Peter Stein - Jul 1, 2004 5:36 pm (#6810 Total: 6811) Currently on the Professional Gamers Tour VICTORIA CROSS by Worthington Games I got to play this at Origins with a fellow whose name completely escapes me. I don't think it was a CSW regular. Map- Artistically not the greatest. But for game purposes it does the job. Pieces- To me the drawing of the Zulu in the middle of the piece kinda blurs in with the rest of the piece whne it's on the black wood. But like the map, it's OK for the game. Rules- Not bad. My opoonent and I were able to figure the game out with minimal problems. Maybe a couple of line-of-sight questions. I caught one or two mistakes on the way home, but the rules were there, we just read them wrong. There are 16 turns in the game- 8 in the day, 8 at night. Every turn the Brits start by getting replacements (don't look for much here, this is the work of the Surgeon) and moving (or more correctly, reshuffling within the compound). Then the Zulus get replacements. There's a lot of Zulus. The Zulus have 90 SPs every turn- whatever gets killed off last turn comes back as a reinforcement. However it will take a few turns to get the Zulus back into the fray, giving the feel of waves of men. Leaders will help you move people faster. Now it's fighting time. First the British gets to shoot. The closer the Zulus are, the better the odds of the Brits hitting. Lts. Chard and Bromhead get to take 4 SPs and use volley fire. Volley fire from units behind a wall that's one zone away from the Zulu target equals lots of dead Zulus. After the Zulus take their losses they get to take Random Fire Combat. Only 6 potshots here. Then it's melee for units with the enmy adjacent to them. This is simultaneous. And while the Brits gets kills on 5 or 6, as opposed to the Zulus who need 6s, the Brits won't like this part. (Did I mention there's lots of Zulus?) If a zone is emptied the other side can move in (The Brits won't do this too often). (For you hit number-phobes, there is an optional CRT chart you can use). After losses are taken, it's time to see what's happening at the hospital. Roll a die. If it's anything but a one the hospital takes damage as the fire spreads. Five hits and the hospital (and anybody in it) is toast. This can be crucial because at the start of the game there are 4 VP counters representing the wounded. If the Zulus capture then they get VPs. They can be evacuated, but only if an actual infantry unit is with them. Choices, Choices. LAst is checking for victory. If the Brits are reduced to under 10SPs the Zulus automatically win. Also if the Zulus get to 14 VPs they win. Points are given to key spots (the hospital, the Final Redoubt, the water cart). If on any turn the British kill off 47+ SPs the Zulus lose a point. If the Brits prevent the Zulus from winning by turn 16, the Brits win. In my game I concentrated the Zulus on the hospital first. After it burned and my opponent moved guys that way I started working on the other side. I had the Brits under 10SPs by turn 10. On the flight home I realized we did one or two rules wrong that helped me, so I'm not sure about play balance. Thought there are several optional rules to help one side or the other. Bottom line- I'll play this again. It took us about two hours the first tine, maybe if you go the distance it's 3 hours tops. Definitely playable in one night. Yeah, it could have been prettier, but we're not talking nightmares here. The designers are talking about other games they'd like to try, let's see what they come up with. Alan Anderchuk - Jul 4, 2004 2:27 am (#84 Total: 85) Darkmanat on EBay AAR Well, I got in my first play of the game tonight. My brother was the ZULU and I had the Brits. I feel the game is balanced but the brits realy need to set up correctly. The zulu's can over come bad position but the Brits have a harder time. I spent most of the first 5 turns trying to get a feel for where my leaders and troops should be. I kept telling myself to not try to be strong all along the perimiter (which always winds up making you weak everywhere), but I eventually did spread myself out too much. As you can guess the game ended in ZULU victory as I just couldn't make a stand any where that was truly helpful. My first view of disaster loomed when I was trying to evacuate the VP troops but had their escort get wiped out by a fast moving HUGE zulu mob in meelee. Which meant they wiped out my VP troops too. Things about play that really stood out for me: The roof (area H) must me manned by as many of the 8 SP as you can. It gives a great fire platform and is hard for the Zulu to take. Always be thinking about how to keep your wounded counters moving into area G for repair. We played with the variant rule of adding Dalton as a leader. He can really help with troops moving. Create tactical situations that will allow volley fire, it is just devastating. I kept moving my leaders and SP's into position, but forgetting that moving them meant they lost volley fire as an option. The outside zones of the Zulu's area give the zulu a lot of room to manuever. Be prepared for his leaders to have them move around with great speed. Fighting from buildings restricts the Zulu's in their attacks. Holding a zone thinly invites disaster if his random fire attacks get lucky. Some questions came up during play too. Bayonet charges: Just EXACTLY when do the occur? After meelee but before the victor can move into a zone? Or only after the victor has occupied a zone? also, as we read the rules meele is just one round of combat/turn. That is the Zulu makes his meele attack once, the Brit makes his roll once and that is the end of meele, next turn. But a charge means meelee continues untill one side or the other is eliminated. With the meelee being done as normal. But the Brits only get to use their charging leader/SP's and the zulu's get all their SP's involved. So if Chard charges up with 3 SP, joining 3 SP's already there, only him and his 3 he brought make attack rolls or take casualties from the Zulu's. And the meelee is done like normal meelee, with the charge not providing any combat bonus. This includes if the charge inflicts any damage on the Zulu's they still get to make their meelee roll with out taking into consideration the casaulties till the next round. lastly: If your firing at zulu's and count off range by never crossing diagonly, but moving along the flat sides when counting, is this the way to see if you have LOS? My brother and me are looking forward to a rematch to see how much better the British can do.