Subject: Fw: Vae Victis' Poitiers/Formigny: Impressive! Paul Aceto wrote in message <8etump$m1u$1@news.ihug.co.nz>... I took a gamble with a recent order from Boulder Games on a French wargaming magazine called Vae Victis. I got issue #26, with the two 100 Years War battles of Poitiers and Formigny. I must say I am very impressed with the quality (especially since the games are $10 through Boulder). Granted you have to mount the counters, but it's not that big a deal. And boy are the counters gorgeous! The game itself is well suited to solitaire play, with a Richard Berg-esque die roll determining activation to start off the turn (a high enough roll lets you "deactivate" one enemy leader) and then leaders activating one by one from worst to least. There's some good interplay between types of units (English archers are deadly but if the French survive to wade into melee they can be toast; and charging cavalry can really rip up an enemy line). Routed units stream toward the map edge, often taking chunks of the line with them as they pass through. The games play quickly (1 1/2 - 2 hours) with low counter density and the rules are pretty easy to understand (they're in French, but translations can be found at http://perso.club-internet.fr/fredbey) or in a link from http://grognard.com. In a couple of playings of each scenario, I've found they tend to produce historical results (Enlgish win at Poitiers, French at Formigny) but some optional rules can even the balance. One of the reasons I'm mentioning this is that I haven't seen many posts about Vae Victis, and that's a shame. If the rest of their games are as good as this, they should be getting more attention. I know I plan to pick up some of their other games through Boulder, with special interest in Kharkov '43 and Les Matz 1918. Also, for anyone else who's been playing, the link on web-grognards to "errata" contains only the very much needed unit type melee modifier chart. There is some more errata posted at the Frederick Bey site listed above, but it's in French. If I get ambitious, I might post a translation. For me, the key clarifications were: routed units face away from the enemy and towards the map edge they are headed toward; retreating ("recul") units (whether through combat or voluntary withdrawal) maintain the same facing they had during combat. And if a leader is stacked with a routed unit that routs off the map, he is placed with the nearest surviving unit of his banner (and if none exist, the nearest unit of his side). This actually came up in my replay of Formigny. The English were losing badly and Kyriel won initiative and went on a suicide dash towards Clermot (a la Richard III at Bosworth) with a unit of men-at-arms and one of archers. Clermont's unit was routed by English archers, but Kyriel was captured in the ensuing melee. Because Clermont's unit remained adjacent to an English unit, it could not rally and ran off the map in the rally phase taking both army leaders with it!