From: Roberto Chiavini <mumaye@mail.dada.it> 
Subject: Two more reviews 

Aquitaine (Book of Sandhurst Wargames)

This is a simulation of the Black Prince's campaign of summer-fall 1355
in the south-central regions of the kingdom of France, as part of the
Hundred Years War. It's also a very peculiar game, published as an
insert of a book, designed by Paddy Griffith, gamer and historian.

The small map is very nice painted and of good quality (for an early
'80s game), while the counters, mounted on really thin cardboard paper,
are not so good.

The game is a 12 turns long single scenario, with the English player
that must try to sack and conquer the more French towns he can, while
avoiding open battle (as the French player wins automatically if he
defeats the English player in an open battle).

The English player has only a few pieces on the map (6 fighting units,
plus Edward the Black Prince and a siege train), while the French player
as a couple more fighting units and local levies in the single regions
(activated by the English movements inside their territories). There is
unlimited stacking and movement is decided by a base factor plus the
roll of a die for each stack on the board.

Combat is divided in siege assault (rolling a die and adding/subtracting
differentials for siege units, attack across a river, defenders in the
city, etc. - if the attacker obtain 6+ he conquers the town and
capturing the defenders, 3-5 he taxes the town, obtaining a wagon that
values victory points if transported to Bordeaux for the English, to
Orleans for the French) and open battle, with strength ratio CRT,
modified by the use of three tactics cards by both players (with results
varying from no battle at all to one of the contenders gaining an
advantage.

How does it works? Well, I think. Certainly, the situation is not very
playable solitaire, as the choices for the two players are very
different and depend on which ones the other player takes. 

But, as there only an handful of games on the subject, it's certainly
worth a try, if you may find it.

I rate this game 6 in a 1-10 scale.