Is it possible for a game to be too encompassing, have too many features and be too massive? Talonsoft, Inc.'s West Front, a war game covering much of World War II, raises these questions. Whether you're interested in controlling Axis or Allied powers for battles taking place throughout Europe and North Africa, whether you'd like to play out individual scenarios or play through dynamic or linked campaigns, if you'd rather create your own scenarios or just read through the massive manual and online help system to find out everything you ever wanted to know about almost every bit of weaponry and vehicle used during World War II, or if...no, wait, where was I?
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I guess that's the point: West Front launches a full frontal and never lets up. And before you know it, your total attention has become a prisoner of war and your free time's been annihilated. For some, such as World War II fanatics and strategic-war game buffs, this might be all well and good, but for me -- not so. The tutorial alone took me hours and hours to complete, even though the tutorial scenario was limited to only twelve turns in length. Which is to say this game has one Hamburger Hill of a learning curve. To be honest, after the tutorial, I didn't even want to play anymore.
In all fairness, I have to give Talonsoft the proper credit for creating the most thorough, complete war game and virtual World War II encyclopedia with which I've ever collapsed from boredom. There have been many other games that have bored me but none so relentlessly as West Front. I felt surrounded on all sides by features and options and toggle switches and hotkeys. And then there's the game itself -- endlessly advancing soldiers and tanks toward some obscure goal that gets lost in the details of battle, such as 'Secure such and such position,' 'Break such and such line,' 'Kill such and such enemy leader.'
True, I wouldn't make a shining cadet; I wasn't even that good at being a Navy brat, so it was as a relative layman I was looking forward to West Front for a game of subtle strategy and overwhelming military realism. Instead, I got what felt like a 2D representation of a dynamic battle plan. Imagine sitting through turn after turn of 'This is what will happen if we storm the bunker here, or, call in the air strike on this chateau, or, march like walking bull's-eyes down this open road.' Aside from the decent background battle sounds, there was very little to pull me into the game. At no time did I feel like some captain leading my troops along Omaha Beach at Normandy or traipsing through the North African desert -- very little to make me feel like I was actually engaged in battle.
This lack of sensation may be due to an old football injury but it's more than likely the result of information overload combined with West Front's dated (c. 1998) hexagonal game board and questionable AI. The game is beautifully detailed and the amount of history and finely reproduced theaters of battle available to you -- the massive scale of the whole thing -- is astonishing. Because of limited victory conditions, the lack of an option for either side to surrender or flee and the somewhat soggy AI (troops aimlessly over-retreating and re-engaging and computer enemies shelling open hexes after the player's position has already been identified), skirmishes eventually stretch into shapeless battles of attrition. Competing sides chase each other around the map until enough reinforcements arrive to ensure that each scenario will not end until the 18th or 20th or 40th (!) turn has been completed.
All of this is probably music to the ears of turn-based strategy game fans or players with the patience of prison-camp interrogators. But, if you don't fall into one of those categories, I recommend that, instead of actually buying the game, you simply take a few moments to appreciate the fact that games like this exist and that people can seemingly devote their lives to creating them.
Graphics: Hexagons and icons and anti-tank guns, oh my! I admit I've been spoiled by RTS (real-time strategy) game graphics but West Front proves turn-based (or stop-action) 2D still has some life left. The interface and available menus (hide-able) are colorful and well designed -- more like a head-up display than a system of toolbars. The multiple map views are helpful but I needed to zoom in closer than the game allowed. Many of the icons blended with the background depending on the type of terrain drawn on the screen and stacking too many units in one hexagon looked like a jumbled mess. The different vehicles (tanks, jeeps, boats, planes) and the map structure (towns, bunkers, cliffs, trees) were exquisitely drawn. Some of the effect, though, is diminished by the fact that all unit icons represent larger groups of soldiers (I'm more the hands-on-per-soldier G.I. Joe type player than the metal-miniature-on-a-game-map type).
Sound: The game's sound effects do a good job of filling in the reality gaps whenever a unit mobilizes or fires a shot. There are also ambient midst-of-battle sound effects that help maintain the mood. Unfortunately, the music is obtrusive, kind of B-movie over-the-top like. I had to turn it off while reading through the manual because I couldn't concentrate with it playing. Also, I missed having any voice-over parts or mission-briefing movies (a cheesy staple of soldier-type games that I've rather gotten used to).
Enjoyment: This is one of those rare occasions where I have to recognize that even though I don't feel any particular fondness for the game while playing it, it's essentially a good game. No battlefield corpse has been left unturned (to needlessly extend this review's dominant metaphor) and when a game is that complete, a sizeable audience willing to explore it can easily be found. West Front's completeness and secondary features added to the fun for me. Even though I couldn't devote the time to poring over the subtleties of every single Stuart tank just to find out which one was best-suited against a particular howitzer, I was still glad the ability to do so was available from within game.
Replay Value: By virtue of length alone, this game could take you forever to complete and that's just going by what's included on the CD-ROM. The scenario editor and the multi-player modes add to the length and variety and the inclusion of both dynamic and linked campaigns gives players that much more from which to choose. Despite what's available, however, the game's slow tediousness will turn many people off well before they get the chance to try out all the available options.
People who downloaded West Front have also downloaded:
East Front 2, Rising Sun, Civil War Generals 2, Divided Ground: Middle East Conflict 1948-1973, Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle, Battleground 3: Waterloo , Battleground 2: Gettysburg, Panzer General 3: Scorched Earth
East Front 2, Rising Sun, Civil War Generals 2, Divided Ground: Middle East Conflict 1948-1973, Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Battle, Battleground 3: Waterloo , Battleground 2: Gettysburg, Panzer General 3: Scorched Earth
1914 was a board wargame published by the Avalon Hill game company in 1968 and designed by James F. Dunnigan. It was a corps-level simulation of the first few weeks of World War I on the Western Front. The game came in an 11' × 14' cardboard box, and included a fold-out, cardboard-backed game map (22' × 28'), German and Allied cardboard counters, a set of dice, game variant cards, a mobilization chart pad for secret deployment, and various charts and instructions including a Battle Manual.
The game board map was covered by a hex grid to regulate movement. The game scale was 2 days per turn, with approximately 16 km per hex. The map covered the terrain from Mainz, Germany in the east to Le Havre, France in the west, and from the southern portion of the Netherlands in the north to the northern edge of Switzerland in the south. The terrain included major rivers, ridge lines, rough terrain, forest, and the sea. It also displayed the location of cities, fortifications, economic sites, mobilization squares, and railroads. The hex grid was marked with coordinates: numbers running south–north, and letters west–east.
The various military formations are represented by counters—square pieces of colored cardboard printed with game information. German counters were gray-green (Feldgrau) in hue; the French were pink; British and Dutch brown, and Belgian counters were cyan. Each counter was marked with a standard unit symbol for infantry, cavalry, or artillery. The counter also displayed the unit size (corps, division, brigade, regiment, or battalion), unit designation, and whether it was an active army unit, or reserve, landwehr, etc.
Standard game[edit]
The combat ratings of each unit was given in the form of their Attack-Defense-Movement ratings. (German artillery units list their caliber.) Cavalry units had their attack factor in parentheses, indicating they can only attack isolated artillery units. The major (corps) units had a sequence of steps they could lose as a result of combat or lack of supply. At each step loss the Attack and Defense factors were reduced. Thus a German active corps went from a 7-12-3, to 5-10-3, then 4-9-3, and a 2-7-3, before it was finally destroyed. However, each side in the game also received step replacements which could be used to build back up units that had taken losses, as long as the unit was in supply and some distance from an enemy unit.
Combat was based on an odds ratio between the attacking units Attack Rating and the defending unit's Defense Rating. The odds ranged from 1-to-4 or less, up to 5-to-1 or more. Different combat results charts were used based on the number of Defense Factors, and the results determined by rolling a six-sided dice. The result was in terms of step losses by each side, with at most one step being lost. Many of the results called for a step loss by both sides, reflecting the heavy attrition incurred throughout this conflict. Defending units in clear terrain that suffered a step loss also had to retreat a hex, or lose a second step.
Rules were included for the effects of fortresses. A fortress could be attacked and destroyed by a purely infantry attack. However, the infantry incurred step losses from these attacks and only had a 1 in 6 chance of destroying the fortress. The German side also had the option of using their artillery to destroy a fortress, which frequently improved the odds of success. The most effective artillery, however, was the German railroad guns; since they could never leave rail lines, they were limited in geographic scope.
Units could move their indicated movement factor during a turn, with higher movement cost for certain types of terrain. No more than two corps could end their movement in the same hex, and only one corps could defend a hex. The infantry typically had a movement rating of 3, with some reserve units moving 2 per turn. Cavalry units had a movement rating of 4, and artillery could move 2.
The basic 1914 system did not include zone of control rules, but did have a supply requirement. Units were in supply as long as a line could be traced through any three contiguous hexes to a friendly railroad line. Enemy units blocked supply lines, but only in the hex they occupied.
The game was played in a series of turns, with first the German and then Allied player performing their actions. Each player would receive any reinforcements scheduled for the turn; move any friendly units up to their maximum movement, then initiate combat against adjacent enemy units. (Neither movement nor combat was required, but was at the option of the current player.) If an enemy unit was forced to retreat due to combat, the current player could also advance into the abandoned hexes.
Each game began with each player marking on the Mobilization Chart where their forces would initially be deployed. A few units were required to occupy specific hexes, such as French active infantry corps in Toul, Belfort, etc., but the remainder could be placed in any friendly hex. This secret deployment created an element of surprise at the start of the game.
Advanced rules[edit]
Once the basic game was mastered, the players could use the advanced rules and options included in the Battle Manual. The main feature of the advanced game was the use of inverted counters. The back side of a counter displayed only a national symbol and a facing arrow. This arrow affected how the unit could move, as it cost a movement factor each time the unit was moved. It also modified the ability of the unit to defend itself. Units attacked from the direction of their facing arrow used their (generally weaker) Attack Factor for defense.
The advanced game also included special rules for the effect of events on the Eastern Front, where Germany was opposed by Russia. It also included a set of game variation cards that could produce unusual chance effects that might alter the situation. These could modify the size of the Belgian and Dutch armies, vary the effectiveness of the British force, alter mobilization rates, and so forth.
There were additional rules for supply lines, cavalry probes, amphibious attack, German requirements for garrisons, retreat before combat, movement cost for disengaging an enemy, dummy counters, and variable time limits for game completion.
The Battle Manual contained additional information concerning game play strategy and tactics, and how the various forces were armed and organized. At the end was a historical commentary and a series of maps depicting the course of the actual campaign. There was also a bibliography and a glossary of abbreviations used on the counters.
External links[edit]
- 1914 at BoardGameGeek
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