the franco-prussian war - Strategy & Tactics

AN EXAMPLE OF ACOMPLETE VICTORY POINT CHARTWHEN OBS " E AND "L" ARE USEDNetVictory Points Level of Victory-20 or less French Decisive Victory-19 through 0 French Substantial Victory1 through 20 French Marginal Victory21 through 50 Draw; neither player wins51 through 70 German Marginal Victory71 through 119 German Substantial Victory120 or over German Decisive VictoryNot surprisingly, I have not playtested these 25different Victory Point Charts, but I think theyare a bit more in line with what one canreasonably expect from the opposing forces.Although one might not suspect it, the sixFrench OBs are unique: no two have the samecities in their set-ups. Therefore, the Prussianplayer, by spending a little time checking, candetermine which OB the French player isusing. Actually, this parallels the originalconflict, since the Prussians did have muchbetter information about the French than theFrench had about the Prussians.One wonders how much this advantage for theastute Prussian would affect the Victory Pointtotal. If it is felt that this information gives thePrussian too much advantage, I would suggestthat the cities listed in only one of the OBs (say"J") be used for all French set-ups.Whenever an EB unit attempts to cross a riverhexside for the first time, a die must be rolledto see if the crossing is effected. At first, onemight wonder if two EB units were stackedtogether, would two dice be thrown. However,since any number of Prussian EB units can bebrought into play and stacked on any squarecontaining another EB unit, and since anynumber of die rolls are quite likely to turn up a1, 2, or 3, it seems obvious that only one dieroll is intended.It is possible for the Prussian to have EB unitson both sides of a river hexside (say, one inMetz and one in St. Privat) trying to cross. Inthis case, I would assume that two die rollswould be allowed.Yes, The Franco-Prussian War can be playedby mail. It should be played, however, betweentwo people who know each other well, andwho trust each other, because it is possible tocheat. Normal OB sheets (see MOVES #5,"Playing Wargames by Mail" for an explanationof the normal PBM process) cannot beused, since the identity of the units is notdivulged. Movement is indicated by writing, forinstance, "MM-38 to GG-33."Combat is a little more complicated whenHasty Attacks are made while trying todiscover dummy counters. Contingencymoves must often be included: "If L-26 is aDummy, then move. . .If L-26 is not a dummy,then move. . . ." This can be a fairly longprocess in some instances, but the fact thatthere are so few units in the game does notmake the process burdensome.The official AHlKS grid coordinates for theFPW are: Place the mapsheet so that west isat the top and letter the rows from top tobottom A through WW. The numberedcolumns run from SE to NW and begin in theupper lefthand corner. Column "4" runsthrough hexes numbered 176 and 177. Thecolumns are numbered 1 through 58. Checkpoints are: Langres is M-8, Metz is X-32, andKaiserslautern is 00-46.The Franco-Prussian War undoubtedly is notthe ultimate wargame, but it is one of the bestto come down the pike lately.