From: Daniel Thorpe Subject: All Quiet on the Western Front? After a couple "my copy arrived" and "me too" messages I haven't seen much on Ted Raicer's new WWI opus from MIH: All Quiet on the Western Front? (AQ). Maybe we're all too busy playing it, because this is one great looking game. For the US $30 pre-pub price I paid (including postage) it's also a bargain. The double-sized Joe Youst map covers the western front from the English Channel almost to Switzerland, leaving out only the quiet Alsace sector where little happened. Apart from the two sheets showing a very slightly different colour registration (the usual problem) this is one gorgeous playing surface, with a nice, mottled green background and a very sophisticated presentation of the various terrain types. The pastel colours also show up the bolder shades of the counters very well. These days, if you don't have Joe Youst doing your maps you're handicapping yourself. The 560 counters are mostly divisions, backprinted for step reduction, with a few markers. These Beth Queman items are not as splendiferously colourful as counters from The Gamers or GMT, but are sharply printed and attractive nonetheless. Two chart sheets are printed on heavy stock. One has a turn track and morale summary to supplement the tracks and holding boxes printed on the map. The other is printed both sides and includes all the game charts and tables (there aren't many of these so the numbers are nice and large - a consideration for an ageing hobby!). As MIH has gone to zip-lock packaging for all their games (a result of the small print runs and limited retail base the hobby supports these days) the 32 page rules book has heavy paper colour covers with a fairly inept WWI war art collage on the front, and a well done advert for the game on the back. As is typical of Ted Raicer's games this is not a terribly complex design; the rules book is so long because MIH always uses a generous two-column layout with a big font (more relief for these old eyes) and packs in a lot of extra historical and design notes. I think their rules books are the best ones around. Exclude the component descriptions and scenario setups and the meat of the system only takes 11-12 pages of rules. There are three of those scenarios; a training scenario on Op Michael that only uses part of one map and a few units; a full map scenario covering the whole German 1918 offensive; and one on the Allied counter-offensive that ended the war. A campaign game links the latter two. The only fleas in this lavish production effort are a number of minor proof-reading errors and glitches - a bad case of GMT-itis seems to have struck the MIH kraftwerks. The rules book is full of obvious typos like "not" for "no" and one of the charts on the sheet is not labelled, for example. The icing on the gateau, however, is the fact that Ted's name is spelt "Racier" both on the rules front cover, and at the head of his historical article. I guess designers don't get older, they just get racier… Ahem. The important thing is that despite a small errata sheet that shipped with the game, and a couple of errata posts on this list by Ted, none of these glitches appear to be show-stoppers. Because his games are of moderate complexity and work within a traditional IGO-Hugo turn structure I think we don't give Ted Raicer enough credit for as an innovative designer. Within this framework his games almost always have some really neat wrinkles, AQ being no exception. The tactical limitations of trench warfare are shown by dividing combat into Defender Fire followed by Attacker Fire, rather than the odds ratio system typical of operational level games. A healthy defender can cripple an attacker before he fires a shot. The two tactical solutions: Stosstruppen and Tanks are allowed for by giving these a simultaneous fire on the attack. They'll still take heavy losses, but now you have a chance clearing a hex that isn't too heavily stacked. Neat. As the combat system already produces a lot of die rolling, Ted has wisely abstracted most arty support into the unit strengths. The big pre-planned barrages that opened major offensives are represented by giving HQ units a barrage capability. Each half month turn can consist of a varying number of couplets, (THAT word again! Why can't they use "phase" or "impulse" or anything that doesn't sound quite so awkward and dorky?) though, and only the first one includes a barrage phase. Most offensive lunges were played out in a couple of weeks, after which resources had to be gathered and organised for the next push, so this turn sequence very neatly represents the powerful first blow of an offensive effort, which gradually peters out in successive couplet (normally with one player praying for the turn to end and the other hoping for one more couplet). The other aid to tactical breakthroughs is the incredibly simple strategic reserve rule. Units moved to strategic reserve are kept off map until they are deployed by a friendly, supplied HQ. Now you too can spring one of those surprise offensives on your opponent - all with no dummy markers, hidden movement boxes, iron-maiden command control rules, or any other clunky mechanics. What prevented the tactical successes of 1918 from turning into true operational breakthroughs was the supply system of the time. By 1918 armies had modern rates of ammo expenditure, but they still relied mostly on 19th Century style horsed transport to haul these unprecedented tonnages forward from the railheads. Blitzkrieg would have to wait a few more years till motorised transport columns were in place. AQ neatly simulates this by limiting supply lines to five hexes in length from a friendly rail line; remember that that trench line running all the way across the map is a big interruption in the rail system. Active HQ units can extend the supply chain, but HQ units move only one hex a turn (unless they are Strategically moving within already conquered territory). And activating HQs costs morale points, which will get very scarce for the Germans as the turns tick off (the British blockade is destroying their economy so they have only a limited time to win the war). Your offensives will have to proceed in lunges followed by pauses to reorganise and drag forward supplies (HQs), just as in 1918. You do have the resources to do better, though, if you can organise your HQ activations well enough - very neat indeed! This is a big, beautiful, game on a fascinating topic. It illuminates the history of the time without the excessive complexity or convoluted rules of past monsters. It looks (in every sense of the word) great, and with the limited print runs game companies are running nowadays, I wouldn't wait too long before bagging a copy. First Command 42 includes two of the more interesting XTR games in some time, and now this. My cup is runnething over. Daniel