Review (and replay) of March to Victory I was not previously a World War One game fan, having been exposed to some of these games in the past and being very disappointed with their reproduction of that epic conflict., many of them degenerating into static games with little or no chance of breaking the enemy until the magical appearance of tanks for the Entente and Stosstruppen for the Germans. To be fair, any designer trying to recreate WW1 is going to have difficulties with the scale and conditions. Some have done very poorly in gameplay while others have been let down in the physical production side. (Some both!) GRD in March to Victory have done an excellent job as far as I am concerned. Basically they have taken their Europa system and applied it to WW1, retaining the same scale (Battalion through to Division) and rules - with some interesting variations which enhance the gameplay and give a good WW1 feel (and I feel provide a good basis to revising the existing Europa rules to make a very flexible fast moving game - some of the rules from MtV I have introduced as house rules in playing Europa games.) Maps: The maps used in MtV would be familiar to anyone who has played a Europa game before and portray the Western theatre of operations of WW1 from Naples and the Adriatic Coast to the North Sea and Scotland with a fair chunk of Germany and France shown. The maps are plain and functional, easy to read, yet retain enough colour and detail to be enjoyable. The hex size is not large and this makes handling large stacks of counters tricky - but don’t worry, Corp counters can be used for reducing stack size and as I found out playing, stacks in attack are quickly whittled down to a manageable height. My biggest problem with the maps is that they have been cut up to eight 11x17 segments and consequently are easy to accidentally push about and “timber!” go the stacks - game designers take note - this concept sucks! 17x22 has to be the minimum to avoid game disruption by shoving maps around like continental plates. Counters: As stated before the scale goes from Battalion to Division using standard NATO symbols - except for the Rifle units shown differently from later appearing “true” Infantry units which the war ended with. Aircraft counters portray around 100 planes but they are few and far between in MtV. The counters are fairly straight forward - nothing to jump up and down about and people familiar with Europa will recognise the style instantly. They are functional and clean, with lots of colour variation employed for French Colonials, Wurtemburgers, Hungarians, Aussies, Canadians, Royal Navy etc. Some people may not like the relative simplicity of the design - there are no pretty pictures or bright national flags, but I guess when you have 3,500 counters to play with, some times it pays to keep it simple (and reduces cost I hope). The only problem with counter design was displaying the Prussian Army as Black print on Dark Grey background, making it a bit of a challenge to read the unit strengths late at night. I think every major unit that fought on the Western Front from 1914 to Dec 1916 is displayed. The detail of the orders of battle took my breath away. Which leads on to.... Rules and Orders of Battle: As stated, rules are basically the Europa system with some additions and chrome to flavour them for WW1. There is all sorts of good stuff that stops this becoming an IGO - UGO game. There is reserve movement, extended “forced march” movement, reaction movement (allowing a devastating counter-attack in your opponents turn on a force that has bleed itself white in a poor attack), army headquarters, “leader” counters representing Foch, Haig, Petain, Hindenburg/Ludendorff et al, artillery bombardment rules, cavalry charges, gas, siege engineering, two types of combat styles (mobile and positional), trenches, forts, light infantry, mountain units, winter rules for colonial units, factories, coal and steel centres, air reconnaissance, amphibious landings, naval warfare etc etc. Basically lots of flavour and atmosphere. (Oh yes, and tanks in 1916 for the treadheads to play with) The rules are detailed, thick and heavy to digest. Don’t expect to pick up the game and start playing the same day. They are understandable and logical however, with game designer notes throughout explaining why the rules are there. As an avid amateur military historian I couldn’t really fault the logic used for some of the rules. The only gripe I have with the rules is the production and replacement system which I am still having trouble with. I feel it is too detailed and complex - unfortunately this may be a personality disorder on my behalf (I don’t want to make artillery shells - I just want to shoot them!!). The replacement system, to me, is confusing and a lot more complex than previous Europa style games. Each combatant has a number of manpower points which combine with equipment points (generated through combining coal and iron resources at factories) to create or rebuild units. Unfortunately I can never seem to generate enough - basically a lot of your divisions once damaged in a battle hang around at half strength for the remainder of the game and (for me) artillery once off the board stays there. There is probably something I’m missing here. The system generates a lot of bookkeeping by players to keep track of replacements. The order of battles are very detailed - covering all western front forces to 1916 and North/South America, Africa (Colonial) and Dutch/Swiss forces to 1918. You can easily loose a couple of hours just reading these! There are no counters for the African/American theatres which will be covered in the follow up game. MtV has a lot of counters - some of which never make it on to the board (Colonial units in North Africa and Internal garrisons) unless you chose to expand the playing area with maps from other Europa games - mind you this does give you the opportunity as the Central Powers player to use Irish rebels and Western Sanussi and Berbers as a bit of fun! Generally very professional and thorough in the style GDW has shown previously. Game concepts: MtV has several scenarios to enjoy, based on the Western and Italian fronts from 1914 to 1916, including a Battle of Jutland scenario (one turn long). The basic objective is to seize three city hexes to cause a collapse in an enemy country or reduce the national will of the enemy by inflicting physical losses (morale points) of manpower and geographical features (cities, resources, forts). Once national will falls to zero the enemy surrenders. Combat is odds determined and based on whether it involves defenders in open terrain or entrenched - “mobile” or “positional” with the later being very brutal and punishing the attacker. There are numerous units which can affect combat results and a smart player will use these to crack open the enemy line and try and roll the flank of his opponent. Just as in real life this is hard to do - but not impossible to win the war before 1917. The flavour is great, with the player being able to strategically fight WW1 on the Western Front with freedom to do it your way (ANZACs to the Isonzo River, Austrian Jagers to the Vosges, whatever you want). You can still recreate the big push attacks and influence them operationally by massing your artillery, using your sappers, gas engineers, siege mortars, and recon planes to assist your Prussian Guard Divisions to break the Entente line. Several times you will inflict losses on the enemy which makes you believe “one more push” should see the line break, only to see your own forces slowly crumble while the enemy feeds new units into the line and your offensive grind to a stuttering halt. You can then sit back and watch the enemy counter offensive dash itself to pieces in the same way. The game has a good feel about it, and I feel captures the frustrations and potential of combat in the Western Front of WW1. As for value, it is well worth the cost for the detailed scope and presentation. I am very loathe nowadays to cough up a lot of cash for games which contain a couple of hundred counters and half decent graphics and “revolutionary” rules. With MtV I am happy to pay knowing the product is going to be reliable and that there will be a follow up in this series (though the release dates might take longer than projected but that seems to be a production problem a lot of game companies face nowadays unfortunately). My main gripes are outlined above, and additionally the lack of a simple set of rules for beginners to play with is a problem. The Europa series once had a set of Boot Camp rules which were great for introducing new players into the system, with MtV it would require a lot of patience to teach and learn, which is a damn shame because the scope and breadth this series covers makes it such an exciting game. Simple beginner rules would be a great benefit, with a modified scenario. I would recommend without reservation MtV to any WW1 aficionado looking for a good, solid, detailed game and any Europa player would enjoy it (provided they’re not a Blitzkrieg/Treadhead fan). Overall I would rate the game highly - tops marks to the designers and producers - except for the map sizes and replacement system! I have included a write up of the first scenario from MtV (Home Before Christmas) which runs from the end of August to February 1915 as a demo of how the game plays and to give an idea of the flow of the rules. The Home Before Christmas scenario is the most mobile one offered in MtV, and upon setting up the game, the immediate impression received is that it heavily favours the Germans and that the Entente was in for a hellish time. In pure numbers and strength the Germans have it in spades over the French, Belgians and British. A large proportion of Prussian, Saxon, Wurtemburg and Bavarian Divisions have statistics of 16-18-5 or 15-17-5 (Attack, Defence and Movement) as opposed to the French Army’s stats of 8-11-5 or 6-9-5. There is a big difference in quality here, especially when the German abundance of heavy artillery is taken into account. When setting up, it was felt that a replay of the 1914 events were a certainty. The scenario begins with the German 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armies crowded together at the Belgian border on the right flank of their line, with the 4th to 7th armies lined up facing the French on the border. The German gets a special movement and attack to simulate the rapid mobilization and surprise of the Schleiffen Plan. Additionally the Germans automatically succeed in getting Reaction Movement (moving and attacking in the middle of your opponents turn) in August and have increased chances of doing so in September (+2 to the die roll). The Entente are limited in their response to the initial German attack, with the main Belgian forces locked into remaining behind the Scheldt River (exposing Brussels!) which in effect leaves the route to Northern France open, barred by a few fortresses (and garrisons) and a handful of French units and the BEF. This is to simulate Belgian reluctance to be used as cannon fodder by the French. The French Army is massed on the border and the rules require a recreation of the disastrous Plan 17 attacks which shattered the French Army in the early days of the war. Basically the French must attack with all units south of a certain hex row each turn until a certain number of points are gained - either through the French seizing objectives (cities or forts) in Germany or the Germans seizing objectives in France/Belgium. The other method for ending Plan 17 is for the French to suffer heavy casualties to a point where the attacks are automatically broken off, naturally the least desirable but most likely outcome of Plan 17. August: The special movement and attack phase saw the German army, armed with its heavy siege guns, smashed and overran Liege and the development of a bottleneck of German divisions milling about on either side of the Rhine River and tramping through the Ardennes Forest, having advanced only a couple of hexes into Belgium. I, as the Entente player, threw caution to the wind and put into motion a plan that would come back to haunt me in the winter of 1914/15. With the French Army bravely but futilely hammering away at the Germans, trying to get the best odds to hurt the Germans by rolling for exchange results, and the Belgians shuffling about near Antwerp muttering about territorial integrity and the need for every Belgian to do his duty, I proceeded to move the BEF via rail movement and forced marches deep into Belgium and split the small but elite “old contemptibles” (14-17-5) into two stacks covering the approaches to Brussels. I hoped to avoid a Battle of Mons by falling back into Brussels and making it difficult for the Germans to advance, slowing their timetable and allowing French forces from the south time to come up and help. The BEF were supported by the few Belgian and French units that could assist. Fieldworks (which provide a -1 die modifier) couldn’t be dug due to lack of movement points left at the end of the heroic march, so Tommy stood upright in the green Belgian fields waiting to “see off the Hun” in a way Wellington would have been proud of. The German juggernaut, with its automatic reaction movement, rolled over the BEF, shattering it - with a special 1914 rule requiring 2 hex retreats in the event of disastrous losses (as this was) the remnants fled to Brussels and beyond. Whatever units could flee further in the Entente Exploitation phase (Cavalry and Light Rifles) did so. The scattered handful of BEF were wiped out in the German proper movement phase, with Brussels and Namur attacked and invested, the way to the border was clear and the strongest Entente units gone and nothing left to fill the gap. September: The French continued to attack and slaughter themselves on the border and the German Player had the good sense not to counter attack, suffering only a few exchange results and slowly siphoning off a couple of divisions to support the right wing, where it was obvious the critical battle would be fought - if only I could scrape up enough units to actually have a battle! The folly of my BEF manoeuvre showed itself again as the German advance continued, but within the supply reach of their railheads, steadily being built by the engineers behind the front line. Had I not advanced foolishly in August and allowed the Germans to charge ahead, taking Brussels and Namur uncontested except for the garrisons, my opponent most likely would have outrun his railhead and put himself out of supply and disrupted his forces with forced marches, making them more vulnerable to an Entente counter attack. The French scrapped together a handful of units in small battlegroups and threw them into the path of the Germans to slow them as much as possible. The final blow in September came on the border where the brave Frenchmen heroically implemented the last Plan 17 attack. I forget the exact numbers required, but I think I needed to loose three more divisions before I could call off Plan 17 and start directing troops north to block the German right wing which was starting to bulge ominously into France. I was confident I could easily loose 3 units (pathetic when you judge your success on your casualties!!). My opponent and I discussed when Plan 17 would end - at the moment the third division was shattered or would the entire turn be played out under the Plan 17 requirement? I felt it was more in the spirit of the times and the Gallic nature to press home the attacks. We could have looked up the rules but it was more fun this way. Alas, instead of the exchange results I was expecting (hoping?) for, the losses from previous attacks had lowered the odds levels to where rolling a couple of ones could result in disaster. Guess what? One’s all round! The results were horrific and numerous units were lost and a tidy pile of cardboard built up next to the map for calculating replacement costs. With the heavy losses the Entente could not send strong reinforcements to the northern part of the line. To round off September, the Germans attacked in the south and seized the mountainous Vosges region, and threatened the fortress of Belfort, requiring troops to be diverted away from the critical front in the north where Lille’s garrison was severely depleted and Maubauge encircled by the huge German right wing. October: The Entente began digging in everywhere along the line, and slipped to the north any divisions that could be spared to try and form a line to the sea. Several British and Indian units began to form up north of Paris and linked in with the Belgians who were able to move at last and were loudly proclaiming the need for a united front against the evil, blood sucking Kaiser. The Entente line had formed a stretched line from Antwerp to Lille, bulging west a couple of hexes towards Paris then cutting back east to the Ardennes where the French 1st Army was caught in a struggle with the German 4th Army, before following the border south to Switzerland. In the north, the Entente forces were weak, a collection of 3rd line Territorial units with a smattering of elite French Colonial and African Brigades. The Germans were not in pristine shape however, many units were half strength (7-8-5 for many though!) as the combat results table punishes the attacker, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armies were intermingled, and a lot of units were diverted to contain the Belgians along the Scheldt and in Antwerp. Despite this, the Imperial Army took advantage of the last clear weather period and seized Maubauge and Lille, split the British from the Belgians and opened a clear path to the English Channel. Luckily the second half of October was awash with mud and the German advance was slowed to a crawl and more Entente units were poured into the line to build what was thought to be a respectable defensive system. November: For the Entente, the building of the line continued, reserve units were disbanded to provide manpower and equipment points for rebuilding damaged or destroyed artillery units and rifle divisions. With French National Will lower than the Germans, an automatic die roll modifier was factored into combat between the two nations, so the Entente high command decided to issue orders deferring any attacks on the enemy until he had bled himself white by attacking. It was then I noticed the damned enemy shuffling through his stacks on the Franco- German border, counting on his fingers and muttering about drinking schnapps under the Eiffel Tower in Christmas. He began to slip a number of his intact, high strength divisions from the border to occupied Belgium to reinforce his right wing salient aimed at Paris. The German reserve units began to filter into the line and allowed him to make a single successful attack on a French stack that punched a small hole in my line which he quickly filled with half a dozen divisions. Succumbing to the inevitable, I quickly responded by “straightening my lines” and drew back from the Ardennes to behind the Meuse River and onto the fortress city of Rheims on the Marne River. Lacking fieldworks in their new positions, my forces were heavily assaulted by the Germans and two stacks of Frenchmen were retreated and the lead German Corp was now two hexes from Paris. Further north, the Belgian Army was pressed against the sea in a pocket at Ostend and Dunkirk and Calais was captured, forcing the British and Indians back towards the Somme. December: With winter weather conditions (-1 die roll modifier for Mobile combat and -2 for Positional combat) I felt I could pinch of the single German stack aimed at Paris with an attack by four stacks of French units while in the north the British would attempt to push back the German line and draw forces away from Paris. The British attack was dismal with the British and Indians (at half strength due to winter) retreating behind the Somme. The French attack was at 3-1 odds, with increased risk from die roll modifiers for weather and national will difference. To adjust for this I took the gamble of using the Foch leader counter which can adjust the combat roll + or - 1 depending on a die roll. Alas Foch had a head cold and fumbled his orders group to his divisional commanders and further weakened the toss of the die. I rolled a one which modified by -3 resulted in Attacker Eliminated. Oh dear, all I needed now to make a four hole gap in my line worse was for the German 2nd Army to make its reaction movement roll.... They did. Ouch! The Germans pumped as many units as they could into the breach, and drove the shattered line further apart by making high odds attacks on the exposed French flanks. Reserve units took over less critical sections of the front freeing up more divisions to assist the drive on Paris, the outskirts of which where reached by the Prussian Guard Corp, accompanied by as much heavy artillery as he could muster. January: With the German 2nd Army flooding unopposed deep into my rear, accompanied by the maniacal laughter of my twisted opponent, I called out the Paris garrison, further straightened my lines (giving up valuable resources near the border) and stripped the Alsace- Lorraine front to a dangerous level to build up some pitifully weak battlegroups to aid Paris. To add insult to injury, the German commander opened up a winter offensive on the border, taking advantage of the weak French units remaining. Numerous forces were lost, but the fortresses of Verdun, Epinal and Belfort held on, but Verdun in particular was exposed to further attack. The Germans lost a lot of troops in this attack, unfortunately it was clear he could now afford them more than I could! In the last turn of the scenario, the Entente could do little other than shuffle a few units about, trying to prepare Paris, Verdun, Epinal and Belfort for the expected tempest. The British began to edge north and west towards the remaining channel ports, talking confidently about the spirit of Napoleon seeing the French through “this time of crisis” and the Belgians were seeking communications with His Most Merciful Imperial Highness Kaiser Wilhelm through their Dutch neighbours. The last German turn was very bloody for them (winter including an automatic -2 modifier for Positional attacks), and the youth of the Empire was slaughtered wholesale outside Paris and the other fortress. Unfortunately the sons of France suffered also and at the end of the turn, the Republic called for peace talks to be held in Switzerland. Conclusion: Although the game technically ended in a draw, had the game continued for another month Verdun, Epinal, Belfort and at least two hexes of Paris would have fallen, the last resulting in an automatic surrender of France. Basically France had no manpower left and Britain was months away from providing an effective fieldforce and the Germans, although the winter offensive and final drive on Paris had bloodied them severely, remained with enough strength to settle the issue. The German player was good. He resisted the temptation to attack in Alsace-Lorraine until it was sufficiently weakened of troops to be sure of capturing valuable resources and threatening the fortresses at the end of the game. The right wing was never starved of resources and was remorseless - this was my fault for the early commitment (okay - foolish!) of the BEF. The BEF is nearly a strategic asset in this scenario. The Entente has a force that can nearly take on the Germans on equal terms and should be held back until it can hit a target that is disrupted, out of supply and/or flipped to its cadred side. The BEF is the strongest, but most fragile of the Entente forces - once its gone it only comes back slowly and at reduced strength. In future I will be using it more wisely and avoiding “Mons” type battles again. My advice for Entente players is to be prepared to fight a defensive battle. Plan 17 will show the folly of French units attacking full strength German units - the whole combat system punishes the attacker heavily so let the Central Power player weaken himself on Liege, Brussels, Namur, Maubauge, Lille etc. Once the requirements of Plan 17 are over, ship units north to build a line the German can wear himself out attacking. If needed, give ground to suck the Germans away from their railheads and supply lines to put them out of supply (or better - disrupted from forced marches). When an opportunity for attack arises, make sure the odds are heavily in your favour and use whatever assets you have to try and tip the die roll in your favour - cavalry, bombardment, leaders etc.Beware of national will - the French will quickly drop below the German level and suffer the die roll modifier, another reason for allowing the Germans to attack. For the Germans, the massive quality and quantity advantage they have will be whittled away if Alsace-Lorraine is attacked prematurely. Send all possible reinforcements and reserves to the right wing to bear out Schlieffen’s original plan and to hammer away the French. Ignore the Belgian army, they will be positioned in a way that looks threatening but a couple of supported brigades dug in behind the Scheldt river should stop any real threat developing. If possible take Antwerp with the heavy siege guns available from Liege to avoid a sneaky reinforcement by the British with a couple of quality divisions (which is risky because it threatens to bring the Dutch into the war allied with Germany!). Basically the German Army should push as fast as it can into France, building its supply lines behind it and continuing to prevent the Entente from setting up a strong defensive line. As previously stated, this scenario favours the Germans and the Entente player will enjoy the challenge of trying to hold the line and recreate a miracle of the Marne. Players could easily experiment by ignoring some of the special rules (such as Plan 17 and Belgian movement restrictions) and set up requirements to see how it affected German chances of victory. Basically a good simulation to fill in several rainy weekends. Robert S. Williams