Much like the last game I have reviewed (The Summer of the Boxers), La Libération de Paris describes an asymmetric urban conflict. It is also a solo wargame from within the pages of a French gaming magazine— in this case, issue No.82 of Casus Belli.
However, whereas The Summer of the Boxers was an entertaining, suspenseful game, La Libération de Paris was quite a bore. Yet I think it could have been a great game. I'll call it “a great failed game”. Let us see why.
The game components are as follows:
The solo player plays the French Forces of the Interior at the time of the Liberation of Paris. The ‘system’ plays the German forces and a variety of outside events that affect the Battle for Paris. The rules are quite simple, if not always crystal-clear, and the game unfolds really well. I think I have played the full 12 turns in about 2 hours or 2 hours and a half.
The routine is always the same:
a- Determine number of random events, and apply them
b- Determine number and location of Free French units
c- Determine number and location of German units
d- Carry out German attacks
e- Carry out Free French attacks
f- Compute victory points (VPs) for the turn
Steps a and b are determined by how many arrondissement town halls are controlled by the Free French, and so are VPs. Once you have understood this, you basically spread your units to control as many town halls as possible, and pray for the random location of German units not be in the arrondissements you are occupying. And that's pretty much all, hence the boredom. For instance, some of the random events allow the Free French units to carry out attacks against the German armoured units (normally the Free French can only attack infantry units). But this doesn't give you ANY victory points, so why would you do that? You are simply NOT rewarded for deviating from the standard course of play.
Moreover, the game is marred by many inconsistencies between the rules and the tables as printed on the map, or between the rules and the counters. Just a few examples:
At the beginning of each turn, you check for each German unit whether it returns to its barracks or stays on the map. The rule says 1-2: stays on the map, 3-6: returns to its barracks, but the table printed on the map says 1: stays on the map, 2-6: returns to its barracks.
The US units have a progress track on the southern border of the map. On the progress track printed on the map, they are supposed to start their progress towards Paris on turn 5, in the rules it says on turn 6.
The extra French Communist units have a value of 6 on the full side of the counter, and 0 on the other side, yet the rules say 6/3. The rules also do NOT specify how much it costs to activate them (the other Free French units all have an activation cost).
The text for one of the events (No.12, RAF bombing) is “refer to the rules for details” in the events table... yet there isn't any description of what happens in the case of an RAF bombing in the rules.
So yes, at the end a big disappointment because the cat and mouse game between the weak Free French forces and the much stronger German units was a good idea to start with. Also, I do not believe there are any other wargames portraying this particular battle of WWII. The basic mechanics, with the Germans appearing after you have put your troops on the map, and attacking before the French, are also good. For me, the two main broken items are:
1) The fact that the events only apply to the turn in which they are drawn. Once, I had drawn four events; three of them were bonuses to my fighting capabilities, the fourth one was ‘truce’, i.e., no fighting for this turn... well what's the explanation of me not keeping my grenades and smoke bombs for the next turn?
2) The complete randomness of German movement. If my units are attacking the town hall and the HQ of the Germans in the First Arrondissement, it simply doesn't make any sense that the German units should quietly patrol the Second Arrondissement!
I understand that random rolls play a big role in a solo game (that's pretty much the only way of preventing the active player from guessing where the next attack will come from). However, this is not a reason to fully rely on randomness only! In the last game I reviewed (The Summer of the Boxers), there was a good balance between the random element (the cards) and the deterministic one (the pattern of Boxer movement towards the foreign legacies). So I reckon the game could be improved by someone with the patience to do so. It's just that I prefer working on my own games than repairing existing ones!
However, whereas The Summer of the Boxers was an entertaining, suspenseful game, La Libération de Paris was quite a bore. Yet I think it could have been a great game. I'll call it “a great failed game”. Let us see why.
The game components are as follows:
- 6 pages of rules & tables (within the magazine)
- a zone-based A4 map of Paris in August 1944, with all the necessary tables and tracks
- counters (that you must cut and paste yourself): Free French, German, US forces, and many markers
 |
| having ‘fun’ with the counters |
 |
| the map is quite large |
 |
| the finished counters & markers |
The solo player plays the French Forces of the Interior at the time of the Liberation of Paris. The ‘system’ plays the German forces and a variety of outside events that affect the Battle for Paris. The rules are quite simple, if not always crystal-clear, and the game unfolds really well. I think I have played the full 12 turns in about 2 hours or 2 hours and a half.
The routine is always the same:
a- Determine number of random events, and apply them
b- Determine number and location of Free French units
c- Determine number and location of German units
d- Carry out German attacks
e- Carry out Free French attacks
f- Compute victory points (VPs) for the turn
Steps a and b are determined by how many arrondissement town halls are controlled by the Free French, and so are VPs. Once you have understood this, you basically spread your units to control as many town halls as possible, and pray for the random location of German units not be in the arrondissements you are occupying. And that's pretty much all, hence the boredom. For instance, some of the random events allow the Free French units to carry out attacks against the German armoured units (normally the Free French can only attack infantry units). But this doesn't give you ANY victory points, so why would you do that? You are simply NOT rewarded for deviating from the standard course of play.
 |
| typical turn: the Free French concentrates on the town halls (the yellow hexagons) |
Moreover, the game is marred by many inconsistencies between the rules and the tables as printed on the map, or between the rules and the counters. Just a few examples:
At the beginning of each turn, you check for each German unit whether it returns to its barracks or stays on the map. The rule says 1-2: stays on the map, 3-6: returns to its barracks, but the table printed on the map says 1: stays on the map, 2-6: returns to its barracks.
The US units have a progress track on the southern border of the map. On the progress track printed on the map, they are supposed to start their progress towards Paris on turn 5, in the rules it says on turn 6.
The extra French Communist units have a value of 6 on the full side of the counter, and 0 on the other side, yet the rules say 6/3. The rules also do NOT specify how much it costs to activate them (the other Free French units all have an activation cost).
The text for one of the events (No.12, RAF bombing) is “refer to the rules for details” in the events table... yet there isn't any description of what happens in the case of an RAF bombing in the rules.
So yes, at the end a big disappointment because the cat and mouse game between the weak Free French forces and the much stronger German units was a good idea to start with. Also, I do not believe there are any other wargames portraying this particular battle of WWII. The basic mechanics, with the Germans appearing after you have put your troops on the map, and attacking before the French, are also good. For me, the two main broken items are:
1) The fact that the events only apply to the turn in which they are drawn. Once, I had drawn four events; three of them were bonuses to my fighting capabilities, the fourth one was ‘truce’, i.e., no fighting for this turn... well what's the explanation of me not keeping my grenades and smoke bombs for the next turn?
2) The complete randomness of German movement. If my units are attacking the town hall and the HQ of the Germans in the First Arrondissement, it simply doesn't make any sense that the German units should quietly patrol the Second Arrondissement!
I understand that random rolls play a big role in a solo game (that's pretty much the only way of preventing the active player from guessing where the next attack will come from). However, this is not a reason to fully rely on randomness only! In the last game I reviewed (The Summer of the Boxers), there was a good balance between the random element (the cards) and the deterministic one (the pattern of Boxer movement towards the foreign legacies). So I reckon the game could be improved by someone with the patience to do so. It's just that I prefer working on my own games than repairing existing ones!
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