Rob came over a couple of weeks ago to play A Victory Lost, the latest offering from Multiman Publishing’s International Games Series, which republishes Japanese-published wargames. Apparently, the Japanese war gaming scene is second only to that of the USA.
I found out about AVL after playing Target Arnhem, which is by the same designer, Tetsuya Nakamura. I wanted something with more replay value, but similarly simple and short. It was also cheap as I preordered and the pound is very strong at the moment – £20.
Quoting the game’s introduction:
A Victory Lost is a two-player game that recreates the intense mobile fighting between Axis and Soviet forces in the southwestern expanses of the USSR, from the completion of the Stalingrad encirclement in December 1942 to German Field Marshal von Manstein’s famous “Backhand Blow†in March of 1943.
The Soviet player aims to trap and eliminate the Axis forces, who are in full retreat from the Caucasus, while the Axis player must successfully withdraw and attempt to restore the front line by launching a desperate counterattack.
According to Wikipedia, the Backhand Blow was a plan of von Manstein’s that was never adopted, but anyway that still describes the situation well. Slow Soviets, with a massive numerical advantage, pursue the Germans, who have a few, mobile, powerful units and have reinforcements later in the game. Especially at the start, the Germans have to pick their shots carefully.
The components are good, standard professional quality. The counters do not use regular NATO symbols, but instead the German symbols from the same period. Alternatively, you can play with duplicate silhouette counters for the armour units that are bundled with the game.
BoardGameGeek Image
The map is good quality and fits under the 2 foot by 3 foot plastic sheet from a poster frame I recently bought to cover wargame maps.
What really sets the game apart are the rules. They are glossy and in full colour, but most importantly, they are very well written and clear. Wherever the rules could be mistaken, there are diagrams. Learning the game was very easy and third party player aids were unnecessary. Unfortunately the rules are not available online, which is a shame as I think it would attract wavering customers.
A Victory Lost uses a chit-pull system to control who moves and when. Each player has several HQs, which control groups of units. Units only move when their HQ is activated. Each HQ has a corresponding Command Chit that is put in a mug. The order the Command Chits are drawn from the mug determines the order of play. The Soviets start with a Stavka (Soviet high command) counter, which activates all their HQs at once, but the German player has to choose five of all their Command Chits at the start of the game and only these can go in the cup, with the rest only activated by the Stavka. Effectively these five units get to move twice per turn, so acting as spearhead units. This initial choice changes the shape of the game significantly.
This is quite an old mechanic, but I could not find out much about the history its use in games. It was new to me and I find it much more interesting than the usual IGOUGO turn order. You never quite know what is coming next, which reproduces the fog of war more naturally for me. I could not really justify the extra expense, but if you preordered you could buy a mug with the board cover on the side – very nice.
Otherwise, this is a standard hex and counter wargame, with CRTs (Combat Result Tables) and ZOCs (Zones of Control). I have played a few games like this now and felt very at home with the mechanics. This CRT has many retreat results. You only start scoring direct damage if you have odds of four to one. Realistically, your best hope of a kill is to surround your victim and force them to retreat over your unit’s ZOCs, which causes damage.
Strategy-wise, for the first few turns the German really only has the option of running, especially in the south, but they can take advantage of rivers to choke up the Soviet advance later on. One tip is always to avoid the schoolboy error of moving your own units out of command range. I found it too easy. Both sides have to block railways in their territory as opposing reinforcements can advance along them as far as they like.
Our first game took about five hours and we got 75% of the way through. I expect an experienced duration would be about 4 hours. I was disappointed as this is longer than I originally thought it would be and is too long to fit into my standard games nights.
I really want to play this again as it has lots of strategy and flavour but with few rules.
8/10, but it would be 9/10 if it took 3 hours.
AVL has sold well and has had good reviews, so a sequel about the Battle of Smolensk is planned. This covers the same ground as one of SPI’s classics Panzergruppe Guderian, which still has a BoardGameGeek rating of 7.2 after 30 years and is being reprinted. It will be interesting to see which sells more.
