SPI's Wellington's Victory......................
As Decision Games are bringing out a revamped version of the old Simulations Publications Inc. ' Classic ' - Wellington's Victory this year.I may as well do some meowling about it; the original that is. I have no idea what the new version is like, so this will be an exercise in potential prophecy, a la NostraLannus.
Wellington's Victory obviously covers the decisive encounter on 18th June 1815 between the Armee du Nord, commanded by ' Wargod ' Napoleon and the Anglo-Allied Army, commanded by the Duke of Weenyton; being re-inforced by the Prussian Army, commanded by Blucher, the Belcher.
The first thing that grabs your attention ,is the size of the map , agood 6 x 4.5 feet, and then the colouration; there are a lot of white, yellow and brown hexes, with green for woods. The map takes a bit of getting used to, and you eventually settle into it's visuallity. The maps strongest aspect is it's stretching all the way to the Lasne Defile area, with it's town, mostly on the south side of the river. Marbot's cavalry had scanned this the day before. A lot of Waterloo Battle games stop short or only just beyond the Paris woods. This allows the French player, to maybe, send Lobau's VI Corps ( 2 Divisions ) with support cavalry to block the Prussians, much further east. The Prussian hordes inching towards the Paris woods, over one third of the map which is never really fought over, is a good gaming psychological impasse for the French player to deal with;as he is impelled to throw more against Wellington or trust Lobau to block for time;and of course, what to send to aid him.
The counters have standard colouration for each army, with a white cross over-layered for infantry; a white diagonal line for cavalry and dots for artillery. I remember being a bit disappointed at the sheer number of numbered counters, printed between 1 and 8, lots of sheets.These markers showed losses in 100's or single guns. The leader counters were pretty non-descript with a small printed name. There were also tons of generic skirmisher company counters, with just a small infantry cross within square symbol on them, representing 100 men.
One good thing about this game was the Combat Results Table, which was easily read and understood, and worked with a good degree of variation in results, and so totally suited to all the other parameters of game-play. The skirmisher company counters were probably too powerful for their size in combat, though.
A second good thing was that opposing cavalry within their shortest charge range,could counter-charge your cavalry in a charge ;dependant on a successful morale die-roll. Keeping some cavalry near vulnerable sections of your line worked when no infantry were available. The 6 hex charge range was a bit arbitrary, but you could theoretically charge any adjacent enemy unit, usually up to three times and 3 hexes beyond the max range, or when you were forced to stop by a Disorder result, halving your strength and impact.
A third good thing was the use of an overall Army Morale Loss Record Track; which meant that the more divisions you committed and numbers who were killed, would eventually decrease the effectiveness rating by 1 or 2 or even 3 of all your battalions. The effectiveness rating being a numberbetween 1 and 6. Guard units with a 6 rating would only be half as effective at battles end.
A fourth good thing was the option to start the battle at 6.00am; although your movements were restricted by mud movement and artillery had to stick to roads and paths only until the officiai opening of the battle. I beieve there were some restrictions on formations you can move; Reille's Corps , historically having the longest way to march to their forward positions.
A fifth good thing was the use of elevation sighting rules whch used a basic formula as to whether you could see your opponent to fire upon, etc. Not always exact on certain outlying points of the map, but worked well 99 per cent of the time.
Now for things that were not good.
A bad thing was the assignment of only 8 shots for a foot battery, and 6 for a cavalry battery. ALthough probably correct in game parameter terms;it had unusual effects. The most readily transparent was that you had to make sure of your hits; there would be a reluctance to fire at long range,and sometimes medium range, and it felt a bit tacky.
Skirmisher companies were readily useful in blocking; were harder to hit, and had an all round fire capability, and so too powerful, especially at taking out gun crews.
The availability of 2 Dutch- Belgian Divisions at Braine L'Alleud, north-west of the Chateau of Hougomont, gave the Wellington player too much commital power , neutralizing Reille's attack. You had to make your own ruling that these divisions could only be committed once the Chateau was taken by the French, or only after 6.00pm.
Now for the prophecy bit or what I think Decision Games have done to the new version.
1.The box art will be more sexy; the original SPI box was a brownish non-entity, while the re-issued TSR version was better. They will probably go down the La Bataille series route.
2. The map wil be twice as detailed, with full graphical images of the important farmhouses. Colouration will be more pleasant to the eye. Fields and minor tracks will be numerous with different depictions. Hexes will be less formal as terain willslightly ovelap into ajoining hexes for a more realistic look. Picton's ridge will be more detailed and historically accurate as will the impassable cavalry area near La Haye Sainte and Hougomont. Abatis will be counters rather than map visuals.
3. Counters will be like tha La Bataille series with colour coding for uniform. The numbered chits will be dispensed with as losses will be recorded for each unit on a separate paper sheet. No more 5 strikes and your unit is eliminated; now your losses will be 1, or 2, or 23, or 106; whatever. You keep a sheet record of the loss.
Once the battalion unit is reduced to 100 or less men , it is replaced by a specific company unit with it's own formation designation, numbering anything from 1 to 100. Routed and Disordered counter icons will be changed to graphical representations of such, rather than single letters; the same as will be used for line and square markers.
4.Artillery will be able to fire all the time, dependent on their supply of ammo. There will be rules for barrel overheating to stop superman usae. Ball bounce rules will also be used.
5. Battlefield smoke rules will be implemented, God knows how; so ask him, not me,....... right !.
6.Combat Results Table will be completely overhauled to reflect more realistic loss parameters.
7.Skirmishers will be less powerful and used mostly against each other and to lower the morale levels of enemy troops and morale/effectiveness values will have a wider spectrum than 1 to 6, but rather be 1 to 20.
8.Leader counters will have historical portraits.
9.Cavalry charge range will increase to 9 hexes. Shock impact will differ for the first 3 hexes and so on. Cavalry blown markers for a full distance charge wil be used;it will take at least 2 turns to recover.
10. 10 minute turns rather than 15 minute will be used for finer tactical variability.
11.And now for the all time , Lulu; Grouchy's entire Corps will be in the unit counter manifest [ enough room, as the numbered chits have gone, and maybe just maybe, the southern map edge is extended by about 30 hexes- Decision have no problems with this... ], supposing Grpuchy comes across, or even Gerard's Corps is sent alone to either re-inforce Napoleon or hit the Prussians on the southern flank.......lovely !
12. My cat believes that the packaging box will be big enough for him to sleep in..............otherwise he won't buy it...!
Nap..........oleon ! Zzzzzzzz !
