WELCOME TO MARLBOROUGH COUNTRY

A FAMOUS VICTORY by RICHARD H. BERG

from MOMENTS IN HISTORY

1 22” x 33” backprinted map; 720 counters; Rules Book; 3 Play Aid Charts. Boxed. MiH at 805-534-9723. $39; $41 with audio tape.

Reviewed by CHARLES VASEY

A Famous Victory covers the battles of Blenheim and Ramillies, in which the French armies were defeated gloriously by the Duke of Marlborough and his top receiver Prince Eugene of Savoy (with bigger armies, I might mention, which takes the gilt off the glorious gingerbread). The game has a single map, with the two battle-maps printed on either side. Blenheim (fought deep inside Bavaria) saw a mixed Franco-Bavarian force taking on the English-Dutch-Imperial forces. Ramillies (fought in Belgium) saw the Anglo-Dutch fighting the French (with a few Bavarians in tow).

The counters show a jolly illustration of a generic infantryman, a cannon, or a cavalryman (there is a dismounted cavalry man as well for dragoons). Oddly enough the standard cavalryman belongs to a very marginal sub-category - a horse grenadier. I would have enjoyed seeing some different types of cavalry to make the dragoon-horse split easier to grasp, perhaps, but that’s just me. The major error to an atmosphere-junkie like me is the base uniform colors. Moments in History have avoided the garish qualities of GMT counters and provided a background color which tells you instantly the nationality. Indeed, Beth Queman’s counter work is generally exemplary. So this should have allowed us to have the wee sprite in the correct color uniform. Sadly the opportunity was not taken, so that the French are all in horrid Revolutionary Blue instead of the white (French), red (Swiss and Irish) and blue (Guards and Germans) of the real thing.

Now I can understand a desire to avoid too much detail but this lack of the final touch is most disappointing. It’s particularly sad because of the work done elsewhere on the counters. For example, the French regiment of Lee is clearly shown to be an Irish unit, and the Dutch army is full of units with mercenary origins (we really need a different term for them, as they were mercenaries in the Hessian sense rather than as individuals). Period fans will enjoy looking at the counters and spotting errors, or making guesses about the provenance of units. Excellent, but it could have been mondacious.

In terms of historical detail, Richard has fought the good fight with the historical sources and produced a workable summary. You may find mistakes, but you will find the work admirable and it all contributes to the historical feel.

The initial set-up as a mite unusual. Unlike most games where you spend forever looking for the 4th Foppingtonians and hex 2324, in A Famous Victory you get all your units are told roughly where to set up and then build you own lines of infantry and cavalry. This makes set-up feel very different, but the maps do get full so be prepared for both of you to work on your lines at the same time to get things going.

The sequence is close to Richard's Waterloo game. You draw command points by chit (these, correctly, favor the Allies). This gives you the number of Leader Initiative Markers you can select for the traditional opaque container. Each LIM when drawn allows you to activate the units in that line. After all LIMs have been played you can either activate lines in a restricted fashion or dice for something better (risking doing nothing at all). As many lines will be formed up in succession you will not want to waste a LIM on two lines where the second is drawn first! You leave the second line until the No LIM phase. Most of the time the defender will have no difficulties, but the attacker will want to limit his attacks so as not to strand one attack in artillery range in a later turn (with a smaller command chit). It all works surprisingly well, and, although it may be a little too rigid to be historical, I was impressed.

Combat of the period has been characterized as linear, and Richard uses the line as the unit of battle. You constitute lines by having units (which are regiments/battalions) adjacent to each other with a line commander in attendance. The number of lines is limited, and once you form them you are stuck with them. You may not reform a line in the middle of the battle. In effect, although you may have hundreds of counters, you usually have no more than nine maneuver units. A very reasonable historical summary.

Where the Wristage Wrampage commences is that you dice for everything and its dog. As the lines approach there will be a light smattering of artillery fire. The infantry move adjacent and engage in volley battles. If the active player feels feisty (or he sees his enemy line is demoralized) he may attack and try to drive them off (but he may be demoralized himself). Most combat results (fire and melee) require a disorder die roll, and it all got too much for poor little me. As the two infanteries are pretty much balanced, two lines will tend to be very ragged before one goes. The Dutch and English cheat by towing around light battalion guns which give them an edge.

The cavalry combat is lovingly constructed. Cavalry come in three varieties: Caracole (these engage in pistolling the enemy line); Fire-Move (these chaps fire and then trot home); and Full Tilt (Manly English Types these) who eschew the pistol and go in with sabers. Most designers treat the caracolers as gutless light cavalry, but Richard lets you choose your own poison. A Full Tilt charge is favored by a strong combat factor but only after a round of fire has been taken. Whatever the attacker wants to do the defender may have other ideas, and there is a tremendous weight of detail in the combat resolution. Good for detail, bad for playability.

That’s about it: you form up, you attack, one side starts to lose too many troops and it breaks. There is some level of Chaos simulated with the line activation and initiative activation but not enough to spook you. It is just a very, very long game.

Being a lazy old fart, I must confess after my first game I found A Famous Victory too much, but I solved this by producing a set of Kwikplay rules which allowed me to have all the excellent historical work but to simplify the combat to a number of die rolls for entire lines. At this level one can really sit back and enjoy the historical atmosphere, watching the French Guard clash with the Dutch, villages being stormed, lines trapped in marshes, etc. I think it says something about a game's quality that one feels the desire to amend it to fit one’s own play preferences. A Famous Victory is such a game.

CAPSULE COMMENTS

Physical Quality: Very good overall: maps reasonable, counters exciting and clear (but miss a trick), rules well laid out and edited.

Playability: Very much in the Berg Style, lots of sub-phases and separate actions proceed neatly from helpful summaries. You will not finish this baby quickly though.

Replayability: Because the set-ups are up to you there is a good chance you will want to get it right a second time.

Creativity: Concept of the rigid lines and cavalry combat deserve commendation

Wristage: More dice than combatants, at times I thought I was dicing to see if I diced.

Historicity: Commendable try on establishing the parameters of combat, and the order-of-battle work shows great devotion. The effect is blunted slightly by each player commanding at all levels from colonel to marshal

Comparisons: There have been other games on Blenheim, but they were bastard Napoleonic and I discard them. Berg treats his topic as seriously as any tactical designer, and you will learn a bit about why this period differed from later ones… once the swelling on the wrists goes down.

Overall: Too much, too young for me: buy it, read it, think about it, then play my Kwikplay version.