Before I dive into a wargamer’s look at artillery in World War One (as mentioned in my previous post), I figured it probably would be a good idea if I first delivered quick looks at the two games I’ll be waving around during the discussion.
Infantry Attacks: August 1914
First to arrive — some weeks ago now — was August 1914: Battles for East Prussia, which is the initial offering in the new Infantry Attacks series from Avalanche Press.
The Infantry Attacks rules are close relatives of APL’s PanzerGrenadier series rules. The game scales are the same with 200-meter hexes and 15-minute turns. However, the combat units in the two series represent different sized formations; in PanzerGrenadier a typical unit is a platoon, while in Infantry Attacks most units are company-sized. Infantry Attacks devotes substantial additional “rule-age” to artillery fire and artillery ammunition (among other things), which balloons the series rules to a hefty 35 pages (compared to PG’s slim 16 pages of rules).
That said, the two series share many core mechanisms. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say most PanzerGrenadier players will be up and running with Infantry Attacks in fairly short order. Otherwise the rules aren’t as complex as you might expect from 35 pages, although I would recommend that total noobs to the series take a look at the “Infantry Attacks in Five Minutes” download on the APL website.
The game’s physical package is in line with the latest of APL’s releases in the PG series. The six cardstock maps, produced by a new artist, are another small advance for a publisher that has occasionally struggled with map art in the past. The counters are very attractive and clean (as usual) and charts and tables are printed on the familiar tan cardstock. My overall impression is that it’s an attractive, clean and very functional graphic presentation.
A more recent arrival is Through Mud and Blood, the third game of the In The Trenches tactical series from Jeux Grenier Games.
Through Mud and Blood
The first two games in the series were, more or less, “super-DTP” productions that featured pre-mounted, cut-em-out countersheets. I skipped the first game in the series (“Opening Engagements”), mostly because I found the mixed bag of scenario topics less than compelling. The second game (“The Lost Generation”) piqued my interest, however, and I’ve played it a number of times.
The game scale for In The Trenches is 100-meter hexes and five-minute turns, with most pieces representing platoon-sized units. While the game’s command system rewards players for operating their troops in company-sized formations, In The Trenches is very much more of a “firefight” scale game than it is a “battle” game like Infantry Attacks.
Unlike its two predecessors in the series, Through Mud and Blood comes with professionally-printed, mounted and die-cut counters. For gamers who wrestle DTP counters with rhomboidal cuts and slipping X-acto knives, this is a definite step up. As with all of the Grenier-published games I’ve played, the counter artwork is very crisp and functional. The production quality of the countersheet overall is excellent — better in many aspects than the counter work produced by some of the much larger players in the market.
The maps? Well. Aaa. Mmm. These are truly a mixed bag for me. Previous games in the series have featured 12 x 18 inch maps printed on a heavy, glossy stock. TMB’s maps are essentially half that size, checking in at 8.5 x 11 inches. They’re printed on the same glossy stock as earlier maps. The graphic style is also similar to the earlier games — clear and functional, if not particularly inspired — with the exception of the “Hill 06″ map that uses a color palette that’s very dark indeed. On parts of the “Hill 06″ map, in fact, the black-lined hexgrid all but disappears into the map’s dark colors.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, the mapboards in the ITT series are not geomorphic — they are all historical bits of battlefield from the Great War. So in general, the actions represented in Through Mud and Blood are much smaller firefights than those found in earlier games of the series. After some of the heavy-duty actions in the series’ second volume, this is a little bit of a let-down. I imagine it does, however, make this a very good game for introducing new players to the ITT rules.
