LANDSHIPS - A Game Review By Arnaud Bouis Recently I acquired Clash of Arm's latest release, LANDSHIPS! Here is a short review and personal opinion. The material is beautiful and that is what made me buy the game (had the retailer not shown me the inside of the box I would not have bought it. It is a shame the back of the box shows none of material, with such assets I think showing nothing is a very bad commercial move). A game turn is 5 minutes and a hex is 100 meters across. Anyway, the game has the most beautiful maps I've ever seen in a wargame. 4 backprinted geomorphic maps (this makes 8 maps!) with stunning graphics (though a friend of mine doesn't like them!), and remarkably few counters, only 420, but here again I think they are first class. Tanks are coloured, showing camouflage (even different colours for the same tanks sometimes !). There are aircraft of many a different brand, machineguns, infantry of different quality, guns, wire, support weapons, etc.... a little Squad Leader. I was sad to read in the rules again "some weapons counters have been included for which rules will be published in future issues of the Clash of Arms Newsletter". As I sure as hell don't know how to get hold of this newsletter, so this is damaging. The rulebook has 24 pages of rules, 4 pages of Fast Start rules, plus 12 pages of scenarios, for a total of 40 pages. The rules look well written but I saw problems after playing the first two scenarios. So, I played the first one with German cavalry charging more numerous French infantry and 8 French armoured cars. I must say, we stopped after three turns. The German has no chance of winning. Then we played the second, a real slugfest of infantry storming a French trench with mines and gas and artillery. Looked impressive but again, impossible for the germans. The Germans are outnumbered, must attack, and the exit hexes are hopelessly far (after turn 3 we saw that even at max movement rate, my opponent couldn't make it to the exit). It seems obvious that those scenarios haven't been tested even once seriously, which is a shame given what we expected from this sublime-looking game. Fortunately, the game components allow you to design an infinity of home-designed scenarios. Everything is there to satisfy the WWI gamer: AT guns, flamethrowers, armoured cars, stosstruppen, gas, smoke, strafing fighters...even air-to- air combat ! Perry thought about almost everything. How does the game run? Each player's turn is divided into 11 phases, of which two are movement phases. Squad Leader players will be at ease. One nice new feature is that after movement, tanks can easily break down and stop. Infantry is much like Squad Leader's, with fire, range, morale and movement. Fire is resolved on a firepower-based CRT, and results in pins (usually), or eliminations (if squad fails its morale check). How does the game feel ? Play with infantry is slow. I personally find it realistic, as your troops crawl in the trenches (and I've always liked games with low movement factors), but my "Panzerblitz-addict" opponent frankly found it too sluggish. Infantry moves only 2 hexes per turn. With tanks the game should be more "maneuverable" however. What sure is slow, is the killing. With hardened troops (morale "5"), the manstay of the first scenarios, you need to be both hit AND roll a "6" to be eliminated. Ok good troops are tough, but when faced with 10+ machineguns firing on you at point blank in the open crack troops should be able to die anyway! As it is, the CRT never yields more than a simple morale check. I'll personally make a variant CRT, because it is not deadly enough unless you use lower quality troops (in the first scenario, the German cavalry lost NO counter after a charge on the prepared infantry line! Only pins....). Otherwise, the Artillery rules are rather short to read, yet provide many choices (shrapnel, HE, ..Drumfire or Hurricane fires), and are funny, because you have to roll on a table to know if your "superior behind the front" accepts to shoot, or thinks it's silly. I like the concept: the longer the target hex has been resisting to your foot troops, the higher your chance Colonel McBang will accept. Although, if I may add a hue, this is not so realistic (how does he KNOW the situation, as YOU (or your FO) are giving him the information by telephone?). But it has flavour.... I have not toyed with the tank or aicraft rules yet.... A few other personal criticisms : 1) The fire rules say that to be fired upon, you must be spotted or have fired in your preceding fire phase. However, there are no counters provided to keep track of who just fired, and you'll need many, believe me! Anyway, my opponent and I rapidly came to be fed up with this rule (remembering who fired). It soon becomes hellish to keep track of, adds lots of undesired markers, and slows play considerably. PLEAAAASE Perry come up with another rule (or I'll make my own anyway). 2) The artillery rules are simple (no secret plotting) but in so being, keep the big problem which was inherent in Squad Leader: After you've shown your target hex with a nice little black counter, your opponent can leisurely walk out of it before the shells arrive... we've tried it. So the artillery rules need fixing. Conclusion: This will probably be the contemporary game of the year, many will surely buy it. It's purely handsome. I'd say, it's worth it for the material alone, because with the maps and counters, you can design ad infinitum. It will appeal a lot, probably, to those who like Squad- Leader-style "open" games. On the bad side, it lacks testing and the very rigorous rules writing of TAHGC, so lots of rules questions are sure to arise, and likely some changes. But, I will doubtless put it in the "play it again and again" sector of my games shelf, and I'll eagerly play try it again next Friday night.