Out of the box: The Lost Generation

How crazy do you have to be in order to impulsively sample a large number of tactical wargames set during the Great War of 1914-18?

Since I first came across SPI’s old “Soldiers” way back in the 1970s I’ve had a sort of back-burner interest in the subject. A lot of gamers likely don’t see much fertile subject matter for tactical combat in the First World War. But the topic touches on a couple areas of close personal interest for me, so I’m always open to the possibilities.

Tactical wargaming is one of my deeper gaming interests. And the Great War is a slice of family history: my Grandad Edwards fought in the war as a US infantryman until the late summer of 1918 when a German gas attack gave him the pleasure of a long convalescence at a military hospital in Kansas.

So. Not so much crazy as optimistic.

Stuff in the box

One of the more recent arrivals here in the swamp is, as you may now suspect, a tactical wargame set during the Great War –  “In the Trenches: The Lost Generation”.  It’s published by Grenier Games, a Canadian company (OK, really not so much “company” as “dude”) that features games I would score toward the higher end of the DTP spectrum.

The Lost Generation is the second volume of the “In The Trenches” tactical series. I passed on the first volume (”Opening Engagements”) because I wasn’t terribly interested in the battles it covered. This second volume, though, struck me as somewhat more meaty so when a break in my budget presented itself I decided to take a look.

Some time back I purchased one of Grenier Game’s earlier offerings, “Distant Foreign Fields” - a fairly large game that covers the Great War at a strategic level. So I had a pretty good idea of what to expect when I opened up The Lost Generation. From a purely “production” perspective, it’s a very good quality desk-top published game.

There are two double-sided countersheets - which arrive in the box as four single-sided sheets, pre-mounted to hefty cardboard. Once assembled, the individual counters are quite substantial indeed. The counter artwork is crisp and clear, which my aging (but not old…) eyes certainly appreciate.

Four 12 x 18 maps come in the box, covering (at 100m per hex) portions of four battlefields: Bois de Caures, a portion of the Regina Trench at the Somme, La Boiselle and Kostiuchnowka (during the Brusilov Offensive). The maps are printed on very heavy stock and I think they’re very well done in a straightforward graphics style.

Nine scenarios (”operations”) are included and there’s a play aid card that includes a color terrain key. The rulebook is 28 pages, comb-bound, clearly printed and fairly well organized. A few rules are tucked away behind “Unit Details” - which some readers might mistake for the beginning of a section of design notes. Otherwise my only quibble (aside from the misspelling “French Trences” on the Bois des Caures map) is that the rules pages themselves would suffer less wear and tear if the booklet was bound with a comb one size larger.

Otherwise, it’s a very clean and accessible presentation. Coming soon: A look at the rules and how the game plays.