First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now.
On the 12th day of Christmas War Gaming, my true love gave to me…
12 French Troops in Reserve
Verdun 1916: Steel Inferno from Fellowship of Simulations is a Card Driven Game that uses cards with events and operation points to tell the grim story of the year long fighting around the French city of Verdun. The game uses a bucket of dice approach to the initial bombardments in a battle and then players choose whether to follow that with an infantry assault that doesn’t use any dice to determine hits. The game is very much a wargame but I think the cover highlights a key fact about the game by calling it a “Strategy Game” namely that it is a game as there are wildly powerful events based in history, with lots of dependence on dice not just for bombardments but also for playing certain offensives Event Cards where Victory Points are earned based on the higher numbers rolled. The game is very well done, is truly interesting and surprisingly deep with its tactical choices and decisions.
Some cards cannot be played as an Event until a specific named card has been played by the player. This is indicated on the card with a small “requires” box above the title of the card which shows the card that must already be in play as a Permanent Event to allow the new event to be triggered. Also, these Required Cards also have a small “combo” box above the title of the card to remind players which card they will allow to be played as a Permanent Event. Sometimes this concept of Combos must be planned for and may take a few rounds to get lined up to be able to play.
A perfect example of this is the Castelnau/Voie Sacrée Combo. Castelnau is an Event Card that must be played down on the table as a Permanent Event and is available during Turns 1 and 2. Once it is played, then that unlocks the player of Voie Sacrée and allows a very powerful Combo to go into effect by allowing the French player to place 12 units into the En Route Box on the board meaning their will be available for placement during the next Turn. This is so very powerful as in order to get that many units to use, the French player has to sacrifice a total of 12 VP (1 VP per unit added as Reinforcements). With this Combo, you sacrifice no VP’s and get 12 units to place on the board to plug the inevitable holes that will be created by the powerful German Barrages and assaults. There are other Combos as well including several specified Offensives (Russian Offensives and the Somme Offensive) that take several Turns to accomplish with multiple cards to get an opportunity to roll dice to gain VP’s. This was a very novel idea for the CDG mechanic and really worked well to create some portion of the game that required planning and an investment.
I wrote a fairly detailed and in-depth First Impression post for Verdun 1916: Steel Inferno and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/09/06/first-impressions-verdun-1916-steel-inferno-from-fellowship-of-simulations/
It has been a blast thinking about what games and situations to include in this series and I hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them. In addition, I sincerely hope that each of you and your families have a joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year!
You can catch up on the posts in this series to date at the following links:
A Patriot Militia Caught in the Open – Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection from GMT Games
2 Barrages Exploding – SCS Ardennes II from Multi-Man Publishing
3 Columns Shifting – The Russian Campaign Deluxe 5th Edition from GMT Games
4 Relief Convoys Incoming – The Mog: Mogadishu 1994 from White Dog Games
5 Dug-In German Soldiers – Imperial Tide: The Great War, 1914-1918 from Compass Games
6 Zeroes Patrolling – Fighters of the Pacific from Capsicum Games
8 Menominee Warriors Defending – The Battle of Mackinac Island from SNAFU Design
9 Army Groups Advancing – Iron, Blood, Snow & Mud from PHALANX
11 Union Pacific Railroad Segments Constructed – Plains Indian Wars from GMT Games
-Grant
The Players' Aid 
It was great fun to follow along with this!
A very merry Christmas to you and yours!
LikeLiked by 1 person