From: Roberto Chiavini Subject: One Review Crimean War Battles (Strategy & Tactics 201) Well, almost first time that I may review a recent game and not something taken back from the old times, and S&T decides to give us a "new" game taken by the good old times!! In fact, the two battles offered in this game are the reprint of two of the 4 battles the composed SPI's Crimean War Quad, a mid-Seventies game, one of the less favored of all the SPI's Quad games of that time. Decision Games's folks opted for give their readers Alma and Tchernaya River (discarting Inkerman and Balaclava, IIRC, from the original quad). Probably the choice is good (I used to have the original quad game more than 15 years ago and I probably pushed a few counters around both for the Alma and Inkerman, but I haven't got any clear memories of that experience, so probably wasn't worth too much. I've read somewhere that Balaclava was a real dud - like the historical battle, anyway). With ameliorated graphics by Joy Youst and a restyling of the original counters (while the rules seems scanned from the original ones, without too much proof-reading), the S&T buyer gets two little folio games from the price of one, plus several errata counters for other DG games. The rules for the Crimean battles are similar to a spiced up Blue & Gray, fast and furious games in theory, but that really soon get bogged down by too many die-rolls (as you have also to check morale, you have offensive and defensive fire and a convoluted CRT that wants to take in account in a single table Morale - Strength - Terrain, as was usual in several SPI designs of that period). Each counter is rated for Fire Strength, Melee Strength and Morale, while Movement values are fixed for each kind of troops (5 for infantry, 4 for artillery in Tchernaya, 7 for Horse Artillery, up to 8 for cavalry - with automatic disruption if you move more than six MPs). The sequence of play is the standard Move - Defensive fire - Offensive Fire - Melee - Rally of this kind of games. Stacking is limited to one cavalry/infantry plus one artillery, or two artillery units, with only the top unit able to fire (less than the case of two artillery, when both may fire). Fire range is adjacent hexes for infantry and a few cavalry (most of the cavalry units cannot fire), while range for artillery depends on type (up to six hexes for a few units, normally 3 hexes with degrading strength farther from the target). Fire results in disruption (and elimination if a disrupted unit is disrupted again) and retreat. Melee combat takes in account the morale factor of the attacker and the terrain the defender is in. The results are the same than from Fire. There are no command or supply rules (other than rules for Reserve activation), as the system is very simple and fast to play. I have played the Tchernaya scenario, as in that battle there were present a few Sardinian units from the early Italian Reign (the famous Bersaglieri have their baptism of fire in this battle , IIRC) and it happens that I live in a zone their most of the street names are taken by famous figures of Italian Risorgimento and two of the Sardinian generals present in that battle (Fanti and Cialdini) are the names of two avenues a few blocks from my house (that is situated in an avenue that takes is name from Garibaldi's Mille). This is probably one of the few games where Italian units have better morale than one of his enemies (in this case the Russians), but the dozen or so Sardinian counters didn't fare very well in my scenario and the Russians eliminated most of them valiantly assaulting the redoubt. I have a good fun with Tchernaya, even if the system needs too many die rolls for too small an effect in the game. But as a variant of a beer and pretzel game, and also as a magazine game, I think that Crimean War Battles is a good choice and a good addition for players who weren't around in the Seventies (or didn't have the original Quad game anymore). I rate this game 6 1/2 out of 10.