Not long ago, Hjalmar Gerber kindly sent me his latest
DTP creation: _Across the Piave_. It covers the final
battles of WW1 on the Italian Front, both fought in the
same area around the Piave river, NE of Venice:
- Battle of the Piave (June) - desperate Austrian offensive;
- Vittorio Veneto (Oct) - the war-winning Italian offensive.


    The game is innovative in many respects, so I'll try
to describe each component:


* Map: A3-sized but with very large hexes (3 cm = 6/5") 
so there are few of them (10*14) representing 3km each.
Hexes are divided into hex-cores (unlimited stacking) and 
"contact boxes" between them (max. 1 unit). The Piave river 
is a line of dots replacing hex-cores. There are extensive 
rules for the river crossings - exposed to many risks: air
and artillery bombardment, floods, ground (flank) attacks.


* Units: division-sized, 240 1/2" counters. You have to 
mount and cut them. Colourful, with national flags and
same-colour marks for each corps. Only the unit quality 
- called Tactical Rating - is written on them, very large.
They are separated for each of the 2 scenarios, and 
quite few: 17-23 per side.
    The real memory of the system, hidden from enemy 
views, is a separate set of Tracks with markers for each 
unit: the Combat Readiness Ratings (CRR) "that represent 
a combination of current strength, supply level and state 
of readiness/exhaustion". Division numbers linking logically 
the map units and markers are however in a tiny font.
    There are also HQ chits for each corps, corps artillery 
and (Italian) aircraft markers. 


* Turn sequence (1/2 day): based on alternating actions, 
each needing a "chit": build/improve a crossing, bombard,
and "corps actions". The historical flow of the battles is 
nicely represented by 'pick values' for each side and turn
- how many actions the player can make at the *desired*
moments, and including the critical river crossings. (Watch
the fine print again!). Other corps actions happen in random 
order, at the mercy of the owners' Draw Cup. GHQ reserves 
can be moved several times but with increasing fatigue.


* CRR levels: are the heart of the system. Every offensive
action costs them: engaging, breaking off, attacking.
    WW1-like defender's advantage results exactly from this:
attacking has certain costs, defender damage is uncertain
and happens only when a retreat is forced: -1 level for each
enemy unit in contact. Both sides can retreat, but defenders
check first.
    Attacking is 1-on-1-unit and voluntary, from contact->core 
or core->contact. There is a Combat Table comparing the 
qualities (TR) of both sides, giving strength (CRR) thresholds 
at which units are 'invulnerable' to ground combat and can
only be hurt by bombardments. Below the threshold, each 
side's CRR is just the chance, in 1/6 units, of *not* retreating. 
Hexside obstacles increase the chance of the attacker failing.
    Most effective tactics are to weaken a defending unit 
with bombardments, engage it (in a hex-core) from several 
sides (contact boxes), then attack once, with the best unit. 
Also defender's counterattacks, preferably against attackers' 
flanks, causing a forced retreat to cover the hex core, with
more CRR losses. Retreats across the Piave can be 
catastrophic, with extra penalties.
    Then defenders can just 'move' back 1 hex at no cost
(core->core) and attackers have to engage again - at cost!


* Recovery: at turn end, for each corps left unused (chit
in the Cup), unengaged units recover 1 strength point.
In the long run (there are 16 turns!), this regulates the 
offensive pace. After exhausting efforts, whole sectors 
of front pause while others, fresher, continue the effort. 
It gives a very nice operational feel, avoiding the
'constant parallel effort' artifice of usual wargames.
Only bombardments continue at 1 per corps per turn.


* Unit density: feels very grainy. Each hex (3km) is either
empty or has 1 division (more is a burden). Perhaps lower 
force densities couldn't assure a solid defence of terrain ?
The front is 15-18 hexes long, with 17-23 units, but some 
are far behind, in reserve, recovering etc.


* Weather: interesting system with two tables for AM and 
PM, each with probabilities based on the previous state:
Clear, Fog, Overcast, Rain, and the damaging Heavy Rain.
    This forms a second-order Markov chain. A few matrix 
multiplications give the probability of Fog in Turn 15...
    Weather affects river crossings, arty and air, 
so it should be included in planning.


* Scenarios: the critical setup decision is not just where 
the units are on the map, but their hidden CRR levels 
from a fixed total budget, designating main efforts.
- Battle of the Piave: somewhat-strong Austrians try to
force a hold across the Piave with enough force before 
Italian main forces further back can close the gaps.
Heavy fighting for Montello hill, helping arty spotting.
- Vittorio Veneto: more fluid, lower unit density. Two 
almost invincible British divisions crush tired Austrians.


*Play is quite long, depending on the player's experience
with chit-pull systems. At each stage choices are limited,
but the need to correlate map positions with CRR strength
on the Tracks, and synchronize the corps, all test the 
players' distributive attention. Players interact often, so 
the mechanism is better suited for face-to-face than PBEM.
(Anyone knows how to represent these hex cores and
contact boxes in Cyberboard ?)


    Thanks for reading,
    Mircea Pauca (mpauca@fx.ro), Bucuresti, Romania