of two dice, +2 if star conquered by attacker) considered border stars in relation to the signing of a peace treaty.
2-8 Arbitration itself. Allied forces may stack together. Total conquest. If a power is completely
9-10 Incident Continues Keep track of losses of bases, shields annihilated militarily (no free population
11+ Limited War Ensues and ships during a war, as this will be used left during a production turn), the war ends
to determine the peace terms in the event of (in relation to the losing power). The victor
Arbitration. If the attacker conquered the immediately annexes all the conquered
star, he annexes it. Otherwise the original the signing of a peace treaty.
Total War. Determine randomly two stars (exchange star cards). Any surviving
claimant keeps the star system, while the ships of the vanquished are replaced by
forces of the attacker must leave during their powers to be affected.
similar ships of the winner's color. If there
next movement phase and do not fire upon • If both are already in a total war (as allies are two or three winners, they share the
other ships until then. The incident ends. or enemies) no effect. spoils. You may distribute them evenly, or
Limited War. Determine randomly two • If both are already in a limited war (either in proportion to each power's contribution
powers to be affected. as allies or as enemies), it becomes total. to victory, as you see fit. *

to the surface. For instance, in a large-sized experts have identified 32 additional sites
rescue attempt, Casualty and Hold charac- we may be forced to encounter, depending
rescue. Our intelligence personnel have teristics are at a maximum, while the 5 on luck, the resistance we face, and so on.
gathered data on the enemy which is Guard, Reinforcement and Hide character- My advice is to view this map with a skep-
summarized in Table 3. We have substan- istics are minimized. A smaller rescue tical eye. Marine intelligence may not be
tial probability of facing two or three traps attempt would involve 5 Guard and Rein- keeping up with current events, pals. Our
(5 Guard cards) between each of our forcement characteristics at their maxi- basic expectation should be that our map
regroups. Every time the enemy reinforces mum, with Casualty and Hold characteris- will be wrong around half of the time (more
a skirmish, our situation gets tougher. We tics minimized. so on the flank routes). We can also expect
need to try to keep the odds in our favor by As you win skirmishes, the Schenectady the Guard (which knows this planet much
looking for ways to negate the arrival of the will relay mission support information better than us) to try to force us into unfa-
many Guard reinforcements (either via (Dispatches) to the field leader to assist vorable comers.
location analysis or use of the special abili- with your next goal. All Dispatches are This concludes my general overview of
ties of on-site Marines). usable to call in fire support. We expect that the critical factors in this rescue attempt.
90 per cent of them will also have addi- Once you hit the surface, boys and girls,
TABLE 3 tional possible benefits, depending upon everything will depend on what leads to
Proportions of Guard Characteristics the situation and a particular Marine's abil- each skirmish, the number and timing of
No. of ity to use the information. As we expect regroups and the interaction of the on-site
Players S Guard Rein Hide Casualty Kill Hold you to be involved in between ten and 18 commanding officer with the troops. Are
6 17.1% 37.1% 28.6% 20.0% 25.7% 14.3% skirmishes, the actual application of the you ready? I can't heeeeeeaaaar you!
Dispatches will depend on skirmish cir- GOOD! We have a mission to accomplish.
5 19.4 38.7 29.0 19.4 25.8 12.9
cumstances. For honor, for Earth, for the Princess. Move
4 23.1 42.3 _""34",,.6_"-,,1-".1..5,_ 23.1 1.5
One more item before we embark-look out. Move! Move! Move!
3 30.0 50.0 45.0 5.0 20.0 5.0
over the overall map. It shows the direct
2
I
27.3
28.6
45.5
47.6
45.5
42.9
9.1
9.5
18.2
19.0
9.1
9.5
route and flanking routes. As you will note
from studying the map, some locations are
*
favorable while others are to be avoided,
The table shows that the strongest and especially if our resources are waning.
weakest characteristics of the Guard vary However, realize that there is always a
according to the number of Marines we send ,chance we'll hit unexpected terrain. Our
 nlcombat game that's light years ahead
tition." ZDNet
Praise from the media:
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Computer Game Entertainment
Game Features:
• First person combat simulator.
Battles with 18 powerful enemies
• Direct 3D enhanced. MMX* ready.
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• Gun firepower with LaserLok™
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• Awesome sound on 8 original sound
tracks, 4 professional voice actors and
over 200 spoken lines of story dialogue.
• Death Match play for up to 8 players
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 •
38

TEN TACTICS AND TIPS FOR

Heroes of Might & Magic II::

By Rick Moscatello

know a game is good when the 2. YOU MUST HAVE GOLD

Y
OU
market supports release of a sequel, Time and again, you'll find yourself
and that sequel has an extended life wishing you had more gold. You will
span on the hard drive ofgame testers. Rick never, ever, wish your hero was just
provides more of his topnotch advice for one level higher. So, when you get the
Heroes addicts.-SKT choice of "gold or experience" from
those chests lying all over the place,
1. THE LONG MARCH take the gold. In the same vein, when-
The first thing to know is that heroes ever you capture a castle, make sure to
have movement points, but armies give it a statue, which increases
"stacked" with a hero do not. This means income by 250 gold-build one, and it
that a hero can march his full movement, pays for itself in five days! Getting as
transfer his army to another hero, and that many Marketplaces as you can stom-
hero can move his full movement, and ach is also a good idea, since you will
transfer repeatedly. This is critical in the often find yourself with no gold, but since the computer will hire them if it
early parts of the game, where it makes plenty of resources like wood and ore. wins. If you are worried about morale loss
sense to hire a "gopher" hero, especially Upgrade your villages to castles (again, they from mixing forces, you can always assure
Barbarians, who tend to move faster than pay for themselves in about a week). that the lower slots are units of whatever
other heroes, to ferry armies out to the 3. DEFENSIVE CASTLE TRICKS type you want. Select the unit, a band of
generals in the field. Hire the gopher at the Never buy a "captain of the guard" for five archers, for example, then select an
beginning of the week when you get rein- your castle-his stats are crummy, and empty slot. A screen will come up asking
forcements for your armies, and make sure you'll find yourself fighting him when you how many archers to put in the empty slot
the field general is one turn's movement take the castle back. Hire a hero instead, (say one). Not only does this give you
away. Then the gopher can resupply the because the hero will have better stats and complete control over what forces defend
general, who can immediately use the come with a minute army. When defending the castle, you can often trick the computer
larger army. This is far superior to march- a castle, prolong the battle as long as pos- into blasting a minimal unit-there is noth-
ing the general back to the castle, hiring sible-the catapult that comes with your ing like watching one archer catch a 125-
the army, and marching the general out- castle (or more of them, if you can afford point lightning bolt, while eight Crusaders
a two turn delay that can be critical. Even it) will turn the tide eventually. Every stand nearby. The computer loves range
if you never get any other use out of the enemy unit killed is one less that you'll units, making them ideal for this tactic.
gopher, he can at least carry any cursed need to kill to retake the castle. Try not to
items you accidentally pick up. leave available recruits in your castle, 4. OFFENSIVE CASTLE TRICKS
You want to take castles quickly. That
usually means lots of air units and spellcast-
ing. All other things being equal, a really
powerful non-spellcaster can defend against
a mediocre spellcaster. Divide your air units
into two groups, so you can close with the
rangestrikers as fast as possible. Range unit
combat abilities are halved in close combat,
so this is an excellent method of "halving"
an opponent's forces.

5. CATCHING THAT ELUSIVE HERO

Unfortunately, computer heroes will run
away when losing, especially when they
have nifty magical items. However, a hero
can't run away when he's in a castle (curi-
ously, castles are not the place to be when
your army is weak). So, if the hero you want
to catch has a decent army under him, vacate
your castle, leaving behind few, if any,
forces to recruit, and let him take it. Then
counterstrike, and you catch yourself a nice
hero, as well as his bag of nifty magic items.
 39
6. ENDLESS ARMAGEDDON and he has two castles, you run the risk of
Chain Lightning, Armageddon and a being deluged with hostile forces. Make it a
small family of other spells can devastate three-to-one situation as quickly as possi-
an army. A good trick for thinning out a ble. Another plan is to let the computer
large hostile army near one of your castles players attack each other. Once they've
is as follows. Get a good mage and give exhausted their oversized armies, you'll
him an army either with just enough in it to have a much easier time.
survive a mass damage spell, or with
magic-resistant creatures like dwarves or 8. THOSE AWFUL UNDEAD
dragons. In the case of dwarves, fill all the If an army has one undead unit in it,
slots with dwarves, since their 25 per cent morale gets crushed, unless it is composed
magic resistance applies to each slot/stack entirely of undead. This means that when
(not each dwarf). March your mage out and by the computer, will produce about six. you are about to lose an undead castle, you
attack. Cast your Armageddon spell, then The same goes for every creature produced should keep some undead units available
select "surrender." Pay the price, which at the castle (depending on selected skill for recruitment. The computer invariably
should be low because you have such a level). Combined with the gold bonus that hires them, giving him an unhappy army,
small army. Then rehire the mage at the computer players get, the computer can making your retaliation much easier. Most
nearby castle, and repeat. In the case of easily overwhelm you in no time at all. This undead are slow and squishy. Thus, letting
Chain Lightning, you want a fast creature means that the best strategy in this game is the computer buy undead is irresistibly
like a Phoenix. March in, cast Chain Light- different than, for example, in MASTER OF effective. Bone Dragons are the excep-
ning, retreat, and repeat. This is a little ORlON where you build up your forces, tion-never "let" the computer buy these.
expensive, but an excellent method for invest resources wisely, and then over-
draining away the gigantic forces that com- whelm the computer. In HEROES, you need 9. WIZARDS RULE
puter opponents accumulate. to push out immediately, and take castles You want spellcasters. If you are forced
from the computer before it produces any- to buy a non-spellcaster, you may as well
7. BLITZ thing. Try to let the computer take a neutral blow the 500 gold to give him a spell book,
The main computer advantage is that its castle, and then capture the castle at the except perhaps for the first week or two of
castles produce units more quickly than beginning of the week-you'll get to take the game. Once you get a decent mix of
yours. If your castle produces four Hydras advantage of his production before he gets second-level spells, a spellcaster (non-
per week, that same castle, when controlled a chance to recruit. If you have two castles Knight, non-Barbarian) has so much fire-

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 •
40
power that a non-spellcaster or neutral As you use this formula on the castle Let's look at the Wizard:
army has no chance of winning without tak- creatures, some trends pop up. Let's look at Halfling 0.054
ing outrageous casualties. the GE of the Knight's creatures: Boar 0.214
Peasant 0.019 Iron Golem 0.513
10. QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY Archer 0.111 Steel Golem 0.594
A horde of weak creatures will get Ranger 0.166 Roc 0.693
smashed by a small force of decent crea- Pikeman 0.286 Mage 0.630
tures. No matter what type of castle you Veteran Pikeman 0.306 Archmage 0.704
have, you are better off saving your gold to Swordsman 0.633 Giant 3.825
Master Swordsman 0.633 Titan 3.840
get better creatures. A horde of Goblins
Cavalry 1.210 The Wizard is even a better deal than the
isn't as good as a few Cyclopes. The fol-
Champion 1.290 Knight. Because the Golems are so effi-
lowing formula can be used to determine
Paladin 3.656 cient, you certainly get a better deal on your
the relative value of a given creature: Gold Crusader 2.850 upgrades here than with the Knight's
Efficiency = (expected damage) times Note how the gold efficiency of the Cru- forces. Note that 10,000 gold worth of
(attack modifier versus defense value of 6) sader is below that of Paladin-the Cru- Titans (two of them) will be a fairly even
times (hits) times (defense modifier versus sader's small increase in hits is hardly match for five Giants (10,000 gold worth of
an attack value of 6) divided by (gold cost worth the nearly double cost. Similarly, the Giants), at least in a straight slugfest.
to hire). The modifiers versus attack and Master Swordsman isn't better, on a gold The Barbarian has some of the toughest
defense are given on page 55, namely, a ten efficiency basis, than the Swordsman. Still, units, but let's see if they are efficient pur-
per cent bonus when you are above the the "high end" creatures have much greater chases:
efficiency than the ones on Goblin 0.048
the low end. As we shall see, Orc 0.120
the GE of a peasant is the Orc Chief 0.204
lowest in the game-you sim- Wolf 0.360
ply cannot win using only Ogre 0.792
peasants. Ogre Lord 0.842
Let's look at the Sorceress: Troll 0.500
Sprite 0.032 War Troll 0.576
Dwarf 0.270 Cyclops 3.533
Battle Dwarf 0.240 As anyone who's played the game
Elf 0.189 enough can tell you, Trolls are usually not
Grand Elf 0.214 a good bet, and massed wolves and ogres
Druid 0.460 can do a number on units that have the
Greater Druid 0.470 same gold cost because they are more
Unicorn 1.350 efficient. Doing the math, a 300 gold-
Phoenix 3.840 point Ogre will expect to beat a 300 gold-
Here is one case where not point Master Swordsman in 6 attacks
number, and a five per cent penalty when taking speed into account might be mis- whereas the Master Swordsman won't kill
below. For example, for a creature with an leading, since the Battle Dwarf is twice as the Ogre unless he gets 7 attacks. Com-
attack of 7, its attack modifier would be 1.1. fast the "basic" dwarf. Still, this won't be paring the gold efficiencies, the Ogre
Although tnis formula doesn't take into an issue in a fight where most things fly or wins around 56 per cent of the time-
account special abilities or speed, it gives where there are no rangestrikers. while the Swordsman's speed can be the
an appropriate weight to the value of hit Rangestriking is something that is valuable winning factor, there's no reason to
points-creatures with high hits have against some neutral forces (i.e., slow, non- expect the Swordsman to get his seventh
tremendous combat usefulness, because rangestriking) and nearly useless else- hit before each has taken his sixth hit-
they heal instantly at the end of each battle. where. The ratings here are considerably the Ogre must do worse than average for
Clever players quickly maneuver their crea- lower than for the Knight-once the Knight the Swordsman to win. The Cyclops has
tures in a way to make special abilities use- gets into close combat, much of the value of the second lowest efficiency rating of the
less. Speed is generally only an issue for the the Sorceress' units drop. Comparing GE "top" units (ahead of the Crusader), but it
player who has the one fastest creature in between Phoenix and Sprite, one Phoenix is also the easiest to get.
the battle, since getting that all-important will smash 50 Sprites, even though they Now let's see what a joke the Necro-
first spell off is about all that speed accom- have the same gold value. mancers are:
plishes. Having high hit points is the best Skeleton 0.084
defense against spells. The expected dam- Zombie 0.143
age for archers that shoot twice is doubled, Mutant Zombie 0.143
naturally, and the expected damage for Mummy 0.350
double-attackers like wolves and Paladins Royal Mummy 0.350
was increased, for purposes of this calcula- Vampire 0.430
tion by 50 per cent. It probably should be a Vampire Lord 0.440
bit more than that for Paladins, and a good Lich 0.430
player will try to get something else to Power Lich 0.520
attack the wolves' target first, so the target Bone Dragon 6.037
won't be able to counterstrike against the Yes, Necromancers have the best wimp
wolves' low C:cfense. creature: Skeletons are much more effi-
 41
cient than Peasants or Goblins. Yet, all the MAGIC II, here's a secondary skills cheat A character with decent Ballistics will
stuff in the middle is pretty lame, more so sheet. Whenever a hero goes up a level, you topple castle walls with surprising speed.
when you consider how slow everything get a choice of two skills; if you just can't This skill is most important in the early
is-speed is a more significant factor when tell what to pick, use this alphabetized list game, when you don't have great creatures
nothing is fast. Mercifully, the Bone to pick the skill with the higher rating: and spells.
Dragon is both efficient and relatively easy AJchery 7 Luck is always nice, since there aren't
to get. Still, the Necromancer is a vulnera- Ballistics 9 many battles where you won't want to dou-
ble castle, triply so when the anti-undead Diplomacy 1 ble the damage that your troops inflict.
spells are available. Eagle Eye 3 Wisdom is mandatory, although some-
Finally, we look at Dragons: Estates 14 times not getting it in the first few turns
Centaur 0.053 Leadership 12 doesn't hurt. Access to high-level spells
Gargoyle 0.177 Logistics 13 can mean the difference between a huge
Griffon 0.333 Luck 10 army devastated by Chain Lightning and
Minotaur 0.938 Mysticism 5
an easy win for you.
Minotaur King 0.965 Navigation 4
Leadership is much better than Luck,
Hydra 1.160 Necromancy 6
because high morale increases the chance
Dragon 5.200 Pathfinding 8
that your army moves again (and gets
Red Dragon 6.140 Scouting 2
Black Dragon 7.080 Wisdom 11 another chance at being Lucky). A few
Warlock is easily the strongest castle Diplomacy is only a good skill if you can bonus moves in the early part of the battle
type-a few Dragons can destroy most get "Expert" in it. Unfortunately, none of can easily turn the tide.
armies, even when lead by a neophyte the character classes have a decent chance Logistics is incredibly useful, because
Knight. While gathering the resources to pro- of doing so until they advance many levels, often you will be forced to use one medium
duce Minotaurs can be tough, they are often at which point there won't be enough neu- army to defend against three or more large
overlooked as a "boring" creature. Even in tral forces around for it to matter. Unless computer armies. Successful use of "inte-
low numbers, they have sufficient speed and you feel lucky, you should avoid it. rior lines," together with Logistics, will
firepower to defeat moderate groups of Scouting is totally useless in the end make defense easier. Being able to move
smaller creatures. Only Knights have a better game, because you can always see any area quickly on the attack is even more fun.
"second-best" creature, and it takes awhile that you've "cleared" anyway. Estates pays for itself. Whenever you
for the Knight castle to get them. Eagle Eye can be a lifesaver if you are find a hut or something that teaches this
Finally, we come to the neutral crea- getting hit with a powerful spell (the fact wondrous "skill," hire a hero every turn and
tures. Looking at their GE is a bit mis- that Eagle Eye will teach it to you after the march it out to learn Estates. After ten
leading, since their best value is in the battle, ten per cent of the time or so, is turns, the heroes will pay for themselves,
early game, where an influx of even weak pretty dubious). If you are winning, you and generate a steady income.
creatures, regardless of efficiency, can be don't need it, and if you are losing, you
a boon. Rogues have a respectable rating
of 0.060, which puts them ahead 'of every-
won't have an army to take advantage of
the spell.
HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC II by
*
thing but Skeletons. Nomads have a nice Navigation is nice, but 95 per cent of
New World Computing
0.385, not enough to make them critical what happens in the game takes place on
System Requirements: 66 MHz, Win95,
except when none of the medium crea- land. You already move quickly at sea even
8 mb RAM, 55 mb of HD space and a
tures are available. Genies have a massive without Navigation, and it is a better deal to
double-speed CD-ROM. You might get
3.096 rating-no wonder that a few of hire a Sorceress (who starts with Naviga-
by on a slower computer, but I recom-
these at the beginning of the game can tion) to explore that odd sea area. mend a faster CD-ROM. New World
cause an easy win. Medusas have a rating Mysticism provides a slight increase in games are always more about fun than
of 0.773, which makes them a fine com- the trickle of magic points you get every realism. Bonus kudos to New World for
plement to an otherwise lackluster force. turn, but this is of little value, as magic making a game that is, as near as I can
Neutral creatures almost always bring wells are common on every map in the tell, bug-free.
morale down, so you should avoid them game. Even if you have "Expert" Mysti-
when you are producing better creatures cism, you'll find it is a good idea to go back ~ ~ ~ ~ Mental
in your castle. to a castle and sit a turn, even if no wells are ~ ~ W~ Challenge

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ AI Ability
In general, the top creature for each cas- around, instead of sitting in the open for a
tle is a far better "buy" than the lower crea- dozen turns waiting to get spell points back.
tures. Each category of creature is usually
an improvement over the previous. Whether
playing against the computer or other play-
Necromancy is usually crummy. Free
skeletons usually just drag the morale of
your army down, unless it is all undead.
o Realism

., ., ., ., Excitement
ers, if you get access to the top creature Only a Necromancer should take Necro-
before your opponents, you should press mancy.
your advantage as quickly as possible. AJchery is also a feeble skill, but any

LAGNIAPPE
Down here in New Orleans, we have a
bonus to attack is something that you'll be
certain to get use out of sooner or later.
Pathfinding is usually worthwhile. With-
0000 Replayability

Rating icons range from one (wretched or ten years

fine tradition of "lagniappe," which basi- out it, you run the risk of dragging your way behind the state of the industry) to five (top 10% of
cally means giving just a little more than through a desert or something. Expert industry). Four is good, three is passable (middle
promised. So, even though I promised ten Pathfinding is only a good idea when you are of the road for the industry) and two is not great
(bottom third).
tips for playing HEROES OF MIGHT AND on a map loaded with bad terrain.
 •
42
because the table is pegged for a higher rate
of return when using one movement factor
Raiders and Rivets to search. For example, on the level-four
density column, you will average .66 mer-
chantmen sunk per fuel point when you
Nuts-and-Bolts Tips for THE GREAT WAR AT SEA expend one movement factor, as opposed to
only .19 sunk when you expend two move-
By Charles Bahl ment factors.
Do not, however, follow this conserva-
tive approach blindly. It obviously does not
HE GREAT WAR AT SEA by Avalanche should be followed at your own peril in cer-

T Press could have taught Churchill

and von Tirpitz a thing or two about
their own navies. Prior to the First World
tain situations. Caveat lector.

CONSERVE YOUR FUEL

apply to level-one density, since no mer-
chantmen can be sunk when expending
only a single movement factor on the level-
one column. Also, it does not apply when
War (aka The Great War), both the First First of all, I recommend always playing time is a crucial ingredient to your success
Lord of the British Admiralty and the Sec- with the fuel rules. They require a minor or failure. The MLT is obviously set up so
retary of the German Navy anticipated an bookkeeping effort, but are well worth it for that you can risk more fuel in order to speed
apocalyptic final reckoning between their the extra possibilities they add to any sce- the acquisition of victory points (VPs). If
two formidable fleets-a fight that never nario. In many scenarios fuel, or the lack you are short on time, you must expend
took place. Even the battle of Jutland, thereof, can have a major influence on your extra fuel in order to scrounge up the
where the British Grand Fleet and the Ger- strategic decisions. The basic rule of thumb required VPs before the scenario's end. As
man High Seas Fleet finally squared off for fuel expenditure is: "Don't move two in all things, assess your goals and your
against each other, was far from the deci- sea areas in a single turn unless you chances of achieving them. If you can
sive naval contest both sides had envi- absolutely must." Probably the worst thing afford to be profligate with fuel, by all
sioned. As it turned out, battleships-those that can happen to a ship, next to being means fire up the boilers.
huge floating capital expenditures-were sunk, is running out of fuel. Two-area
just too valuable to risk in mortal combat. moves eat up your precious coal at six DON'T SEEK BAnLE
As a result, most of the surface naval action times the normal per tum rate. If you are I'm sure you don't want to hear this.
of the First World War consisted of small careful and have thought far enough ahead, You purchased GWAS, after all, for no
engagements between fleets of limited size. you can always refuel. other reason than to experience the sheer
It was a war of raiders and interceptors. THE Staying in port for a few turns is usually joy of lobbing a few hundred shells at
GREAT WAR AT SEA (GWAS) makes this a disaster. Not only is valuable time wasted, enemy battlewagons. However, discretion
admirably clear. If von Tirpitz had been but your opponent will know exactly where is the better part of valor. Sailing in harm's
able to play GWAS before the conflict you are and will either attack you in port or way is a very unsure enterprise, and the
broke out, he might have had a clearer make it difficult for you to escape. Given results are often unexpected. In fact, the
picture of what was coming. these rather nasty repercussions, under tactical combat rules of GWAS emphasize
Avalanche Press intends to issue GWAS what circumstances should you make a just how uncertain a naval battle really is.
in three volumes that cover essentially all two-area move? Here are five of the most In addition, you may not be able to bring
the naval engagements of the First World important reasons to make such a move: 1) your enemy to battle in the first place. Find-
War, plus a few prewar and hypothetical you have more fuel on board than you ing an opposing fleet is difficult enough.
scenarios as well. The fIrst of these volumes could possibly ever use (unlikely in most Preventing it from running away is also
covers the Mediterranean. Its fifty scenarios scenarios); 2) you must sprint out of a tough. Therefore, if at all possible, seek
make a comprehensive survey of this often- blockaded port; 3) you can escape from a victory by some means other than battle.
overlooked theater of operations. The nearby enemy fleet or fleets; 4) you are Put all you efforts into seeking combat only
Mediterranean was the domain of the com- short on time (for whatever reason); and 5) if there is no other way for you to beat your
merce raider, where small fleets would sud- you can close quickly on an enemy fleet. opponent.
denly appear, sink a few vulnerable mer- At the beginning of the game, while Avoiding battle is even plausible in
chantmen, and depart as quickly as they had you are making your mission assignments, those scenarios where you are cast in the
arrived. This kind of naval warfare made for assess your fuel needs. Try to set up an role of an interceptor with a strong fleet at
many intriguing strategic situations. overall strategic fuel plan. This is easy for your disposal. As the intercepting player,
Although GWAS has only eight pages of such missions as transport and bombard- you might take it for granted that victory
rules and is simple to learn and play, it is ment, since the routes for these missions lies exclusively in destroying the other fleet
quite different from most naval wargames must be preset before the game begins. (carefully check the victory conditions).
with which the reader is likely to be famil- But it is even possible to get a good idea of There are usually several ways for the inter-
iar. The following article attempts to give the fuel allotments for raiding and inter- cepting player to win. You might get a vic-
the beginning player a smattering of cepting fleets. The time used to carefully tory simply by thwarting your opponent's
advice-strategic or tactical simple-to- assess your fuel requirements will be time plans. You might be able, for example, to
remember tips that can be employed to your well spent. deflect an enemy convoy off course or frus-
benefit during a game of GWAS, even under trate a coastal bombardment. Assess your
the pressure of an incoming broadside SEARCHING FOR MERCHANTMEN options. Winning without fighting should at
salvo. I don't pretend that the list is close to If you are playing with the fuel rules, least be given a second look.
being complete. Although I believe that you can make the most efficient use of your
these tidbits of advice have wide applica- coal by expending only a single movement FLEE A BAnLE
bility, you will discover that some do not factor per turn when rolling on the Mer- You probably don't want to hear this
pertain to specific scenarios and that others chant Location Table (MLT). This is either. Having previously said that you
 43
should only seek out battle for a very win, you can often discover exactly where
good, if not a game-winning, reason, you you need to search for his fleets. Here's a f ? ?QUESTION BOX?? )
should also be ready to escape from a bat-
tle in which you are already embroiled.
Ninety-pound weaklings, who stick
around to see how their fist fights turn
very simple example. Let's say your oppo-
nent must, in order to win, dispatch a raid-
ing fleet of speed I from Constantinople to
Batumi. In a scenario that lasts 24 turns, the
\
-------MACHIAVELLI ('95 ed.)

ERRATA FOR 3.2 Control of provinces with their

cities for all purposes, including victory, is determined
out, spend most of their time in the hos- possible paths that the Central Power fleet only "at the start of the Spring turn" (not "at the end of
pital. The same thing can be said of admi- can follow will be severely limited, since it any turn"). Change the plu-ase in each of the four para-
rals armed only with tertiary guns. When will take him at least 22 turns to reach his graphs of the rule.
you are involved in a battle, learn to make objective by the shortest possible route. If 4.3 With an enemy in the province and a friendly gar-
an intelligent assessment of your you cannot send a fleet to intercept him at rison in the city, is the city in friendly control?
chances. If you are significantly weaker Batumi, send one to intercept him in an area A. No, control of the city goes hand-in-hand with
than your opponent, do not be ashamed to that he must transit. control of the province.
run away. It will only get worse if you Unlike the simple example above, the ERRATA for 4.3 To clarify, the fourth bullet
hang around. If you have the upper hand choke points normally arise from a more should read: "If one player has a garrison unit in the
in the engagement, stay put for the fire- complex combination of the various com- city while another player has a military unit in the
works, and pursue the enemy fleet when peting goals of each player. However, if city's province, no one controls the province and its
he attempts to escape. city. Remove any control marker that may have been
you spend some time analyzing the inter-
The most difficult judgment call comes in the area."
action of these goals, the most likely
when your fleet is about equal in strength to choke points will usually reveal them- 8.5 Maya player both disband and build in the same
that of your opponent. In this case, you selves. Choke points are usually found province in the same Spring?
might stick around, just to see how the around ports, along shipping routes, along A. No. Disbandment takes place after all builds, so
shells fly. Remember that up to five rounds that no army may be replaced by a fleet or vice versa.
straight-line paths between ports, in The disbandment rule does not allow you to skip the
of combat can occur during the tactical restricted waters like straits and the garrison stage to convert a unit.
phase. That means that you can sustain an passages between islands, and around vul-
incredible amount of damage before you nerable, on-map fleets. 9.3 What is "adjacent" when it comes to bribing a
know it. If things start to go badly for you, garrison? Do you have to be in the same province as
you may not be able to escape from such a PLAY YOUR OPPONENT,
the city?
situation with much of a fleet. Keep that in A. No, the bribe may be done from the same
NOT THE BOARD province or from the province adjacent to the one
mind any time you feel like fIring off your One of the tried-and-true command- containing the city.
big guns. ments of chess is to play the board, not your
Sometimes it is not easy to determine 10 A rebellion has been brewed inside Genoa city,
opponent. GWAS, however, turns this clas-
the dominant antagonist in a particular allowing Florence to force Milan's army in Genoa
sic precept on its ear. Unlike chess, GWAS province to retreat. Can the Milanese army retreat into
naval battle. As a simple general rule you
does not provide perfect information about the city?
can sum the victory point values of the
an opponent's disposition of forces. For A. No, the Milanese army may not retreat into a loca-
ships in your fleet and compare the sum to tion held by a rebellion. The rebellion is "relieved"
example, because the location of a raiding
that of the opposing fleet. Although and removed at the end of the tum (after retreats are
force is usually unknown (except at certain conducted).
destroyers are essentially second-strike
key moments during the scenario), the
weapons (i.e., their torpedoes can be fired
only after gun damage has already been intercepting player is forced to second 10 If a rebellion unit is placed in a fortified city,
guess his opponent at every opportunity. If does that unit support liberating units advancing into
assessed), they can be quite deadly the province?
against unescorted larger ships, especially one knows anything about the enemy's
A. Yes.
if two or more destroyers can gang up on style of play, use it to advantage. Is he the
each capital ship. In such a circumstance, type to move quickly and sail directly to his 14 Do "two strength" special units count as a single
you can safely double the value of each objective, or is he more slow and cir- support? Can it be cut by a single advance?
cuitous, taking a winding course to confuse A. No, only one of its strength points is cut by a sin-
destroyer when determining whether you gle advance, the other support remains intact.
should fight or run. the issue? Does he normally seek out the
higher victory point objectives, or does he ERRATA New Rule 16.5 Ducat Borrowing Phase
SEARCH THE CHOKE POINTS go for the cheap ones first? The Ducat Borrowing Phase contains two steps: First,
As mentioned above, it is always diffi- In Scenario 8, for example, an Allied loans that are due must be repaid or the default penalty
player with a more "direct" personality may is applied. Second, new loans may be borrowed. This
cult to find an enemy fleet. It is hard sequencing prevents players from taking out new
enough to find fleets that have predeter- head his raiding fleet straight for Zongul- loans to repay loans that are due in the same phase.
mined routes assigned to them (e.g., trans- dak and the Central Powers' major sea Note: all money borrowed in a single phase for the
port and bombardment fleets). Locating a route between there and Constantinople. A same duration is part of the same loan.
hidden raiding fleet makes you quickly more devious player may head either west
or east to the minor sea routes skirting the ERRATA RULE 17.1 Control of provinces (along
realize just how much water the Black Sea with their cities) is transferred at the start of the Spring
really holds. If you think you can find a Black Sea. This is just a single simple turn (as stated in 4.3) and is no different when deter-
raiding fleet by cruising around in the mid- example. There are dozens of ways to mining conquest of a player. To simplify, rule 17.1
dle of the sea, think again. You can, how- psyche out your opponent, and in turn, should state "If you control no provinces in your home
equally many methods by which he can country at the start of a Spring turn, your are elimi-
ever, usually nalTOW the perimeters of your nated." Furthermore, "To conquer another player's
search. Restricted seal'ch areas are "choke play mind games with you. You risk ignor- home country, you must control all provinces in that
points." To help you discover a scenario's ing the psychological aspects of play to player's home country at the start of a Spring turn."
choke points, you should first consult the your own detriment. GWAS has been This change does add the requirement of conquering
home provinces containing no cities.
victory conditions. By examining the goals
that your opponent must reach in order to
devised as a game that rewards deception
and counterdeception. *
 •
44

Beach Strategy in BREAKOUT: NORMANDY

by Part 2: Gold, Juno and Sword
Beach By Alan Applebaum

ere we continue Alan's in-depth man 21 Pz/l92, the only serious threat, is permitted to move to Zone C, refit free, and

H strategic analysis (Part 1 is found

in volume 31, number 6 of The
GENERAL).-SKT
two areas away.
If the beach falls on the fIrst assault, the
German will presumably move 21 pz Flak
regroup to Aunay sur Odon, the Germans
have a much easier time stabilizing the
center and improving their supply position
and PAK into Bretteville on Impulse O. If 8 significantly.
GOLD BEACH-STRATEGY Armor doesn't move on Allied Impulse 0,
According to the Allied plan set forth in the German may blow the Gold-Bretteville JUNO BEACH-STRATEGY
Part 1 of this article, the Gold Beach group and Juno-Bretteville bridges, putting a big Juno is more of a liability than an asset
must take only Bayeux to achieve its "par." crimp in the British plans (but a follow-up to the British, even when cleared. Its forces
Any further progress into Foret, Tilly, Vil- assault on Omaha against a fresh 352/xx is can mount only a 12-AV attack into Caen,
lars or Balleroi should be regarded as a more urgent for the Allies). A conservative even in clear weather. It is risky to make a
bonus. The German should be content with course of attempting to seize the bridge full-division assault from Juno into Bret-
making the Allies spend two or three before entering Bretteville seems best. If 8 teville or assist with the capture of Bayeux
impulses taking Bayeux. The German is in Armor overruns Bretteville without seizing until Caen is contested, and by then the
good shape, if Balleroi, Tilly and Foret are the bridge, it has two MF left to advance Germans will probably have garrisoned
all adequately defended at the time of the into Villars or Tilly, but this is a pipe-dream Tilly and Villars well enough to prevent
loss of Bayeux. The German should prefer
at 5.4 per cent. Even if it works, the Ger- their capture without a concerted effort by
a defense in depth to an all-out defense.
man may eventually sprint into Bretteville, the British on June 8, and probably not even
The British should avoid the trap of
cutting off supply to 8 Armor. Stick to then. It may seem tempting to advance
heading down the Verson-Evercy corridor.
clearing Bretteville. The German doesn't through Bretteville into Verson and Evercy,
Aunay-sur-Odon, a Bocage area, is easily
have the units to garrison both Villars and but as mentioned above, this too is a dan-
defended, as is Bourguebus (an unbridged
Tilly against 56 Infantry. The German's gerous trap for the British. In sum, the
river defended by the 12th SS). Any spent
only hope in this position is to blow both Canadians are best used to assist the British
British units in Verson and Evercy are vul-
bridges out of Bretteville (25 per cent). in taking Bayeux, as desclibed above, or as
nerable to counterattack. The Allies cannot
Therefore, the Allies should use the 8 a backup force to assault Caen, as described
afford to enter areas with terrain effects
modifiers (TEM) of "+1" without over- Armor in a 7-5 attack after a successful in the discussion of Sword beach below.
whelming force, because a small force risks seizure of the Gold-Bretteville bridge. The
Allies need only contest Bretteville on June JUNO BEACH-CANADIAN
unit losses to a German counterattack. Any
6. If this fails, the German line is too short TACTICS
impulses available are better spent else-
where, as the Verson-Evercy corridor may and easily defended, while both Gold and On June 6, Juno is almost exactly anal-
yield no victory points (VPs), while it is Juno remain exposed. ogous to Gold. The initial wave is a "+3"
guaranteed to cost a lot of supply and Maly is too pessimistic about the diffi- assault (assuming no successful interdic-
spread the British thin, at least until rein- culty of taking Bayeux once the entire Gold tion) with the three Canadian infantry
forcements arrive on June 9. An Allied plan assault force is ashore and fresh. The solu- units. If the assault wins or stalemates but
to surround Caen is doomed to fail against tion is to slide the Canadians over from Juno, does not clear the beach, 2 CA can assault
any competent German defense. hit Bayeux with air bombardment (and, if accompanied by 3 CA/xx, because it is not
that fails, Corps Artillery on June 8) and a Mandatory Assault. Nevertheless, 3
GOLD BEACH-BRITISH TACTICS attack with an attack value (AV) of at least CA/xx is not disrupted if 2 CA loses the
The initial amphibious assault here, as 15 (Armor, two regiments of the 50th, two assault, because it is not participating in
described by Maly, seems to be best and Canadian regiments, two divisional artillery, the assault.
almost universal-attack with the three two divisional integrity bonuses and air sup- The British should not spend an entire
infantry regiments of the 50th Division, port). If Bayeux is defended with only two impulse capturing Douvres with 2 CA. This
even against interdiction. This "+2" attack spent units, the defense has a defense value unit should be used in Bretteville, unless
has a healthy 44 per cent chance to clear the (DV) of 7, even with the Gold-Bayeux impossible due to blown bridges. Douvres
beach against the spent Anomanches CA, bridge German-controlled. The attack at 15- is best taken from Sword in conjunction
and has only a 24 per cent chance of losing 7 (+8) has a 76 per cent chance to take the with an assault on Caen, as set forth below.
the battle. Even an outright loss is no disas- area and a 66 per cent chance for an overrun. If necessary, the Canadians can be used
ter, because only three units are disrupted British corps artillery may also be available, to assault Caen on June 7, but this should be
and 8 Armor still gets to attack at 7-6. As and an additional British infantry unit or two attempted only if assault from Sword fails
indicated previously, the Advantage should may join the attack across the river or or is impossible.
never be used on this beach. With both 8 through Port-en-Bessin. If the German garrisons Tilly and Vil-
Armor and 56 Infantry available to exploit, The British have one other job which lars, I suggest that you only try to take them
the capture of Bretteville and Villars or cannot be ignored. They must try to force if something has gone wrong with the basic
Tilly is a real possibility. The beachhead is Panzer Lehr to move on June 7. This means plan and you need them. Perhaps Utah is
quite safe from counterattack, even if all that clearing Bretteville may have a higher shut down, or the 12th SS got a weather
amphibious assaults fail, because the Ger- priority than assaulting Bayeux. If Lehr is change and cleared Merville. With only 1
 45
VP to recover under the plan, a prolonged overrun into empty areas is devastating, but The German faces an excruciating deci-
assault on Tilly or Villars may be the the loss of additional units and multiple sion when, on the first impulse of June 7,
answer-but not as late as June 11, when Sunset DRMs may be worse. If the Allies Bretteville has fallen to the British, either
German reinforcements will make these are having average luck, the only realistic Tilly or Villars are vacant, the Omaha-
areas invulnerable. If these two areas are German defense (absent a weather change) Trevieres bridge is not blown, and the
equally well defended, you should prefer is blowing the bridges into Bayeux and Germans own the Montebourg-Ste. Mere-
Villars to stretch the German front. falling back to the Tilly-Balleroi-Foret line. Eglise bridge. If the German moves Panzer
Start Panzer Lehr in Zone C-don't Lehr, the Americans may clear Ste. Mere or
GERMAN TACTICS- think about it, just do it. In an ideal world, overrun Omaha and Trevieres while scor-
GOLD AND JUNO some or all of Panzer Lehr can be moved to ing a "hat trick." On the other hand, not
In most cases, you need only a simple Zone D on June 7, refitted free, and covering Tilly and Villars is totally suici-
plan for June 6. If either beach falls on regrouped into Aunay sur Odon that night. dal, because the British will pour through
Impulse 0, 21 pz FLAK the gap. To avoid this
and PAK have to go to dilemma, if Bretteville
Bretteville, as Green- is contested or lost on
wood notes. If neither June 6, the German
beach is cleared, the Ger- should move 30
man may decide to gam- Infantry and 752
ble on Impulse 0 by Infantry from Cout-
attempting to blow both ances as far toward
bridges from the beaches Caumont as possible on
into Bretteville, a 26-to- June 6, from which they
10 chance. If it works, 21 can regroup into Tilly
Pz/192 is freed to attack and Villars. If they get
a beach. Bretteville may disrupted along the
not fall for a long time. way, they may provide
On the other hand, if one just enough defense to
bridge remains standing prevent the British from
and a British armor unit taking Tilly or Villars
gets an overrun on Gold on the first impulse of
or Juno on Impulse 0, June 7.
Bretteville falls and the
two remaining fresh British point units may Yet, more often than not, Bretteville will SWORD BEACH-STRATEGY
get to waltz into Tilly, Villars or both. Con- fall on June 6 or early on June 7, and most The Sword assault force provides the
sistent with my aggressive German/conser- or all of Lehr will have to march the "Trail British with their best offensive group-14
vative Allies theory, I think the bridge- of Tears" in clear weather from Zone C AV after the Artillery lands. The Sword
blowing gamble is worth it, particularly if through Thury-Harcourt, Aunay, Villars group is charged with the tasks of taking
the Germans have the Advantage to use to Merville and contesting Caen. Although
and Tilly. There is nothing Lehr can do
re-roll the demolition attempt which failed, Merville is an easy prize on June 7 (assum-
from Zone B that can't be done better by
or both the Gold and Juno amphibious ing the Allies won the amphibious assault
"Big Black"-the 12th SS and its friends. I
assaults failed so that the Impulse 0 British on Sword), priority should be given to a
would not follow Greenwood's suggestion
attack on either beach is only at 7-6. maximum assault on Caen. Until Caen is
to move Lehr Flak ahead of the rest of the
If Bretteville is contested, blow all the contested, both Sword and Juno remain
group to provide a screen against air inter- vulnerable to German counterattacks.
bridges leading out of it. The best time to diction on the following turn. This uses an
blow bridges is when the Allies contest, British advances past Merville should be
impulse, and may require a supply depot all viewed with suspicion, despite the possibil-
rather than control, an adjacent area. Your to itself to refit, just to reduce the air inter-
odds are high and the Allies cannot repair it ity of achieving a breakout. The 12th SS
dictions in one area by 50 per cent. and the Zone A reinforcements on June 8
on the same impulse in which they clear it Greenwood's suggestion of moving
(unless they take a Double Impulse). They and 9, along with the Le Havre Battery, are
disrupted units off board for a free refit is more than adequate to defend against any
can't overrun out of the contested area. With somewhat dubious, as well. If the unit is advance beyond Troarn, while threatening
the bridges blown from a contested Bret- disrupted on June 7, it regroups to a zone to counterattack.
teville to Tilly and Villars, you have a little on the night of June 7, becomes spent on
breathing space and don't have to move the night of June 8, becomes fresh on the SWORD-BRITISH TACTICS
Panzer Lehr on the fIrst impulse of June 7. night of June 9, and can move back to the Sword, like Omaha, is not favored to
The idea in Bayeux is delay, not victory. action on June 10 (subject to air interdic- fall on June 6. The stakes are high,
This means a garrison of exactly two units, tion). Having moved, it is spent and won't because Caen may become impossible to
including 1 FLAK. The German could add be fresh in its new position until dawn on contest, if the Germans have an extra day
more units to the defense at the risk of los- June 11. Assuming the Germans can't to prepare. Also, the British paratroopers
ing three or more units in an impulse and afford to refit the unit with a depot, they in Merville start to become vulnerable if
the total collapse of the central sector. This can surely find a better use for a disrupted they can't be reinforced from Sword. The
would depend on whether Panzer Lehr unit than putting it totally out of action for longer Caen is uncontested, the greater the
arrived on the scene in good order and in three full days. The "Free Refit" substan- danger of a weather change leading to a
time. As Bayeux is five areas away from tially benefits only those units which devastating German counterattack on
Zone C, Panzer Lehr will have a hard time move from zone to zone or fail an assault Sword or Juno, with bombardment support
assisting without a weather change. An out of a zone. by 21 pz/xx out of Caen.

I
 •
46
Assuming that both Gennan units on still be saved by an assault from Juno. If A breakout to the east is a pipe dream with
Sword are spent by bombardment, but the you successfully contest Caen, you are the Le Havre battery ready to pulverize any
Merville artillery remains fresh following the right on schedule. British units foolhardy enough to enter
3-3 attack by one of the British paratroopers, After the ETF bombardment, I disagree Houlgate or Mezidon.
- the Allies should send all of their available with Maly's suggestion to bombard a fresh If Sword is still contested on June 6,
units into the amphibious assault. If all six 5-6-5 unit in Caen with the air unit or 3 your best use of air supply is probably
units survive coastal interdiction, the 13-8 CAlxx prior to the assault. The air unit will Merville, even though you need a "5" to
assault yields a solid 44 per cent chance to probably fail in Caen and is best used refit a spent unit and a "6" to refit a dis-
clear the beach of two spent units (as against Bayeux, while 3 CA/xx will fail 44 rupted unit. Merville, Pont I' Abbe and Ste.
opposed to a 34 per cent chance with the per cent of the time and uses an impulse. If Mere are likely to be the only areas on the
Ranger left behind). If a couple of units are the Germans already had the Advantage, board containing Allied units which cannot
spent or disrupted by Gennan coastal fIre and however, a "conservative" extra round of be refit from depots on June 6. The
the assault becomes closer to even money, prep fire is reasonable. Merville units are the only ones in immedi-
the extra unit is very significant. An exploit- If ETF flipped all units in Caen (a 34 per ate danger. If the 6/6 glider is the only fresh
ing Ranger lacks the required MF to advance cent chance against three fresh and no spent unit in Merville on June 7, Merville is very
into Merville against a fresh unit anyway, units-the most common defense), life is vulnerable to bombardment by 711lxx. An
and captw'ing Douvres is of minimal impor- good. The defense of Caen is reduced to average bombardment roll at "+3" leaves
tance at this stage. Leaving an infantry unit seven and cannot be improved to more than Merville with two spent and one D2 unit
behind is even worse, because it reduces the eight. Moreover, you can now attack with and a defense of four DV. With only seven
initial assault by two AV. A second wave the Rangers after overrunning Sword, and steps to absorb, Merville now offers the
beach assault is unattractive here, because the the German can only absorb eight steps. 12th SS group a 13-4 attack in overcast
spent Oustreharn CA defends at 6 DV even Your threatened 14-7 attack has a 34 per weather with a 76 per cent chance to clear
without the fortifIcation bonus. cent chance to take Caen, virtually guaran- the area and a 66 per cent chance for an
If the Merville CA is spent or disrupted teeing victory in the game. The German overrun. In either case, Merville will prob-
by the British paratroops during the night must reinforce. As a little added bonus, the ably be German for the rest of the game.
of June 5/6, it's a closer question whether 27 Armor now has enough MF to overrun One could argue that using air supply in
to assault the beach with all units, because Sword, pass through Douvres and join the a free area is more efficient since each unit
a Ranger can now exploit into Merville if overrun assault on Caen. If you like, a unit has a two-thirds chance to refit on a com-
Sword is cleared. Nonetheless, I still can peel off to assault Merville following pletely clear day. If this is a concern, the
favor the conservative approach. Taking the Sword overrun, saving an impulse. If Allies should calculate their expected
Merville on June 6 is good but not neces- the German leaves you a 20-25 per cent reserve supply level before attempting air
sary. You can't really exploit beyond chance to take Caen with a double impulse, supply to determine if successful air supply
Merville (usually a bad idea anyway) until you should try it, but realize that failure will enable them to buy an additional turn.
you contest Caen, because Sword will be means that Bayeux and Merville (both If so, that probably outweighs the chance of
too vulnerable, and the Sword force is the vital) will be safe for at least one more day strengthening Merville. Later in the game,
best British force to contest Caen. and possibly two. when you can supply all units from depots,
Merville can wait as long as German Once you have contested Caen, follow it's probably best to use air supply in free
artillery attacks are not weakening the Maly's advice and regroup all but three areas only.
paratroops to the point where they may be units out of Caen. If you don't have Dou-
driven out or destroyed. The German can- vres, you may have to leave your armor unit SWORD-GERMAN TACTICS
not afford to reinforce Merville signifi- in Caen to prevent German armor from The German's best hope in this sector is
cantly because of the low TEM. moving out of Caen through Douvres onto to prevent the British from contesting Caen.
As long as you win the assault, all a beach. Go back to Sword and take This is usually hard to do, but every reason-
Sword units will be fresh on June 7, Merville on June 8, or go to Juno to help able effort must be made. On June 6, move
because the Germans have no artillery in defend the Bayeux-Bretteville region. It is 21 Pzl125 to Bourguebus and attempt to
range. Make sure 3/xx gets ashore on June no tragedy to wait for the June 9 rein- move 21 Pz/22 there as well. If Sword looks
6. Very early on June 7, bombard Caen forcements to take Merville. Wait until like it will fall on June 6 or 7, retreat 716/736
with ETF. If one of the German 5-6-5 units you have overwhelming force, or until all into Caen if its undisrupted status can be pre-
remains fresh (as probable), Caen defends three British paratroopers are fresh for served. In any event, 716/736 should leave
with at least 10 DV. You don't have the defending the area. By June 9, the British during the night, to avoid permitting a
time or resources at this point to capture will probably be facing an impenetrable Sword-Merville "hat trick" on June 7.
Caen. Overrun the beach and exploit into line consisting of Caen, Bocage areas and The extra fresh units in Caen at the start
Caen. Your attack has only 12 AF, because the Verson-Evercy "trap," so the British of June 7 are huge. They just about guaran-
the Rangers lack the MF to join the overrun June 9 reinforcements won't have much tee that ETF's bombardment on June 7 will
attack. You should leave one Ranger fresh else to do anyway. not flip both 21 Pz/125 and 21 Pz/192. If
on Sword for defensive purposes. The other This is about all you can ask of the you can get five units in Caen fresh on June
Ranger can enter Douvres or, if the Sword force. An attempted advance 7, one of which will absorb three bombard-
Merville CA is spent, attack there. As the through Troarn is fraught with danger. ment factors, you are probably going to be
attack into Caen is only "+2" or "+1," you Groups of one, two or even three spent defending Caen with 11 or 12 DF even after
may lose-be prepared to use the Advan- British units are vulnerable to counterattack ETF bombards. Since the British Corps
tage. If you assault Caen before Omaha, as in low TEM areas. Once the Zone A rein- Artillery can't fire on June 7, if the Allies
I recommend, you can regain the Advan- forcements arrive on the evening of June 8, want to further "prep" Caen they have to
tage via the "hat trick." If the British lose Houlgate is pretty much impenetrable. By use either 2 TAF (44 per cent chance to flip
the assault on Caen and lose the re-roll, you June 8, Big Black will be hanging out in another non-Armor unit) or a Divisional
are in a fair amount of trouble, but could Potigny, ready to punish any indiscretion. Artillery (55 per cent chance). The Allies
 47
can't afford to spend impulses on moves have some fresh units, the German is not However, do not lose sight of the fact
with an even chance of success. likely to keep you spent permanently. If that the Allies are guaranteed two air bom-
Big Black starts in Zone B. If an impulse you wait until the following day when all bardments and four additional impulses if
is available, Big Black may prepare to enter your units will be fresh, you not only the day started on Impulse 0, with only a 3
the action by moving its two artillery units guarantee success on the beach but may per cent chance of getting less than five
and the Flak unit into Potigny on June 7, wind up equal to or ahead of where you impulses. By restricting themselves to
regrouping to Troarn. This provides plenty would have been by attacking· the day high-odds attacks in the early impulses of
of artillery for either bombardment or sup- before, because you get a better overrun. the turn, the Allies ensure that they will
port of an assault into Merville on June 8 Overruns are to be treasured, because they have accomplished most of their goals for
and a partial flak screen for a clear-weather effectively double the value of the units the day, even if it ends early. Also, if a
attack. I would send the Flak to Bour- involved for a turn. The availability of short, clear day occurs, the 2-to-l Allied
guebus to provide cover for units reinforc- overruns means that the schedule for the supply advantage will enable them to
ing Caen only if Caen were seriously Allies is not quite as tight as Greenwood regain some of the lost impulses on a later
threatened. In keeping with the "aggressive and Maly suggest. If the Allies were plan- turn. The Allies should at least plan to use
German" philosophy, I want the Allies to ning to take an area on a particular day but their air bombardments early in the day to
be constantly worrying about defense. merely contest it, they may be able to take the three-unit kills.
However, beware of attacking Merville "catch up" by overrunning it the next day.
while ETF is fresh. It will be Big Black's This has the paradoxical effect of allow- GENERAL TACTICAL
last significant action of the game if you do. ing the Allies to shrug off bad luck at cer- CONSIDERATIONS
If you clear Merville, it may be worth it. tain points in the game. Greenwood and Maly provided much
Otherwise, you have weakened the entire Weather Changes. This is the biggest sound, general advice about how both sides
sector, possibly permitting the British June German advantage in the game. Even if no should handle their forces tactically. I
9 reinforcements to destroy large numbers weather change actually occurs, the threat would like to make a couple of additional
of German units, if not additional VP areas. of one will seriously limit Allied options, observations, however.
If a big assault on Merville is not feasi- particularly on the early turns. A weather Initiative. BREAKOUT: NORMANDY
ble, the Germans should be careful about change early on June 7, before Lehr and the (BKN) is more similar to Chess than most
reinforcing it. A second unit may help save 12th SS group have moved, is particularly other wargames in that you do not move all
the area temporarily, but it's a low-priority devastating for the Allies. The Germans your forces on your turn, but only one
move. Three units would be offering the have all kinds of delectable options: blow- group at a time. This establishes an "initia-
British a three-unit kill. You can't really ing the British out of Merville, charging tive." The player making threats has the ini-
afford the units from Houlgate or Troam through an uncontested Caen onto Juno or tiative; the player responding to threats
until June 8 or 9. A defense in depth is Sword, or simply spreading reinforcements does not. The initiative can be held by
always better than a loaded defense in a low across the entire front to stabilize the either player or by neither player (for exam-
TEM area that will probably fall anyway. defense. This weather change would be a ple, late in a day when neither player has a
good time for the Allies to use the Advan- credible threat. Even though the Allies are
COMPENSATION FOR tage for are-roll. always the attacker in the strategic sense,
THE GERMANS? The threat of counterattack means that the Germans move first each turn. Yet, the
Although I believe that the Allies are the Allies must beware of leaving an all- Allies usually begin the game (that is,
favored, their advantage is far from over- spent force in a low TEM area throughout Impulse 0 of June 6) with the initiative
whelming. the game, because losing an area while also because the German must respond to a
Random Results. The limited number of losing units is a crushing blow. In many cir- threat-namely, British exploitation
impulses available makes each Allied fail- cumstances the extra MF required to enter through Bretteville. If both the Gold and
ure extremely costly. The randomness of an area containing a fresh unit may be the Juno initial assaults fail, the Allies are in
combat results works against the Allies. On only Allied defense against a crushing coun- danger of losing the initiative. If the follow-
virtually every day, at least one high-odds terattack. If Caen is uncontested, for exam- up assaults fail as well, the Allies have lost
attack will fail and throw the Allied plan off ple, the Germans can reach Juno and Sword the initiative, because the German can pur-
schedule. Finally, large attacks are risky all the way from Zones Band C against sue his own agenda with no need to respond
because all units become disrupted if they spent units, but not against fresh units. to an immediate threat.
lose, even if they attacked with overwhelm- Another good German tactic in cloudy The threat creating the initiative need
ing odds. Small attacks not only risk failure weather is to contest an area behind the not involve an attack-for example, if the
but may provide counterattack targets. Allied front line to hinder Allied re-supply Germans threaten to blow a key bridge and
On the other hand, the Allies have efforts. The British must be wary of overex- have a high probability of success, the
more supply and units than they need. tending their lines with futile forays down Allies must respond by crossing the bridge
Time is their only shortage. One example the Verson-Evercy corridor or into Troarn. immediately, even if they would rather
of this was described in Part I in the dis- Similarly, US forces must avoid fatally bombard first.
cussion of Utah Beach. If the Germans weakening Ste. Mere while attacking As long as the Allies maintain the initia-
reinforce Ste. Mere-Eglise, the US player Carentan. tive, they can keep to the schedule set forth
can't really do much about it directly, but Short Days. Short days are another bane in the "basic plan" and should be able to
can shift resources away from Utah. Sim- of the Allies' existence, but the game acquire 10 VP by June 12. Therefore, the
ilarly, if a contested Omaha or Sword mechanics work to somewhat compensate German must aim to take the initiative
Beach contains a mixture of fresh and for them. Frustratingly for the Allies, clear away from the Allies. One of the key
spent Allied units, your best course may and cloudy days alternate beginning on advantages of a weather change is that,
be to ignore that beach for the rest of the June 8, so that the Allies can generally use even if the Germans have no devastating
day rather than make an attack which is their supply advantage on clear days only to attack to make immediately, they may be
not certain to succeed. As long as you lengthen cloudy days. able to seize the initiative by making suc-
48
cessful bombardments. Sometimes the Ger- have enough time to be making marginal response. In any case, the German should
mans can force the Allies to activate an area moves (55 per cent or even 66 per cent always look at the localized nature of his
at an inconvenient time. For example, if chance of success) on a regular basis. supply usage. A bombardment by an
101 NW is fresh in Pont l' Abbe on Impulse Assaults which are expected to clear an artillery unit in a region of the board that
o of June 9, and the German can afford to area but fail to do so are extremely expen- will not see any other action uses only one
start the day with a bombardment of the sive, even if the assault "wins," because supply point, but requires use of a depot to
82nd Airborne contesting the area, the Ger- supply must come from outside the area at refit. In practice, the unit may remain spent
mans will have the initiative for at least one two supply points per unit. Also, bridges for several turns if all depots are needed
impulse by threatening to clear the area bordering the contested area cannot be elsewhere.
with an assault. The Allied player, having repaired unless adjacent to a friendly area. Defense of the Front. Unlike hex-map
cleared Ste. Mere, wants to bombard Throw in that extra unit to raise the odds. wargames, BKN features areas of irregular
Carentan before launching an assault, but The Allies really do have more than they size and shape, with (for most practical
because he must activate Ste. Mere to rein- can use. On most days, the Allies will run purposes) no stacking limitations in each
force Pont l' Abbe, he may be hustled into out of impulses before they have made all area. Therefore, each player should give
making an attack on Carentan at much reasonable moves. The "saved" units may attention to shortening his front whenever
lower odds than he hoped. be wasted. With a "+2" or "+3" Sunset possible, as this increases the number of
As in chess, the best way to seize the ini- DRM in hand, however, the situation units available for defense of each area.
tiative is to make a move that accomplishes changes and the Allies can shift to making The classic example of this is the British
two tasks-defending against a threat and smaller attacks, because they can now contestation of Caen, which shortens their
making its own threat. If your opponent has afford to lose some assaults. front by two areas. Similarly, the Ameri-
made a minor threat, you may be able to German Mistakes. Most of the more cans need to contest Foret de Clerisy as
seize the initiative by ignoring his threat subtle German mistakes fall into one of well as Isigny so that they need not garri-
and making a bigger one yourself. two categories: trying to defend an area son Trevieres, Columbieres and Omaha
You keep the initiative by generating a with too many units or getting overactive Beach. On the German side, you should be
threat on each impulse. If possible, you in trying to counterattack. A good German more reluctant to abandon an area if your
want to create two major threats in one player must cultivate the art of knowing line will be lengthened, but cheerfully
impulse, only one of which your opponent when to cut and run. Take additional CPs retreat from an area if you will thereby
can defend, much like a fork move in in the form of retreats to evacuate a con- shorten your line.
Chess. tested area except for one hapless D2 unit. Double Impulse. This is the "wonder
Allied Mistakes. The most common sub- Then, blow the bridges surrounding the weapon" of the campaign. The Allies
tle Allied mistake is becoming distracted area (only "l"s fail), and live to fight should use it in only three instances: when
from the easiest path to 10 VP and chang- another day. The German has lots of units, it provides a reasonable opportunity to take
ing priorities. I believe that the "distrac- but not where or when he needs them. He Caen, when the Allies can blow a hole in
tion" factor accounted for the fact that the really needs to avoid getting units killed the German line in two places, and where
Germans won a majority of the games at in this game. You should have no qualms part of the front line is a contested area
AvalonCon'95, even though they "bid" less about giving up 9 VPs without a fight as which has vacant or very weakly defended
than 10 VP in most cases. long as you have a clear idea about how areas behind it. In this last case, the first
Another subtle Allied mistake is giving you will prevent the Allies from getting impulse is used to assault and clear the con-
up the Advantage too easily. The most that tenth one. tested area from another area. The second
important uses of the Advantage are to pre- My second category of German mis- impulse is used to exit the formerly con-
vent your opponent from re-rolling your big takes seems somewhat contradictory in tested area into the empty German rear. In
rolls or to re-roll his big rolls. The worst use light of my earlier advice that the Germans all three of these situations, the use of the
is to re-roll your bad assaults. If you make must take some chances. However, I'm Double Impulse should be a game-winning
an unexpected, game-winning overrun, you probably more conservative than Maly or move if successful. Otherwise, the Advan-
don't want to lose it to a re-roll. On the Greenwood with the Germans on June 6- tage is too valuable to risk.
other hand, losing a single assault (other I rarely find myself counterattacking (or
than the initial assaults on Omaha and even reinforcing) beaches in clear weather. SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
Sword) will rarely merit a re-roll no matter However, I'll consider an even-odds coun- As game master of the BREAKOUT:
how big the attack was (unless you have an terattack with a single unit, when there are NORMANDY tournament at Avalon-
obvious way to regain the Advantage). no emergencies that need to be managed. Con'95, I advised players not to use cards
After the first two days, the Germans Multiple-unit German attacks should be or chits instead of dice to resolve assaults
should have their forces organized well avoided except at high odds, because fail- and bombardments (an optional rule).
enough that it will be difficult to regain the ure disrupts multiple units. The German, After seeing the large swings of luck cre-
Advantage by killing units. Thus, giving unlike the Allies, needs units for defense ated by dice in many of the games, I have
the Advantage to the Germans may amount and has supply problems. changed my mind about this. While
to conceding a VP. It is futile to launch a campaign of low- cards/chits permit card counting, the bal-
Another tempting Allied mistake is to odds bombardments of fresh Allied units ancing of the luck factor weighs heavily in
try to make "efficient" attacks-that is, undertaken in clear weather in the faint favor of this option.
attacks with less than the maximum force hope that an Allied-held area will eventu- BREAKOUT: NORMANDY is one of
available, in order to save supply and ally be weakened enough to counterattack Avalon Hill's finest designs. I have not
maintain additional threats. In general, following a weather change. This uses played any other game which combines so
this is a losing tactic. The Allies have impulses and supplies that the German can- well playability, excitement, analytical
enough time to accomplish their goals, if not afford. It is much better to wait for the depth and realistic military "feel" into a
they can limit their failed moves to overcast weather to arrive, and then make four-hour game.
approximately one per day. They do not bombardments that will compel an Allied
*
 49
EDITORS
John W. Kisner
John A. Walker

SENIOR WRITERS
Larry Barrett, John Bowen,
John Burtt, Dave Conn,
Kevin Donovan, Lee Forester, "

Monte Gray, Mark Hunter,

T
Art Kritzer, Hemy Lowood, he book and the game. We are, we call historical causation. Wargames
Dave Mignerey, David Newport, almost all of us, interested in both. and written history both recognize that
Chris Perleberg, and Rick Stuart. But do we view narrative history not everything is possible. What games
and games as involved in an exchange, an do that is special is also recognize that not
Here's an explanation of how zoe scores a interplay, a dialogue? No, we understand, everything possible is equally so.
game's complexity and general quality: do we not, that games come from books,
not vice versa. Game titles proclaim this. Military history instructs us in the work-
COMPLEXITY A fair smattering have been named after ings of leadership, and the telTible eager-
Rather than use a subjective rating, histories, but no military historian has ness most men have to be led. Such
we have opted to 'count' the compo- ever named his work after a wargame. lessons are of value, for the social sci-
nents in two areas and equate the ences do not conduct controlled experi-
sum of their square roots with the Most wargames do lean heavily on wlit- ments. Wargames, which study relative
game's rough complexity. The Size ten history for facts and analysis. The degrees of possibility, contain an element
score will usually be lower than that games are original nonetheless. It's that is absent from written history: ran-
for System, and this is intended; because of their medium. Historical domization or chance. That is why game
we believe that the 'physical size' tomes often include much in the way of designers are uniquely able to take the
of a design is easier to deal with statistics - gamelike numbers - but analysis of events a step further, to serve
than its 'intellectual size.' even then they use descriptive prose to as a control and crosslight on written his-
elucidate relationships. The game design- tory. Take this passage from Joe
GAME REVIEW ABSTRACT er uses prescriptive prose, logic and num- Balkoski's design notes to STONEWALL
In each of the following GRA categories we bers for the same end. IN THE VALLEY:
use an ascending subjective scale of 1-5:
But despite appearances, wargames usu- "I came to the surprising conclusion that
'Look' is rated on aesthetic grounds. ally do not quantify. What I mean is, the history books do not really deal ade-
when a designer accords a unit a combat quately with the key grand strategic
'Utility' rates the component design's strength, the historical judgment involved issues of the Valley campaign... In my
impact on ease of play. is not necessarily based on counting men final analysis, although Jackson consis-
and rifles. This holds true even if it's an tently outmaneuvered his opponents and
'Rules' are rated for complete- artillery unit and the designer arrived at defeated them on the battlefield, I'm not
ness and organization. the number by counting tubes and making sure that he accomplished the gigantic
an appropriate division. It is the division, strategic victory in the Valley that histori-
'Game' scores the fun and not the earlier counting, that matters. The ans give him credit for."
replay value. designer is making a power judgment,
which is a form of value judgment, a The point right now is not agreeing or dis-
'Simulation' rates realism and statement as to what will happen when a agreeing with Balkoski's thesis. (My
nuts-and-bolts detail. player does something with the unit. sense is that he is COlTect: many things -
Wargames embody assumptions as to the such as Jackson's untimely death and
'Innovation' scores inventiveness, novelty, nature of what we call history. Narrative early war politics and propaganda - led
and new combinations of old ideas. tends to view events in a fundamentally people to exaggerate the effect of
different way: as things that happened, as Jackson's remarkable victories.) The
'Solitaire' rates the degree to which solo play opposed to things that are about to hap- point is that the design process led him
is possible. pen. Wargames do not see a past, only down new avenues by allowing historical
alternative presents. facts to speak for themselves. When facts
CORRESPONDENCE speak sans mediator, as they do in games
Letters to ZQC can be sent care This way of looking at things applies to like this, which are steeped in primary
of Avalon Hill in Baltimore or all past events, big and small, not just sources, the subject is liberated from a
direct to John Kisner at: whole eras. Individual moments are the prison, not of words, but of assumptions.
atoms of history. To designers and players
Zone of Control each atom is pregnant with possibility, The lesson of all of this, at least for me, is
7104 Bellaire Avenue and that possibility is history. Written his- that just as war is too important a thing to
Windsor Heights, IA 50311 tory, in contrast, has traditionally con- leave to presidents and generals, the past
cerned itself with just two things: estab- is too important to be left to historians.
515-277-8920 lishing facts and trying to determine the - John A. Walker
[email protected] relations between facts; the latter is what
 •

It's been twenty years since tanks to strike fast, but neither has man- worse shape, and resolved not to throw in
good 01' SPI hoodwinked us power enough for anything approximat- the towel. When the dust cleared, it
into thinking CAMPAIGN FOR ing a solid front. The game's homespun turned out to be Rommel who had taken it
NORTH AFRICA was the Holy mechanics are a stark contrast to straight- on the chin. Crusader eventually forced
Grail of realism. Ever since, many laced and scholarly DAK (as much a dis- him to abandon Cyrenaica and the gar-
gamers have continued the quest for sim- sertation as a game) by the same design- risons of Bardia, Sollum, and Halfaya
perfection; this summer quite a few final- er, Dean Essig. Whatever the reasons, Pass. The timing of the fight's final bell is
ly found it in DAK from The Gamers. CRUSADER stands out for allowing players noteworthy: 7 December 1941.
Despite all of this monster's obvious to concentrate on the game, not the rules.
merit, most gamers are more likely to The end result, to steal an apt description Four scenarios cover all or part of this
enjoy a standard-sized entry that's part of from the designer's notes, is "a swirling three-week affair, and our matches have
the same company's Standard Combat knife-fight of armor in the desert." all been nail-biters. You'll have to take
Series (SCS). CRUSADER, largely unno- my word that CRUSADER is fast-and-furi-
ticed when it debuted alongside dazzling During historical Crusader, ous. A nagging question remains: does it
DAK, is far less weighty but designed to Britain's Eighth Army meant come close to filling the Grail of simula-
be enjoyed no less fervently by the fun- to strike a decisive blow. tion? Depending upon your perspective,
loving crusaders among us. Thirteenth Corps (consisting the cup is either half full or half empty.
of the 2nd New Zealand Division, 4th
Unlike the many games that rely upon Indian Division, and 1st Army Tank Far from a technical study, CRUSADER
arcane procedures to reproduce the fog Brigade) would drive along the coast road doesn't even try to examine the nuts and
and chaos of war, here they're a natural to break the siege of Tobruk. Meanwhile, bolts of maneuver warfare. Just a passing
outgrowth of the situation. CRUSADER can 30th Corps (7th Armored Division, 1st look at logistics, command and control,
keep it simple because both sides have the South African Division, and 22nd Guards limited intelligence, and unit interactions.
Brigade) was to destroy the Afrika Korps' Gamers interested in such devilish details
WANT THE BACK ISSUES? ever-dangerous mobile divisions. are far better served by far more complex
designs, such as the aforementioned DAK
A typical back issue of ZQC contains Rommel, taken by surprise, reacted in his (which includes a Crusader scenario).
sixty pages of reviews and essays. usual way: by punching back relentlessly.
They're now just $5 each, which The fight's decisive moment came when CRUSADER may not be the omega of simu-
includes shipping to the USA or the Desert Fox pressed toward Egypt's lations, but is still faithful to history. It
Canada (add $1 per issue for overseas border. By then Eighth Army was on the mirrors the psychology of the desert war
orders). Send a check or money order ropes, battered by a vicious one-two of especially well. Africa was not the same
to John Kisner at 7104 Bellaire Ave., appalling tank losses and the threat to its as Russia, where commanders usually
Windsor Heights, IA 50311. (Phone rear. But a funny thing happened: General had the luxury of solid lines. In addition
(515-277-8920) or e-mail (zoc@earth- Auchinleck didn't panic. He cooly calcu- to the desert's legendary logistical night-
link.net.) Some issues are in short sup- lated that the Axis forces must be in even mare, that open southern flank was the
ply, so order today!The back issues, by stuff of which bad dreams are made. With
cover story, are: GAME REVIEW ABSTRACT this in mind, Rommel made his sprint
toward Egypt. His sights weren't set on
#1: THUNDER AT THE CROSSROADS. Look 1======== any conventional objective; his target was
#2: PROUD MONSTER. Utility the mind of his rival, Aucklineck. The
#3: LA BATAlLLE series. Sold out! Rules logic was simple: make the enemy
#4: STONEWALL IN THE VALLEY.
Game 1=======:::::1 believe he is losing, and the battle is won.
#5: CRISIS: SINAI 1973.
Simulation With its emphasis on the attack and hold-
#6: THREE DAYS OF GETTYSBURG. ing initiative, the design can indeed be
Innovation
#7: INDO-PAKISTANI WARS. nerve-racking. It lets players imagine the
#8: HANNIBAL. worst - and act accordingly.
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 51
In our inaugural game, the battle began and CRUSADER is typical with its several structural indifference to high casualty
with an assault on the Italian position at pages of "exclusive mles" that flesh out rates by citing evidence of the German
Bir el Gubi, a crossroads about 45 miles the particular event. The two most inter- army's battlefield resiliency, but mainly
due south of Tobmk. The situation looked esting mles concern themselves with unit it's a game-balancing ploy.
grim for the defenders (who were quickly reconstitution and Rommel himself.
surrounded on three sides) until the Axis Directing this oh-so resilient army is
committed the bulk of its armored reserve Unit reconstitution will give people Erwin Rommel, whose military career
into this sector. Soon it was the British pause. The rule seems more at home in has been romanticized by historians and
troops that were surrounded! COMMAND than in a game from those garners alike. Whether or not you com-
grognards in Homer. Unit reconstitution pletely believe the legend, who can deny
At this point in the game, things looked handles replacements without pencils or having felt the pull of Rommel's goggles
grim for both players. From Rommel's markers. Whenever a unit (other than sin- on his face as the the 21 st Panzer is
command post, the British right wing, gle-steppers and non-stepping static ordered into the breach? Here Rommel is
which had quickly bypassed Hellfire Pass types) is lost in combat, a die is rolled. If portrayed by the only leader counter in
and was driving along the coast to relieve the roll is a '1,' the unit is permanently the game. He can fly faster than a speed-
Tobruk, looked a juggernaut. With all eliminated. Any other roll is the number ing bullet (up to forty hexes in the famed
reserves locked in the death struggle at of game-turns later the unit will reappear Storch airplane) and is impervious to lead
Bir el Gubi, enemy Thirteenth Corps was at reduced strength (except for German projectiles (Rommel cannot be killed or
flying through the screen that now lay in units, which, for better game balance, captured). Our super-hera's powers don't
tatters. A miracle would be needed to hold come back full-strength). end there. Rommel gives his stack a pos-
the line. itive shift on both attack and defense and
It's not so much the concept as the the capability to move and fight in the
That miracle came in the form of an absence of modifications (for presence of exploitation phase (even non-mechanized
Allied player transfixed by Thirty Corps, zones of control or lack of supply) that is units). Properly used, Rommel can make
which seemingly faced complete annihi- bothersome. In fairness, Essig addresses a very big difference in the campaign.
lation. And so in our re-telling of history these concerns in his design notes, and
it was Aucklineck who blinked first. He does makes a strong case. And whether CRUSADER strives for classical
sounded retreat, then sent up a flare for completely realistic or not, reconstitution balance. And I'm not just
emergency reinforcements (a few extra works so well that I'd like to see it used in talking about the scenarios,
brigades) to stabilize things. When it was future SCS games. Specifically, it reflects all of which are handicapped
over, the German player confessed to the natural ebb and flow of battle. It does to give each side an even chance. With
having been on the verge of doing the not take great imagination to envision the familiar mles concepts and modest com-
same thing - snatching defeat from vic- shattered cadres grabbing forty winks and plexity, here's a game that we all want to
tory due to the enormous mental strain of a hot meal behind the lines, and then play that we actually have time to play ...
non-linear warfare. being tossed back into the meat-grinder. and then switch sides and play again.

CRUSADER, the fifth game of the SCS In this particular case, the rule also prods
series, plays differently from its predeces- the German player (whose reconstituted
sors because games in this series cre all units return at full-strength, remember) to
different by design. A wafer-thin series take an aggressive stance. Essig's notes
rulebook is all that ties the five together, rationalize granting one side a certain

CRUSADER
ANNOTATED SEQUENCE Barrage: Artillery and air units The simple logistics help put the Size 2.2 • System 4.5
bombard enemy units, applying "standard" in SCS. Solo "Gd"
Air Determination Phase various modifiers for terrain and
SCALE
A die is tossed and a table con- spotting units. Results can be dis- Exploitation: To be eligible to 2 days per turn
sulted to generate air points. organization (which halves the operate in this phase, a unit must 5 miles per hex
Initially, Allied airpower has the target's factors and zeros-out its be exploit-capable and not in an
edge, but the modifiers even out ZOC) and steps lost. enemy ZOC. Such units can both PUBLISHER
later on. move and conduct overruns. The Garners, Inc.
500 W. 4th Street
Combat: Yes, units that overran Homer, IL 61849
Allied Player Thrn earlier can attack again. Table is Disorganization Removal: Allied
Movement: Pretty tame, with odds-based, with both step-loss units that are currently DG'd are DESIGN & GRAPHICS
only the phase's overrun combat and retreat results. Only exploit- reorganized automatically. Dean Essig
noteworthy. Resolved just like capable units may advance COMPONENTS
regular attacks, overruns can be beyond the defender's hex. Axis Player Turn One 22 x 34" map, 280
made with just one moving stack. Sarne as the Allied Player Turn. counters, 8-page series
As is always the case, overruns Supply: Units are supplied by rulebook, 16-page exclusive
are a great way to clear a path for tracing a path to mobile head- End Thrn Phase rulebookand a double-sided
player-aid card.
units moving later in the turn. quarters or fixed supply sources Time marches one space on the
(some range restrictions apply). turn record chart. PRICE: $38
 •

I lost my best friend during a game of To mark a colony, the controlling play- War with everyone else. Many an Italian
DIPLOMACY. There was probably more er(s) plops down a pretty cool building or German token found itself odd-man
to it, but in my mind that double-cross - figurine that's about I" square. After this, out in the face of this united front - it
that lie, as he always called it - caused the colony is safe: control cannot change. was great fun! But however successful,
us to drift apart. I've been careful to keep The period of danger comes before, when the alliance could not go on forever. Only
my word, and so my friends, ever since. up to five other players try to push their one player can win, you see, and splitting
That's why I was reluctant to play this way into your ten-itory. Security can only victory points (for shared colonies) with
French import, brought stateside by Clash be found in each turn's diplomacy phase, an eventual rival gets old in a hun-yo I
of Arms. While the mechanics are quite a frenzied eight minutes dedicated to remember muttering something about
different, at AFRICA'S heart is all the back- secret and public negotiations. After remaining allies for at least one more
stabbing darkness of DIPLOMACY. negotiating, players record plans for turn ... and then carving up the English
development, exploration, and the pos- like Christmas hams after making a deal
The typical two-hour session begins inno- ture to be adopted, Peace or War, with with an erstwhile enemy, Italy.
cently enough for AFRICA'S three to six regards to each rival power. Later, when
players. Each directs the colonial ambi- written orders are simultaneously execut- A backstab is perhaps more painful in
tions of one European state, starting with ed, life-long friendships may be put to the AFRICA than in other games of this genre.
just a single token placed along the coast. test. Imagine how the English player felt: his
The continent is divided into 32 territo- Peace posture protected my duplicitous
ries, and victory goes to whoever builds Lying, even to friends, is essential French from harm even as his own tokens
the most colonies from 1880 to 1914. because of the unique way in which faced oblivion (due to my switch to War)
diplomatic posture resolves conflict and from coast to coast. There's a lesson to be
More in tune with the spirit than the relates to the problem of colony-building. learned: do unto others first. The trick, of
specifics of the era, use of "tokens" As to the latter, even if fully developed, a course, is to lie only when it really counts.
(rather than "units") speaks volumes as to territory that contains tokens at War with
AFRICA'S lack of traditional simulation one another cannot be made into colonies. The classic novel Heart of Darkness tells
value. Tokens represent a rather fuzzy Regarding the former, AFRICA'S limit of of the "dreams of men, the seed of com-
amalgam of European settlers, imperial one token per player per territory pre- monwealths, the germs of empires" that
troops, and native alliances. Those thirst- vents stacking to concentrate strength. were lost on the voyage upriver "into the
ing for even rudimentary details, such as Absent a numerical superiority, hostile mystery of an unknown earth." In AFRICA
named leaders (like Chinese Gordon) or tokens coexist indefinitely. Only shifting we know the terrain but run a greater risk:
particular events (like the Zulu uprising) diplomatic tides can break the deadlock losing friends. It can be great fun, though,
had best fill your history cups elsewhere. and sweep a territory clean of the enemy. if you're willing to take that chance.

During each five-year turn a token can Conflict resolution requires neither CRT AFRICA
either "explore" by placing a new token nor dice. Traditional randomization gives System 2.6 • Size 2.2
Solo "Poor"
in an adjacent territory, or "develop" its way to a pair of simple comparisons.
present location by placing an appropriate When just two tokens are in a ten-itory, SCALE
marker. Territories are turned into they coexist unless it's a Peace-War situ- thousands of square miles per area
colonies only after they have been fully ation, in which case the pacifist token is 5 years per turn
developed in this abstract fashion. A few destroyed. In all other cases, a token is
PUBLISHER
places, like Congo, are easy to colonize, destroyed when tokens at War with it in Tilsit Editions/Clash of Arms
requiring just one development marker. that territory outnumber those at Peace. The Byrne Building#205
Some aren't: Nigeria, among others, Sometimes the result is all tokens Lincoln & Morgan Sts.
requires four markers. The rest fall some- destroyed; usually one or more survive, Phoenixville, PA 19460
where in between. protected by an alliance. DESIGN
Francis Pacherie
GAME REVIEW ABSTRACT Given a combat methodology in which

Look
Utility
1==---- the only variables are in secret diplomat-
ic postures, it isn't hard to understand
why the question is not so much whether
GRAPHICS
Le Lion Vert

COMPONENTS
Rules as when lies will be told. Illustrating this One full-sized mounted map, roughly 300
Game 1======= is the game during which my France counters (of various shapes and sizes), 22
Simulation worked closely with England to jointly colony figurines, rules in French and
Innovation English, and a pad of order sheets.
develop northern Africa. For a long time
we stood at Peace with each other and PRICE: $54
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 53
with its counters (and even, sometimes,
with the box art) to create a distinctive
historical mood. These lights and moods
MONST'S HAY9T:ACK5 AND MONT 5T'., ..JEAN are at least as subjective a matter as the
"correct" emphasis in a game's rules, and
by ..J~ln:n $'etec;1:r so I do not attempt here to decide which
is the "right" mood. My intention is rather
to bring to the forefront the relevant
The following article is part ofthe reason countryside - a less ambitious arrange- choices, the way they combine to create
why ZQC #3 went out of stock. We don't ment of natural materials by human an historical mood, and the fact that such
intend to make reprints a regular part of hands, but one no less powerfully immor- choices are subtle and important enough
this section, but my recent move to a new talized by subtle shifts in oils from paint- to deserve consideration as something
house has curtailed hobby time enough to ing to painting. Through Monet's exquis- beyond mere appearances.
make this seem the ideal moment to share itely sensitive eye, the viewer sees that
Mr. Setear's essay with a wider audience. the "same" object painted from the e begin our tour with a game

he essays in zoe typically examine

"same" vantage point in the "same"
medium is really many objects with many W intended for the beginner: the

T
1979 version of NAPOLEON AT
the choices made by a game's moods. WATERLOO (SPI). The map has all the
designer: the sequence of play, the sunny simplicity of a brightly lit after-
combat or movement values of units, and The Waterloo battlefield in Belgium is noon. The playing area contains just four
so forth. But our first - and sometimes about 200 miles northeast of Monet's terrain types - a faint buff for clear ter-
our deepest - impression of a game typ- haystacks and cathedral. The gently rain, bright yellow roads with grey bor-
ically comes not from its words, but from rolling terrain of that battlefield has been ders, steel-grey overhead views of build-
its pictures. The box art catches our eye largely preserved as it was in 1815, and ings, and classic bright-green forests -
before we read the description on the the contemporary visitor may walk, in as well as small, unit-typed squares show-
back. If we buy the game, we examine the many lights, the same ground that boot ing the starting positions of the French (in
map and counters before we plunge into and horseshoe churned into mud on the blight blue) or the Anglo-Allies (in bright
the rules. Some would dismiss graphics mid-June day that closed an era. If you red). A grey border limiting the edge of
as superficial. This is literally true, of examine Waterloo, not in person but with the playing surface to full hexes, and the
course, but I would argue that, at the very a board wargame, the counters and map presence on the mapsheet of all the nec-
least, graphics are profoundly superficial. will not change with the season or posi- essary charts and tables, adds an air of
The map and counters aim to capture our tion of the sun. Nonetheless, if you take precise self-containment.
heart, after all, while the rules and tables the look with a series of wargames, then
are only after our intellect. Choices made the same terrain can take on different As far as historical mood goes, NAPOLEON
by graphic artists influence our impres- characteristics with the shifting illumina- AT WATERLOO is a kind of archetype.
sions of a game and its historicity. Toward tions chosen by the graphic artists who Where are you in the long march of time?
a better understanding of this influence I construct a game's counters, maps, and Hard to say. You've got a crossroads, a
offer this essay. box. Like Monet's studies of man's cre- few woods, some counters, and an odds-
ations, these studies of man's destructive ratio CRT. One side is blue; one side is
e think of a plot of land as con- side show that the same battle or cam- red. The counters use NATO-style unit-

W stant - ancient, weighty,

immovable. But walk the same
piece of land over and over, and you see
paign treated in the same medium can
convey very different moods.
type designations (though with pleasant
white lines stretching from one corner of
the counter to the other, rather than the
how much it can change. From season to This essay is a guided tour of five games usual symbol-in-a-box). The various
season, flowers and leaves appear, and focused on the battle of Waterloo. I omit typefaces on the map and play aids are
then fall away. The snow blanket grows the operational-level games that allow clean and vaguely modern. The graphic
and shrinks during the season when the treatment of the campaign as a unified choices entice and assist beginners to
foliage is constant by its absence. From whole, such as Clash of Arms' L'ARMEE play the game, but not to imagine a par-
day to day, a piece of land shifts with the DU NORD, SPI's classic NAPOLEON'S LAST ticular struggle in a particular era.
cloud cover from gloomy pessimism to BATTLES, and the various editions of the
sunny promise. From hour to hour, the "block" game NAPOLEON. I also omit
light, and with it all the terrain, changes HOUGOMONT by XTR, which appears to
from the harsh near-white of noon to the be the only game focused on just a piece
sentimental reds of dusk and then the of the struggle near Mont Saint Jean.
deep, deep blues of night. More importantly, I leave to others the
consideration of how the five render the
The best artistic examples of these phe- order of battle, the distinctive aspects of
nomena that I know are two sets of paint- the Imperial Guard, or the struggle of
ings by Claude Monet. Near the end of horse against square. I focus instead on
the 19th Century, he painted the cathedral the choices made by graphic artists in cre-
of Rouen from the same spot, but in a dif- ating the game maps and counters. Each
ferent light, over and over. Monet did the game's mapsheet presents the battlefield
same with a set of haystacks in the French in a different light. Each map combines
 •
Pop Art. Just as Rauschenberg subtly
changed and simplified RAT-A-TAT-
TAT! and other comic-book frames that
he copied, Rodger MacGowan's box sub-
tly brightens and simplifies the central
icon of military art that he has chosen for
his front cover. The original, by
Delaroche, depicts a glowering
Napoleon, deep in shadow, lit only by
aquinto's 1980 release, THE THIN ness. The overall result is a wonderful fading light from a window and perhaps

Y RED LINE, is a dramatic contrast:

the graphics of the game seem not
merely to focus the gamer upon a partic-
physicality to the formations as deployed
on the map that one could never achieve
with the usual small hexes, square coun-
by a fire: grey eyes in the shadows, a grey
greatcoat, black boots. MacGowan's ver-
sion is Napoleon in a flash photograph: a
ular era of battle, but to draw you right ters, and use of markers to denote forma- brilliant white waistcoat, bright blue eyes,
into the titular thin red line of infantry- tion. and an aqua-blue greatcoat. Delaroche's
men deployed behind a ridge just south of background moves from purple-black to
Mont St. Jean. The thick brown roads and general green- pure black; MacGowan's background
ness of the map have captured the Belgian from light to dark purple. I should note
This specific historical mood is largely countryside in the mud and lushness of that we have the strongest possible evi-
the result of effective counter design. The the hours after a rain - although the dence that MacGowan chose this brighter
counters in this game are not the standard large hex numbers and clumsy black out- Napoleon deliberately: he has also done a
1/2" square, but are 1/2" x 3/4" rectan- lines of the chateau hexes undermine version of this very same painting for
gles. When deployed in line formation, one's confidence that this effect is inten- Avalon Hill's THE STRUGGLE OF
the infantry counters are therefore about tional, as does the fact that the green cho- NATIONS that is much darker. On the
150% wider than the usual counter, sen for Prussian units tends to look a little Avalon Hill box, Napoleon's eyes are
though of standard depth. This simple nauseating against the greens chosen for black, and his greatcoat looks almost like
physical representation of a line is the map. In any event, the combined a piece of carved charcoal. Tellingly, the
enhanced by three more subtle graphic effect of French and British counters soldiers sharing the box are no parade-
choices. First, the hexes are twice as wide upon the map is inspiring. In addition, the ground dandies but a wonderfully evoca-
as in the standard game - an inch-and-a- physical representation of line, square, tive mass of weary grognards - even
quarter across, rather than the standard and column makes it plain that the game their dog is so bone-tired that it too shuf-
5/8" (or the oversized 3/4" hexes that we represents the action of a particular (i.e., fles along, stoop-shouldered.
have become used to in Command late muzzle-loading) era.
games) - and thus cover roughly four The choice of colors for some of the unit
times the area. Because of this, a unit in MT's THE BATTLES OF WATERLOO identifications on the counters display the
line, with its standard counter depth,
when pressed against the front of its over-
sized hex seems woefully exposed.
G covers not only Mont Saint Jean
but also Quatre Bras, Ligny, and
Wavre. The box art clearly gives the bat-
same peppy Modernism: orange for the
French II Corps, bright blueberry for the
French ill Corps, grape for the French IV
Second, every Anglo-Allied infantry (and tle of Waterloo pride of place; however, Corps, and a cool yellow for the French II
cavalry) counter has a thin, light-blue only Mont Saint Jean has its own banner Cavalry Corps. The trio of horses on a
border along the long front side, a place- on the front, and only that battlefield Recovered marker are black shadows gal-
ment that, by reducing the red field, still receives a three-dimensional map treat- loping out of a white background like
further reduces the sense of depth. ment on the back. some ultra-high contrast Bergman trick,
Finally, infantry units have in their center and the markers for Disorder and Rout are
a tiny, colorful flag of the appropriate You could practically frame the front box so stylishly functional that they could
nationality - Union Jack, French tricol- art, with its gorgeous red-to-yellow back- only be from the less-is-more 20th centu-
or, the Dutch-Belgian tricolor variant, and ground and its triptych of Napoleonic ry.
so forth - while cavalry and artillery icons: Napoleon himself in the center,
have only black, generic symbols flanked on one side by Detaille's image of As with the box art, the counters hit what
(crossed swords and a dot, respectively). a gleaming stalwart of the Old Guard I assume to be MacGowan's mark: daz-
As a result, the player's eye tends to trace infantry and on the other by a dashing zling. The pictographs are detailed and
out the line of colorfully accented dragoon. If I did frame the box, I would stylish. One can pick out the top of the
infantry units before turning to the sup- put it in the same gallery as the Warhols plume on the cavalrymen, the backpacks
porting arms of horse and gun carriage. and Rauschenbergs: the iconography of of the infantry, and wheel hubs on the
The prominence, as well as the precari-
ousness, of the "thin red line" is thus sub-
tly imprinted on the player's mind by the
game's graphic artists.

The counters also include several 3/4"

square counters to represent infantry
squares that, like all the counters in the
game, are about double the usual thick-
 ss
artillery pieces. Each army has its stun- involved as the map does for each hamlet
ning flag on every counter: a reversed it portrays. The dizzying variety of the
version of the Iron Cross for the period's military uniforms leaps to life in
Prussians, a diagonal blue-white-blue these counters, which generally mimic
pennant for the Anglo-Allies, and the tri- the belts and facings of the units
color for the French. An exception to the involved. The Scotch have tartans; the sil-
tricolor's employment is made for the ver breastplates of the cuirassiers are
Imperial Guard, whose special treatment right there on the counter; leaders or
on the box art carries through to their very aides-de-camp sport their badges of rank.
own counter design: a deep blue back- To take a particular example, the I Corps
ground with yellow lettering, and a flag of the French Cavalry Reserve, with six
based not on the tricolor's rectangles but different counter patterns for its eight
the diamond-design battle standards of La combat units: (I) a cobalt-blue upper
Grande Armee. Taken as a whole, the field with silver buttons and black letter-
game portrays the involved units not ing, a silver-and-red banded belt, and a
merely in the clear sunshine of a clear white lower field (1st Hussars); (2) a
mid-morning, but in that light as brilliant- scheme identical to the 1st Hussars
ly reflected off neat arrays of polished except with gold, rather than silver, but-
bayonets and cuirassiers. tons (5th Hussars); (3) a pink upper field
with gold buttons and black lettering, a
The map, a Mark Simonitch and Joe red-and-gold banded belt, and a white
Youst production, is a much more the prominence of units laid atop them. lower field (4th Hussars); (4) uniformly
restrained affair. Appropriately so, for the This may be just as well, as the colors of deep green with white lettering, except
vivid pictures of the counters require a the counters in the TSR reprint are marred for a red belt and facing (1st and 2nd
quiet frame if their dazzle is not to result by an unfortunate return to the days of Lancers); (5) a deep-green upper field
in show-blindness. The basic hex colors Avalon Hill's WATERLOO: pastel pink with a red stripe across a white facing, a
are muted yellows or browns, with grey for the Anglo-Allies, and pastel blue for white belt, and a white lower field (lIth
hex borders and generally unobtrusive the French. (The Prussians are, fortunate- Chasseurs); and (6) deep blue upper and
terrain features - thin white roads with ly, a palatable blue-grey, not the fruity lower fields separated by a white belt,
broken borders, village hexes where the green of WATERLOO.) The box wrap kitchi- with white lettering all around the white-
buildings occupy only a small fraction of Iy refers to "a dark, titanic struggle from field facing crossed by a slash and cen-
the relevant hex, cultivated-hex markings the days when men were men;" the map, tered ball of shot (for the two horse
that are just skippings of green, and ridge typefaces, and associated tables say "a artillery units).
hexsides that blend nicely but discern- graphically integrated abstraction of bat-
ably with the elevation scheme. Forest tle." The counters just say "I don't get no The counter details are often histOJically
hexes are indicated by a pattern that sub- respect." If you want this game, look for evocative in other ways as well. The front
tly fills the hex. It is the units, not the the original SPI version; you'll give up of a La Bataille counter has two large
ground over which they fought, that the flashy box art, but at least you'll get numbers in the bottom of the field, repre-
provide the spectacle and the historical understated, flat-finish counters in return.senting strength and movement. In many
distinctiveness here. a game, a simple hyphen would separate
glorious unity of graphic purpose the two, as, in fact, do some counters
Both outside and in, this is a game in
which graphic choices contribute to an
image of Napoleonic struggle as gleam-
A characterizes Clash of Arms' - involved in LA BATAlLLE DE MONT SAINT
four-map, 100-yards-per-hex LA
BATAILLE DE MONT SAINT JEAN. The map
ing spectacle. The box art is bold, the presents a bird's-eye view, not the artifi-
counters dazzling, and the map subordi- cially colored satellite photography
nated to the spectacle of the counters. effect of WELLINGTON'S VICTORY. Each
village consists of individually rendered
he 1983 TSR reprint of SPI's farms, homes, and churches in three-

T WELLINGTON'S VICTORY displays

dissonance, not harmony, among
box art, counters, and map. The box cover
quarter perspective. The forests are no
overhead circles of generic trees, but
rather several parts deciduous trees to
is a dramatic, tightly focused rendering of each part of darker evergreen, with a
the brief moment when a handful of brave brown-green forest floor thrown in for
men struggled on each side of an open good measure! The large, beautifully
gate at the Hougomont chateau. Open up hand-scripted names for towns and
the box, and you see a sprawling, four- buildings hearken back to the pre-steam
map treatment of the battlefield. The age. Indeed, the background color of the
scale is a detailed 100 yards per hex, but map as a whole manages to evoke the
the hedges and villages are highly faintest rose of nostalgic twilight.
abstracted. The elevation levels are the
dominant feature, denoted by full-hex The counters reflect the same concern for
browns and yellows so bold as to reduce the individual personalities of the units
 •
S6
JEAN. But many do not, and the alterna- affected the course of the campaign at is that of a soldier as he glances towards
tive symbol is always of historical (and least twice, makes this differentiation in the comrades on his flank - not, as is
sometimes also of functional) interest. typeface more than purely ornamental.) more common, -toward the enemy. The
The French Imperial Guard has a overall strategy seems aimed at placing
Napoleonic crest in this space between The designed illumination of maps and the player within the lines of battie; not,
the strength and movement numbers, counters is a clear, but not a dazzling, as in so many other games, above those
while units of the British guard have an light. One can observe in it much detail, lines in some non-existent aerie of high
elaborate nR n signifying their direct con- both of topography and human personali- command. The Napoleonic soldier, after
nection to their rex. The Prussian Jaeger ty. That light is tinged with nostalgia for a all, was surrounded by a grand but often
companies bear a tree. Some bygone era of quiet villages and splendid confusing palette of uniform colors,
Brunswickers display the death's head uniforms, rather than focused on the fury painted upon a usually gentle but sudden-
symbol that would later have a much that erupted when men in those uniforms ly lethal landscape. So too with those who
more chilling connotation. Lancer units marched across those countrysides. venture into the counters and map of LA
have crossed lances. The military band of BATAILLE DE MONT SAINT JEAN.
the Old Guard (yes, there's a counter for The box art completes the picture by pro-
its mounted band) has a sixteenth note. viding ample evidence of the fury of com- he graphic designers who brought
(This unit is connected, by the way, with
perhaps my favorite example of chrome
- or should I say brass? - in wargam-
bat: A wave of Prussian troops assaulting
Plancenoit, with men shouting and shells
bursting. Its black border and dignified
T to life the games of Waterloo dis-
cussed here have produced quite
different moods: cool abstraction, distinc-
ing: French units within 4 hexes of the typeface indicate a more restrained view tive physicality, dazzling color, nostalgic
band receive a favorable modifier when of war than the riot of colors on the coun- immediacy, and so forth. They have done
attempting to rally.) ters. The choice of a relatively obscure so by making certain choices about the
painting, and one of the Prussians at that, thickness of lines, the styles of typogra-
Even the typefaces for the lower field of indicates the expertise and self-confi- phy, the colors used on counters or the
the counter vary, this time by army, rather dence of Clash of Arms. (The covers of map, the grain of patterns for terrain
than from unit to unit within an army. The Waterloo games tend to concentrate on types, the style of the box art, and so on.
choices evoke the national personalities the struggle of the French with the Anglo- Many of these choices will affect only
in contention. The Prussians use a quasi- Allies, not on the equally crucial action subliminally, and that's as it should be.
Gothic script; the French a Roman script involving the Prussians. In fact, I know of Look closely, though, and your apprecia-
of some flair; and the phlegmatic Anglo- only one other cover that even includes a tion of the Waterloo games in your col-
Allies display a very sensible, if still Prussian.) lection - indeed, of your games on any
Roman, font. (The fact that the standard topic - will grow with the realization
Prussian and French infantry units have Of equal importance, the box art subtly that each captures and creates an histori-
the same upper-field coloring, a choice reinforces the general graphic perspec- cal mood all its own.
reflecting a historical similarity that tive. The view in the painting on the cover

ZONE SIX AWARDS, '998: YOUR VOTE COUNTS!

We at ZQC have decided to restart the tradition of collecting read- decades! You don't have to have played these recently, but try to
er feedback in order to publish a game rating chart. Veteran sub- honestly list the ones you treasure most.
scribers will notice a subtle shift in methodology: no longer do
we ask you to rate every new game you've played. No, with our Keep in mind that what we're trying to do is come up with a list
much wider distribution in the pages of The GENERAL, a sim- of the best "paper wargames." That means you'll waste your
pler approach seems prudent. This time all we want from you vote by listing games like MONOPOLY or EUCHRE, the computer-
are two short lists - is that too much to ask? For your trouble ized STALINGRAD, or the latest edition of JOHNNY REB. At the
you'll receive a chance to win a prize and a guarantee of some- same time, even though Zone Six Awards are limited to the
thing almost as valuable: the knowledge that your votes will be paper format, it is okay to vote for non-traditional wargames -
reflected in the next Zone Six Awards. like the card-game TANK COMMANDER or the comic-game
NUCLEAR WAR.
The two lists we request are:
Those of you who follow the rules given above, and who also
1) Recent Favorites. This list should consist of no more than six remember to put their name and address on their lists, will have
wargames you've played in the last twelve months that you a chance to win one of six complete sets of ZQC that will be given
would recommend to fellow subscribers. List the complete title away in a random drawing. (Yes, #3 is officially out-of-print,
and the game's publisher (and also the year published if you but I've decided to give away part of my private stock in this
can). Please adhere strictly to all of these requirements! promotion. Am I a nice guy, or what?)

2) All-Time Favorites. This list, also of no more than six titles, To be counted, mail your lists no later than June 1st, 1998. Send
should be of your favorite wargames of all time. Yes, I feel your them to Stuart K. Tucker, The GENERAL, The Avalon Hill
pain: it will be tough to winnow a collection that spans several Ganle Company, 4517 Harford Rd., Baltimore, MD 21214.
Calling all armchair qua~terba~ks! Now you can
prove your skills ,!~ere' tl1eY~~JJnt...
',.; ON,·'tIIE BATTLEFIELD!
Now you can playa great wargame against 11 other players anytime you want - without leaving the house! Each game of World
Conquest starts with 12 players spread out on a fictitous war-torn world. It is up to you how you will govern your empire... Will
you build a large navy and rule the seas? Or perhaps create a potent armor force capable of a devastating Blitzkrieg! Maybe even
great armadas of Fighters and Bombers to defeat the enemy frpm the air? Perhaps you will invest in technology research? Or train
the Home Guard for Civil Defense. It is up to YOU to make the choices...
WC is played by wargaming enthusiasts from around the world! Games for new players are starting monthly! Let PTS bring you
a whole new world of challenges and excitement! Try your hand at world domination by outwitting your opponents!

Diplomacy Weather Reports Spotting Reports City Reports

Welcome your neighbors to the Displays local weather fronts, Indicates what you can see near Shows all the cities you control,
'New Order.' You decide who is showi ng size and location ...Will your forces. Perhaps it is from what production level they are at
friend or foe... Exchange your upcoming invasion be your Spy you have lurking in the and what they are building. Larger
information freel y with your allies jeopardized by an oncoming storm? mountains outside Berlin, or cities have greater capabilities and
through the game's diplomatic perhaps your Recon Plane flying can produce bigger, better units!
channels! over the outskirts of Leningrad!

30 Types of Combat Units!

Infantry· Special Forces • Paratroopers • Militia • Tanks • Artillery
Truck Convoys • Railroads • Fighters • ASW Aircraft • Forts
Cargo Planes • Recon Aircraft • Strategic Bombers • PT Boats
Naval Transports· Submarines • Destroyers • Cruisers • AA Guns
Aircraft Carriers • Battleships • Minefields • Minesweepers • Rockets Leaders Spies
Mechanized Infantry • Armored Cavalry • Air Bases
WHY TRY WC? IF YOU OWN A PC,
D Fun! Players state that they love the ability to "mis-direct" their You can play via email using our program, WCView.
neighbors through game messages to other players. Propaganda WCView allows players to view their game on their PC, log
and diplomacy are important factors to be successful in we.
each units' orders, replay previous turns, and much much
D Experience: We have professionally moderated over 300 12-player
games with over 100,000 turns processed since 1988! more! The software is free! Users of our software are invited
D Easy to learn; impossible to master... Most players get a lot of to play in our Head-to-Head games (2 player games) on our
experience defending, but few master the offensive gambits automated turn processor! Over 1000 H2H games have been
necessary to win! played in the past year! Make sure to tell us about your
D Low Cost! Send $19 for the 30 page rulebook and the 1st 3 turns computer system and email address! !!
of your 12 player game! Additional turns are $5 each.
PRIME TIME SIMULATIONS
PO BOX 650 Pinole, CA 94564-0650 VOICE: (510) 245-1300 FAX: (510) 245-1201
Email: [email protected] WWW site: http://www.dnai.com/-conquest
 •
58
~~-~~~ (fromp.5)

an upgrade here or there along the way, but

not appreciably. Work software upgrades
represent little more than "Profit, version
Firing from the Hip
7.0," while usually making little meaningful By Mark G. McLaughlin
change in functionality. My PC still performs
95 per cent of the work tasks it should,
because work software is fundamentally not
tasking computer capabilities today the way or my birthday, I bought myself Naval combat is semi-abstract-you
game graphics do. However, before 1992 was
finished, my PC no longer operated computer
games available in stores (when virtually all
F IMPERIALISM by SSI. It is like CIVI-
LIZATION, but set in the 19th cen-
tury, with big armies, big fleets, less
build a fleet, decide what ships go into it,
set a level of aggressiveness, and put it
somewhere to blockade a harbor, set up a
non-CD ROM games ceased to be marketed). micromanagement and an excellent diplo- beachhead, patrol for enemy fleets, or
The focal point of my hobby is interac- macy system. defend your own harbor. You do not com-
tion with other game players. Consequently, Do not be scared when you read the box. mand the fleet in battle, but at least you
1 have never been willing to plunk down It says it requires 100 MB on the hard drive, give it some parameters to operate.
hard cash to upgrade a PC for gaming pur- but that is not true-it took up barely 25 Army combat is tactical. As you would
poses alone. Netware and enhanced modem MB. It requires Direct X 5.0, but you can expect from the period, artillery domi-
capacities may soon change all that. How- load that from the CD-ROM disk itself. The
ever, the 1992-1997 Computer Epoch fea- nates, with heavy artillery ruling. Infantry
rule book appears daunting, but seven tuto- exist mostly to die (unless you build many
tured solitaire play of graphically appealing
rials teach you the basic things you do of them and use them in human waves to
(develop, build, trade, parlay, move give the enemy more targets than he can
armies/navies, and fight). Install it, then hit). Cavalry exists either to draw fire
print out the read me file (it corrects some (which they are very good at doing) or for
errors in the rule book, especially for the the coup de grace. Generals blow bugles
tutorial), and then play each of the seven and boost morale. Units are regiments
tutorials (the book gives you a play-by- (which get medals if they survive a vic-
play). Then read the rule book. tory). Losses are partial, with recovery
Do not waste your time on the random based on time doing nothing. In each of
map games. They are just random map the three basic periods of the game
worlds of made-up continents with country (1820s, l850s and 1880s) you get nine
names like "Zirnm" and "Deneb." Your types of troops, but in the 1880s you can
country on that map is small and you start start upgrading to WW I-style troops (rail
from scratch. It takes a long time to build guns, tanks, machineguns).
up to the good part of the game. IMPERIALISM (not in real time) gives you
games with inadequate artificial intelli- Go instead to the scenarios (1820,
gence. That wasn't my hobby. I hope poor a lot of food for thought. The AI is very
1848 or 1882). I recommend 1882, good on the trade and diplomatic front.
AI is soon replaced by challenging artificial
because you can be either Britain or Ger- Militarily, it tends to spread itself a little
opponents and that network gaming
many on the eve of the great naval arms thin, but always buys the military
becomes more affordable for the common
gamer. I want to be able to analyze the game race that led to the Great War (WW I). upgrades. If it is losing, it attacks with the
system and input elements, thus drawing the You get lots of stuff at start; most of your provincial militia/territorial forces while
appropriate conclusion about their historical railroads and depots and ports are already retreating the mobile units. The militia
lessons. Boardgaming has always been more built. Your transport and factory network dies, but by coming out of the trenches, it
adaptable to simulation and learning (unless is started. You have a small military. can try to kill your best units while buying
you regularly debug, alter code, and compile Moreover, you play on a map of Europe, time for your regulars to retreat. When you
your own computer games). so geography is familiar (you do not see the enemy militia leave the trenches,
On the other hand, significant convention waste time looking for the province of that is a good sign you have won. If it
expenditures (for travel, room and board) I Twil in Zimm). thinks you are losing, it will counterattack
deem to be acceptable outlays to enhance my It takes a couple of hours, a couple of with better units to try to keep your from
enjoyment of my gaming hobby. The players reversions to saved gaves (it autosaves getting away with light losses. All in all,
at AvalonCon have become friends (for each turn) and some experimentation at the computer is craftier than it appears on
which there is no price). The time is well first, but the game is marvelous. It has the the tactical matrix, and is especially smart
spent. The entertainment value is astounding. best diplomacy options I have ever seen, with trade/diplomatic deals.
There is no better place to validate your right down to the trade and embassy oper- My favorite line: the Defense Minister
hobby pursuits. Conventions even provide ations akin to PAX BRITANNIA and the
competition on directly-connected comput- (adviser screen) pops up to tell you that
trade subsidies, boycotts and bribes of a
ers, with ready opponents willing to battle enemy fleets are in the sea zone off of
human game. You can make deals and
you head-to-head in your free moments. your capital and that you have no ships
track how major and minor countries per-
My report is offered simply as a testimo- there. He advises you to build or move
ceive you. You can figure out who makes
nial to one aspect of this entertaining hobby warships to the threatened area and "in the
what you need to buy most.
of ours. Fortunately, the competitive, think- meantime, I will be retiring to my country
The production network is really
ing angle of gaming will never become obso- estate, deep in the interior." How is that
neat-determining where resources go to
lete, nor will its participants. Only the equip- for personality?
build up industry or goods for selling, or
ment will. -SKT SSI has done it again.
train workers, or recruit soldiers. You can
upgrade things or invest in new items.
* *
 S9
maps and graphics, this sequel improves on
the original, but does not stray from that
overall fun and simplicity. Battles can be
fought from one of the 30 scenarios, five
campaigns or ones constructed using the
scenario builder. Interestingly, a new front
has been added (America), where theoreti-
cal tank battles may be waged. Battles run
the gamut from Leningrad to Tobruk.
Game play is very similar to the original
with simple point and click routines used to
maneuver units and attack targets. Victory
conditions are based on victory objective
hexes occupied at the end of the scenario.
Units have normal wargame values which
Jim Pedicord is afreelance writer who from a much broader perspective, using a
can be contacted [email protected]. are used to calculate the outcomes of battles
tum-based system and giving players
and movements. Most standard wargame
access to a multitude of battles. Players
he sights are set on the US Civil War principles are included (zone of control,

T with two games now available cover-

ing the bloodiest war in US history.
Sid Meier is a name synonymous with
may enter almost every battle in the war
from either side and also can play extended
campaigns, ranging from geographical
areas such as the western or eastern fronts
supply, spotting, etc.), wrapped in an easy-
to-use interface with concise menus and
windows. Prestige is an important element
strategy games, being the originator of such in the game, with this morale feature help-
to the entire war itself. To top it off, a full-
classic computer games as RAILROAD ing to determine supply capability.
fledged scenario editor lets you create new
TYCOON and CiVILIZATION. He now moves A great game to introduce people to the
versions of historic battles or your own
into the wargaming arena, covering the bat- world of wargaming, PANZER GENERAL 2 is
"what if' situations.
tle of Gettysburg with SID MEIER'S GETTYS- also a nice change of pace for the experi-
Game play is geared around the generals
BURG! by Firaxis. GETTYSBURG is a real-time enced wargamer as well.
and commanding offi-
game with the battle playing out directly in cers with morale and
front of you. Battles are shown from an SONAR BLIPS
supply as the key ele- Blue Byte has released
overhead view and fought on a regiment ments in the game. Units INCUBATION, a tum-based, tac-
level over the three days of the actual battle are brigades and regi- tical game reminiscent of the
(July 1-3, 1963). Scenarios range from ments, with the actual classic X-COM. Taking place
actual historical battles to many alternative number of men and on an alien planet, you are
history engagements, all taking place near morale influenced by placed in charge of a squad of
the famous battlefield. Individual scenarios battle results. The game marines attempting to fight
are available for short sessions, and a provides a wide assort- off mutated creatures who are
loosely-linked campaign is included for ment of troops, ranging attacking a human settlement.
longer game play. A nice randomized sce~ from normal infantry Action and movement points
nario-building feature makes for good and cavalry to engineers determine what your marines
replay capability as well. can do. Graphically amazing, especially with a fast,
and gunboats. Each scenario is turn-limited
The scale is relatively small, mainly 3D-enabled machine, it provides over 30 missions
with victories and defeats being determined
because of the real-time angle, but the game to challenge you, with more appearing on the Blue
by the amount of objective hexes taken by
does not tum into a reflex-dependent battle. Byte web site.
each side. Graphics are from an overhead MAN OF WAR, from Strategy First and distrib-
Strategy is the key and is very well done. view and show a wide variety of terrain, all uted by Virgin Interactive, is a strategy game
Combat itself is relatively simple with unit taken into account when attempting to putting you in command of the great sailing ships
movement consisting of a basic mouse click move or attack. The campaign scenarios are of the 18th and 19th centuries. Turns are pre-
and drag technique with varying commands knit closely together, with the effectiveness planned. After plotting, the player jumps to a first-
present to set up formations and types of and morale of troops carrying over to each person perspective where you view the battle as it
attacks (line or column formation, charge or new scenario (if they survive). Between unfolds. Large scale battles of up to 150 ships are
retreat). Various voice responses from your battles, new weapons and ammunition may possible, and a scenario editor lets you design your
units give you a good feel for how the battle be purchased to improve the troops. Battles own naval battles.
is progressing. Battles are contested over are calculated affairs. A variety of com- Interactive Magic has released the second in
lush graphical backgrounds complete with mands such as digging in or changing for- their GREAT BATTLES series, THE GREAT BATTLES OF
farmhouses, trees and buildings. Victory mations may be given to the troops. HANNIBAL. It has more large-scale battles than the
conditions are based on securing specified To close out the package there are ftrst title in the series and many new additions and
terrain objectives. Various skill levels plus Civil War re-enactment movies sprinkled improvements to the game engine, including an
commanders with personality traits combine throughout the game as well as an histor- undo feature, group attacks and plenty of elephants.
for numerous combinations of play. ical reference guide on the CD. For some- A great deal of reference material from that time
Overall, this title gives a great balance one who wishes to partake in various bat- period is also included on the CD.
.between serious strategy and entertainment. Finally TACOPS 98, a revised and updated ver-
tles throughout then entire war, CiVIL
Complete with challenging computer play, sion of the TACOPS military strategy game by Major
WAR GENERALS 2 is a great game to
I.L. Holdridge will be published by Avalon Hill.
multi-player and network capability, and a accomplish this.
One of the most realistic and accurate modern
great look at some of the battles within bat- Turning to more recent history, SSI has wargames, it will be a repackaging of the original
tles during Gettysburg, this is another Sid released the long awaited sequel to the crit- game, scenarios and expansion disk with additional
Meier winner. ically acclaimed PANZER GENERAL, appro- maps and new scenarios. Planned updates are also
CiVIL WAR GENERALS 2: GRANT, LEE & priately titled PANZER GENERAL 2, first in the in the works.
SHERMAN from Sierra looks at the Civil War Living Battlefield series. Sporting new
*
 •
60
Volume 31, Number 5 introduced two new fea- Contest #182 ("Once More into the Breach")
tures, the Zone of Control section and the Up The turned out to be more confusing than intended.
Periscope column. Both drew considerable The difficulty revolved around misconcep-
praise from readers, although it was the
boardgame reviews which pleased the most, to
Infiltrator's tions about control (perhaps fostered by diver-
gence from the rule regarding receipt of
the point that many readers listed the whole sec-
tion as one of the top three articles in the issue.
Report income). Some entrants simply assumed that
by converting the Florentine army into a garri-
Congratulations to ZOC editors John Kisner and son, control was retained. In this view, victory
John Walker for a flne beginning. The series was assured for the outnumbered Florentines.
replay once again received numerous votes, However, receipt of income from a city and
despite (or perhaps due to) being very short. The control of a city are defined differently in the
ASL fans sent their feedback in great numbers rules. Control of a city and province go hand
(the Chicago guys voting early and often for in hand as fully defined in rule 4.3. Facing an
Louie Tokarz's article). Bruce Monnin's excel- enemy army in the province, a friendly army
lent article on HISTORY OF THE WORLD was in the city does not sustain control of the
fourth, but will be considered for the volume's province/city (in fact, neither power controls
Editor's Choice Award anyway, given that vot- the province/city). In the Spring, the control
ing on the Zone of Control section seemed to marker is removed and Florence would have
represent votes for the boardgame review phe- control of no home cities. (Had Florence sur-
nomenon more than for any specific article vived as a power from some other reason, then
within it. the unbesieged garrison in the city would pro-
vide its income to Florence-just as the enemy
The issue as a whole received a mediocre 5.0 army in the province would yield the provin-
rating (weighed down by a number of "terribles" cial income-see rule 8.2.)
from readers not interested in computer cover- the title of Best Strategy and Conflict game; also
age, advertisements and diminshed focus on recommended in that category are AGE OF Consequently, contestants had to keep the
TAHGC games). Typical comments were "I RENAISSANCE and TITAN: THE ARENA., enemy out of the province of Florence (or
really like the new format," "best issue in a long while STOCK MARKET GURU made the list in recover control of another home city). The
time" and "I like the mix of articles." This praise the Family Strategy category.
enemy moves are outlined in the volume 31,
was leavened by detractors saying that the mag- number 6. Due to the ambiguity in the rules,
azine is too diversified-trying to do too much. ***** however, all contestants converting Army Flo-
As they say in the movie industry, the proof will rence into a garrison or bribing either Army
In November, number 15 of Vieille Garde, the
be at the box office and video store. Thus far, we Bologna or Army Pistoia are considered win-
official bulletin of the French Wargame Acad-
are encouraged by subscriptions and renewals. ners. Furthermore, to clear up the rule ambigu-
emy, sent us the Old Guard 1996 Award-their
award for the Best 1996 Foreign Product-for ities and the implications of control for victory,
Zone of Control section 200 conquest and unit adjustment, we provide
HANNIBAL: ROME VS. CARTHAGE. Mean-
Series Replay-STONEWALL'S errata and clarifications in this issue's question
while, old-time favorites, SQUAD LEADER,
LAST BATTLE 180 DIPLOMACY and KINGMAKER, remain atop box on page 43. Who says contests are a waste
Breath of Fresh Air from the of time?
the list of best boardgames according to the
Windy City 140
Leeds Wargames Club, sponsor of the United
Live Long and Prosper 113
"Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic
Kingdom's largest game show. *****
inAOR 107 Contest #183 ("Hot Zone") put contestants in
Surviving Among the Witless 93 ***** the position of maximizing the point differen-
Anzio and the Drive on Rome 73 STARSHIP TROOPERS: Prepare for Battle, the tial scored by the Arachnids over the Mobile
At the Kiosk 60 new game by Ben Knight based on the movie, Infantry in the 1970s game STARSHIP
Save the Princess! 53 shipped in the last week of October. SUCCES- TROOPER. If you know the game well
Tricks and Taboos 40 SORS: The Battles for Alexander's Empire, a enough, you quickly deduce that only two pos-
ASL Scenarios 33 multi-player wargame by Richard H. Berg and sible answers exist and they revolve around
Whispers 27 Mark Simonitch, shipped in late November. how to direct the fire of the "E" Heavy
Making History in the World 20 ATLANTIC STORM, a multi-player card game Weapons unit. The other units have no choice:
on WW II naval convoy battles by Ben Knight, line-of-sight and terrain preclude choice by
The games recently played by the most respon- should be available in January. the other units. Without unit E, the Arachnids
dents were ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER, fire at the Retrieval boat with 4-1 odds (one-
HANNIBAL: ROME VS. CARTHAGE, ***** third chance of destruction, bagging 12
PANZERBLITZ , HISTORY OF THE WORLD points-three points per stranded MI for the
TAHGC has acquired the worldwide publishing
and STALINGRAD for computer (World at War Arachnids). It is appealing for unit E to fire at
rights to the TacOps computer game system of
series). 3-1 odds at the Platoon Sargeant and his car-
Major LL. Holdrige. The 1998 version will run
on Mac and Windows95 or WindowsNT. The ried WIA buddy. This will usually net one
Michael Tsuk (Arlington, MA) is the winner of KIA and pin the other until the boat is gone,
new CD will include new scenarios and maps,
the feedback drawing and wins a one-year sub- giving you four points. Unit E can double the
plus revisions of previously published ones.
scription extension. chances of the attack on the Retrieval boat by
TacOps will remain focused on contemporary
and near-future tactical level operations and will joining the attack on it (5-1 odds). With a two-
***** retain the no-nonsense user interface which thirds chance of scoring 12 and only a one-
Congratulations are due the designers, develop- appeals to the military market. Major H's goal is third chance of giving up four points, the
ers, testers, artists and others involved in the to offer long-term support to this computer title Arachnid player averages a gain of 6.67
production and distribution of Avalon Hill's as added incentive to buyers seeking the multi- points. The alternative (of shooting 3-1 at the
boardgame line. In 1997 they were all hits, year availability and support that is critical for PS & WIA and 4-1 at the boat) yields an aver-
according to Games magazine's December 1997 training simulations. age gain of a shade under 4.5 points. Concen-
Buyer's Guide to the best 100 games of the year. trate fire on the boat. The water-filled bags
PRINCESS RYAN'S STAR MARINES captured ***** can be digested in due time.
 61

o o o
ALIEN METAMORPHOSIS ...The biggest news of the year has to be the
astounding announcement that Wizards of the
Variant Rules for ALIENS Coast has been granted a patent on aspects of the
"trading card game method of play" by the US
Patent Office (US Letters Patent 5,662,332).
By Stuart K. Tucker
Soon, they'll be tapping the shoulders of the
"me-too" companies for royalties-especially
the ones which can't afford patent
hose ofyou who loved this game or can't Weapon Handling. Unload actions must be

T find it (it is out of print) may want to

check out the new version of STARSHIP
TROOPERS-different bugs and weaponry,
consecutive. Reload actions must be consecu-
tive. In between unloading and reloading,
other actions may be taken. It costs no actions
lawyers ... Despite rumors of its demise, Spear-
head games expects to continue production, but
it has slowed production in the absence of dedi-
cated management. If the company is sold, pre-
but similar exciting action. "Sir, is this going to to drop a weapon. It takes two actions to publication orders for THUNDER OF HONOR will
be a standup fight or another bug hunt?" acquire the weapon from an incapacitated be honored ... Columbia Games is now supply-
With the release of another movie sequel, Marine in the same space. ing the public and retailers directly, which
why not break out your old copy of Leading Action cost: apparently has earned the displeasure of Ches-
Edge's ALIENS for another heart-pounding Unload Reload sex (a major game distributor) ... Task Force
escape? My friends and I did, but we weren't Pistol 1 2 games is apparently in negotiations with Amar-
satisfied that the original game portrayed the Pulse Rifle 2 2 illo Design Bureau over the fate of the Captain's
movie well enough and came up with some Movement Sequence. We have always used Logs series (idle for the last two years)... Deci-
minor modifications. Have you ever seen a predetermined Marine movement order to sion Games plans to release in February 1998 a
Vasquez survive after popping off a few reduce coordination in the heat of battle. An non-collectible card game on the Battle of the
grenades in Ops? Now you can. Are you tired alternative is a randomized sequence. At the Bulge, called NUTS .. .Parker Brothers' LION-
of those light-weight pistols failing to serve a start of each Marine turn, all Marines in com- HEART (with big plastic toys and all) was
good purpose? Now you can hope to stick one bat resolve their melee attacks. Then, take the shipped in November ... Avalanche Press
up the mouth of a nearby alien. Don't you feel cards of non-incapacitated Marines and those expects to put out AIRLINES in early 1998. Their
that carrying an incapacitated Marine should not in combat or grabbed. Taking care to keep volume two for THE GREAT WAR AT SEA will
harm your aim a bit? After over 30 the wounded sides correctly up, shuf- cover the North and Baltic Seas and should be
viewings of the movie, the discrepan- fle these cards and move each Marine available in March 1998... Rio Grande's MEDICI
cies trouble the purist. one at a time as revealed from the top is expected in late March and EL GRANDE in
As fine as the game ALIENS por- of the deck. After all have moved, any June ... Clash of Arms expects to release WAR
trays the movie, the connoisseur will grabbed Marine that has been freed WITHOUT MERCY in January. Their La Bataille
appreciate these changes. may then move. series will next feature a new edition of
Hasty Shots. At the moment an Reactor Room. Randomly place Moscow, and ORTHEZ. They expect to release in
alien enters a Marine's space, the the Marines by rolling dice as if plac- 1998 a Battles of the American Revolution game
Marine may squeeze off a point-blank ing aliens, but add five to all rolls of on Brandywine/Germantown as well. OPERATION
hasty shot. Aim is affected by the 0-4 to keep the Marines distant from SHARK shipped in November. .. GMT's ]UGURTHA
weight of the weapon. the exit. Then, give the Marines a free and PHAlANX. (Great Battles modules) went to
1. Pistols use the Aim 2 line, Range 1 move parallel or away from the exit at the printer in December. Designer Richard Berg
column. the start of the game. is working on a campaign system covering the
2. Pulse rifles and Shotguns use the Ripley, What Are You Doing? In ancient world (presumably with an interface to
Aim 1 line, Range 2 column. the reactor room scenario, on the turn in which GMT's Great Battles of History series). GMT is
3. Flame units use the Aim 1 line, Range 3 the Marines take their second casualty, Ripley also planning VICTORY, a Napoleonic version of
column. begins to move the APC to rescue them. Count GLORY. . . Fat Messiah has put out a solitaire
4. Machine guns use the Aim 1 line, Range 5 12 turns down the turn track to mark the arrival <1ame LAST FRONTIER: THE VENUSIAN INCIDENT, in
column. time. The APC bursts through the exit (use the ~hicl~ the player boards a crippled lab ship
Ripley card to mark it) three spaces deep into hurtling toward orbital re-entry, using his squad
The usual acid spray takes effect in the the room (killing anything in its path). Marines
space of the alien's attack. to rescue the crew from an alien horror. They
now exit the scenario by moving onto the card also released a game called SHAPESHiFTERS, for
Carrying Marines. A Marine carrying an representing the APC. Aliens get one move to
incapacitated Marine must add three to firing 2-4 players, in which players take on different
jump onto the APC before it departs. The first forms to crush their opponents ... Ral Partha has
die rolls (except for Hasty Shots-the advan- attacks Ripley through the windshield (Ripley
tage of the second pair of eyes over the shoul- released a fast-playing fantasy miniatures game,
adds two to melee value). If Ripley is grabbed, BATTLESTORM. ..
der helps in that case). the APC doesn't depart. It takes two actions
Grenade Effects. Before checking the nor- ... In computer strategy gaming
for another Marine to become the driver. news ... New World's UPRISING has been
mal Effect chart, see if the alien or Marine is Marines get Range 1 shots at any aliens on the
hit. The alien in the target spot is automatically released ... Blizzard was expected to release
APC card with them. Any alien not killed or STARCRAFT by the end of 1997 ... In the fall,
hit. Aliens one or two spaces away from the stunned may attack any Marine on the APe.
target spot must roll on the unwounded Burke Interactive Magic released SEVEN KINGDOMS, a
Operations Room. In the operations room, real-time game in which a player takes an
card Aim 1 line to see if they are hit (and aliens get three mo~e actions, not four. ~pley
killed). Marines one to eight spaces away from emerging historical civilization from a modest
may not move until she has shot three tImes village to conquest of the world. They are busily
the target spot must roll on the unwounded with the pulse rifle. Then, Newt and Ripley
Burke card Aim 2 line to see if they are hit. If working on GREAT BATTLES OF HANNIBAL, for
may enter the passageway to the door.
a Marine is hit, use the effects shown in the release this winter. .. In March 1998, Interplay
Air Ducts. The explosive effects of a
Grenade Table Effect (Marine) column. plans to release Flatline Studio's AUEN INTELU-
grenade double in range due to the nature of
Example: Vasquez fires a grenade at range 3. It GENCE, a real-time strategy game with simulta-
the passageways. Thereafter, the target
kills the targeted alien, but kills adjacent aliens neous land and space combat. ..
location of the grenade blast costs three
on a 2 or less, and wills aliens two spaces away Impressions (division of Sierra On-line)
move actions to enter.
from the target on a O. Vasquez must roll a 5 or released CiVIL WAR GENERAL II in October... SSI
higher to avoid being incapacitated.
* plans to release SOLDIER'S WAR in 1998, a turn-
 •
62
based game depicting individual US soldiers 1830 and ADVANCED CIVILIZATION are
with over 40 actions possible by each. SSI also my favorites, because they are great games.
secured the exclusive worldwide rights for the Talonsoft's BATTLEGROUND WATERLOO has so
computer version of Larry Bond's HARPOOJlf, much minute simulation that the game moves
based on the award-winning miniatures game too slowly and the AI is weak. That's why
system. Their STEEL PANTHERS III is also avail- Use only short, controlled bursts. Hit the 1830 is so great-the AI is so hard to beat.
Computer manufacturers should concentrate
able, now scaled to 200 yards per hex ... Micro- weak spots and move out.
on finding elegant games and creating sophis-
Prose is developing STAR TREK: THE NEXT GEN- This column is dedicated to voicing gamer ticated AI.
ERATION: Birth of the Federation, a turn-based concerns about how the computer wargame -Togu Oppusunggu, Brooklyn, NY
multi-player strategy game of space exploration, genre can improve. I wish to generate short,
expansion and tactical combat. They shipped in constructive criticism from this magazine's A note to those subjected to fire: take
November their Sci-FilFantasy expansion readers intended to help advance the computer solace that you hold ground worthy of a fight.
worlds for SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION II, and plan game design process. Readers, mail me your
a multi-player version called ULTIMATE CIv II. comments (better yet, email them to AHGen-
-SKT [email protected]). -SKT
*
(CONVENTION CALENDAR)
Please submit announcements at least six months in advance of the event to ensure timely publication. Feel free to e-mail infOlmationtoahgeneral.com
PrezCon '98 Little Wars 1998 1. Write Louie Tokarz, 5724 W. 106th St., #2E,
Feb. 26-Mar. 1, 1998, Charlottesville, VA March 13-15, 1998, Rosemont, IL Chicago Ridge, IL 60415 or call 708-857-7060
This fifth annual event sponsored by THe This wargame miniatures convention will be or email [email protected]. Web page at
GAMe PLACe is held at The Double Tree held at the Ramada Hotel O'Hare (847-827- member.aol.com/HymesCIWCW.html.
Hotel (1-804-973-2121). It features a variety 5131). Write Harold Johnson, 315 Hakins Rd.,
Lake Geneva, WI 53147 or call 414-248-3625. Havoc XIV
of multi-player boardgames, some two-player
April 25-26, 1998, Ayer, MA
games, card games and miniatures, including
March Madness '98 ASL Tournament BCBoston Inc.'s 14th annual wargame con-
demonstration for beginners. Registration
March 13-15, 1998, Overland Park, KS vention will be held at the Fort Devens Gym-
before February 5th is $25; no event fees.
This third annual ASL convention in Kansas nasium. Write Peter Mancini, 200 Bedford
Write PrezCon, P.O. Box 4661, Char-
City is sponsored by Kinetic Energy Products Rd., Apt. 17A, Wobrun, MA 01801 or call
lottesville, VA 22905 or call 804-961-6953.
and is a six-round, Swiss style tourney with 617-933-9975
Cold Wars 1998 special prizes for best novice and intermediate. GameFest '98
March 6-8.1998, Lancaster, PA Pre-registration is $15 before March 1st, or May 1-3, 1998, Timonium, MD
Held at the Lancaster Holiday Inn Host Resort $20 afterwards. Write Mike Reed, 16200 W. The Games Club of Maryland will host their
(717-299-5500), this miniatures convention, 143rd Terrace, Olathe, KS 66062 or call 913- first annual convention, with a strong focus
sponsored by the Historical Miniatures Gaming 780-1297. on Avalon Hill boardgames. Organizers are
Society, will have as its theme this year the air seeking interested GMs. Write Gamefest, 9
Egyptian Campaign 1998 Augusta Wood Court, Reisterstown, Mary-
war of the Great War. Write Cold Wars 1998,
March 27-29, 1998, Carbondale, IL land 21136 or E-mail [email protected]
P.O. Box 5094, Herndon, VA 20172-1996 or
This lith annual convention is held on the or visit www.rtgames.com/gamefest.
email a co-director at [email protected] or
campus of Southern Illinois University and
[email protected].
features special guests, boardgames (including Montreal ASL Festival
DIPLOMACy), card games, role-playing, auc- May 2-3, 1998, Montreal, Quebec
ENLIGHTMENT '97 tion and miniatures contest. Write S.I.U.C. Held at the Downtown Days Inn (1-800-567-
March 7-8, 1998, Hunt Valley, MD Strategic Games Society, Office of Student 0880), this con is limited to 28 players and fea-
This dedicated AGE OF RENAISSANCE con- Development, 3rd Floor Student Center, Car- tures 4-5 rounds with choice of 3
ference promises three rounds of the most bondale, IL 62901-4425 or call Joel Nadler at scenarios/round. Point scoring like at ASL
intense multi-player action short of AvalonCon 618-529-4630 or email [email protected] Open. Prizes to top two players. Registration is
at the Hampton Inn-less than a mile from The or visit www.siu.edu/-gamesoc. $15. Write Michael Rodgers, 5187 Beamish,
Hunt Valley Inn. AvalonCon-style plaques and
Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada H8Z 3G4 or
swiss pairings. $20 registration. For more infor- ASL Scandinavian Open 1998
phone 514-620-5757 or email Michael-
mation, write Don Greenwood, 1541 Redfield April 3-5, 1998, Copenhagen, Denmark
[email protected].
Rd., Bel Air, MD 21015. This will feature a 5-round, swiss-style tourna-
ment, with choice of three scenarios in each Tachy-Con
1998 Midwest Open round. Write Michael Hastrup-Leth, Husumgade June 5-7, 1998, Orlando, FL
March 7-8,1998, Kenosha, WI 19, 4.Tv, 22 Copenhagen, Denmark or The FUN Florida Science-Fiction Convention
This VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC tournament e-mail [email protected]. will be held at the Adam's Mark Hotel at Florida
will be held at the Days Inn at 1-94 and State Mall (800-444-ADAM) and will feature guest
Rte. 50 (414-857-2311) and features six 1998 ASL Open in Chicago authors, 24-hour programming and gaming,
rounds of open swiss-style, AREA-sanc- April 24-26, 1998, Burr Ridge, IL panels, auction, dealers, workshops, contests
tioned competition for five prizes. Pre-regis- This seven-round tournament features computer- and more. Registration is $20 before April 1st;
tration is $20 by February 21st. Write Glenn ized pairings using Chicago-style scoring and $25 afterwards. Visit http://www.ao.nett-tachy-
E.L. Petroski, 6829 23rd Ave., Kenosha, WI includes a team tournament. Scenario list pro- con or write [email protected] or P.O. Box
53143-1233 or call 414-654-5044 or e-mail vided to pre-registrants. Shuttles to Midway and 3382, Winter Park, FL 32790-3382 or call 407-
[email protected]. O'Hare. Registration is $15 but $18 after March 628-1454.
220 Cards
Less than an
hour to play
Every major
jet aircraft
type!
~~~

.--
+++ +++ +++
r-_
Boeing and McDonnell Douglas trademarks are owned by the respeclive companies. This is not an official publication.

-
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757-481-3655 $28
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LTO
APL202
STARSHIP TROOPERS
variant overlay pieces.
•
Dear Reader,
It has been over two years since we last surveyed our readers. The results were extremely helpful.
Your answers led to many of the new features and our new look. The changes have resulted in an
increase in our circulation, our subscriptions and our subscription renewals. All answers that you
provide are confidential and no personal information will be shared with anyone. We look forward to
seeing the results of this survey and urge you to participate.

1. Do you read any magazines about boardgames, history, or strategy? Check all that apply:
o American History 0 America's Civil War 0 Aviation History
o Command 0 Dragon 0 Duelist 0 Fangoria 0 Fire & Movement 0 Games
o Inquest 0 Military History 0 Moves 0 Pyramid 0 Shadis
o Starlog 0 Strategy & Tactics 0 World War II 0 Other:

2. How many people, including yourself, read your copy of The General? _

3. What types of games (excluding computer games) do you play? (check all that apply)
o Card games (non-collectible, excluding games like Bridge, Pinochle, etc.)
o Collectible card games 0 Diplomatic games 0 Family games 0 Fantasy games
o Finance games 0 Historical strategy games 0 Live-action role-playing games
o Military simulation games 0 Railroad games 0 Role-playing games
o Science Fiction 0 Trivia games 0 Word games

3a. In question 3, above, circle the two types of games you play most often.

4. My favorite boardgames can be played in the following amount of time: (select one)
o 1 hour or less 0 1 to 2 hours 0 2 to 5 hours
o More than 5 hours 0 Extended play over 3 or more sessions
5. Even if you chose 3 or more hours in questions 4, do you think that all games should include a
quick-start version that can be played in 1 to 2 hours?
DYes 0 No 0 It doesn't matter

6. How many board games do you purchase each year?

o 1 to 4 0 5 to 8 0 9 to 12 0 more than 12
7. Which of the following sources do you use to obtain information about boardgames?
o Browsing in stores 0 Colleagues, Friends 0 Game Magazines
o History Magazines 0 Salespeople 0 Internet 0 Contact the company directly
o Other
8. Do you own a computer? 0 Yes 0 No

8a. If no, do you plan to buy one?

o within the next 6 months 0 this year 0 no plan to buy

9. What kind of computer do you own?

o 486 0 Pentium 100 or less 0 Pentium higher than 100 o Pentium II
o Macintosh 0 Macintosh/PowerPC
 •
10. How much RAM (memory) is in your computer? MB

11. Does your PC have a CD-ROM drive? o Yes o No

12. Do you access the Internet? 0 Yes o No

13.lf no, how likely are you to begin using the Internet within the next 6 months?
o Very likely 0 Somewhat likely 0 Not very likely
o Not at all likely 0 Don't know

14. Do you play computer games? o Yes o No

15.lf yes, Which of the following types of computer games do you play regularly (check all that 1
apply)? 1
o Real-time strategy 0 Turn-based strategy 0 War/Military 0 Adventure
o Role Playing 0 Sports 0 Simulators (like flight,. car sim's, etc.) 0 Puzzle 0 Education
o Gambling 0 Action/Arcade 0 None
16. Have you played on-line games via email or the Internet? o Yes o No

17. If no, how likely are you to start playing computer games on-line within the next 6 months?
o Very likely 0 Somewhat likely 0 Not very likely
o Not at all likely 0 Don't know

18. How many computer games do you purchase each year?

o 1 to 4 0 5 to 8 0 9 to 12 0 more than 12 o none
19. What computer magazines do you regularly read:
o Computer Gaming World 0 Strategy Plus 0 PC Gamer
o PC Games 0 Next Generation 0 Home PC 0 Boot 0 Computer Life
o PC Computing 0 Windows Magazine 0 Computer Game Entertainment
o None 0 Other:

20. Which of the following sources do you use to obtain information about computer games?
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22. Please indicate your gender. o Male o Female

23. Please check your approximate total income before taxes
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0$75,000-$99,999 0 $100,000+
 24. What is the highest level of education you have attained?
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o Post graduate study 0 Post graduate degree

25. Which category best describes your occupation?

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26. Overall, how satisfied are you with The General?

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1
Thank you so much for helping. It is very important for us to know as much as possible about
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FOLD FORM IN lHlRDS WITH lHE GENERAL'S ADDRESS SHOWING - TAPE ENDS CLOSED. ~
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HERE

THE GENERAL
4517 HARFORD ROAD
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 /

l"Tl'II~l'III~I~ Nf)"T! IIV l)f)PIJI~l'lll)I~)lllNI)!

AVALON HILL presents •••

As you are reading this, Avalon Hill is

releasing TacOps Classic, the most
authentic war simulation computer game
ever developed. Now, for a limited time,
the original version for Mac and Windows
plus their expansion modules is available
on CD.
Imagine yourself in command of an
Army or Marine battalion in the '90s.
You control over 70 different types
of tactical combat units and over 70
modern weapons systems.
TacOps Classic has a killer turn-
based system. You plan your
moves then watch the computer
AI and your forces battle it out.
While the action takes place,
you're watching the battle in real time
after both you and the enemy have plotted
your moves.
Never before and not since TacOps
r-------------------
TACOPS CLASSIC
was originally released has there been Please indicate quantity being ordered

a computer wargame that gives __ TacOps Classic - $19.95 Print name as it appears on your card
Postage and handling included for U.S. orders.
players such infinite control over Add $5.00 for Canada and Mexico; add $10.00 for Foreign.
Street
everything that takes place on the Method of Payment:
battlefield ... down to the amount of o Check 0 Money Order
ammunition expended. o Master Card 0 Visa 0 American Express City State Zip
Card Expiration Date _ /_ (Mo./Yr)
The very thorough manual, which is Your Signature
on the CD, is accessible from within Account Number Send check or money order to:
the game. If you love detailed Your Daytime Phone # (_) Avalon Hill Game Company
wargames TacOps Classic is sure to FOR FASTEST SERVICE CALL CREDIT CARD ORDERS TO 1·800·999·3222 4517 Harford Road
L OR VISIT OUR 24-HOUR ONLINE STORE AT www.avalonhill.comBaltimore.MD 21214 ~

please.
I OK, SEND MY SUBSCRIPTION TO:

Name, _ o 1 YEAR
THE GENERAL MAGAZINE
U.S. RATES:
$18 Postpaid
o YEARS
2 $29 Postpaid
Address, _ o SINGLE ISSUE $ 5 Postpaid
CANADA MEXICO:
&
City / State, _ o YEAR
1 $36 Postpaid
o YEARS
2 $65 Postpaid

Apt.# _ Zip _ o SINGLE ISSUE $10 Postpaid

OVERSEAS:
RENEWAL 0 NEW 0 o YEAR
I $48 Postpaid

PLEASE INDICATE METHOD OF PAYMENT

o YEARS
2 $87 Postpaid
o SI GLE ISSUE $12 Postpaid
CHECK 0 MONEY ORDER 0 CHARGE 0 Overseas residents may find costs cheaper
from agents near them; agent names and
addresses available upon written request.

ACCOUNT NUMBER

Exp, Date _ SIGNATURE, _

OK, SEND MY SUBSCRIPTION TO: THE GENERAL MAGAZINE

U.S. RATES:
Name _ o YEAR
I $18 Postpaid
o YEARS
2 $29 Postpaid
Address, _ o SINGLE ISSUE $ 5 Postpaid
CANADA MEXICO:
&

City / State _ o YEAR

1 $36 Postpaid
o YEARS
2 $65 Postpaid

Apt.# _ Zip _ o SINGLE ISSUE $10 Postpaid

OVERSEAS:
RENEWAL 0 NEW 0 o YEAR
I $48 Postpaid

PLEASE INDICATE METHOD OF PAYMENT

02 YEARS $87 Postpaid
o SINGLE ISSUE $12 Postpaid
CHECK 0 MONEY ORDER 0 CHARGE 0 Overseas residents may find costs cheaper
from agents near them; agent names and
addresses available upon written request.

ACCOUNT NUMBER

Exp. Date _ SIGNATURE _

0000
OK, SEND MY SUBSCRIPTION TO: THE GENERAL MAGAZINE
U.S. RATES:
Name, _
o YEAR
1 $18 Postpaid
o 2 YEARS $29 Postpaid
Address, _ o SINGLE ISSUE $ 5 Postpaid

1
I
I
0000 CANADA
o I YEAR
o 2 YEARS
MEXICO:
&

o SINGLE ISSUE
$36 Postpaid
$65 Postpaid
$10 Postpaid

0000 RENEWAL 0
PLEASE INDICATE METHOD OF PAYMENT
NEW 0
OVERSEAS:
o 1 YEAR
o 2 YEARS
o SINGLE ISSUE
$48 Postpaid
$87 Postpaid

C)C)OO
$12 Postpaid
CHECK 0 MONEY ORDER 0 CHARGE 0 Overseas residents may find costs cheaper
from agents near them; agent names and
addresses available upon written request.

0000
ACCOUNT NUMBER

Exp, Date, _ SIGNATURE, _

 •
PLACE
POSTAGE
STAMP
HERE

THE AVALON HILL GAME COMPANY

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--
4517 Harford Road ~. ~.

~SEMUTADRUG~
Baltimore MD 21214

PLACE
POSTAGE
STAMP
HERE

THE AVALON HILL GAME COMPANY

4517 Harford Road
Baltimore MD 21214

PLACE
POSTAGE
STAMP
HERE

THE AVALON HILL GAME COMPANY

4517 Harford Road
Baltimore MD 21214