charles vasey - 11:49pm Dec 1, 2003 PST (#3078 of 3079) 
Nemo me impune lacessit

Review by Luc Olivier 

Crète 1941 (Franck YEGHICHEYAN) - VV n°22 On the 20th of May 1941, after
the capture of the Greece mainland in a memorable Blitzkrieg, the
Germans launch a vast airborne operation to seize Crete, a marvellous
carrier in the eastern Mediterranean. In 15 days, the Commonwealth
troops are defeated and forced to evacuate the island to return in
Egypt. 

Vae Victis offers us to live again this epic with a small solo game at
battalion scale. Each day has three turns, two for daylight and one for
night (24 turns for the full game). The map, like all games on the same
subject, is cut in three parts: Maleme-La Cannee for the western part,
Rethymnon in the centre, and Heraklion for the eastern part; a small
strategic map links everything. The sector maps and the strategic map
are divided in areas, not in hexagons. Each of these areas displays a
prominent terrain type and is drawn to follow the local topography,
which is not possible with hexagons. All is clean, colourful and
functional as ever with VV. The rules are drawn from area games of
Avalon Hill (Storm Over Arnhem, Turning Point Stalingrad). Stack
activations are made by area, with the possibility of movement and fire
or assault. For combat, a laborious arithmetical process with a throw of
2D6 by player, gives the winner, the losses and the retreats. To be
accurate, you take the attack or defence factor of the best unit, each
other units of the stack adds one, after you add artillery, HQ bonus and
terrain for the defence. At the end of the calculation, with a 2D6
throw, you notice that you need very good units to balance the luck of
the dice; the fate of the combat is everywhere... Some special rules
deal with to the para drops, the Axis convoys of reinforcements and
their interception by the Royal Navy. Lastly, an interesting initiative
rule gives to one side the opportunity to throw the dice again or
reactivate an area. The use of this advantage gives it to the other
player. Only one scenario is given: you must, for the Germans, grab the
airfields and the main cities; fortunately all losses are free. The need
to take the airfield is double, first for victory and second to get
reinforcements. The German must capture the Maleme airfield quickly with
a big stack composed with the survivors of the Sturm regiment and some
of those dropped near Galatas. The last part of the other regiment will
move to Platanias to block an Allied counter-attack. As soon as airfield
is captured, mountain jaegers can come to the fair. Then, para survivors
will make one stack and mountain troops another stack, this will give
two attacks each turn to kill a maximum of tea drinkers. If luck is at
the rendez-vous, the victory will be possible but limited. The two other
paradrops at Rethymnon and Heraklion, will be very hard. You can hope to
take perhaps one objective and hold it, but no more with the powerful
foes and their counter-attacks. The pace of the game is fast, but a
little boring and cursed by randomness. 

A last word: in spite of the title, Creta 1941, is not especially a solo
game. It can be played alone, like 90% of the wargames, but it doesn’t
have serious special rules to run the English boys, what’s a pity!