The Day They Hanged Big Tom

Imagine it. Early morning, the crowd jostling the soldiers who cross spears to hold them back. The castle gates swing open and out march the men-at-arms, followed by a horse-drawn cart in which stand Big Tom and the Hangman. Behind walks the priest and - stern faced, his icy glare freezing the crowd into silence, rides the great Sir Richard, Lord of the Manor.

Somewhere out there among the trees is a flicker of movement; an arrow is notched, a sword loosened in its sheath. The rescuers await.

Ah yes, 'Cry Havoc' by Standard Games and Publications Ltd. I have rather a soft spot for this game. It and its companion game 'Siege' have been in my collection since the early 1980's. Over the years I've had some fun games with Cry Havoc. One of the things I really like about the game is that every combatant from the lowest peasant to the mightiest knight is a named character with individual stats printed on their counter. This gives the game a strong narrative feel and leads to some great stories unfolding as scenarios play out.

My copy has sat on the gaming shelf for rather a long time now, so when Pete made one of his all too rare visits I decided it was high time to 'Cry Havoc' one more time.

For our game I dug out my copy of Scenario Book 2, which was produced separately to support Cry Havoc, Siege and Outremer (the version of the game set in the Crusades). 

The book contains 29 scenarios of varying size and complexity from solo play to a mini-campaign, but I was looking for something we could play at a leisurely pace within the space of an afternoon. There were several choices, but in the end I picked 'The Day They Hanged Big Tom', a rescue scenario with a few 'twists'.

The introduction at the top of this post sets the scene. To help you follow the action as it unfolds, I have labelled the opposing forces  'Red' and 'Blue'.

On the 'Red' side, we have the forces of the local Lord, Sir Richard:

Sir Richard's Forces

Knights

Sir Richard (Lord of the Manor)

Sergeants

Sergeant Martin (lackey)

Sergeant Arnim (executioner)

Billmen

Rees and Tybalt

Crossbows

Giles and Gaston

Spearmen

Stori, Hayden, Bryn, Crispin, Brendan, Mordred, Gareth, Aki, Hal and Arnold (crowd control)

Priest

Leopold (who appears rather overdressed for a humble friar. Perhaps we can imagine he is more a man of earthly pleasures after the style of Chaucer's Monk)

Draft Horse

Old Ned (past his prime, a plodding old nag)

Sir Richard, Sergeants, Billmen, Crossbows and Leopold

The Spearmen

Poor Old Ned

Opposing Sir Richard, on the 'Blue' side we have the forces of The Outlaws and Peasants:

The Outlaws and Peasants

The Prisoner

Big Tom (halberdier and outlaw, now a captive of Sir Richard with his hands tied and a noose around his neck)

Archers

Bowyer, Chretien, Mathias and Fletcher

Billmen

Robin, Jean and Guy

Halberdier

Frederick

Peasants

Gam, Cedric, Baker, Giles, Wulf, Radult, Roger, Farmer, Carpenter, Gobin, Smith, David, Will'm, Matthew and Salter

The Strumpets

Edith and Audrey

Big Tom, The Outlaws and the Strumpets

The Peasants

The Map

The  scenario uses three A2 size map boards from the Cry Havoc and Siege boxed sets; The Castle, The Forest and The Crossroads.

The Scenario

Sir Richard's forces have to transport Big Tom from the Castle, through The Forest to The Hillock at The Crossroads where his confession will be heard before he is strung up from a tree and hung until dead. The Outlaws have to prevent this by rescuing Big Tom.

However, there are several complications:

Hidden forces
The Outlaws' positions are recorded secretly and are unknown to Sir Richard's forces at the start of the game.

Peasants and Crowd Control
Big Tom was always popular with the lower orders. They are opposed to the hanging, but are neither organised nor bold enough to intervene without encouragement. The Peasants will follow the Execution procession at random speed (1d6) but are kept in check by the Spearmen detailed to control the crowd. The Peasants test on a d10 each turn but may not intervene until they roll higher than the number of Spearmen controlling the crowd, after which they may act aggressively.

Bribery and Corruption
The Outlaws may influence events by bribery and corruption. For example they may induce Leopold to drag out the confession, embolden the Peasants with ale, bribe Sergeant Arnim to loosen Big Tom's bonds, employ the local witch to pronounce a 'curse', or encourage the local strumpets to publicly defame Sir Richard. The Outlaws do not have enough funds to achieve all these events, so must choose carefully how to spend their silver.

The Game

A roll of the dice determined sides, with Pete taking Sir Richard's (Red) forces and myself taking the Outlaws and Peasants (Blue) forces.

I secretly recorded the position of The Outlaws, hiding the Archers in the trees within The Forest and the Halberdier and Billmen behind the slope of The Pool at The Crossroads.

Without further ado, the game began with Execution detail trooping out of The Castle...

…while the Spearmen deployed a cordon to keep the flocking Peasants at bay.

Crowd control in action

The Execution detail proceeded towards The Forest at a suitably funereal pace, though probably not out of any respect for the condemned man. Poor old Ned the Cart Horse was incapable of going any faster (or perhaps he was - but refused to hasten out of sympathy for Big Tom). Either way, progress was slow but uninterrupted. Sir Richard's crowd control was working well and the Peasants remained docile.

As the procession strung out through The Forest, the Peasants remained resolutely passive due to less than favourable odds and some hopeless dice-rolling on my part. Something had to be done to buy more time. It was at this point that one of the Outlaws' bribes came into play.

Sir Richard and his entourage were startled by giggles coming from the undergrowth and the sudden appearance of two women, the local strumpets Edith and Audrey, skipping towards them...

A bustle in the hedgerow

…assailing Sir Richard's dignity with a battery of scurrilous and saucy accusations!

An opposed die roll was required to determine Sir Richard's response. There were a number of possible outcomes, from silencing the women with one of Sir Richard's famously icy stares, to sending the crossbowmen in pursuit (which would have emboldened the Peasants to leap to the rescue). In the event, the opposed roll was a draw, resulting in a stand-off for two turns while Sir Richard parried the women's slurs with sharp words of his own.

While Sir Richard was thus distracted, The Outlaws sprang their trap.

The Outlaw archers Chretien, Mathias and Bowyer appeared from their hiding places in the trees to send a shower of arrows speeding towards Sir Richard's soldiers. Only Mathias found his mark, wounding the billman Tybalt. The Outlaws had given up their advantage of surprise with little to show for it.

It still took a moment for Sir Richard's forces to react, giving The Outlaws just enough time to take out the hapless Billmen Tybalt and Rees, before the tables started to turn.

Down the Forest path, eagle-eyed crossbowman Giles took out Bowyer with a single well-aimed bolt, whilst Matthias suddenly found himself hunted down and trapped at spearpoint in his treetop perch.

Meanwhile, the Peasants surged forward, attracted by the sound of battle drifting across The Forest. The Outlaws had spent coin to tank up The Peasants on cheap ale, but so far they seemed more inclined to be happy drunks rather than aggressive ones.

The Spearmen had yet to suffer physical attack but had to endure a no less unpleasant assault on their senses as they struggled to contain the unwashed masses herded together and pressing against them. They were forced to give ground, but only very slowly.

With the Peasants held in check and Sir Richard no longer distracted by Edith and Audrey, the Outlaws could do little to impede the progress of the Execution detail. Resistance was swept aside as the advanced elements of Sir Richard's forces moved clear of The Forest.

The way through The Crossroads seemed clear, but The Outlaws were not finished yet. With wild yells, Frederick, Robin, Jean and Guy rose from their hiding place by The Pool and charged Sir Richard's men. The Outlaws were outnumbered, but their enemies were still stretched out in a ragged column and unable to bring their full force to bear. Caught off guard, Spearmen started to fall.

Meanwhile Chretien - the only surviving bowman, crept to the edge of The Forest and began to harry the advancing Spearmen with arrows. As ever, it was an embarrassing demonstration of inaccurate archery that failed to achieve a single hit. The Spearmen hurled insults back, not even bothering to halt their advance.

The Outlaws fought hard and opposing Spearmen continued to fall, but their situation was looking increasingly desperate. Frederick and Jean were both felled by crossbow bolts while Robin and Guy battled on.

It was at this moment that The Peasants finally revolted.

Realising that the tide of public opinion had finally turned against him, Sir Richard urged his men on to The Hillock, leaving crossbowmen Giles and Gaston to hold off the pursuing Peasants.

The Peasants surged forward, besieging Sir Richard's men at The Hillock where they had made a stand. Here, a final pitched battle played out. Sir Richard spurred his horse and rode into the Peasants, laying about him furiously and striking down men left and right. The Peasants were many, but they were no match for an armoured knight on horseback. Meanwhile, the Outlaws Robin and Guy fought hard to break through to Big Tom but the odds against them were just too great.

While the battle raged below, up on The Hillock Leopold was taking Big Tom's final confession. On and on the priest droned, but Big Tom remained unrepentant. Defiant to the last, he continued to curse his captors until the noose tightened, choking off his stream of abuse.

The sight of Big Tom's lifeless body suspended from the hanging tree above them was too much for the Outlaws and Peasants. Their resistance broke and in a moment they had dispersed. Sir Richard was triumphant. It was all over.

After the Battle

With hindsight, Pete and I agreed that success for the Outlaws relies heavily on the early intervention of The Peasants, which was something I failed to achieve. I had probably relied too much on Edith and Audrey to incite Peasant protection and support, but they had only achieved a stand-off with Sir Richard and caused a delay that I was unable to exploit. Taking out some of the Spearmen early on would also have improved the odds of a Peasant uprising, but my archery was too poor and I had chosen the wrong targets. Perhaps the hapless Outlaws would have been better spending all their silver on bribing Sergeant Arnim to loosen Big Tom's bonds. He would probably have stood a better chance of escape on his own!

All this aside, Cry Havoc once again delivered an engaging, fun and highly narrative game. Regardless of the outcome, both Pete and I found it highly entertaining.  Scenario writer Jim Webster's advice to players in his Introduction to Scenario Book 2 sums it up perfectly:

"...remember, the winners are the ones who enjoyed playing".

Further resources

If you would like to find out more about Cry Havoc, I recommend you take a look at the Cry Havoc Fan website.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

The Force is weak in this one!

Oh Dear. Another diversion.

I find your lack of willpower - disturbing.

 

It all started with an exchange of emails with my cross-channel gaming buddy Ian that began with an invite to a game of Kings of War over Skype and some how morphed into pictures of 3D printed Comms Links and crashed Snowspeeders and a discussion about the best miniatures rules to play out Star Wars tabletop games.

It turned out Ian had been impressed with the Star Wars: Legion miniatures but was less enamoured with the rules. Too many cards, tokens and boardgamey stuff. After throwing a few suggestions back and forth we never did reach a satisfactory conclusion, but that dangerous seed of curiosity was already taking root in my brain. I needed to find out about Star Wars: Legion for myself. 

A read-through of the Star Wars: Legion Learn to Play rules PDF on Fantasy Flight's website and the discovery of examples of Unit, Upgrade and Command cards on Tabletop Admiral only reinforced my impression that this was a rather unintuitive, fiddly, card and token heavy game. I was relieved! Now I could safely ignore this game and get on with my other projects without danger of distraction.

Except I couldn't.

Well come on, it's Star Wars.

I kept going  back to the rules, wanting to find something to like. In the end it was a series of  Watch It Played videos that clinched it for me. Suddenly the rules made sense. These guys are having fun. I want to play this game! (Though quite how this is going to work over Skype is anyone's guess).

So now my core box set has arrived.

Just don't ask me when I'm going to get this stuff assembled and painted.

Seven Samurai

After a bit of a hiatus, here's something a bit different from the run of WWII coastal warfare posts I've previously been churning out - The Seven Samurai. 

I picked these up goodness-knows how many years ago. I do remember it was at Partizan, back when the show was still held at Kelham Hall. They are produced by 1st Corps and I still recall having a long conversation with the guy on the stand about the Kurosawa movie.

At the time I had quite a collection of Dixon Miniatures samurai and I picked these up as they were a good match size-wise. I fell out of love with Dixon samurai long ago and sold off my collection to raise funds for other projects, but I held on to these miniatures. 

They don't really fit in with my current favourite Samurai miniatures (Kingsford). The sculpting style is quite 'chunky' and a bit cartoonish, but I think they have lots of character and I do like them for that. Plus, they were a joy to paint. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Thanks for looking.

Strike Fast. Strike Hard! - A Review

There's no such thing as the 'perfect' set of rules. Everyone has their own ideas about how a particular period, genre or action should be represented. This can lead to some 'interesting' on-line discussions about the merits or otherwise of particular rules and what needs to be done to 'improve' them. Cruel Seas, the recently released WWII coastal warfare game by Warlord Games is no exception. You only have to check the various wargames fora, blogs, and social media to find an ever-growing list of house rules, suggested improvements and modifications intended to make the game more realistic and playable.

I am not immune to this compulsion to 'tinker' either. I'll admit to having my own list of house rules and modifications for Cruel Seas that better fit my idea of what WWII coastal warfare is all about. (If you want to read more about what I think should be represented, please have a read of my previous posts).

This got me thinking about the original and unadulterated rules for Cruel Seas; barely a couple of months since release and already bristling with an array of unofficial additions and changes. All these pet 'fixes' make perfect sense to experienced naval wargamers with knowledge of the subject, but the uninitiated might be forgiven for thinking that the game is somehow 'broken'. 

Along with this thought comes the realisation that I and wargamers like me were probably never near the top of Warlord's intended target audience for Cruel Seas. Just take a look at the box cover for the starter set, 'Strike Fast! Strike Hard!'  

The tell-tale sign. Not sure about those faux stains though.

See that logo in the bottom right-hand side? Yes, 'Bolt Action'. Could a large slice of Warlord's intended target audience be their legions of loyal Bolt Action fans? Okay - I know that's a huge generalisation, but you get the idea. This is a game that aims to appeal to the mass of wargamers who have not previously tried WWII naval games - and its going to do it with cool looking models, colourful rules and everything you need to get started, wrapped up in a neat starter set.

This rather long-winded intro' brings me to the point of this post.  Is Cruel Seas a good introduction to wargaming WWII coastal actions? To find out, I'm going to review the "All-Action" Starter box set - 'Strike Fast. Strike Hard!' with that question in mind.

The Box
The box art for Strike Fast. Strike Hard! really sets the scene. S-Boats and an MTB roar past each other at close range in a hail of automatic fire and tracer rounds while a merchant vessel explodes in the distance. The guy lobbing a grenade is a bit suspect, but the overall impression is speed, firepower and boat-on-boat combat, up close and personal. The choice of font style for the titles is perfect and the whole thing is very reminiscent of Commando Comics. Excellent! Just looking at the box art makes me want to play this game.

Strike Fast. Strike Hard! - channelling Commando Comics.

The Contents
The whole thing is satisfyingly weighty. Opening up the box confirms that it is packed with lots of goodies:

• A4 softback Rule book
• Six hard plastic sprues with parts to construct 6 x British Vosper MTBs, 4 x Kreigsmarine S-Boats, plus 16 x torpedo markers
• Hard plastic sprue of plume markers
• Three sheets of die cut, full-colour, double-sided punchboard game markers, counters and terrain
• Ship data cards for the Vosper MTBs, S-Boats and a merchant tanker
• Wake markers
• Double-sided A0 size paper sea mat
• Set of dice (d10 and d6)
• Bag of cotton smoke / fire markers
• Quick start painting guide

(Take a look at my previous post for some pictures of the box contents)

There's pretty much everything the first-time player needs to get started and get gaming straight out of the box. The only thing preventing this is the need to put the boat models together first. This should be no great chore as the models have a minimum of separate parts, but the rather basic assembly instructions on the Quick Start Painting Guide offer no favours to  newbies who may not easily identify the various weapons or know their correct placement.

I have seen some comments online about the dice and cotton markers being unnecessary as most wargamers will have these items already, but I think Warlord are to be commended for not skimping on these components and making this a true starter set for anyone getting into the hobby for the first time. Anyway, as every wargamer knows, you can never have too many dice!

Component Quality.

The hard plastic components (boat sprues, torpedo sprues and plume markers) are well moulded with a minor amount of flash that will require careful cleaning up around one or two of the smallest parts such as gun barrels.

Muzzle flash was always a problem for coastal forces gunners :-)

Plume marker - a two-part component with 'plume' and clip-on base

The die-cut counters and terrain markers are good quality components printed on heavy card stock. There is also a set of die-cut cardboard 'rulers' marked in centimetres for measuring movement and turning. The rulers have  'jigsaw' connectors at each end so they can be clipped together to measure longer distances. Whilst this is a good idea in theory, I suspect that the connectors may become a weak spot with constant use. Most players will probably resort to using a standard tape measure for longer distances. A neat touch is the inclusion of the common modifiers for gunnery and torpedoes on the reverse of one ruler. Very handy. Its just a shame that useful game information wasn't included on the reverse of all the rulers.

Rulers - great for measuring, but not much of a jigsaw puzzle

The ship data cards are attractive but would probably have benefitted from being a little larger. The labelling for the weaponry on the deck diagrams is tiny and made harder to read by being white text in a very narrow font on a coloured background. Perhaps my eyesight isn't what it used to be.

The data cards use small 'clips' to track damage. These are functional, but not very robust. Of necessity, the card they are made of is thin so that they can flex to fit over the edges of the ship data cards. This also makes them rather flimsy and after repeated use they will tend to lose grip, or start to tear. Perhaps recognising this, Warlord have included plenty of clips in the starter set, but it would have been nice if they had produced a set of plastic clips. As a starter product they should be good for initial games, but I foresee players replacing the card clips with metal or plastic paperclips in the long term.

Damage tracker clips - flimsy but functional

If you are starting out in naval wargaming you will need something to represent the sea on the table top. Strike Fast. Strike Hard! has this covered with the inclusion of a sea mat, printed on a sheet of A0 size paper (841mm x 1189mm). This is double-sided, (blue or dark blue) so players can choose to represent actions in, say, the Pacific or North Atlantic. The whole sheet folds down to A4 size in order to fit in the starter box but does suffer from very noticeable fold lines as a result. It is just about the minimum playable area for games using only a few vessels, so fine to get you started for your first games. Being made of paper, its useable lifespan is probably limited but it is a perfectly serviceable and useful inclusion for a starter set.

The Rulebook
The softback rulebook is perfect bound, A4 format, 108 pages and full colour throughout. The binding on my copy is sound, with no tell-tale 'cracking' as the book is laid open. Only time and repeated use will reveal any issues  - well outside the scope of this review.

The book is well presented with a decent sized font, laid out in double column with clear headers and the occasional sidebar for additional information. It is also profusely illustrated with diagrams to explain game functions, but mostly with 'dioramas' of model ships and illustrations from various Osprey publications. It all looks very pretty and makes for an attractive publication, though much of it is really no more than 'padding'. Still, having lots of pretty pictures is de rigueur for a commercial ruleset these days. Ours is a very visual hobby and if it helps draw in new players and sells product then Warlord can hardly be blamed for making their rulebook as appealing as possible.

So much for looks. But what of the contents?

The rulebook has clearly been written with starting players in mind. In the Introduction it describes itself as "an entry point into naval gaming" and in addition to the rules there are sections on the history of MTBs, the theatres of war, navies of the major combatants, plus a bibliography of recommended further reading on the subject.

It would have been impossible for Warlord to cover these aspects in anything but the briefest terms, but there are some odd inclusions. For example  the "Channel Dash"  is mentioned twice, though MTB actions against capital ships seems well outside the scope of the rules.

Coverage of each nation's forces is uneven. It seems that the authors found plenty to say about Kriegsmarine and British forces, but struggled to match this for other nations. This has led to some unnecessary and rather prosaic 'padding', which has nothing of relevance to WWII small craft coastal actions. For example, we are treated to a list of the 1941 Soviet Navy battleship, cruiser and submarine strengths and a paragraph on the performance of the Soviet submarine forces. The section on Italy's Regia Marina contains similar information and elsewhere we learn that "The Mediterranean was the grave of many submarines on both sides".

I do think there is a missed opportunity here. New players  need something that will give them a sense of the unique nature of WWII coastal actions. Ideally, this would be a succinct overview of WWII coastal warfare explaining the role that MTBs and similar craft were developed for, the environment they operated in, how they were organised, their targets, their principal weaponry, the tactics employed and how these evolved throughout the war. The rulebook does provide some of this, but it is patchy in places and diluted by the inclusion of irrelevant information.

On a more positive note, players are encouraged to do some further reading on the subject and the rulebook assists this with a bibliography of suggested titles. For an introductory set of rules, it makes good sense to point new players in the direction of further information that will develop their interest and (with luck) their continued investment in the game.

Proofing and editing
Anyone who follows the wargames news will be aware of the backlash that erupted over the release of a 10-page set of Errata, hot on the heels of the game's release. As someone who received the starter set after the Errata were released I fully understand the disappointment and dismay expressed by many in similar circumstances as it really took the shine off the game. I'm not going to belabour the issue here, but as this post is specifically about the merits of Strike Fast. Strike Hard! as an introduction to WWII coastal wargaming I do want to make a few observations about the effect of quality control on this aspect.

Oops!

The first thing to say is that as a starter set, the game should be playable right out of the box. Did the Errata make the game unplayable? Well, no - but it did mean that players either had to print and paste the amendments into their brand new rulebook, or refer to a separate copy of the Errata during play. Not the greatest experience for new players (or old ones for that matter) and a very poor advertisement for the game.

Several mislabelled illustrations are further evidence of sloppy proofing. Those of us who know a Vosper from a Fairmile will spot these kind of mistakes easily. New players will not. Does that matter? It makes no difference to playability, but it does mean that players who are unfamiliar with the setting are likely to accept the incorrect information presented to them as 'fact'.  I think they deserve better.

The Rules
I've tried out a few games to test the rules, all of which have been enjoyable and quick to play. Being time-poor and notoriously slow, I haven't finished building and painting the models from the starter set. To curb my impatience I resorted to a short-cut and printed out some simple card counters, so please excuse the lack of 3D models in the accompanying photos. I'm sure you'll still get the general idea.

Scenario 2 - Torpedo Run. Tricky blighters those eels. Damned if I can spot them.

The basic rules cover just eight pages, including illustrations, diagrams and tables. They are followed by three introductory scenarios designed to get players started quickly. The game mechanics are quite straight forward. Activation of individual vessels is achieved by drawing dice from a bag. Movement rules are simple with just four speed rates (stationary to full) that also govern turning rates.  Gunnery is resolved by rolls to hit on a d10 with a small list of modifiers, then rolls to determine damage with handfuls of d6. Torpedoes are represented visually by counters moved on the tabletop.

This is perfect for new players and those who have not tried naval wargames before. The dice-draw activation introduces a random element and some tactical choices, especially as torpedo movement is tied to the 'owning' vessel's activation. Movement is quick to carry out and use of wake markers make it easy to keep track of each vessel's speed. Players get to roll plenty of dice and the handfuls of damage dice gives a satisfying sense of shredding chunks out of the opposition. Most importantly for an introductory game, it's fun!

In the galley of MTB 29, able seaman Pratt had accidentally started another chip-pan fire.

A further 15 pages of  Advanced rules covers aspects such as crew ratings, collisions, critical damage, equipment and mines. This is followed by a further five scenarios and it is here that the 'play out of the box' concept starts to break down. Most of the scenarios require a playing area larger than the sea mat provided and  specify vessels which are not included in the starter set. Warlord no doubt hope that new players will continue to invest in the game and buy their shiny new toys as they are released.

The Basic and Advanced rules are rounded out by sections on Terrain, More Weapons and some generic Aviation rules. Plenty to keep new players involved.

And then there are the submarines. It really feels like Warlord couldn't make up their mind about submarines. On the one hand, the book is peppered with references to them and they feature in at least four of the model dioramas that illustrate the book, with captions such as "The dreaded U-boat passes next to its latest victim" and "A silent killer inspects its burning prey". On top of all that, what did Warlord choose as the special 'free' miniature with pre-orders of the rules? Ah yes, Das Boot. A U-boat. Hmm.

On the other hand, Warlord tell us "We have deliberately left submarines out of these rules" yet in the same breath adding that they do feature in the game, but only as targets or objectives. What's going on here? It seems to me that Warlord are attempting to appease players hoping to field these 'silent killers', whilst simultaneously relegating submarines to the role of targets. So yes, you can have your u-boats, but it's not quite 'Das Boot'. Wolf-packs in sheep's clothing perhaps? Maybe it would have been a braver decision to have left submarines out of the rules completely and made them the subject of a supplement for those who want them. They don't have much place in a starter set about, as Warlord puts it, "swirling naval dogfights".

Sorry Warlord ;-)

Longevity
If the primary function of a starter rule set is to attract new players to the genre, then a secondary function must surely be to keep them. Judging by the fact that the initial release sold out in short order, Warlord are probably doing well at drawing in new players to naval wargaming. Only time will tell how successful they are at keeping them.

A weak point may be the lack of well known actions for players to recreate; the kind of thing that provides a hook for new players, generates an interest in the historical setting and fuels miniature purchases/collecting forces. Land-based WWII wargames fare much better in this respect.  For example there is no shortage of inspirational material on actions such as Stalingrad, the Battle of the Bulge, D-Day, Arnhem, etc. Just think how many times you've seen Pegasus Bridge cropping up at wargames shows. There's nothing really comparable in WWII coastal wargaming. The closest is probably the St. Nazaire Raid, but that's just one action and not at all representative of WWII coastal warfare in general.

So what's the remedy? Warlord have made a start by providing eight very varied scenarios within the rulebook. Sure, they are generic rather than specific actions, but that does mean they can be adapted to player's chosen theatres and forces without too much difficulty. What is really needed though is some sort of context in which to place individual games, such as series of linked scenarios or a mini-campaign. The rulebook does contain a brief section entitled 'Playing A Campaign' but  disappointingly, this is no more than a few ideas on random sea conditions, hidden deployment and a list of Special Abilities for Veteran crew. It's not really a framework for running a campaign at all.

I think Warlord would have done better to have ditched the 'padding' that I referred to earlier in this review and devoted that space to a proper campaign system, or a series of half-a-dozen linked scenarios that would give new players an idea of how to construct their own series. A positive side-effect of this would be that it encourages more historically realistic behaviour. Here is an incentive to preserve boats and precious crews, disengage before losses become unacceptable and attempt to rescue crew from stricken friendly vessels. Cruel Seas doesn't have any rules for morale (only a brief section on voluntarily surrendering) so this would go some way to introducing behaviours that replicate the reality of WWII coastal actions.

Value for money
At the time of writing, the Strike Fast. Strike Hard! starter set retails for £50.00 on Warlord's website, though there are better deals out there if you look for them. This is probably on a par with the cost of getting started in other new wargames periods or genres. When you consider the amount and quality of material provided in the box set, I do think this is very good value for money. Add to that the fact that everything needed to get playing is included in the box and you have a very attractive entry level game for players wanting to try out naval wargaming for the first time.

Pros & Cons
Pros:
Attractive presentation
Good quality components
Simple rules
Fun to play
Value for money
Has everything needed to get playing

Cons:
Poor proofing and editing
Unnecessary 'padding' with content of little or no relevance to the scale of operations being depicted.
Not all scenarios are playable 'out of the box'
No proper campaign system or examples of linked-scenarios


Conclusions
So, is Strike Fast. Strike Hard! a good introduction to wargaming WWII coastal actions? On balance I think that it is, though it is not without flaws.

We live in an age when many players want and expect to be able to buy into a new game with everything that is required provided in a single, neat 'official' package. Warlord clearly understand this and Strike Fast. Strike Hard! does a good job of delivering on these expectations with a product that has visual appeal, cool models, all the components required to get started and a simple but fun set of rules.

The rules are firmly towards the 'game' as opposed to simulation end of the spectrum, but for an introductory set that's no bad thing. On the downside they do seem to have been rather rushed into publication without sufficient playtesting and consequently have some odd quirks, such as tankers out-turning MTBs and torpedoes that can't sink a destroyer. Old hands at naval wargames will soon devise their own rules to correct these quirks, but for new players I really don't think this is such an issue. Having a game that gets toys on the table with minimum fuss and offers enough challenge and excitement to want more is what it is all about here.

Warlord also deserve some credit for attempting to provide some historical background information for players unfamiliar with the setting. Its a pity this is rather uneven in its coverage and that Warlord appear to be slightly confused at times about the level of game they are representing. It could have been better, but it is still good to see.

And finally...
One last thought. Remember that Bolt Action logo? Bolt Action has been going strong for about 6 years now, with more than 23,000 copies* of the 1st edition sold and is currently in its second edition. It began as a fun, simple game that was ideal for introducing new players to a historical setting, drawing many players from the Warhammer 40K community. Sounds familiar? Its really no accident that the Bolt Action logo appears on the box cover of Strike Fast. Strike Hard! and it is interesting to speculate on where the game may go if Warlord put enough backing and support behind it. Games representing WWII coastal actions have occupied a fairly small niche within the hobby and this is the first time they have really been given the kind of mainstream treatment that WWII land-based wargames enjoy. For this, Warlord Games are to be commended. If this introduces new players and generates an interest in the history of WWII coastal forces then that can only be a good thing for the hobby.



*Source - Osprey Publishing