From: Wade Hinkle Subject: CoA's Landships--Replay (lo Subject: Time: 10:16 AM OFFICE MEMO CoA's Landships--Replay (long) Date: 5/20/96 Since I haven't seen it discussed much here, I thought the list might be interested in a quick look at Clash of Arms' 1994 game Landships. CONSIMer Sean Barnett and I cracked the game open yesterday and played the first of what we hope will be several sessions. The game, designed by Perry Moore and developed by Stephen Rawling, is a tactical level World War I game designed to show the effect of new weapons and technologies on the WWI battlefield. Counters represent platoons, gun crews, and individual vehicles. Each hex is 100 meters, and game turns last five minutes. Most of the game's scenarios showcase the first use (or early use) of some then-exotic technology. You can game the first use of various types of tanks, gas, flame-throwers, close air support, and forms of artillery spotting (from balloons, aircraft, etc). You can also try out various tactical concepts (such as the Germans' 1918 use of hurricane artillery barrages and storm troops). Early-war scenarios (1914 -15) show you in bloody fashion the effectiveness of machine guns and uselessness of cavalry. In terms of game mechanics, the game feels a lot like ASL, minus opportunity fire. Basically each game half-turn allows phasing player artillery fire, vehicle and cavalry movement, non-phasing defensive anti-tank fire, phasing player first infantry movement, non-phasing small arms defensive fire, a joint aircraft phase, a joint close assault phase, phasing player offensive fire, and second phasing player infantry movement phase. Fire usually pins infantry or causes retreat (for a second pin result), but can kill it outright. Armor is somewhat more thin-skinned. Exotic stuff like tanks, gas, and flame-throwers tends to be present in small quantities. When it works, it tends to sweep all before it and scare the bejabbers out of the enemy (there are even cute tank panic rules). But it breaks down frequently, and can even cause friendly casualties (especially gas when the wind shifts). What I have especially appreciated about the game in early going is the programmed learning quick-start scenario. The game has a four-page rules set and learner scenario that you can set up and play quickly. Sean and I literally learned the rules in 15 minutes, punched the game, and played the whole scenario in 3-1/4 hours. The start-up scenario features _Captain_ Erwin Rommel leading an assault against French trenchlines near the Argonne forest in June 1915. The scenario is played using all relevant Landships rules, but only infantry, machine gun units, and off-board artillery are present, and the artillery rules are somewhat simplified (in that artillery fire is spotted more easily and doesn't scatter). The Germans are attempting to storm four lines of French trenches, drive east and capture the town of St. Angelique. Initially German infantry outnumbers the French 9 to 7 platoons, while the French have 5 MG platoons to the Germans' 3. On turn 5 of the 12-turn scenario, the French get 4 infantry and 1 MG platoon as reinforcements on the north side of the board. The German infantry has kick-butt level 5 morale (meaning that it has a 5/6 chance of surviving a Hit result in an attack), while the French have only 3 or 4 morale. The historical result of this scenario was a draw in game tuerms, as the Germans cleared the trench lines but were stopped in front of the town when the French wheeled around and dug in in near-by woods. Neither side could manage to insert units into the town itself. In our game, Sean, playing Rommel, concentrated his forces on the southern edge of the board, hoping thereby to keep my turn 5 reinforcements out of the game. His initial artillery barrage (three times larger on turn 1 for the Germans than normal) suppressed my front line units but didn't kill them. This allowed the Germans to make it all the way into the first French trench line without any attrition. (The French set up first, so I had been forced to spread my infantry and machine gunners evenly across the front. Thus, Sean was able to concentrate all of his units against my right flank, giving him about a local 2 to 1 force superiority.) Probably because we both know something of WWI history, the machine guns seemed to be played ahistorically on both of our parts. Landships uses ASL-like LOS rules. So we both tended to stay out of each other's MG sightlines, and initially we each attempted to knock out the other's machine gun nests using longer-range counter MG fire. This was inconclusive for each side. We could suppress MGs temporarily, but not kill them. All MG units had a 5 morale, thereby effectively requiring 2 consecutive hits to kill. While we explored that aspect of the game's mechanics, however, the true queen of the battlefield emerged--French artillery. My first barrage cleanly blew away a whole German MG platoon--a 1/6 chance lucky shot. Sean, horrified, immediately concluded that to stack units was to create an artillery magnet. So he basically conducted the rest of the scenario with a one-platoon per hex density. Unfortunately for him, this made it very difficult to concentrate infantry for close assaults. So he was forced to maneuver to surround and flank each French pocket of resistance in the four trenchlines. This he did quite skillfully, steadily wearing down the French defenders. But meanwhile, the remarkably accurate French artillery pounded his offense to pieces. Ultimately, French artillery killed five stacks containing six platoons in ten tries--and each hit was a 1/6 shot. That killed 50 percent of Sean's attacking force by turn 10. And a good thing, too, because up to that point the poor French firepower and robust German morale meant that I had not otherwise killed a single German unit though small arms fire. Ultimately, Sean fought through to the final trench line. But by then my reinforcements had nearly closed to mid-board, and Sean realized he had made a strategic error in setting up. By attacking from the south, he had avoided my reinforcements, but also denied himself the benefit of the only two roads and trenchlines running east to west on the board. (Infantry moves at double speed on roads or along trenchlines.) I controlled them, and had sped defenders toward St. Angelique. Sean, severely weakened, did not have enough infantry to charge across the open terrain between him and the town and still have survivors left to take the town. So he resorted to desperation close assaults to gain the use of the east-west traverse trenchline. His assaults worked to kill my final units holding the trench, but at a 1 to 1 loss rate that he could not stand. Rommel broke off the attack on turn 11 and withdrew his four surviving platoons. Sean and I both had a good time playing the introductory scenario. It doesn't have a lot of replay interest, but then isn't supposed to. And the artillery doesn't scatter, making it more useful than it should be for defense once the enemy is _in_ your trenches. But it was fun to learn and play a game in an afternoon, and we are looking forward to playing a full-blown scenario Wed. night. Wade Hinkle