From: Roberto Chiavini Subject: Vimeiro review for Grognard Vimeiro (Markham Design) A DTP design that costs $28?!? Wow! It should be great. Unfortunately, it's not the case with this Napoleonic wargame from Rob Markham, designer of several different wargames, often more interesting for the subject itself than for the actual game, too often marred by unclear rules or flawed design system. Anyway, here is my impression on the game. As with other DTP design of this company, Vimeiro has semi-cut counters of very good quality for a product of this kind (in this field, Markham scores certainly a point in his favour), while the map (on two A3 sheet of normal laser quality printer standard) is not so good for my tastes (but there is nothing really wrong on it; just my feeling). It takes about 1 hour and an half (perhaps less if you are really fast) to cut the counters and the cards needed for play, read the rules once, setting up and starting the game (and this could be another point for Mr.Markham; perhaps this review is taking another direction than the expected one… no, there are also the bad points; they are coming in a few more sentences). There are three kinds of units: cavalry and artillery are normal size, while infantry are rectangular pieces of double size; each combat unit is rated for strength, morale and movement; the leaders (one for each division plus a commander in chief) are rated for shock combat bonus, command span and movement. You have also Initiative cards (nine for each side) and several cardboard sheet to use as French Off Map movement and to take in account the losses of both players armies. The rules for this battle of the Spanish theatre of the Napoleonic Wars are usual fare for the grognard (with a few interesting twists), but have at least one terribly bad mistake in them: there are no example of play; and as the rules for Fire combat (and the table) are a little unusual (nothing really new, but not your standard CRT), it's not exactly clear which modifiers and which values you have to add in the different situations (Bombardment phase, stacking of more than one unit… this is the first real negative point of the game, which in my opinion equal the bonus points found till now in this review). The sequence of play is based on an initiative system which uses cards to simulate the confusion that you may find on a combat field: most of all, the system is used to decide who acts in a turn and what this player may get from his units on the board for that turn; on each card there is an initiative number and several sentences that dictate which commands may attack and which not and if a turn may have a continuation (i.e. a second turn in a row for the leader with a continuation mark on their counter). So, at the start of each turn, both players reveal a card chosen from their deck and compare the initiative values: the higher one has the initiative for the turn, must discard that card (that may return in the deck as for a random event), and proceeds to the sequence of play (offensive bombardment – movement – defensive fire – offensive fire – shock combat – continuation). At the end of the turn, both players may check for morale for their disrupted units not in an enemy ZOC. The initiative system sounds very good, but in practice is almost out of question for solitaire game (I've tried to play drawing randomly the cards for both sides, but it doesn't work well) and I have several doubts on it's real effect in a two player game (but I haven't tested it; so this is only an impression based on past experiences; this is not a negative aspect of the game, if not for the solitaire limit). Other interesting aspects of the game (which is very simple to grab for a veteran player, if not for the lack of examples of play and the really not clear Fire CRT) are column formation for infantry (for the French player attack in column is a distinctive advantage), the progressive crumbling of the combat divisions (simulated with a neat system which heavily favors the English player), the tremendous effect of artillery (but this could be the effect of having misinterpretating the CRT of the Bombardment phase). Then, a few words on the combat situation: the French has the advantage of bigger divisions (which may be crashed to pieces by the English artillery, as the French divisions lose one point of morale for each strength point loss, so it's really easy to rout a French unit with a couple of well centered artillery shots) and of choosing the entrance hexes for his units, but the English player controls the center of the map and is on the defensive, so the strain of the attack is on the French (as after 14 turns the game goes to the player who controls Vimeiro, the English at the start). All in all, even if this review is probably less negative than I thought before (but the not correct interpretation of the Fire CRT may be really deleterious to enjoy the game), I cannot give high marks to this design: it's not playable solitaire, it's not too good nor innovative enough to pass over the steep price (at least for a DTP design), and the situation and the combat system are not too fun to recreate. I rate this game 5 ½ out of 10 (possibly 6 with a clarification of the CRT).