From: "Olivier C" Subject: Review of With Fire and Sword (SimCan) With Fire and Sword is the title of a Polish novel about the Ukrainian rebellion of Bogdan Chmielnicki, but this game is a two-player simulation of the Thirty Year War (1618-1648). Turns represent 1 year and hexes are scaled to 48 kilometers (30 miles). The map covers Germany, Northern Italy, the East of France, Bohemia, Austria and parts of Hungary, Denmark and Poland. The map is divided into 20-or-so nations. There is a large blank area in the middle of the map, as if the designer had lost courage and stopped counting the tiny German principalities. Some nations have military units : France, Protestant League (Savoy/Anhalt/Palatine), Empire (Austria), United Provinces, Denmark, Sweden, England, Spain, Bavaria, Saxony. I have two comments on this : first, the principality of Anhalt is incorrectly called Halberstadt. Second, included in the countermix are 3 Bohemian SP and a Bohemian leader (Thurn-und-Taxis) which are not mentioned anywhere in the set up or reinforcements. I suggest treating them like Savoy/Anhalt units and putting them in Prague at start. Units come in generic Strength Point (SP) which must be paid every turn by the owning nation. Each country receives Resource Point (RP) every turn, which cannot be accumulated from turn to turn. 1 RP maintains 1 SP, and excess RPs can buy new troops at double cost (2 RPs for 1 SP). Troops which cannot be paid cannot move (unless a named leader is present) and defend at half strength, until they are paid again. Spanish reinforcement appear in the Valtelline (Duchy of Milan) and are lost if the Valtelline is closed (as per random events, this occurs on average every 9 turns). The game is completely driven by the RP schedule, which ensures that historical results happen. In particular, the Protestant player is quickly expelled from Bohemia, contrary to what often happens in Holy Roman Empire (Wargamer magazine). Kind of "design for effect" but it works. Units can also be partially paid by sacking cities, which is an economical way of running the war. After reinforcements, the side with the better leaders has Initiative and can choose to move first or second. It allows potentially devastating double moves for the side with Initiative. Units have unlimited movement factors but can only move with a leader and take more attrition the further they move. This may have strange effects as a 4-SP force can move 1000 hexes and only lose 3 SP, and take an ennemy capital. My suggestion is to limit movement to 18 MP (the maximum on the attrition table). Moreover, when unpaid units move, they devastate every hex in their path. Since movement is unlimited, a single unpaid unit with a named leader could theoretically devastate the whole map in one turn, so this is an additional reason to limit movement to 18 MP. Clear terrain costs 2 MP, Rough 3 MP, Barren (devastated) 4MP, and along river 0.5 MP. The terrain effect of river is not very clear or intuitive in the rules. At the end of the movement phase, battles and siege assault and siege occur. Battles and siege assaults can be bloody, with whole forces wiped out in one round. Interestingly, a siege only succeeds on a die roll of '6' which makes sieges last on average 6 years ! Then winter attrition is rolled for, control of nations is checked and VP are awarded. Control of nations gives Victory Points. VP calculations occur every turn and are a bit tedious. End of game VP conditions would be a better idea. The simulation is purely military : there are no diplomatic rules and nations enter the war at set dates. No political rules either (except that Saxon and Bavarian troops go home if Spanish troops march into Bohemia and Eastern Germany) and the word 'Elector' does not even appear in the rules (Mainz appears as Palatinate's capital, and Trier and Cologne are not even on the map). It could be interesting to add diplomatic rules with cards, such as those in HRE. There are three scenario : 1618-1629 the Triumph of the Emperor, 1630-1635 the Lion of the North, 1636-1648 the Final Act. I have only played the first scenario, which is boring for the Protestant player while Imperial troops conquer everything in sight. On the whole, the game is not very good, but since HRE has many problems and rule questions (and I am not even speaking of S&T's 30YW), it is probably the only game on the period which is playable. It plays rather quickly (only winter attrition and VP calculations are tedious) and it gives a good idea of the three phases of the war.