Review: Breizh 1341

 

 

2022 Charles S. Roberts Best Medieval Wargame Nominee

 

Laurent Gary's Breizh 1341 (Shakos, 2022) is a small, fast-playing game about the War of Breton Succession, itself a relatively short and geographically constrained campaign woven into the broader tapestry of the Hundred Years’ War. The game is deceptively simple mechanically, but it rewards good planning and execution. Breizh 1341 is as tactically challenging as it is visually engrossing. But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s just dive straight in.

 

Appearance

Shakos understands the importance of presentation. This shines though in the elegant consistency of the Conquerors series games, and that same consideration is here in spades. Breizh 1341 is a small box game – 9” by 7”, 2” deep – with a landscape aspect and an illustration of a siege in progress on the cover (I posted an unboxing of the game already, so check that out if you’re interested). It’s not what I’d call travel-size (at the size of a trade paperback, Nuts! Publishing’s Combat Rations games better fits that bill), but it wouldn’t take up a lot of room in an overnight bag. The box is solid, the lid fits snuggly, and the moulded plastic storage tray accommodates the components and (un-sleaved) cards very well.

Set up at start of game. The French begin in control of Trégor (Castle Guingamp and
a Partisan present), and with a head-start (another Partisan) on gaining control of
Saint-Brieuc. The English control Nantes (Castle Guérande and a Partisan) and
two troops in place to besiege another Castle. The game also comes with a
deck of eight Area cards for a variant rule allowing random
starting areas for each side. 

The board is small (about 17” by 12”, and mounted), and represents the Breton peninsula, divided into eight areas, each with a varying number of castles. Each castle has a rating of 1, 2 or 3. This represents the defence value of the castle during a besieging action. Control of castles in a given area is part of the equation for establishing who controls that area.

The board also includes a turn track (with handy mnemonics reminding the players of the cards played in each turn), and card places marked along the long edges (also proving reminders of varying cards played during turns. The map is thematically reminiscent of maps from the time without slavishly trying to replicate their appearance – function in this case triumphs over form. All in all, it’s attractive and usable, and works as a focus for the outcomes of the game.

The game uses a combination of counters and wooden pieces. The counters are mostly administrative – the majority are control markers for castles or areas – while the wooden piece represent the “human resources” at play. Cubes represent soldiers, while cylinders represent Partisans, the administrative infrastructure that ceases and maintains control of an area for one or the other player. To claim control of an area, a player must both hold a castle and have a Partisan present. If both players meet the requirements, then whoever has the highest number of castles and Partisans combined claims control.

Sample cards: an English Event card (right) and a Special Event Card. Event cards may
be played for the Event (if matching the playing faction), or for an Order at the bottom
of the card (while most cards offer all four options, some only display three orders).
The Special Event cards must be played in the round they are drawn; the Special
Event is executed first, and will affect both sides, then the phasing player can
play one of the listed Orders.

There are enough control counters for the areas and for each level of castle, and no more. These are each printed on both sides, with a blue border on the front and a red border on the verso, to indicate French or English control. There are other tokens as well; a Turn marker, three Highwaymen markers representing roving bands of unemployed mercenaries making their way in an area (and n turn making it ungovernable by either side), and a single chit marked with a +2 on both sides – this is a reminder token related to a single card event which may or may not come up in the game, but it’s nice to see such attention to detail.

Where the game really shines, though, is in its cards. There are several types of cards. The Event Deck is made up three parts, each consecutive part being added to the remainder of the deck at separate stages of play. The cards can be played for in exchange for an Action or, depending on the card, for its Event’ each card is bordered in royal blue or vermillion, indicating which player can use a given card for its Event. The event will have a game effect, accompanied by a brief description of the historical event portrayed (and a unique illustration drawn from historical sources) These events are mostly of acute significance to the War of Breton Succession, and they make up the bulk of the players’ hands in each round. There is a deck of ten Special Event cards. From the second turn on, each player draws a Special Event card that must be played as one of their cards in that turn. This guarantees each of the events will occur through the course of the game. These events are more pan-European in nature; events from the Hundred Years’ War influencing the local conflict, or natural incursions on the affairs of Man, like the Black Death. These events will affect both players, usually adversely, but the player playing the card gets a consolation prize of performing an action from those listed at the bottom of the card after the Event has been executed.

French (left) and English Personality cards. These are retained until used, and offer 

assistance in the execution of some orders.

Finally, there are two decks of eight Personality cards. Each turn, along with their due event cards and, after the first turn, a Special Event card, the players draw a Personality card from their side’s deck. The Personality cards fill a different role in the game; these are played for an advantage in a given situation, like offering a +1 to a battle die-roll, or placing a free Partisan unit somewhere on the board. There are two more Personality cards in each side’s deck than will be drawn in a game, so you can never count on a particular card appearing in a game.

All in all, the game is a joy to look at; in fact, I’d take a little time when you first get it to go through the cards and just soak up some of the history sewn into them, so it’s not so distracting when you play your first game. Nicolas Triel was the artistic director for Breizh 1341 (wrangling contributions from a few dozen fourteenth century painters, sculptors, and stonemasons). The finished product presents all the hard work he put into its creation – Breizh is both exceptionally beautiful and eminently playable.

The white cards represent non-playable events, events
that occurred during the War of Breton Succession but
had little or no influence on the outcome of the war.
These may still be played for their available Orders.

Play

Breizh 1341 plays out over six turns. At the end of the sixth turn, whichever player controls the majority of areas is the winner; if the players each hold an equal number of areas, the game ends in a draw (unsatisfying for some, but there you have it).*

For the first turn the entirety of the First Epoch deck (fourteen cards) is dealt out, and the players each draw a Personality card. The English player starts, and the players take turns playing cards from their rather large hands. At the play of the last card, the remaining cards in the players’ hands are gathered, barring any unused Personality cards. These, and the Second epoch deck (twenty-two cards) are shuffled together to make up the deck for turns two through five. Each turn, unused event cards are returned to the deck, which is then reshuffled. From turn two, each player receives one Event card, plus another Event card for each area they control – as mentioned previously, control is established by both controlling at least one castle and having at least one Partisan in the area – plus one Special Event card (which MUST be played for its event in the turn it is drawn), and another Personality card from their side’s deck. In the sixth and final turn, the six Third epoch cards are added to the deck, which is shuffled and dealt out in its entirety between the players.

Near the end of Turn 2, England has secured Castles in Vannes, Saint-Malo & Dol and
Rennes, but have only gained control of Rennes (by rallying a Partisan there). The
French player is about to play a white "non-event" card for a Besiege order. Unlike
the other orders, that only allow their action to take place once in one area, any
number of sieges may be attempted with a besiege order, so long as the
required numbers of troops are available for each siege attempt. Once a
siege has been attempted, the troops involved are removed
regardless of success, then the next is attempted.

With the play of a card, the phasing player may enact the event on the card, if factionally appropriate, or choose one of the actions on the base of the card. The choice of actions is usually to Recruit (place up to three troops in an area or areas on the board, though some multiple card events will allow recruiting four or more plus a die-roll value in troops in a single action), Rally (place a Partisan in an area), Besiege (use your troops in an area to besiege a castle in that area), or Fight (roll the three-sided dice and take a number of your opponent’s troops off the board equal to the result rolled), though some events will limit the available actions.

Having troops on the board allows you to perform a Besiege action. A single besiege action will allow you to attempt to take as many castles as you have troops to use in a siege. The castle rating – 1, 2, or 3 – represents that location’s ability to resist a siege.  At least one troop block is required to perform a siege. The target number for a successful siege is the Castle’s strength plus 2 (representing overwhelming force, and resolution of the siege involves the phasing player to roll the die and add the total number of besieging forces to the result. If a player besieges a 1 strength Castle with a single troop cube, they will need to roll a 2 or a 3 on the die to be successful. If successful, a marker of the player’s colour is places over the castle, and the phasing player moves on to the next siege until all are resolved, Troop pieces are removed form the board as sieges are resolved whether or not the siege was successful. A turn represents roughly a campaigning year; at the end of each turn, any troops remaining on the board are removed.

If there are ever more than five troop blocks in a single area with representation of both sides, a battle ensues. This happens immediately and will occur independently of any other unresolved actions. Each side counts the number of their troops in the area and adds the result of a dice roll (a Personality card may be used to raise their total as well, if available), and the player with the higher overall result is the winner. The difference in the two resulting numbers is established; if the differential is two or lower, each side loses one troop; if the difference is three or higher, the defeated side loses half their force (rounding up), while the victorious faction loses half the defeated side’s losses, rounding up. At the resolution of the Battle, if the total number of troops from both sides remains above five, the players battle again, and again until the total is sufficiently low. Battles are a costly but sometimes useful tactic to frustrate the opponent’s plans in an area.

This game ended in a draw. At the end of the game, France held control of Léon, Trégor,
and Saint-Brieuc; England held Nantes, Rennes, and Cornouaille. After changing hands
several times through the course of the game, Vannes was brought to a stalemate, and
the presence of Highwaymen in Saint-Malo & Dol would have made that area a draw
had it not already been a stalemate, with France and England each having three
assets there (Castles and Partisans). 

The events described on the Event cards are, in the main, playable by one side only (there are about four Event cards that have a shared red/blue border, allowing use by either player). The English player may play a French Event card, or vice versa, but only for an action listed at the bottom of the card. While not an optimal play, using an opposition card for an action can remove a particularly good card from play, if no better alternatives present themselves.

Personality cards may remain in a player’s possession until played. There is no benefit to retaining them until the end of the game, so it is best to use them as an opportunity arises, or to retain them for an edge in an upcoming play. With consecutive games you begin to get a feel for when their use will be appropriate.

Play is constrained, particularly in the middle in the game, by the number of cards each player can play. In the first and last (sixth) turns each player plays five cards, but only three cards in each of the four middle turns. Hand size is constrained to one card plus one for each area controlled, plus a Special Event card, but unless you’ve already lost the game, you’ll always have enough cards to fill the slots. In the middle turns, each player’s options are further constrained by those Special Events, some of which can play havoc with the intentions of both sides in one fell swoop. These constraints force the players to think of each turn as a campaign. Everything you want to achieve has to be done in the three acts of a turns card-play; you can’t set things up for the next year, because over the non-campaign season, everyone goes home and holes up for winter; the next turn is a completely new campaign.

The way unplayed cards are recycled is interesting and adds intrigue to the card-play. With each turn, the unplayed cards from the previous turn go back into the mix. This makes for a whole extra set of tough decision-points, gambling on a potentially helpful card returning to your hand in the future or letting that opposition “Recruit Six + Die Roll” event fall into your opponent’s hand instead of removing it from the game as a Rally action. Also, in your first game (maybe your second) it’s easy develop a tunnel vision and get caught up securing real estate – Castles – to shore up the areas you hold at the expense of expending to taking new territories. Its better to get a foothold in multiple areas early on than to turtle on what you have – your opponent will run roughshod.

Breizh 1341 offers an intense gaming experience in a relatively short time. It’s a little like Twilight Struggle (GMT Games, 2005) in that, having gained some familiarity with the deck, you know that certain events are likely to come up, and if they’re not in your hand they’re likely in your opponents. And like Twilight Struggle, it’s definitely a game for two players. One could conceivably play both sides, but it would lose much of its magic with foreknowledge of the cards both sides could or must play; better to find an opponent and introduce them to the game’s particular pleasures.

 

Appraisal

More than many games cast during the turmoil of the Hundred Years’ War, Breizh 1341 is a game of operational combat in the service of personal ambition and broader international politics. It’s a microcosm of many of the themes that mark the broader European conflict of the period. There is a genius in Breizh’s simplicity. This also makes it a perfect introductory game for non-wargamers. With blocks and pard-play it feels like an aggressive Eurogame, but for my money this ticks enough wargame boxes to qualify.

Looking back over the previous section, my description of Breizh’s game-play reads rather dryly, but you have to keep in mind how quickly – analysis paralysis notwithstanding – the game plays out. The mechanics are relatively simple and, some may argue, repetitive – each turn you are essentially trying to gain territory aand hold on to previous gains – but the card-helps create an unfolding narrative of the see-sawing fortunes of the stalwart French and their interloping English cousins. It really is a rich play experience, far richer than my fairly stilted description suggests.

A big plus for Breizh is the speed of play. Our first game took about an hour and a half, but as I explained in the playthrough write-up, we were learning it on the fly. Subsequent games have clocked in at an hour pretty much on the mark. After about a half-dozen games, it still offers a challenge and doesn’t feel repetitive. This may change after twenty or more games, but I think games like Breizh are designed to fill the same gap as Paulo Mori’s Blitzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 Minutes (PSC Games, 2019) or GMT’s Lunchtime Game series. As a filler-game after a long afternoon session, or an evening’s respite from worldly cares, Breizh 1341 meets my requirements; brief, drenched in history, and offering a gripping, satisfyingly rich experience.

 

* After beating my brother-in-law quite convincingly in our first two games, our third came to a draw (three areas each), which T found hard to reconcile as he held half again as many castles as me. I don’t think he truly accepted the result.

 

 

State of Play: Breizh 1341

 

 

 

This was our first outing with Breizh 1341 (Shakos, 2022).  I’d read some good things about Breizh, but I didn’t know what to expect. We have been leaning into shorter games of late, and this certainly fit the bill.

(Contextual note: we played Breizh for the first time the same day I put up the unboxing post. I was keen to try it out, and ran through the rulebook just the once before setting up (I refer you to the last section of the AAR).)

Partial starting set-up; the players each start with a Castle, The French player begins the
game with two Partisans, one each in Trégor and Saint-Brieuc, while the English player
 (as the aggressor) starts with one Partisan and two Troops in his home province of
Nantes (not pictured here, but the partisans are the little cylinder pieces and the
Troops the cubes; these will be familiar to anyone who has played a game from
Shakos' Conquerors series).

The box is small, about 9” by 7” and about 2” deep. It needs to be that deep to accommodate all the cards and wooden components and the little four panel A3-sized mounted map. I don’t want to dwell too much on the components – you can have a look at my unboxing post for that – But I have to reiterate just how gorgeous the whole package is. The map is rendered in muted tones that make the bright red and royal blue pieces pop. The cardboard markers for castle and area control are also quite nice, and a good size for manipulating during play. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

As is our tradition of long standing, T played the French and I took the English. Breizh runs on its cards. There are three decks of Event cards, two decks of Character cards, one each for the two sides, and one small deck of Special Event cards. Each deck has its place and purpose, which we’ll unravel as I describe the game.

Breizh 1341 is based on the War of Breton Succession, a local conflict that knotted a few threads in the greater tapestry of the Hundred Years’ War. To win the game you must gain control of eight areas that comprise the Breton peninsula (which could lead to a sudden death victory before the natural end of the game), or to control of a majority of the areas by the end of the game.

A real-estate boom at the end of turn two, with waterfront properties proving popular.
If you have the troops available, you can conduct sieges at multiple locations with a
single Besiege action. It's not enough to hold the Castles, you also have to have
a Partisan present to exert control over the area. But Castles are cool.

On the face of it, Breizh can seem a little fussy, but it is an elegantly simple game with a surfeit of moving parts. The game is played over six turns, and this is where the genius of the design is revealed; The first and last turns require five cards plays, while the second through fifth end after just three cards per side. There are reasons for this, and along the top and bottom edges of the board are helpful reminders of the card limits, with five card-places marked, the first three in a slightly darker tone.

As mentioned, the Event cards are divided into three decks, appropriately referred to as the First, Second and Third Epoch decks. Then there is the Special Event deck. The first and last turns require the players to play five cards; turns two through five are tighter turns, allowing the play only three cards each. The Event cards can be played either for their event (if the card’s colour corresponds to you team) or for an action – Recruit (place Troops on the board), Rally (place a Partisan), Fight (remove some your opponent’s Troops) or Besiege (use your troops to try to take a Castle).

At the beginning of each turn, starting with the first, each player draws a Character card from their deck (each of these represents a significant individual from the time of the war). These aren’t used as action cards like the Event cards; instead these offer support for one or two actions. They can only be used once, but unused Character cards can be carried over from turn to turn.

One play in to turn two, and too many cards (see Mistakes were made below). We
rectified this after this round. Not the two ermine symbols on the top-left corner of
the left-most card, signifying it as a Second Epoch event. The second card from
the left is a Character card, while the black background card already played is
a Special Event card, The Truce of Bordeaux.

The first turn represents the preparation period of the war, when both sides sought a victory in the courts so as to not have to resort to war, the whole time shoring up support among the old families of Brittany and further afield. The number of cards you receive in each subsequent turn is informed by the number of areas you control at the end of the current turn, so establishing a real estate portfolio is the key requirement.

In the first turn, each player draws a Character card, then the First Epoch events are dealt to the player in the deck’s entirety. Montfort (English) has the initiative in turn 1 and go first. At the end of the turn, the remaining First Epoch Event cards are collected and shuffled into the Second Epoch deck to make up the deck for the next four turns. At the end of each turn, any unused Event cards are collected and huffled back into the deck, ready for the next draw. The number of Event cards drawn is in subsequent turns is one plus a number equivalent to the number of areas under your control, plus a Special Event card (there are only eight of these, so they will all come out through the course of the game). Both players will have at least enough cards to play a middle turns; if you only have two Event cards in your hand at the beginning of the turn, you may have already lost the game.

The French player, having ejected the English Partisan from Léon, lays siege to
St-Pol-de-Léon, and to Carhaix in Cornouaille for good measure. The number
superimposed on each Castle is its defensive value.

As mentioned, in each of the middle turns, the players each draw a Special Event card, The events in these cards mostly reflect things that happened in the greater European sphere, outside of Brittany, but had significant influence on the local conflict, such as the Truces of Calais and Bordeaux, and the Black Death. These cards must be played in the round they are drawn (though they can be used for an Action rather than their event (see below)). This further restricts the number of camp-friendly Events you can play in these middle turns to two, making each decision-point that much more crucial. Breizh is a game you simply can’t play turn to turn, which, with our first try, was exactly what we ended up doing. Both our games would have benefited from some strategic focus. (We still had fun with it though – we never go into a “learning’’ game too seriously).

The final turn represents the culmination of all your planning (or highlights your lack thereof), and as such, offers the same freedom of action as the first turn, but with one difference; the deck is prepared as in previous turns, but the Third Epoch deck is shuffled, then placed on top of the draw deck, so that the Third Epoch Events (of which there are just six) guaranteeing their availability in the final round.

Our game came down to the final round, but I’d managed to maintain an edge in area control. With his last card, Raoul of Caours, T took an English partisan out of Nantes, robbing me of control of that province (a vindictive move, as Nantes was my home territory), but it was too little, too late. I still controlled five areas to his one. It didn’t feel like a true victory because it was a learning game, but I’m confident of handing T his hat when next we return to the game.

 

Mistakes were made

Well, just a couple of mistakes. In our first game, I had misread the rather clearly stated instruction regarding relinquishing all Event cards in each player’s hand at the end of the turn, then shuffling these unplayed First Epoch Event cards into the Second Epoch deck to create the deck for turns two through five. The second turn was played with cumbersome hands; no real harm, except that it was counter to the intent of the rules. And awkward. This was rectified for the third turn and thereafter.

The end-state of our first game. A bit of a trouncing for the French,
but they'll be back, I'm sure.

The other thing was a misunderstanding early on about what constituted control of an area. We (well, I) went into the game thinking it was all about the Castles, where in fact you can only claim an area when you both possess a Castle and have a Partisan active in that area (if both have a claim, control goes to whoever has the most Partisans, then who has the most Castles; if it’s even-stevens, nobody can claim control of the area). We sorted this out going into the third turn as well.

Okay, there was one other thing I didn’t pick up on until the game was over. We both played all of the Special Events for the Event, which probably hobbled us evenly for the most part, when we could have used them for an action. I did get a small advantage playing the Black Death event which requires the removal of half (rounding up) of each players Troops and Partisans. T had a lot more Troops on the map, and an odd number of Partisans (he was dangerously close to taking an unassailable lead), so the plague hurt me, but it hurt him more.

-----

So, that’s Breizh 1341. I can’t wait to try this out again. It’s such a neat little game, rich in the history of an event I knew next to nothing about. Every choice feels consequential; this feels like a much bigger game than the footprint would suggest.

Stripped Down for Parts: Shakos two-fer, Part II – Breizh 1341

 

 

Charles S. Roberts Award nominee: Best Medieval Wargame, 2022

 

I completely missed the initial release of Laurent Gary’s Breizh 1341 (Shakos, 2022; which should be said, Breizh mille trois cent quarante-et-un, if my high-school French holds up). The first I heard about it was when the game received a Charles S. Roberts Award nomination for Best Medieval Wargame (the award went to Almoravid: Reconquista and Riposte in Spain1085-1086 (GMT Games, 2022), Intrigued, I tried to find a copy, but to no avail – I don’t know how big the initial print run was (or even if it was originally released in an English language version – I might have struggled with a French copy), but it had seemed to disappear from all shelves by the time I looked.

So, it was a happy day when I learned that the crowdfunded release of Rex Britannorum (Shakos, 2025 - you can get a peek at this one here) included Briezh as an add-on option. (Backers could also add another harder-to-find title, Saladin (Shakos, 2022), but my game budget wouldn’t stretch quite that far at the time.)

Breizh 1641 is a taut, fast and fun game. I have played it once already, which is something I try not to do before I write up an unboxing post, but there it is. I’ll try to write this objectively, leave as much of the play commentary as I can for the after-action report. Also, some of the photos I too didn’t come out well enough to include here, and I wanted to get this up to the blog quickly, so I’m just going with what I have; I’ll include more photos in the AAR.

Breizh 1341 is a small box game. The box is 18cm by 22cm (about 7” by 8 ½”) and 5cm (2”) deep, and of a quite sturdy construction. The cover illustration evokes a castle siege, very much a theme in the game. The cover also features a cocarde tricolore logo sporting a banner reading “Historie de France”. I don’t know if this is an initiative among French game companies to promote learning history through ludic pursuits, but that would correspond with a note in the rulebook to parents and teachers regarding the game’s value in presenting historical events and themes through the game. I hope this is part of a broader initiative.

The box back, with a nice representation of the game components.

The back of the box offers a short description of the historical situation; in April of 1341, Duke John III (Fr. Jean de Montfort) died without an heir. There were two contenders with arguably legitimate claims on the duchy; Jeanne de Penthièvre (translated to Joan in the English edition), the niece of John III and wife of Charles de Blois-Châtillon, and John of Monfort, half-brother to the duke. This resulted in the War of Breton Succession, which in turn became a chapter of the Hundred Years’ War. Also included is a brief explanation of game play.

The game infographic tells us the this is a two-player game (at time of writing, T and I have played just one get to know you game of Breizh, but I could tell from this that the game wouldn’t be nearly as much fun playing two-handed solo), That a game should take about forty-five minutes to play (I’d agree with this, I think – ours took closer to an hour-ten, but we backtracked through a couple of mistakes and were constantly referring back to the rules – but having got our heads around the game, I think our next run at it will be well under an hour), and it’s recommended for ages fourteen and up.

The rulebook. Glossy, but remarkably still readable under down-lights.

The rulebook is roughly A5 in size, printed on a sturdy-weight of high-gloss paper, and runs to 24 pages. Of these, there are only nine pages of actual rules, with the first three pages devoted to a cover illustration and introduction, the following six covering the components, a short glossary of terms used, and a set-up guide. There is also a five page historical background essay, and the back cover offers a Game Sequence Summary and a brief breakdown of Actions.

A sample of the rules. While the font is a tad small, it its still very readable, and
the illustrations are clear and informative, complementing the text.

The rules, of course, were originally rendered in French, and while these read like a translation, it is a good, clear translation with none of the little ambiguities that pop up sometimes; as I mentioned, we’ve played one game thus far, and there was a lot of referring back to the rulebook as we played, but points of order were easy to find and quite comprehensible.

The game board. For such a compact play area (and such large counters) the board is
remarkably comfortable to play on, with no feeling of crowding or clutter.

 
The play area is a map of mid-fourteenth century Brittany, divided up into eight regions, and marked out with various castles and fortifications. It comes mounted on a sturdy board and is both attractive and functional. It incorporates the play area (the map of Brittany), a turn track, and places marked on the top and bottom edges for the cards played in each turn to be placed. The turn track reminds the players of the number of cards to be played in each turn (five each in turns one and six, three each in turns two through five), and this is reflected in the placement presentation (with the final two positions marked in a lighter hue). The Castles are all named for their historical analogues, and given a value of one to three, representing the difficulty posed in laying siege to each, a crucial action in the game.

Inside the box; two decks of cards, two sets of wooden tokens and a nice three-sided
 die. Of course, being a Shakos game, time and thought has gone into
how to best present and store all the components.

The game comes with two cellophane-wrapped decks of cards. It might be my imagination, but these feel like the nicest cards I’ve ever seen, even in a Shakos game. The decks are divided into Event cards and Personality cards, with some extra cards added, which I’ll come back to.

The Event cards are divided into four groups; the First, Second and Third Epoch decks (defined by the presence of one, two or three ermines in the top left corner of the card), and the Special Events deck. Most of the Event cards exhibit either a red or blue background; these cards may only be used for their event by the appropriate faction, red for the English, blue for the French. Some cards show a white background. These hold no game-function event and can only be used and for the performance of an action.

Each player also has their own deck of Personality deck to draw from. One Personality card is drawn each turn, and can be carried over from turn to turn. Each offers some kind of benefit for the player in a given circumstance; they can be used in the appropriate situation to, say, add a point advantage in a Fight, or allow the recruitment of extra Partisans.

None of the photos I took of the cards came out clearly enough for this presentation, so
here's a shot from our first game. On the left is a Special Event card (black background),
which had to be played in the turn it was drawn. On the right, and English Event card
(clearly, from the vermillion background) from the Second Epoch deck that I used for
the event, much to the chagrin of my opponent.

Finally, there is an eight-card Special Events deck. These cards present event happening in the broader European context. In the hand-building phase of turns two through five, each player draws one of these cards into their hands. Each Special Event card must be played in the turn it is drawn.

All of the cards in the game are quite remarkable to look at; each features an extract from a contemporary painting and a reference to an actual individual or event from the conflict or the broader Hundred Years’ War, while the Personality cards feature a stone memorial or funerary statue of the individual in question, The backgrounds to the cards are rendered like draped satin in the colours of the belligerent forces. The whole effect is quite stunning; it comes as no surprise that Nicolas Treil was the headline artist involved in the preparation of Breizh 1341 (the game credits list Treil and Lisa Fix as being responsible for the graphic design, but does not distinguish duties).

This covers the cards used in the historical game. But thew folks at Shakos don’t believe in giving you just a standard setup. A short note at the end of the rules explains the other cards not otherwise represented. These ten cards allow the players to randomly pick a starting location (by selecting one each of eight cards representing the eight regions of Brittany) as an alternative to the historical starting positions, as well as a pair of cards which offer asymmetric – but balanced – starting strengths on the ground in their respective starting locations. It’s a small thing, but it’s a nice touch, and an elegant way to increase the game replayability with very little overhead.

There are two types of wooden tokens will be familiar to anyone who has played Shakos game from their Conquerors series; the pieces come in a red and blue matching the card themes quite well, and there are two types, with twenty of each in each colour. The little cylinders represent Partisans – these are indicative of one or the other side’s supporters within a region – and the cubes represent Troops, the levied soldiers and mercenaries that the sides engage for campaigning. Any Troops on the board at the end of a round leave (presumably to go back to their farms and workshops, or the professional troops’ winter quarters), while the Partisans persist from turn to turn; these, along with controlled Castles, help establish and maintain dominance in a given region through the course of a game.

The counter sheet, showing the French side of the Castle and Region markers.

The game comes with a single punchboard of counters. These are a nice size (about 22mm) and are quite thick, very easy to deal with on the board. The counters are pre-rounded and punch out neatly (no centre-nubs). The majority of the counters are control markers. These are used to indicate control of the Castles on the map as each is taken or exchanged in besieging actions. There are enough counters to cover all of the varying strength Castles on the board. Other counters indicate which side has control of a region at the end of each turn (both the Region and Castle control markers are double sided, indicating French control on one side and English on the other). Other markers include Highwaymen counters, an hourglass turn marker, and a +2 counter used in a single card event function that may only rarely get played, but which struck me as a nice little detail and indicative of the thoughtfulness that has gone into the creation and development of Breizh 1341.

Randomness has its place in this game, but it is restricted in its scope by the choice of a three-side die (actually a d6 with two faces each of 1, 2, and 3). Tempering the hand of fate in the way limits how much the players can rely on their own good fortune. It still provides room for cruel disappointments and happy accidents, but the game rewards careful planning and strategic consideration.

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A post on how Breizh 1341 plays will be forthcoming. Not to give too much away, I can tell you that game play is very smooth and quite logical once you get your head around Breizh’s idiosyncrasies; it’s a CDG, but it doesn’t do things in a way typical to CDGs. It is definitely its own game, and is a better experience for it.

 

 

Review: Napoleon 1807

 

The French commander contemplates his next action.

Charles S. Roberts Best Napoleonic Era Board Wargame 2020 Nominee

Last year I reviewed Denis Sauvage’s Napoléon 1806: La Campagne de Prusse (Shakos, 2017), French wargame publisher Shakos’ first entry in their Conquerors series (you can read what I had to say about that one here). Two more additions to the series have been published so far – Napoléon 1807: La Campagne de Pologne (Shakos, 2020), and Napoléon 1815: Waterloo (Shakos, 2022), with persistent rumours of a new addition in the wings which I won’t mention here by name for fear of jinxing it and delaying the release even more. 

I enjoyed Napoleon 1806 so much I went out and bought 1807 without too much thought. While this could have gone badly, it didn’t. Napoleon 1807 not only lives up the promise of its predecessor, but manages to deliver, to my mind, an even better play experience just a little extra complication in a couple of ways, which I will recount through the course of this review; for now, I’ll say cryptically that there is not only more game, but more play, and deeper strategic concerns.

The twelve-inch square box can be a little awkward for storage, but height-wise it's
comparable to foolscap-sized games from Hexasim or Nuts! Publications. 

I bought the last copy of Napoléon 1815 that Hexasim had in stock when Shakos posted it was out of print. (Yes, Hexasim is a game publisher, but they also run a virtual store-front from their website for dozens of European and many North American publishers, as well as their own games.) I believe – at time of writing – game is happily back in print. I haven’t spent enough time with that one yet for a review, but maybe this time next year.

Note: if you’ve read my review of Napoléon 1806, there will inevitably be some redundancy between that and this post – they’re equally please games to look at and to play. Check out the pictures and scoot ahead to the Play and Appraisal of the game.

Appearance

Napoléon 1806 set a high bar for presentation – it was certainly one of the big selling points for me engaging with a new, untried system. The mounted gameboard was artfully rendered to have the appearance of an unfolded ordinance map from the period (this conceit has been kept with the two subsequent Conquerors releases), beautifully illustrated with cities and towns, roads, and bridges. The cards were printed on good quality cardstock, as were the army boards and shields, and the wooden cubes and little drums were remarkably uniform. The whole package worked well together.

Napoléon 1807 is very much cut from the same cloth; it retains all of the solid aspects of the first game’s design and presentation but increases the scope and depth of play. The 1807 mounted board is two whole panels larger than the 1806 board, putting it at 24” by 36”, so slightly larger than a standard poster-sized map-sheet.

Elbing, having been retaken by L'Estocq, falls again to Soult corps. Will Hielsburg
be next? The red pawn marks the turns, while the white block indicates
the scenario length; in this case a battle of just four turns.

The other increase in Napoléon 1807 is the number of army boards. There’s one more board included, but these are now double-sided. This means a slightly different army composition; each scenario dictates whether the two armies use the Friedland, Pultusk, or Eylau boards.

Each side’s army board – with its accompanying shield – allows the player to keep track of each unit’s strength and exhaustion levels without revealing this information to his opponent. depending on which scenario you are playing. The strength and composition of each corps is represented by cubes in two colours, one representing the infantry and the other the attached cavalry (if available – some formations are all infantry).

The Winter Quarters cards are a new innovation. If the rule is in effect, the first troop
losses (cubes) on each are placed on the side's Winter Quarters card. When it holds
five cubes the card is put into the discard pile. When drawn again, the Winter Quarters
card is placed again on the board. When the second card has been drawn from that
player's deck and returned to the board, the game is over at the end of that turn.

From the map-board to the illustrations on the cards, everything in Napoléon 1807 works to immerse the player in the era of the conflict. Of course, this is true of all the Conquerors series games. The series artist, Nicolas Treill manages to create a coherent look and sensibility through this game and the other titles. M. Treil has lent his pen to the upcoming Napoléon 1870 (Shakos, ~2026), covering the Franco-Prussian War of that year. The early glimpses of this game, which should be coming to crowdfunding before the end of the year, indicate an adherence to the style of presentation consistent with its predecessors.

Play

Like its predecessor, Napoléon 1807 is a block game, and each block represents a corps of troops made up of infantry, cavalry, or more often a mix of the two, under the command the general or marshal who appears in name and effigy on the counter, The corps is represented only by its commander, rather than by its numbered designation. This may rankle with some hard-core (hard-corps?) Napoleonic enthusiasts, leaving out a measure of historical detail, but at this scale it would be an extra information that isn’t pivotal to play. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it.

Like its predecessor, Napoleon 1807 is a block game, and each block represents a corps of troops made up of infantry, cavalry, or more often a mix of the two, under the command the general or marshal who appears in name and portrait on the counter, the corps is represented only by its commander, rather than by its numbered designation. This may rankle with some hard-core (hard-corps?) Napoleonic enthusiasts for leaving out a measure of historical detail, but at this scale it isn’t pivotal to play. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it. At the corps level there is always going to be some measure of abstraction, and I think in this regard the nuances of strength and command quality within the two armies are handled well here.

Some blocks will also incorporate icons that serve as a reminder of a particular leader’s special qualities (such as gaining an extra movement point or drawing an additional card in battle). The identity of the general is hidden from the opponent; the reverse of every block (once stickered) shows the French or Russian eagle crest. Unlike other block games, where the block is rotated to represent depleting strength from engagements, the strength of each corps is tracked on a separate board listing each of the corps commanders in a column with two tracks running off each. The top row marks out the corps strength (one colour for infantry, another for cavalry), while the lower row – empty at the start – tracks the corps’ the accrued fatigue. A corps can be removed from the game in two ways, either having their strength reduced to zero or by letting their fatigue run to the maximum. There are ways to reduce a unit’s fatigue, which I’ll come back to, but it’s not always possible.

The Eylau campaign board for the French forces. Blue block represent infantry, yellow
for cavalry. Not everyone gets cavalry, which can be a problem if forced to retreat.
The overall number of blocks dictate how many cards are drawn in combat; two for
five or more blocks, but just one for for or less. The heavy dotted line down the
centre of the display is a helpful reminder.

Unlike other block games, where the block is rotated to represent depleting strength from engagements, the strength of each corps is tracked on a separate board listing each of the corps commanders in a column with two tracks running off each. The top row marks out the corps strength (one colour for infantry, another for cavalry), while the lower row – empty at the start – tracks the corps’ the accrued fatigue. A corps can be removed from the game in two ways, either having their strength reduced to zero or by letting their fatigue run to the maximum. There are ways to reduce a unit’s fatigue, which I’ll come back to, but it’s not always possible. The off-board tracking adds a further element of fog of war; you can never be absolutely sure of an opponent’s unit’s strength until they are finally taken out of the game, either by receiving enough hits to destroy their cohesion, or simply garnering maximum exhaustion from repeated movement, combat and retreats.
The game systems of Napoléon 1807 are a duplicate of those found in Napoléon 1806 and should be essentially the same through further additions to the series (the little time I have spent with Napoléon 1815: Waterloo, would seem to bear this out). Napoléon 1807 is an operational game set in a more challenging operational situation than its predecessor. With the larger board, there is sometimes more terrain to cover, more options for approach or retreat. One of the added complexities is that depending on the scenario, some cities may begin under siege, represented by a yellow explosion marker. The fortress or oppidum markers are also newly introduced to the game. These represent the garrisoned towns under siege. The familiar wooden Flags from Napoléon 1806 mark the target citadels. Like in 1806, the key to victory is gaining Victory Points enough to reach your side’s end of the pendulum score track (handily located on the map board) for a sudden death victory, or to finish the last turn with the marker further toward your end than the opponent’s. Napoléon 1807 also introduces a small set of white discs that, depending on the scenario, will be placed roughly in the middle of the VP track. If the game ends with the score token upon one of these spaces, neither side can claim victory.

Sample cards. This actually happened to be a particularly bad battle draw for Marshal Soult 
in one game. The box at the bottom left indicates the cost to the opponent's forces in a fight
(in this case, no blows landed). If the Rain card was drawn in the player's Draw phase, it
would be placed on the board as a reminder that all movement cost one extra point for
that turn, and that card would not be replenished. If the Care card was in the player's
hand at the Recovery phase, he would be able to use it to either replenish one Infantry
cube loss (maybe stragglers catching up to the main force) as per the card's Action, or
to remove two Fatigue markers from a formation of his choice (but not both things).

This is an unashamedly card-driven game (CGD), even more than many others that fall under that heading. Each side has its own card deck, tuned to that side’s strengths and weaknesses, and in a turn these are used to determine Initiative, adjust the weather and other random effects during the draw phase, dictate the available movement points to a formation after movement intent is declared, apply a positive function to one’s units, or a negative effect to an opposing force, as set out in the terms of the card’s event, to resolve the effects of combat between the belligerents, or to relieve the exhaustion of a failing unit in the at the end of a turn.

Each card has an Operation Points value at the top right, a coloured title banner which dictates when a card can (or must) be played, a paragraph of text conveying the card’s Event, and two sections at the bottom of the card, the left indicating the damage dealt if it is drawn as a Combat card (the coloured squares indicating Strength hits, the orange circles the number of Fatigue points applied among the enemy units, and the right, the number of Fatigue points  removed form a chosen unit if the card is played from the player’s hand in the Recovery phase at the end of a turn.

Each turn (roughly a fortnight in game terms) runs through four phases; Draw, initiative, Operations and Recovery. In the Draw phase, the players each draw three cards into their hand. If a Red bannered card, such as Rain or Snow, is drawn, its effects are immediately applied (this will usually affect the weather, but can have other adverse effects as well). If multiple weather cards are drawn, only the first is applied.

The Flag or Pennant markers represent each side's Citadels (key, victory point-yielding
cities) for the given scenario. Player's earn points by hitting their opponents forces and
taking their Citadels away from them. Points are accrued on the tally as earned, so it's
possible to achieve a points victory (reaching your end of the pendulum track)
mid-game, though I've never seen it happen.

To establish Initiative for the turn, the players simultaneously reveal the next card from their deck. The higher Operations value wins the draw; with ties, the Initiative goes to the French.

In the Operations phase, the players take turns – starting with the player holding the initiative – attempting to move their forces on the board. These can be moved individually, or in groups, so long as they originate from the same location and are kept together (no shedding units in transit). Moving units must stop if they reach a location with another unit present, friend or foe. If a unit moves more than three locations in a single turn, it will take a fatigue point for each location above the third. If two corps move together, the first point is spent on coordinating the advance, then the units may move as many points as are left. Three units moving in unison will cost the first two movement points before anyone actually get going. You get the idea.

Movement will sometimes lead to combat. Combat is not initiated simply by moving into an enemy-held location. If it is declared on arrival, the defender get’s an extra card drawn in their defence (defenders also draw an extra card when defending a Citadel or in Woods terrain). The winner of a battle is whoever commits the greater carnage on the other, and the loser is forced to retreat. If the victor still retains any cavalry, they may attempt to pursue the retreating force.

Some people apparently don’t like using the card-deck for combat, presumably because it offers a sense of more control over one’s destiny. Special dice are included in the game, that can be used in preference to the card draw. The faces feature Hit and Fatigue symbols in the same proportions as appear in the deck, so the French have a slightly better chance of hitting on a given roll. Where you would draw a given number of cards, you instead roll that number of dice and accept that fate. Personally, I prefer to use the cards in the way the maker intended.

After movement or combat, the unit or units involved are meant to be inverted. In play, I’ve found it easier to lay the blocks face down to indicate their activated status, but that can get hairy with three or four corps present in the same location. When all movement and combat has been executed for the turn, or when the players have consecutively passed on their turn, the Operations phase is over. In the Recovery phase, any formations that weren’t activated may clear all of their Fatigue, and cards may be played on the activated corps to remove however many points of Fatigue the card indicates. After this, if a unit still holds more than four Fatigue points, it loses a Strength point. While it’s a relatively simple game and very playable, Napoléon 1807 captures all the brutality and attritional cost to armies campaigning in a Polish winter.

"You should have seen the other guy." The parlous state of the Prussian forces after a
close-run victory against Napoleon's best.

The emphasis in both games is on manoeuvre and lines of supply, and it’s in the simplicity of the rules governing these areas are where the Conquerors system excels.  Napoléon 1806 is a cat-and-mouse game, where Prussians are doing their best to delay the French progress with inferior numbers, and protecting his citadels, all the while running down the clock. Meanwhile the French commander is doing his best to get his troops moving forward, force his opponent into costly engagements, and keep his supply corridor open. It’s a fine game and quite replayable, but it does turn to variations on a theme. I would maintain it’s still the best game for learning the system, and I still enjoy playing it; 1806 is my go-to when time is a factor.

In Napoléon 1807 you’re simultaneously playing against your opponent, the turn track, and the intemperate conditions of a Polish winter. Weather conditions will often take a harsher toll on your troops that contact with the enemy, if the rain or snow, or worse, a muddy thaw, allow you to make that contact. It’s this triple-threat a player’s well-laid plans that makes Napoléon 1807 so compelling a situation, whether a short, four-turn battle scenario or the entire historical campaign. Everything outside of clear or overcast will bring more fatigue on your troops. As in the earlier game, spending a turn doing nothing will clear all of a unit’s accrued exhaustion, but it comes at the expense of a turn it could have otherwise been pursuing the enemy or seizing a prize location. These decisions are even more crucial in a shorter game. The tighter duration rewards bold actions but punishes foolish ones.

To share the burden, the French also have real estate to protect in the Polish campaign. It’s difficult to cut a formation’s supply paths, but not impossible.

An early push to bottle up Napoleon's forces around Warsaw, his logistical hub. The
Cavalry unit visible in the top left of the picture is a Vedette unit. These units have no
value in combat and they cannot stop opposing units in their progress, as Cavalry
units can in Worthington's Blue and Gray series. They simply add to the fog of
war, making weak formations look stronger. Scenario instructions will dictate
how many each side has at the start of a game.

Appraisal

Napoléon 1807 is a worthy successor to Napoléon 1806. I’ve really enjoyed 1806. I’ve played over a dozen times and nearly all the games came to tense, nail-biting conclusions. Success in combat won’t necessarily guarantee overall victory, and the game rewards good overall strategy.

The Conquerors system elegantly captures many of the factors to be considered at the operational level in an overland campaign like adverse weather, distance, limited communications and the fog and friction of the battlefield, without getting bogged down with mechanical miniate, and all conveyed in a two- or three-hour timeframe.

This was the Prussian response to Soult's lacklustre attack pictured earlier. One unit
block casualty (the blue square with a cross through it) and three fatigue points. 

While the system remains unchanged, Napoléon 1807 offers a broader experience with even greater replayability. The board is roughly 40% larger in its play or manoeuvre area, though this can be a curse as much as a blessing, sometimes increasing the distances formations need to travel just to remain relevant to the game. It comes with a dozen scenarios, compared to the three (if you count the variation of the short three-turn scenario featured in the quick-start rules brochure), plus a campaign game to incorporate the first game into the second. There are more adverse weather conditions potentially at play, as well as a swarth of new playable events for both sides.

With the placement of the formation cubes and the Leader blocks on the board, the set-up time in any game in the Conquerors series is unavoidably on the long side; I started off allowing a full half hour from removing the lid, just to be on the safe side, but with practice I’ve managed to get it down closer to about fifteen minutes. To be fair, I have thick, clumsy fingers and struggle sometimes with the little wooden components in their rows on the Order of Battle boards, which probably add a little to the set-up time generally. I’ve started using tweezers for placing the Fatigue drums between the rows of Strength cubes during play.

For some people, the fact of being a block game will be enough to put some off. These are not games that can easily be played solitaire, so I can appreciate the apprehension from that quarter; this series will not translate well to solo play. I would encourage anyone with a buddy who is willing to try something new to take a run at Napoléon 1807,or any of the Conquerors series. For me, it ticks a lot of boxes for playability, teachability, the pace of play, and the buckets of tense, frustrating fun it brings to the table.