Adua (Alea iacta est 4)

The game in the fourth number of the Italian wargaming magazine Alea
iacta est is on the battle of Adua, 1896, during the Italian colonial
campaign against the Ethiopians of King Menelik.

As for the previous games of this magazine, I have mixed feelings about
the result of this game and its total evaluation. Graphics for the map
are good, but not astonishingly so, while the counters are the usual
ones for Alea, so they are really good (even if the faces of the
generals are still too cartoonish for my tastes).

Rules are keep short, perhaps a bit too short, because you need to be
already a wargamer to fully understand them (as several normal passages
in a game are avoided, because a player already know how to move a unit
on an hexagonal map and so on. But this is not a problem). They are
still a little convoluted in their exposition, but they are clear enough
to concede the player the opportunity to read them carefully one time
and then set up the game and play.

All the combat units are rated for combat (the number of six sided dice
you roll to hit the enemy), quality (a die roll differential for fire
combat) and movement.

The italian leaders have a rating for range of command and one for the
number of order they may give each turn, while the Ethiopians leaders
have an initiative value, used for melee combat only (to push more
troops against a target).

There are two kinds of combat, fire and melee, the first based on huge
quantities of die rolls (each unit rolls a total of dice equal to their
combat value and each modified "6" is evaluated against the hits
obtained by the other player to obtain a row in a column giving a combat
result - normally a step reduction for the unit involved and a possible
retreat), while the other uses a more classic CRT to give other results
of retreat or step reductions. Most of the Ethiopians have 2 steps,
while their Royal Guards and all the Italians have 4 steps.

The Italians have 15 turns to move a few units out of the border on the
other side of the map and have to move through a wall of light armed
(mostly), but ferocious tribesmen, advancing through hills and small
mountains, with the risk to have a part of their troops surrounded or
cut out by the storming tribesmen, and risking from the 6th turn on to
remain with few ammunitions.

What is the result of this game? Well, it's definitely boring, with tons
and tons of die rolls, but could be interesting for the lovers of the
period. I'm not sure of the approach taken by the author toward a
correct simulation of the historical situation, as the game has been
mantained simple enough to be enjoyable even by a novice, but certainly
the combat system sucks (it's too long - ok for the step reductions, but
all the dice needed to obtain a simple one step reduction on the target
- yes, you cannot give a target more than one step loss in a single
combat fire phase - are simply a delirious loss of time). With a better
fire resolution system, the game should be playable, probably even
interesting enough for a two players game, as the Italians has to make a
choice of a fast, bloody penetration toward the west border of the map,
or a more checked advance, using entrenchments, to avoid the risk of
losing the game for too much losses.

As it stands, I rate the game 5 out of 10, but if you are able to invent
a a better fire combat resolution table, probably the game could go up
at least 1 vote and an half.

Roberto Chiavini