the franco-prussian war - Strategy & Tactics

14THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WARby Omar DewittOmar DeWitt is the president of AHIKS, asociety since 1966 for those 21 and over whoare interested, primarily, in playing wargamesby mail. AHIKS offers a rules booklet, a Judge,two publications, and an opponent-matchingservice, among other things. More informationcan be obtained by writing DeWitt at 78Wickham Drive, Williamsville, N.Y. 14221.Lately, with so many titles being published, it isnot always easy to notice the really good ones.This is a good one. If for no other reasons thanthe several unique features of The Franco-Prussian War, it is an excellent game andshould belong in the library of all seriouswargamers.The French start the game with 11 counters onthe mapboard (plus 3 EB - RR units). The 11counters may include from one to six dummycounters, depending upon the order of battle.The Prussians start the game with 18 counters,one to ten of which may be dummy counters,plus an unlimited number of EB units.All counters are inverted during set-up and, inthe Standard game, remain inverted duringplay. In the Basic Game, all units are face up,and most of the unique features of the FPWare not used. Although it is a good way tobecome' familiar with the mechanics of thegame and is therefore useful, it does not havethe interest the Standard Game does. I will beconcerned mainly with the Standard Game.Although the idea of dummy counters hasbeen around for some time (Victor Madeja inthe General, Nov. 1964, the FPW is the firstgame, to my knowledge, that actuallyincorporates them. "Dummy counters," readthe rules, "represent the atrocious intelligenceavailable to both sides during the originalcampaign." They might be small groups ofenemy soldiers, rumors, or a Boy Scout troop.The inverted dummy counters are treatedexactly the same way as inverted combatunits.The only way to determine if an enemy counteris a dummy or a combat unit, or to tell thestrength of a combat unit (they vary in CombatStrength Points from one to ten), is to attackit. Another unique feature of the game, theHasty Attack, allows a counter to attack withonly part of its total strength, thereby gaininginformation with possibly lower losses (eachunit can take losses one Combat StrengthPoint at a time).Dummy counters that are revealed, andtherefore eliminated, are returned to play in thefollowing turn by being stacked with anyfriendly unitk). The result is that the dummycounters can be quite a potent weapon. Even ifa laver is certain that a articular counter is ad;mmy, that counter st111 exerts a Zone ofControl that ~nh~b~ts movement and cutssupply lines. And ~f a player is not certainwhlch are dummy counters, which is morelikely, the possibility of stronger threatsmust be met.At the beginning of the game, not knowing thestrength of the inverted combat units issomewhat of a problem. After combat begins,it is less of a ~roblem; even thouah the unitsare inverted after combat, an av&age Bridgeplayer should be able to keep track of which iswhich. Although counters can stack togetherat the end of a turn and disperse the followingturn, this rarely happens because the Frenchhave too few units to bunch them up, and thePrussians are too busy maneuvering. Thedummy counters returning to the game areeasy to stack, and so the problem remains,which are combat and which are dummy. Withenough dummies returning to play, it takesmore than an average Bridge player to keepthe possibilities straight. For those who areconcerned about it, play balance could beaffected by adding dummy counters to theweaker player's side.Fortification Units pose an interesting problemfor the offense. Since these units exert a Zoneof Interdiction affecting supply lines, and sincethe French forts exert this Zone over thenorthern half of the mapboard, the Prussianhas to decide whether to mask these Zoneswith units or to destroy the Fortification Units,which takes time and Combat Strength Pointsand therefore Victory Points (five VictoryPoints are earned for each Combat StrengthPoint eliminated). The forts cannot be ignoredif any penetration beyond Thionville is to bemade. If the French are weak in the Thionvillearea, the Prussian has a desire to push on whilethe pushing is good; but in the long run hemight give himself too much rooe. If there aresignificant French in the area, ihe tendency isto attack them for the Victory Points (there areno Victory Points for eliminated forts) and theforts remain intact. The problem is aninteresting one. On defense, the fortificationsoffer help, but the question of putting combatunits inside or outside or in what combinationof both is a good one.Prussian involvement in the south-east sectionof the mapboard is almost purely defensive,since there are no Victory Points forpenetration to be earned in that direction.However, it is the natural place for Frenchoffense: it threatens the Prussian lone supplysource, and it is the most obvious area to earnpoints for penetration into Prussia. Perhapsthis area poses a problem that is one of thelittle beauties of this game. How much shouldthe Prussian spend in this isolated area fordefense while the points are to be won halfwayacross the board? If one French unit inStrasburg at the start of the last Turn has aIgood chance of winning 50 points, whatof a threat would another unit be?The Victory Points Chart is clear and sereasonable. However, it does not sreasonable for all possible combinationFrench and Prussian OBs if the Optional Rtused. For instance, with OB "F" the Pru:gets only 41 Combat Strength Points towith (as opposed to 72 if the Optional Runot used) and gets only 20 morereplacements (against 13). In French OB75 Combat Strength Points are availimmediately (as opposed to 57 if the OptiRule is not used). If the game is playedthese two Orders of Battle, the result in VicPoints should be quite different. I wsuggest, therefore, that different Victory FCharts be used for different combinalof OBs.The accompanying table is based onassumption that a force twice as stagainst a given enemy force would earntimes the Victory Points (plus or minus apoints for the time of arrival of the reinfcments). The figures in the table representpoint spread in which a draw would occurinstance, if OBs A and J were used, a (would be obtained if the result in VicPoints were anywhere from 101 toinclusive (this is the same as the Victory FChart printed in the rules). If OBs D and Hused, a draw would result if the Victory Ftotal was 36 to 65 inclusive.Of course, the Victory Point total will usfall into Marginal, Substantial, or Decisive.Marginal range would run from 1 througpoints greater than the higher draw numb€the Prussians; French Marginal would run1 through 20 points less than the lower (number. German Substantial Victory wrun from 21 through 69 greater than the hidraw number; French Substantial Vicwould run from 21 to 40 less than the 11draw number. German Decisive Victory woccur when the Victory Point total was at70 points greater than the higher draw nunFrench Decisive would occur when the VicPoint total was at least 41 points belowlower draw number (These are the same 1spreads as in the chart printed in the riFor example, assume OBs E and L wereand that the Victory Point total was 89.higher draw number is 50, so the resultVictory Points above the higher draw nunwhich means a Prussian Substantial VicVICTORY POINT SPREADS FOR A DRAW WHEN USING OPTIONAL RULE OBSPrussianFrench OBG H J K L M101- -125 - lll-140v86-17B--141-170 136-165 141-170 136-165 151-180 126-155- - . -- - -C 101-130 96-125 101-130 96 86-115-- D --_-_-.41 -70. -- 36-65 41 -70 35 26-55*" - -- -E 11-40 6-35 11-40 6-: - 4-25 - -F 0-30 -525 0-30 -525 10-40 -15-15-.a"