Review of: Bodyguard/Overlord Issued by: Spearhead Games Designed by: John Prados Reviewed by: Brandon Einhorn Bodyguard is a simple, fast playing, simulation of the planning and invasion of western Europe, from December 1943 through December 1944. Unlike most wargames, the emphasis is not on detailed combat and logistical procedures. Rather, it's the deception of the enemy. The Allies must confuse the German player as to when and where the invasion will occur. The German, through observation, spies, and intelligence cards will try to piece together the invasion plan and deploy accordingly. The map is an attractive area map covering Great Britain, Norway, and western Europe. There are two half counter sheets. One represents combat units (mechanized divisions and infantry corps, with an assortment of paratroops, commandos, and partisans), the other intelligence markers (spies, invasion area, invasion date). There is a deck of intelligence cards for adding some random intelligence leaks into the game. Each turn is one month, with an extra turn inserted when the main invasion occurs. The allies win if they have a supplied unit inside Germany at the end of the game. There is also a shorter game that ends two turns after the initial invasion. The allies win this one if they hold and expand their beach head. Units are deployed inverted, to mislead the opponent, and both sides have a number of dummy units. The allies may move 15 units a turn, the Germans 10. A unit may move four areas (France is around six areas wide), and German units can be slowed by air interdiction and partisans. The intelligence aspect of the game is handled with chits and operation cards. Each turn , the player plays the top operations card from the deck. The card may result in agents being captured or an intelligence coup (a resistance group may be penetrated by the Germans or the invasion area may be revealed). The chits are used to give the German the potential to find out when and/or where the invasion will occur. The longer the allies wait, the greater the likelihood of the invasion plan being revealed. And the allied player does not know if the German player has this information. At the beginning of the game, after the German sets up, the allies must make four choices: the area they will invade, on what turn, the invasion alert phrase, and the partisan uprising phrase. There are two chits for: each area on the map, each possible invasion turn, 13 different phrases. The allied player places in a cup both chits representing the invasion area, invasion turn, uprising phrase, and the pre-invasion phrase, as well as one chit from all the other unselected pairs of chits. Each turn depending on the scope and success of his spy network, the German gets to pull some of these chits. Over the course of the game, if he gets both chits from one of the four categories, he will have discovered some valuable information. The German player can try to increase his intelligence effort by infiltrating agents into London. This is difficult, and can backfire with the agent being "turned" and used against him. This may allow the allied player to take chits from the cup, potentially preventing the German from learning the invasion target and date. The German forces can be revealed by partisans. To launch an invasion, the invasion force must start the turn in a port area. To invade southern France, the invasion force must start in north Africa, western France - the western ports, northern France - south eastern ports, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Holland - eastern ports. Norway - Belfast. Simply by observing the board, the German player can estimate a very rough allied invasion potential. Complicating this is the large number of dummy units [representing the fictional US First Army Group under Patton]. Each area is rated for number of units that can land in the invasion, and the number of units that can land in subsequent turns (buildup capacity). Three units can land at Normandy, as well as all the commando and paratroop units the allies have. On subsequent turns, seven units can land a turn. After the first invasion, the Allies may launch a second invasion. It requires one turn of planning, and is similar in mechanics to the first. Combat is simple. Both sides compare their total their combat strength. If one side outnumbers the other by 3:1 or greater, the weaker side loses three units. If the superiority ratio is 2:1, the weaker side losses two units. Else the weaker side loses one unit. If both sides have the same strength, both lose one unit. Losses are selected randomly, and if you are lucky may be absorbed by dummy units. After combat dummies are permanently removed. Unfortunately, the game is a flop. It comes down to pure luck. The intelligence system is all or nothing, there is no gradual piecing together of the clues. There are a number of cards that simply give away the invasion site and turn. This should be enough to win the game. Also, the German should jam all of his agents into London, and ignore all other areas. If he can gather enough chits to reveal the target he will win. But, if the German does not learn the target, he loses. With partisans the Allies can put half of France out of supply. In addition, there is no way to crush the invasion unless the German is lucky enough to have his army concentrated within one area. In this game, even if the Germans have 100,000 men on the shores of Normandy, they will be crushed. They are far too weak to do much. They must simply guess the target region and abandon other areas. In addition to all its problems, there is simply not much for the Allied player to do. I have made a number of rules to fix many of the problems, as well as modifying the intelligence system to make it more interesting. With my new rules, the game goes from a 2 to a 2.75 [1 worst, 5 best] Suggested rules changes are: 1) Do not allow allied tactical bombing of German units in areas where there are no other allied combat units. Currently the allies can target strong revealed static units and eliminate a number of them before the invasion. Considering the size of these units (corps) this seems excessive. 2) Limit the number of units that can trace supply to a port to the ports buildup capacity, with the exception that an unlimited number of units may be supplied in a port hex. 3) Raise the movement allowance of units to six areas, and raise the cost of entering an area with enemy units by one. 4) Limit the allied supply line length to five movement points. This at least forces him to take a port or two on the way to Germany. With the current rules, the entire Allied army could be supported from south west France, via a 500 mile overland supply line 5) Overruns - When a force enters an area it may announce an overrun. If it has a 5-1 superiority the target unit is eliminated at a cost of one extra movement point. If 5-1 odds can't be achieved, then the force ends its turn, and has combat normally. This prevents the unrealistic tactic of sacrificing a weak division to slow the enemy for a month. 6) New intelligence system a) A new counter set is required for the intelligence chits. There are 5 chits for each area and invasion date, 2 for each phrase, 20 bodyguard chits. The board is divided into invasion zones: Southern France & Italy, Western France, Northern France, Belgium & Holland, Germany & Denmark as evenly as possible. The Allied player selects all 5 chits for the invasion area, 3 chits for each other beach in the zone, 2 chits for all other beaches, 5 chits of his choice, 5 for the correct invasion date, 2 for all the others, 2 chits each for the pre-invasion and partisan uprising phrases, one chit for each other phrase, 10 Bodyguard chits. This is around 110 chits. b) Each turn the German gets one chit for each agent in play in one of the off map areas. He gets four chits for each undoubled agent in Great Britain, and one chit for each doubled agent. If he draws an intelligence card that would reveal the date and/or location of the invasion, he gets 4 more chits. But, for each doubled agent, the Allied player may add one chit of his choice to the batch of chits the German has taken [not to the cup of chits], before the German looks at them. Thus the allied double agents allow the player to feed bogus information to the German. This is of much greater value than adding or removing some chits from the chit cup. brandon@global-tech.com