Unconditional Surrender Western Campaigns

 Following a recommendation from Norm at the Battlefields and Warriors site, I recently picked up a copy of Unconditional Surrender, Western Campaigns by GMT.

I haven't bought a new boardgame for many years (QMG WW1 was the last I think) , but I was rather taken with the concept behind this one - essentially it extracts individual campaigns from the much larger 'Unconditional Surrender' game and packages them up separately. This one includes the Invasion of Poland, the Invasion of Norway and Denmark, France 1940, The Tunisian Campaign, the Invasion of the Balkans, France 1944 and the Italian Campaign - all in a very playable format with Army sized playing pieces.

There is a lovely dice cut counter sheet, full colour double sided counters, very crisply printed and easy to read. The various nations are colour coded and also have little flags. There are quite a few game control markers as well, the sort of thing we were expected to remember or note down in the days of SPI.

It also has a vast pile of play aids and no less than three rule books. I was rather taken aback by this volume of verbiage, give me an AHGC Classic and two sides of rules any day. Anyway, it transpired that one book is mainly scenarios and the other is essentially an extended set of designers notes with a lengthy play example of the France 1940 scenario. You can just dive in and play, but the first few scenarios are in a Programmed Instruction format and more rules are introduced as you go along.

There are five maps, including one double size one (for Morocco/Algeria/Tunisia), and two of them are double sided aa well. I must confess to being a bit disappointed that the North African one was Tunisia and not the Western Desert, but you cant have everything I guess.

This is the map for the Italian Campaign. Rather fewer hexes than my elderly copy of AHGCs 'Italian Campaign'. Most of the Balkans have been greyed out for this one so they are not playable.

And this is for the invasion of the Balkans, the same map as for Italy but shifted over a few hexes and with Italy greyed out.

The first three scenarios (Poland, Scandinavia and France 1940) ae billed as training scenarios, so I set Poland up. The Poland one introduces you to the basics of movement, combat, air power and country capture.

The initial setup, the Poles in a perimeter defence, and the Germans mainly massed southwest of Lvov, although there is an infantry army and a panzer group up near Danzig and another army in East Prussia. The Germans have air fleets in the south west and near Koenigsburg. Tactical air support range is five hexes. The units are Army sized, and although the Polish line looks full of holes, the Zones of Control do the heavy lifting. They are very sticky and even extend through enemy units. I had to read the ZOC rule sections a few times.

This is only a half turn scenario (the Axis turn), so thankfully I don't have to worry about production, supply lines or strategic movement. The Germans win if they force Poland to surrender in one move, otherwise the Poles win. The scenario has various optional and play balance suggestions.

The game control chart, which keeps track of obvious stuff like which turn it is, but also less obvious things like a movement point (MP) track for the current active unit, current combat DRM track etc. These proved surprisingly useful, particularly for solo play.

The Poles have a couple of 'ground support' events in the Allied event box, these give a temporary combat bonus and in a longer game may return after time has elapsed. They represent a temporary local superiority, but generally the Poles are outclassed (the Germans get an automatic +2 in combat, the Poles dont).

The other important track is Polish National Will, which starts at 12. Poland surrenders if it is reduced to zero and at least one city is occupied by the Germans. Each destroyed field army is worth one will point (WP) , Warsaw is worth four and each other city is worth two. I erroneously thought cities were worth one until much later,but  that is the point of a training scenario, and it also made the game very hard indeed for the Germans!

Having read the large rulebook a couple of times, I was  now faced with conquering Poland in one turn. This is not like an SPI game, each unit activates, moves and fights individually, possibly multiple times and air units can also be activated multiple times. The rules about ZOCs, isolation and allowable retreats also took some reading - friendly cities are essentially treated like extra friendly units for many purposes, so defending outside them is often a good idea. The Poles have actually got units in Posen and Krakow (I've moved the units slightly to show the cities). To win I reckon I need to occupy Warsaw, Krakow, Lvov, Danzig and Posen for eight points, and kill four field armies for four more. Of course I was wrong as cities are worth two, but I didn't know that at the time. 

Those two Polish armies in the east with a white stripe on are garrison units, weaker in combat with only one step but I don't get any WP for killing those. Field armies have two steps and are more powerful.

OK, time to attack Krakow. Leg infantry armies have 8MP if in supply, hexes cost 1-2 to enter, attacks cost another +1MP, so in theory units can make multiple moves an attacks. They can opt to make an 'assault' instead, but can only do one of those and it is the sort of thing you do against fortifications. All the battles I fought in Poland were mobile ones, and the weather was good, so they were quite effective.

1st Army used 2MP to get into position, then another 3MP to attack Krakow (as it was a city in rough terrain) so 3MP left. Each air unit can conduct six 'sorties', they use one if they change base during the turn, they also lose them in air-air combat but the Poles have no airforce. I allocated Luftflotte 2 to support 1st Army.

Combat is resolved using a logarithmic combat differential table. Essentially you add up pluses and minuses for the attacker and defender, roll a D6 for each and then compare both sides scores. To succeed the attacker needs quite a few pluses, and at the lower end, the results become subject to DBA style 'low odds skew' due to it being an opposed D6 system.

Adding in the air support and German tactical bonus and subtracting the city defence gave the Germans +3. The Poles were on 0. This is effectively a low odds attack, and 1st Army only managed to push the Poles out of the city. They used their last 3MP to attack again but across the river this attack failed at no effect. 1st Army is now used up.

To kill stuff you need more combat bonuses, so use tanks and/or attack isolated (surrounded) enemy units. They die much faster if they cant retreat.

Action switched to the north, as Panzer Group 1 marched into Danzig and then smashed in quick succession one and then another Polish army, ending up adjacent to Warsaw! Air support was provided by Luftflotte 1. Panzer armies get 10MP (so make more attacks) and also have an inherent +4 combat modifier, coupled with air support that makes +6. 

Afterwards I realised I'd misread the CRT as well, I was scoring DD results - which mean the defender loses a step and retreats, not that they are eliminated. Oh well, that is the point of a training scenario... It sort of made up for misreading the WP cost of cities.

1st Panzer didn't have enough MP left to take Warsaw, but there was still the army in East Prussia to activate.

2nd Army duly marched into Warsaw, 4 WP to me! I've remembered to start putting out control markers for the cities. City control is important as enemy cities cost more MP to enter, they also count as a friendly unit if adjacent ot one of your own when determining isolation, and units can retreat into a friendly city, even through an enemy ZOC. See what I mean about having to remember a lot of rules.

Next up 2nd Panzer Group stormed forward to take Lodz, wiping out another Polish army on the way (I was still misreading that CRT). It passed through the city and attacked the Polish army behind, who decided to play one of the Polish ground support markers - this gave it a temporary +1 in combat.

Sadly against a 6:2 dice roll that wasn't enough (I was still misreading the CRT), another Polish army gone and 2nd Panzer used its last MP to park up southwest of Warsaw. This also isolated the Polish army to the southwest - it was completely surrounded by ZOC so had no retreat route, and wasn't adjacent to another unit or city.

Isolated units are much easier to kill (another +2) and 10th Army easily overran the surrounded Poles with what was almost the last of my air support. With seven city WPs and five destroyed field armies that was 12 and Poland surrendered.

By the end of that, I felt I had a much better grasp of how things were supposed to work, but I went back and re-read the bits I hadn't been sure about - mainly ZOCs, Isolation and Retreat. It was then that I realised I'd been reading the CRT wrong (but I still hadn't noticed I'd got the city WP wrong). 

The players guide reckoned it takes about half an hour per turn to play, but with my constant indecision and re-reading bits of the rule book, it took a lot longer than that. Still, it is good for my ageing brain cells to learn new stuff, so time to go again.

I still haven't got my head around this 'one unit at a time' thing, although I should be used to from playing Metagamings 'Hitlers War' many years ago. I really want to just shuffle units around to put ZOCs around the enemy and THEN attack them, like a good old classic AHGC game. Anyway, I can't, so a certain amount of estimating where armies will end up, and plan of manouvre and isolation took place. 

So, having pondered various options and the mysteries of the DD combat result, this time I opened with 1st Panzer Group who once again took Danzig then attacked the Polish army behind it across the Vistula. This proved to be a tougher nut now I was playing it right - a no effect! Then a DD (one step loss and a retreat) and then another DD following up which destroyed it. 1st Panzer ground to a halt on the Vistula miles short of Warsaw and having burned 3 sorties (out of 12 in total). Umm, so much for plans. 

It had at least put a useful ZOC behind Posen, which was now isolated, so a tasty +2 combat bonus, so I could attack it without using air support.

8th Army duly attacked it and the Poles helpfully committed some Ground Support. The 8th just scraped a Retreat result, and the Posen garrison lost a step as it couldn't retreat.

8th Army burned another 3MP to attack it, and with an extra bonus for the reduced enemy strength still only just managed to pull off a Retreat, and unable to retreat, the Posen garrison surrendered. 8th Army just had enough MP left to crawl over the river adjacent to 2nd Panzer.

Fighitng using the correct CRT results was proving to be quite tough, particularly against fresh troops with open retreat routes. The key was air support (and good weather) but crucially, isolating the enemy units where possible before attacking them, which requires careful thought in the timing and axis of attacks.

Having opened up a hole in the West, 4 th Army took advantage of the captured rail network to move rapidly southeast, detrained, captured Lvov and then attacked the army northeast of Lvov with its last few MP. Perhaps I'm starting to get the hang of this. 

I put in some air support, but it is still a relatively low odds attack (+4) so the Poles put in their last Ground Support uni to reduce the differential to +3.

4th Army get lucky and push the Poles back with a step loss. They follow up, leaving the now German controlled Lvov to keep the Poles in the southwest isolated. Still quite a few WP to go. 

10th Army now activates and eliminates the surrounded Poles in the southwest. Again it is a multi phase engagement to inflict two step losses, but being surrounded, DR results become a step loss. It's remaining MP carry 10the Army to the outskirts of Krakow. I've still got three uncommitted German armies. 

Time to drive on Warsaw. 2nd Panzer Group uses the rail network to cross the rivers and then assaults the reduced unit SW of Warsaw. With air support, the Panzer bonus and reduced unit bonus this is a +8 attack, and the Poles are overrun. 2nd Panzer enters Warsaw, another 4 WP, just 2 to go. The Poles northwest of Warsaw are now isolated, and PG2 makes a final exploitation attack on them. This is 'only' a +5 attack due to the river, so I burn more air support to get it to +7. The Germans get a DD, so a step loss, but then unable to retreat, another step loss. The Poles surrender. I've only got one air mission left and 1WP left to go. 

Now, I could try and take Krakow, but it is a city in mountains, isn't isolated and I've only got infantry and one air mission left. That would be a bit of a gamble. 

Instead, 2nd Army just has enough MP to march from. East Prussia into Warsaw now I've captured it then rail eastward and capture Rest Litovsk! This is notionally in the Soviet area, but much reading of rules (the border is a red dotted line, which indicates 'disputed') doesn't apparently forbid this and it is still in the playable area. That generates one last WP and avoids a costly and uncertain assault on Krakow. Their National Will reduced to zero, Poland is conquered once again. 

With the correct rules rules, that was a much harder proposition, but I felt like I knew what I was doing much more and actually playing the game. It was then that I discovered I'd got the WP for city capture wrong, 2WP per city would have made it rather easier! 

Anyway, I feel ready to move on to Scenario 2, The Invasion of Scandinavia, which mainly introduces seaborne invasions and para drops. This is really good fun, and it is nice to be doing something different for a change.