Steven Bucey - 03:43pm Apr 12, 2000 PST (#4 of 32)
CABS/Origins schedule at home.earthlink.net/~cratex 

Risorgimento 

Steven Bucey 

The affairs of Europe during the 19th century were complex in the
extreme. The area now called Italy had been fragmented and fought over
for centuries. During mid century several movements surfaced in an
effort to free the area from foreign occupation and control, leading to
several wars of independence. Until recently, the gaming community has
largely ignored these wars. However, a couple of years ago a game called
Risorgimento appeared in Strategy and Tactics and now GMT is making two
games on the subject with the same name. One is a strategic level game
of the war of 1859between Austria and the allied armies of France and
Sardinia (designed by Peter Perla), and the other is a tactical level
treatment of two major battles fought during that same war (designed by
Richard Berg). I have been play-testing the strategic level game with a
couple of CABS members (Hal Zeidman and Roy Bartoo). 

Historically the Austrians, who control most of Northern Italy, declared
war on Sardinia and France in reaction to some threats made by those
countries. Nobody was really prepared for war, though the French,
despite their actions, were woefully unprepared and scrambled to
mobilize. During this time the Sardinian army (an army mostly in name
only) faced a large and well-equipped Austrian army. Fortunately for the
Allies the Austrian leadership was mediocre and failed to move
aggressively, being more concerned about what the French might do to
them than what they could do to the Sardinians. Soon the French got
their act together (though 12 years later against the Prussians they
would never get the chance) and the Austrian attack quickly turned into
a retreat. The major battles were fought far behind the Austrian
starting lines. 

The game covers this action using a point to point map of northern
Italy. The basic unit is a two step division. Unit organization is
important. Two (or three) divisions of the same Corp can be formed into
a single unit that is stronger, though slower. Two (or three) Corp of
the same army can be formed into a single unit that is itself stronger,
though again slower. A typical Austrian army is made of 6 divisions
whose individual strength would only be 12. If formed into their Corp
and then the army the combined army strength is 22, though it has half
the mobility. 

The turn sequence uses a 4 tier impulse system for movement. The four
phases are Strategic, Aggressive, Normal and Cautious. Each player
alternates moving units for each segment. For example, both players
perform any strategic movement before any aggressive movement is done.
To add to this mix each segment has an initiative player. From the last
turn, the player who won a battle in that segment and did not lose any
battles in that segment has the initiative for that segment and can move
first. Initiative can also change if a player is the only one to move
during a segment. Markers are provided to mark those units that have
already moved in previous segments and for who currently has the
initiative in a segment. This is not a problem as it might be in some
games are there are actually very few counters on the board, especially
if they are combined into Corp or armies. Each segment has advantages or
disadvantages for movement and combat, especially as command control
(CC) and lines of communication (LOC) are paramount. 

In fact, CC and LOC are the most important aspects of the game. A unit
without CC or a LOC operates under severe restrictions and can only move
during the cautious segment; if it lacks CC its move is also halved! CC
and LOC also affect combat, the ability to combine and refit, and the
consequences of unit elimination. Cavalry divisions, otherwise nearly
useless in combat, are very effective as raiders to cut CC and LOC. 

Command Control is traced in spaces from an Overall Commander (such as
Emperor Napoleon III) to the unit in question. A Line of Communication
is traced in spaces from an army depot (which can not be shared) or
designated base. All of these are vulnerable to being cut off by fast
moving raiders, and thus players spend a lot of time worrying over their
CC and LOC, just as the real life commanders did. The army depots are
immobile but the owning player does have the ability to relocate them.
This takes two turns and impacts his units severely, but may be
necessary to sustain an advance or prepare a new defensive line. 

During movement a unit is activated and moved individually. Whenever a
unit enters an enemy occupied space it must stop and attack that enemy
unit(s). Regardless of whether or not it wins or loses, its movement for
the turn is over. Notice that since units are moved individually, the
only way to make an attack with more than one unit is if they had
previously been combined into a Corp or division sized unit. Combination
and breakdown must occur during a specific segment at the start of the
turn, so it quickly becomes obvious that pre-planning must be done to
coordinate activities through the four movement segments. 

After all movement comes the Battle phase. During the Battle phase the
player with the initiative during the Aggressive segment can try to
bring on a general engagement. Only the player with the initiative
during the aggressive segment has the option to initiate a Battle, which
is different than the small meeting engagements that occur during
movement. The initiative player can choose any one unit on the board and
attempt to enter an adjacent enemy occupied space. Each unit is rated
for its reaction ability; the owning player must make a die roll against
that unit's reaction rating to enter the adjacent enemy occupied space
and initiate the Battle. Since most unit's reaction ratings are 3 or 4
and the game uses a 10 sided die, this is actually rather difficult to
bring off. If this initial die roll fails, no Battle occurs and the rest
of the Battle segment is skipped. Fortunately for aggressive players any
unit stacked with it's Overall Commander fails only on a die roll of 9,
regardless of its rating. Thus, if you really want to start the Battle
you can stack your best Army unit with the Overall Commander. 

Assuming the Battle is started, players then alternate reacting with
units which are able to move to a space within two spaces of the initial
Battle Space (the one the initiative player first reacted into). What
you can end up with are several spaces into which both sides have
reacted into (though units stacked with enemy units can not react, so
pinning attacks are useful) and can have several Battles to resolve. 

Resolving a battle, either during movement or during a Battle segment,
is fairly straightforward. Each side in a space computes its total
battle strength (each step is worth 1, with Corp and Army organizations
providing bonuses as explained above). There are a few die roll
modifiers for each side, but not to many. Each player rolls a die and
cross-indexes the result he rolled with a chart to provide a percentage
number. This percentage number is multiplied by his total battle
strength to determine the amount of damage he has done to the other
side. Thus, army units are likely to do a lot of damage. The Combat
Result Table provides percentage results varying from 0 to 50%, so a
typical full strength army with 22 battle factors could do up to 11
points of damage. Reducing a division in the enemy force absorbs one
point of damage. Since a typical army only has 12 steps (six two-step
divisions), it is very possible that an army can wipe out an opposing
force. Units that take two steps of losses are removed to the Refit box.

The results of a battle, however, represent disruption of organization,
not complete destruction of personnel. To recover from step losses or
elimination a player can use his Refit phase to rebuild his units. Units
on the map which are reduced can be built back to full strength and
units in Refit box can be brought back onto the map at reduced strength.
A unit that is refitting can not move during the rest of the turn. Thus,
it is possible to completely rebuild an army that has been totally wiped
out. 

It is possible to completely destroy a unit. If there are not enough
steps available to absorb all of the points of damage the excess are
used to completely destroy divisions; such divisions can not be replaced
and are removed from the game. Also, any unit removed from the map for
any reason while it does not have a LOC is destroyed with no chance to
refit. 

To win the game the Austrian player has two options. He can gain an
automatic victory by destroying 3 Sardinian divisions or 6 French
divisions, or by capturing key spaces. Failing that he must remain in
possession of a significant portion of the board. The Allied player can
win by clearing the Austrians from a significant portion of the board or
capturing key spaces. The allied player must be careful at the start not
to get overconfident with his units regardless of any predicament the
Austrian player may put himself in. The Austrian player can win the game
early, but it is difficult without the Allied player's help. With
typical play, eventually the weight of French reinforcements will force
the Austrian player to pick up and move back to a better defensive
position. During this retreat he should be doing everything he can to
slow the Allied forces down, and it is most likely at this stage where a
typical game will be won or lost as both players maneuver without the
benefit of their depots. The Allied player must push the Austrian player
quickly to the point at which the Austrian player will make a stand so
that he has enough time to form for a final game winning Decisive
Battle.