Stripped Down for Parts: The Lamps Are Going Out: World War I

   

  

World War I, or the Great War (or The War to End All Wars), as it was referred to at the time, holds an abiding fascination for me as a subject for exploration through gaming. Obviously I’m not the only one, because there are an awful lot of WWI games on the market these days, and many of them have developed committed followings. It’s such an expansive subject that I think there is room in anyone’s collection for more than one.

I nabbed a copy of The Lamps Are Going Out: World War I (Compass Games, 2016) from my FLGS on the recommendation of Karl from the Wargaming Bootcamp; I’d mentioned in a comment on somebody else’s post on Facebook that Dawn’s Early Light: the War of 1812 (Compass Games, 2020), was currently my favourite CDG, and Karl responded with a couple of others he held in equal esteem, but first and foremost was The Lamps Ae Going Out. I’ve never been one to let a provocation like that slide, so I felt I had to investigate this for myself. When I’ve spent some more time with the game, I’ll post a review, but in the meantime, here’s a look at what comes in the box.

But first, the box, with its rather poignant photograph adorning the cover. Two weeks after the death of King Edward VII of Britain and Ireland, the nine monarchs of Europe gathered to pay their respects and to participate in the extraordinary spectacle of Edward’s funeral. As they sat for this photo, none of them could have conceived of the tumult that would descend upon Europe a mere four years later.

The box back gives us a look at some sample troop, event and technology counters and a sample event card and technology card, (all reproduced at roughly their actual size), all against a backdrop of a portion of the board, showing Italy, Greece and the western Balkans.

The standard provisos let us know that the game is of medium difficulty (while not a scale, the folks at Compass games are pretty reliable with a statement like this), it plays one to four players but is best with two, has a high solitaire suitability (I’ll be testing that claim the first time or two to the table), and the game should run to about five hours. The map is referred to as “Strategic,” which might be code for area movement; I’d say it’s kind of a front-scale area map, as the larger countries are divided up into roughly along the lines of historical frontlines. The unit scale is individual armies – the units are identified by the designations of the armies that participated in the war – and the turn scale is approximately three months, which is likely the ideal durational scale for a game of this scope.

Rule Book (in case the cover didn't give it away).

The second edition of the game comes with two booklets. The Rulebook and a separate booklet of additional designer’s notes for the second edition publication and more thorough explanations of each of the event cards.  rulebook is Thiry-six pages. High sheen pages with gloss cover. The rules run to twenty-three pages. The booklet also contains a Table of Contents, the Designer’s Notes from the first edition, and an eight-page Extended Example of Play.

Sample page from the rule book.

The additional Design Notes booklet is new to the second edition of the game. It runs to twenty pages, with the first three devoted to additional design notes. The other seventeen pages are given to detailed notes on the function of each Event card and a paragraph or two (some are quite extensive) on its historical background or significance. This all makes for really interesting reading. This isn’t a review, or even a cursory exploration of the game, so I don’t want to go too deep into the tall grass, but I will say the first edition nots in the rulebook and the follow-up notes and event descriptions are well worth the time spent reading through them.

Second Edition Design Notes, incorporating the expanded Event Card notes
and historical details. Interesting reading for its own sake.

The map for Lamps is mounted on a solid-weight board and lays out nicely out of the box (you might have to put a couple of books of other games on top of the rising folds for twenty minutes or so if you have the luxury of that much time – I’d do it while you’re punching and sorting the counters if you want to start pushing pieces around straight away). The play area offers most of Europe (minus the Iberian Peninsula) and a goodly portion of the Levant and the Syrian plains, presented in sombre tones. The East African interests and the distant United States are represented with box-inserts.

The map. Mostly playable. All useful.

The colours used for various countries distinguish the antagonists home territories, as well as individual smaller states like Greece and Bulgaria. Two neutral countries – the Netherlands and Switzerland – are rendered in black, impassable to both sides. There’s a slight colour variation in the Triple Entente with France and the UK appearing in khaki, while Italy takes a more mustard hue, Germany is rendered in light grey, Austria-Hungary and Turkey in a rain-bearing blue/grey, and Russia in a mossy green. The effect is quite striking.

As I mentioned earlier, the larger countries are divided into a series of areas to be contested. Some areas have representations of mountains, which will impact on units’ defensive combat and movement. A terrain key nis incorporated into the map, along with a turn track and an escalating America Declares War track. The whole thing looks both appealing and very playable, although I suspect the action around Verdun, Venetia/Austria and Gallipoli might get a little crowded, looking at the numbers of counters at play in the Extended Example of Play.

All in all, the map is eminently functional and fit for purpose. To my mind, wargame artists don’t usually get the recognition they deserve. A game’s artwork will often subtly affect the way a player approaches the game. We’ve all had the experience of a map’s colour scheme or poor contrast between the background and values on a counter reduce the joy of the play experience. So, I wanted to take a moment here to mention Tim Allen was the artist on The Lamps Are Going Out (and another Compass game covering the same theatre, Imperial Tide: The Great War,1914-1918 (Compass Games, 2022). Mr Allen has well over a hundred games to his credit on BGG, including some personal favourites. When I get to writing a review of the game I’ll probably forget to mention Mr Allen’s contribution, so I wanted to take the opportunity here.

Players Aid Cards, Triple Entente and Russia/USA (top),
and Germany and Central Allies (bottom).

The game comes with four Player’s Aid Cards (PACs), two each for the Triple Entente (TE) and the Central Powers (CP). The pairs are duplicates, with the additional copies for the four-player game option. The need for this will become clear in a moment.

The reverse side of the PACs all feature the game set-up guidelines form page 26 of the rulebook. This is really handy as if you’re playing someone who is already somewhat familiar with the game, you can effectively halve the set-up time, which – looking at the set-up notes – shouldn’t be too burdensome a task in itself (compared to some other games, at least).

Set-up notes (on the reverse side of all four PACs).

The play-side of the PAC is where it gets interesting. It’s intended to be used as a mat for managing your off-board counters. This is no doubt because, apart from the US involvement and Turn tracks, the whole map-board is taken up with, well, map. Given the reverse is only of use before the game, it doesn’t create any imposition, except for the need for a little more table space.

Everything is laid out very sensibly and usefully on the PAC, though. There are slight variations between the CP and TE PACs as necessary. Each has a Sequence of Play on the left side, but the Central Powers SoP features two extra steps in their Movement Please for U-Boats and Fleets, and the TE card sports a U-Boat Attack Table where the CP card has a U-Boat Attrition Table. Similarly, the other charts correspond across the two PACs, with the content tailored for that side. The PACs also duplicate the holding boxes for Eliminated units, Event Markers, etc., for the two factions making up each side so the players each only need a single PAC out for a two-player game.

Counter sheets (pre-rounded - sheer luxury) This is a relatively
low counter-density game, for the scope..

The two counter-sheets for Lamps are the pre-rounded easy-punch types that people either love or hate. Personally, I don’t mind them. These 5/8” counters are printed in a matt finish on a grey-core board of a good thickness (about 2mm). They’re easy to pick up and move around, which, at the end of the day, is what you’re looking for in game counters.

The choice of colours for the nationalities matches those used on the board. There are no numeric values for strength or movement on the unit counters, but at this scale there needn’t be. Each unit features aits national flag, the army’s designation, and a figure of a soldier in the uniform of that force. The result is very effective. Units have two states, Ready (front) and spent (reverse). Other on-map counters include entrenchment and artillery concentration, Air Superiority, Fleets, U-boats and Zeppelins (German), and Convoys (Entente) markers. The counter mix incudes various Some of the Event cards for both sides have corresponding Event markers which will be placed either on the board of the card as a reminder that the event in question is currently in play.

The cards some in two decks, but they need a little sorting,

The game comes with two sealed card decks in loose-fitting cellophane baggies that I think should become an industry standard. I get the shrink-wrapped plastic is to stop the cards rubbing against each other  and give them a little more integrity (safety in numbers) if they get jolted around in transit, but you essentially get the same thing from these bags, the sturdiness of the plastic offering something off a buffer for knocks, and I’m not terrified of slipping and putting a gouge in some of the cards trying to get a knife under the seam of the wrap to split it open. Just my opinion. The cards themselves are printed on a good card-stock and shuffle well. These too are really nicely illustrated with images appropriate martial images from the period.

Some sample cards; two Events on each side, and a Technological Advance in
the Middle (note the "A2" in the top left-hand corner - you can't activate
this card unless the "A1" card is already in play).

There are actually six sets of cards; four Event decks – each faction has their own to draw from – and two Technology decks, which only Germany and the Western Alliance (the two research powerhouses) get to draw from. The Event decks reflect historical events and significant personalities involved in the conflict. Some Event cards offer an advantage for their faction when played, while others will cause a minor setback (though even a minor probable can become significant at the wrong moment; such are the fortunes of war). The technology cards offer advantages of their own, but only if the requirements for the drawn cards have already been met; both sides, for example, may be able to develop their air superiority (cards P1 through P3), but a drawn P3 card drawn by either faction in their Technology Draw phase can only be put to use if their P1 and P2 cards are already in play. If not, it gets shuffled back into the deck; no technology advance this turn.

Serious dice, but no baggies. : (

I neglected to mention the quality of the box before. In recent years every Compass game I’ve bought has come in a good, quality box with a lid that will come off easily enough when you want it to (I’m sure everyone develops their own removal techniques). The box for Lamps is no exception.

The game comes with four white six-sider pip dice which look familiar from other Compass games, so I have no doubt they will roll well (except for the times when my own well-documented poor luck at pivotal moments intercedes). I was a little surprised when I discovered an absence of the expected baggie-roll from among the contents of the box. I’m not too heartbroken – I can source my own counter bags or spring for a tray – but Compass usually includes really good quality bags. A small thing.

There is a note included in the box, identifying a single erratum; to wit, that any references to the British Isles as being Factory 5 are incorrect, and should be read as Factory 4. The 4 appears on the map, next to the Factory symbol, so that should be a sufficient reminder, but some people have a big stick out for Compass regarding errata, so you can’t blame them for wanting to cover their bases.

Well, that’s everything that comes with The Lamps Are Going Out, Second Edition. Overall, the game components all look good and are of a high grade, but I’ve been spoilt a bit by the Compass games I’ve acquired thus far, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. I’m looking forward to putting The Lamps Are Going Out through its paces, but I’ll want to play it a least a couple of times with another human before I review it, so it might not come for a couple of months. In the meantime, I’ll solo it a couple of times to find my way around, and if all goes well, I might put up a session report as an appetiser.