Wellington's Victory review

[@richarddefortuna2252]

The Eylau game is out and remains available. It's called Winter's Victory, and was issued by New England Simulations. I haven't delved into it myself, but I can confirm that it uses a ten-sided die.

[@YukonJack88]

Okay. Some initial thoughts in response: I'm at 4Pm as the Allies in a weekly live online game and am seriously loving actually playing the hell out of these rules, to get combines arms dynamic to win the day. I'm finding these rules allow for historic combined arms play. I agree that the interlaced turn structure is inspired game design, which I find confusing, but I'm role playing this as a Battle field effect, involving chaos and stress. There is a further depth to how the 3 main formed units interact historically, and that involves the minimum range reactionary fire and opportunity charges. Both of these are bloody effective and dramatic, in terms of the emergent cohesion degradation and lethality of operating as units close. Sure the fire phases are fixed, but the reactionary fire and counter opportunity charge actions are dynamic throughout the turn. This is inspired game design. The amount of tension and direct feedback from one's decisions, has me hooked. The turn situations are so interesting be involved with. I'm am using all three mutually supporting arms, to deadly effect across the battle line, and have shut down the French so far. Our game is using very few skirmishers, so monster stacks are not an issue. And we keep these down to mostly 3 Skirmishers per hex. I have the Winter's Victory game and am going to play it on Vassal with myself. You can get them by googling the living rules and have a gander at how the rule concepts have evolved. I'm liking what I see. They allow for artillery crews to hide in squares. Cavalry can change facing one spline in reaction to incoming action. Lots of thematic tweeks. In these rules there is a formation called General order, which represents a battalion(s) broken up as they naturally seep into a village for example. This then accounts for the mega skirmisher stacks in a historical manner. I love this game, while the La Batt doesn't pull me in to invest into it. I have the Decision Game's Wellington's Victory and will play that to contrast yet again how this can be modelled. Onward.

[@kenx8176]

The Eylau game that uses this system is already out -- it is called Winter's Victory. (Note the similarity in the name.) The design notes are available online in the rules or scenario book and they do address the asymmetrical sequence of play. Eylau was a battle where the French were on the attack and the Russians on the defense, and if I remember correctly, that plus the differences in tactical ability between the two armies was the rationale for the asymmetry. That still begs the question of how many battles it would be appropriate for.

[@somtngwong7781]

Played this, or was it NvsW, wayyy back when it was newish. I didn't put a lot of time into it as other games were less annoying. As for the weirdness of reciprocal fire , I suspect it can be kluged by making it simultaneous. Yes this will increase casualties, roll a different colored die at the same time. On a 4-6 or whatever, keep the actual result. On 1-3, the result is a level less deadly. Fiddle with as needed.

[@chinapoliticsfromtheprovin6133]

Thanks for this wrap-up as well as the series on this specific game. I'm wondering about the references to the Civil War Brigade system, and whether there were enough shifts in tactical doctrine between 1815 and the 1860s to account for the subtle differences in issues such as LOS and firepower that are depicted in this game as opposed to the series referred to. I'm not nearly as conversant in this era as your good self, and so I would be interested in hearing your take. I'm also wondering if you think that what one sees in TSS (and the adjustments that followed in that game and the series that sprang from it) would have been different if Frank Davis was the designer as opposed to Richard Berg. I know that's a tough question, but that would at least help explain why WV doesn't match the CWB games. I'm a fan of this game as SPI presented it. I have not heard happy things about the DG reissue/remake. Thanks again for all your work and this channel. It's required viewing for serious gamers.

[@calandale]

LoS is pretty consistent through the ages, AFAIK. :D I think WV had a more subtle and interesting design than TSS - especially in the SoP impacts. These are less important for the ACW era though, with its predominance on rifles rather than the full impact of three different branches. No idea how Davis would have approached an ACW battlefield. He seemed willing to throw out excess design elements, so I suspect it wouldn't be a more detailed effort than TSS was. Berg really liked to leave a lot of that in.

[@Christopher-hl3cm]

I think the Eylau game fixes a lot of issues. Almost to the point of too much detail, adding to the complexity. Because the sequence of play drives a lot of the game, I think difficult to develop new games for other battles quickly.

[@Irena_Posner]

Woo Wellington's Victory? ... didn't Wellington actually lose in your playthrough?

[@calandale]

What's in a name?

[@Irena_Posner]

@@calandale Answer: Letters! ;) Anyway, my previous comment was supposed to be a joke. I felt it was kind of hilarious to see that Wellington got absolutely whacked in a game called "wellington's Victory" :D

[@calandale]

That which we call a victory by any other name would still be as sweet....or something

[@Irena_Posner]

@@calandale "The second worst thing after a battle lost is a battle won" - or something to that extent.

[@calandale]

Which is to say that nappy's nappies are stained?

[@somtngwong7781]

Agree that skirmishers are too effective. As I recall the old john tiller computer games also overrated them. I don't see a problem with lowering the effectiveness of a unit, beyond the single strength point, when creating a skirmisher. Presumably these are the better trained troops in a given unit, and detachment could lower the effectiveness of what is left.

[@calandale]

The main problem with them is immunity to shock. Ideally, they should be able to flee shock combat, and duck into either good terrain or with a parent unit - or else pretty much be destroyed.

[@vanishingtowerpress2786]

Flat packs suck. The game, on the other hand, is fun as hell to play.