[Consim-l] Craonne Replay & Review

[Markus Stumptner]

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007, Dave Kohr wrote:
> On Nov 21, 2007 7:38 AM, Markus Stumptner <mst at cs.unisa.edu.au> wrote:
>> I just finished a solo game of the Sandhurst Book of Wargames "Craonne"
>
> Way back when, I owned this set. I think this is the only game from
> the set that I actually played.

Same here, at least so far.  It is by far the most graphically enticing of 
the four, with its rather atmospheric map.

>> victory conditions.  The French player, who receives massive
>> reinforcements over the day and becomes the more active party as the
>> battle goes on, doesn't know what the outcome is until after the game
>> and must guess.  Very amusing (and also quite historical).
>
> After we'd been playing for awhile, I recall looking at the map and
> thinking that there was no way the Russians could win if a particular
> one of the victory conditions were imposed on them. I think this was
> the "all-out attack" condition. Basically it required sweeping all the
> French units off the map (albeit possibly using more Russian forces).
> Am I remembering this condition correctly?

The condition is slightly different, it specifically requires the Russians 
to occupy the three French map entry hexes (or "gates").  The only way in 
which this might make a difference would be if the Russians manage to 
temporarily stymie one of the French wings and use the opportunity to 
sweep through with the Cossacs to grab the gates right before the end 
(since the Cossacks aren't really strong, they also not going to last 
long if they can't retreat).  This would be marginally easier than killing 
all the French on the map but I think it would still be a very tall order. 
The main thing that might give it a chance is that the French, who don't 
initially know what the Russian order is, do have an incentive to have all 
troops up front near the end to counterattack and so an opportunity might 
present itself.  But all three gates seems a mighty tall order, as you 
say.

Markus

Last 3 games played: The Legend Begins, Magenta, Ogre
--------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ ---------------
"Bakayaro! Bakayaro!"  ("Stupid Bastards!  Stupid Bastards!") -- Admiral 
Aritomo Goto's last words to his staff, October 11, 1942