Jason Pipes  - Sep 13, 2007 4:41 pm (#20298 Total: 20323)  
WWII German Operational map cdroms now available at 
http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=70 	 

Played a great game of Wellington last night with David Moody, Joe
Oppenheimer, and John Gibbins. The game was a blast and I really had fun
as I believe everyone else did as well. I took on the British, John the
Spanish, while Joe took the southern French and David took the northern
French. I played the Spanish the last time we played and rather enjoyed
playing the British this round. I tend to relate to the British as much
as David relates to the French, so it was a good match up! 

What I am finding that I like most about Wellington (and I am starting
to think likely about other CDGs as well) is the interaction between the
players via card play that allows for dramatic shifts in the strategic
and operational tempo of the game. 

In our game (started in 1812) the British led by Wellington took Ciudad
Rodrigo on the first impulse and moved to within range of Madrid and
fought a massive battle at Salamanca in which every side poured in cards
to try and force the issue. In the end Wellington came out on top after
some significant help playing "Damn Good Ground" and "The Light
Division". Both cards really helped shift the weight towards the British
for both major battles. All sides spent a lot of effort during both
fights and in the process the British inflicted two fairly serious
defeats on the French, one after another. Since it was the first British
impulse this really had a serious effect on the tempo of French
operations. 

The Spanish player (who just like historically the Brits didn't get
along with) came from the east coast after giving up Valencia (which the
British protested about) and managed to capture the capital from the
French. Wellington moved in shortly after and was poised to continue the
push on French forces in the northeast (they had been hit pretty hard up
to now) but because of an excellent move by Joe he became terribly ill
due to a mysterious 19th century illness and was unable to do anything
for one entire impulse! 

Suddenly what was a British steam roller turned into a rush to avoid
loosing Madrid, which occured when the French combinded forces and
kicked the Allies out while Wellington was sick. Thankfully in so doing
they were seriously weakened and the Allies later rebuffed them and
retook Madrid (in a following impulse). The really neat thing was our
Allied offensive to retake Madrid should have been spent in northeastern
Spain, not on retaking the capital. Because of the dramatic and
unexpected changes the French played on us (who would have thought the
commanding general of the Allies would become so ill he couldn't do
anything for 2 months!) we were forced into an entirely different path
of actions. 

So card play in Wellington really affords some interesting and exciting
shifts in tempo and focus that mimicks (if not historical events 100%
specifically) the VARIABILITY and TYPES of things that could and did
impact the historical campaign. In that way (just like my description of
the block game Napoleon a few weeks back) Wellington doesn't so much
simulate events exactly as they occured as it provides an excellent
picture of how certain events could and sometimes did happen within a
larger historical framework. 

We ended after setting up for the start of the 1813 turn with the
assumption that the French would have continued to fight on but they
would have been at a very, very serious disadvantage. 

Really, really neat stuff. 

Looking forward to our next round of playing.