Week #1 with West Front! Now that TalonSofts WEST FRONT has mastered and is on the store shelves what are you going to do with it first? Where are you going to start? There is so much to chose from, with 56 Scenarios, 5 Linked Campaigns (that add another 116 Scenarios) and 7 Dynamic Campaigns that take you from "The Fall of France" to "The Road to Germany". The play value and possible combinations of approach to this game are endless. At first I was going to write and tell about my personal favorite scenarios. But no single person has played them all, so such a list would be unfair to the many great battles in West Front. Instead I have elected to recommend to you one approach. A way of playing fun scenarios, that are not too large, and cover a wide variety of tactics and timeframes covered in West Front. I will also attempt to explain why you may wish to follow this path in your first week with the game and take care to not spoil any secrets. I won't tell you how to play or win any of them. That is the fun part for you to figure out. I can't say that these are the best scenarios in the game, rather they are just a few of the great ones. So without further adieu... If you are not familiar with the EAST FRONT(tm) / WEST FRONT system, there is a "Beginners Start Here" item in the Program Group. To access it, go Start Program Group TalonSoft TalonSoft's West Front Beginners Start Here. This will open a document called Bootcamp.doc that is the companion to three small scenarios by Jim Rose. This will help you get the basics of the game using smaller scenarios with few units to control. You may wish to print this document for easy reference as you play these three introductory battles. If you have played East Front before, you are certainly welcome to skip Bootcamp and move on. When you load each scenario, be sure you select the side recommended by the designer. And no peeking now at the enemy setup before you begin. Make sure you select the Computer with Fog-of-War (FOW) for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) controlled units. This will hide the unseen enemy units from view.

FIRST TO PLAY: "WF Tutorial - No Time for Training" by Doug Bevard This is a hypothetical battle, but not on the simplistic level like the Bootcamp scenarios. It is a challenging fight with a write-up in the player guide beginning on page 98. This tutorial has several goals:

a : In one scenario it will introduce you to several neat additions to the game system in West Front, namely Gliders, Parachuting Infantry, US Rangers in Landing craft (LCT) and Allied Tanks such as Stuarts and Sherman Fireflies.
b : It will cover all the basic rules and discuss practical aspects of the game. If the Rules were your RESUME, the tutorial write up that accompanies this battle and would be your COVER LETTER. The two are intended to complement each other and do so very nicely.
c : In the last year on the TalonSoft Discussion Page we have learned a lot about issues that have caused players to ask questions. The write-up is an attempt to incorporate the most frequently asked questions from the East Front discussion page into game play examples. d) If you are not a grognard and need help getting "up-to-speed" on all the equipment (let's face it - not everyone knows the best use for a US T19 HMC). The tutorial will explain how to find the best role for any particular unit using the tools the game has provided.
All West Front players would be wise to invest the time it takes to play at least the first few turns of this scenario, while referring to the Players Guide. I'm sure most will find this an enjoyable scenario. In fact I'll bet most folks will have so much fun with it that they will finish it before moving on. We have put as much as possible into this one without making it unmanageable.

SECOND TO PLAY: BENOUVILLE - "Hold Until Relieved" by Craig H. Foster Here the story first:
6 June, 1944
Orne River Bridges, Benouville France, 8km NE of Caen: [Best Played as Allied]
In order to secure the exposed flank of the British beaches, General Montgomery ordered the British Sixth Airborne Division to land northeast of Caen to defend the territory between the Dives and Orne Rivers. But in order to do this, the division would land with the Orne River at its back. A reinforced company of the 2nd "Ox and Bucks" Light Infantry under Major John Howard was tasked with executing a coup de main assault on the only bridges across the Orne River. They would be the first Allied troops to land in France and the only lifeline for the troops north of the river. They were to be supported by the 7th Para Battalion, 5th Para Brigade due to drop soon afterwards. Their orders were deceptively simple: capture both bridges intact, keep them intact and then hold until relieved. Defending the bridges were the poor quality troops of the German 719th Infantry Division. Once the bridges were captured and any reaction force was defeated, Howard's troops could expect some quiet moments to regroup. However stationed just a few kilometers away were elements of Hans von Luck's crack 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, 21st Panzer Division. In just an hour or two they could be ready to respond, but they were under orders to take no action until authorized. If Hitler released the panzers, the quiet would be shattered and dawn would surely be a long time coming for the lightly armed Britishers! I believe that this scenario has great play value and yet is maybe the most overlooked scenario in the game. While it is small, with a complexity of 4 *1, I am afraid many people may feel that any scenario lasting 40 turns will be too long. Nothing could be further from the truth. This scenario can easily be played in a single evening, and one fun evening it will be.
*1 - TalonSoft's West Front and East Front rate the complexity using values from 1 to 10 where 1 is the smallest possible battle with few units and a 10 is a large scenario with many units. Craig Foster has done a magnificent job of capturing the uncertainty of that night holding the bridges. The battle will be punctuated by periods when nothing happens, but as you can only see one hex, you just don't know what will hit or when. Or where the Germans are staging their next attack. During one such lull in the action I was shifting a platoon from one side of my lines to another, 2 hexes away. The platoon mistakenly passed next to a hex which unknown to me contained a couple of German Platoons. They immediately opened fire and startled me so much that I went backward over my chair. Any scenario that can do that surely has to be rated highly. You are likely to win this battle, but it certainly will be interesting. After that - lets jump back to a scenario early in the war.

THIRD TO PLAY: FLAVION - "Gunfight at Flavion" by Doug BevardOnce again, here's the story first:
15 May, 1940
Flavion, 25km SW of Namur Belgium: [Best played as Axis]
Once across the Meuse River at Dinant, General Rommel was typically impatient to be on the move again. By May 14th there was considerable evidence that the French 9th Army was withdrawing from its defensive line along the Meuse. However, with most of the infantry and support troops of the 7th Panzer Division still waiting to cross the river, only the tanks of Colonel Rothenburg's 25th Panzer Regiment were available to pursue. For Rommel this was enough. Early on the 15th he instructed Rothenburg to strike west through Philippeville to the Cerfontain area and prevent the French from establishing another defensive line. As the leading panzers moved past Flavion they stumbled into elements of the French 1st Armored Division, refueling after a night march to cover 9th Army's withdrawal. The following close range action resembled a gunfight more than a tank battle, as the lighter armed and faster panzers maneuvered to engage the monster B1 tanks.

I've selected Flavion next because at a complexity of 3, it is a small scenario but shows some interesting French units. More importantly, it will illustrate another important lesson. In this battle you must determine how to combat superior tanks, in this case the "Char B1 bis" tank, using outgunned lighter panzers. How are you going to defeat tanks that are better than your? What advantage can you find? Where are they, how many of them are there and what can you do to defeat them in 13 short turns?
Lessons learned at Flavion will be very valuable down the road in other scenarios or in any Campaign Play. And you'll likely get to hear the screech of a diving Stuka too. Make sure you put the game in 3D mode for the AI turn so you don't miss the animation effect of the new 3D-rendered aircraft. This new feature has been a long time coming and adds an excellent piece of chrome to have to a game with such stunning 3D graphics.

FOURTH TO PLAY:AGRAM - "Deadly Lesson" by Doug Bevard As before, here's the story:
1 September, 1942
S of Alam Halfa Ridge, 30km SE of El Alamein Egypt: [Best played as Allied]
Once General Montgomery assumed command of the British 8th Army in Egypt, he immediately set about preparing to meet the expected German attack on the Alamein Line. It was the beginning of the final struggle for North Africa. On 30 August, Rommel attacked in the south, preferring a mobile battle to that of a frontal assault along the coast. This was exactly the kind of move Montgomery had prepared for and two armoured brigades were in position to bushwhack Rommel's mobile formations. By September 1st the 15th Panzer Division was feeling its way north toward Alam Halfa Ridge when the tanks of the newly arrived 8th Armoured Brigade were sighted approaching from the east through the El Agram Depression, without infantry or artillery support. Kampfgruppe Wossner, guarding the division's right flank, threw out the usual anti-tank screen and prepared to teach yet one more British brigade a deadly lesson in desert warfare!
When I started this one, I found the enemy, or more correctly the enemy found me. Then I wrote the designer a message claiming he was a sick man for sending me into such a situation with infantry support. Of course, all the scenarios are researched and set to match the historical situation as closely as possible. The British really did send tanks with no infantry support into battle like this.

This scenario is another puzzle. A bit later in the war, this battle involves lighter armored British "Crusader" tanks as well as introduces the heavier "M3 Grants". On the other side of the equation, as you may well expect to face the most deadly anti-tank gun in the entire war, the German 88's. This is a very different scenario from previous battles. The visibility combined with the open nature of the terrain makes it quite a bit different from battles in the East Front or North Western Europe.

This scenario introduces the Desert Terrain type, with Wadis, Hammada, Scrub and Cactus Patches. All the terrain types (Desert, Mediterranean and NW Europe) are described in the manual as well as illustrated with a photograph so that you get the best visual image possible of the terrain being depicted by the game. This scenario is a bit more difficult than the last battle. I know of one tester who won this battle decidedly in his first try. I made a few mistakes, one very late in the game, and it caused me to accept a Minor Victory.

And now for something VERY different...

FIFTH TO PLAY: GEHAUAT - "Fox Chasing the Hounds" by Doug Bevard Here is what happened historically:
24 January, 1942
NW of Saunnu, 120km SE of Benghazi Libya: [Best played as Axis]
After the retreat of the Axis desert army following Operation Crusader, Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff were trying, as usual, to do too much with too little. Due to the growing crisis with the Japanese in the Far East, more and more Commonwealth units were pulled out of the desert. Meanwhile, Rommel's forces were being resupplied and refitted near El Agheila and the Desert Fox was soon ready for another "raid" into Cyrenaica. On January 21st, the Afrika Korps struck at the English hounds, which had pursued it across the African desert, and soon the Fox was driving the hounds before him. Hoping to recover and reorganize the 1st Armoured at Msus, the battered British 2nd Armoured Brigade was left to buy time in the desert north of Saunnu. They did not have long to wait. Late on the 24th, Kampfgruppe Kramer slammed into the rear guard of the 22nd, commencing a running battle with the exposed supply columns and vulnerable aircraft at Msus as the prize!

What is so different about another desert scenario in the same year as the last one? Well let me tell you this is the most exciting scenario I've ever played against the Artificial Intelligence (AI) - EVER!

Doug Bevard has taken a page from the old board games here and devised a battle that has exit objectives. "Sure you may say - exit objectives were in East Front too!" But in this battle, you must exit units off the map or you don't win. Simple as that! You can't be content with just defeating the enemy by killing more units than you lose.

This is a complexity 5 scenario, 15 turns long and with the visibility of only 4 hexes. It is played on a tall map, and Doug has done a remarkable job of getting the AI to perform a tremendous rear guard action. Yes, I won this game, but not until the very last turn. It was exciting to the bitter end.

Having played these five scenarios, you have seen the most that West Front has to offer in as short a time as possible. Lesson learned will put you in great shape to embark upon larger scenarios or campaigns.

Keep in mind that there are many great scenarios in West Front. Nobody can say which ones are really the best. At the risk of making a shameless plug for the one scenario I created, try LANGANNERIE - "Worthingtons Tragedy". This battle depicts the destruction of a Canadian Armoured Regiment in August 1944. In a playtest report, one of my tester colleagues wrote:

"This is a very entertaining scenario and refreshingly different from the usual 'well organized' battle. Things go wrong so often and so badly it takes on a very definite "OH, MY GOD!" tone. Which is exactly what it should do."

That pretty much says it all I think!

Right now when I'm finished writing this, I'm going back to Doug Bevards LaVilla to find a way for the GI's to "Escape form Anzio". I still haven't figured out what to do with that one. But John Schettlers Emieville June 44 scenario called "KG von Luck" looks very interesting too. But so does Tom Herrschafts Ste. Mere-Eglise. Tough choice!

The point is that there is a tremendous amount of play value in WEST FRONT, whatever way you approach it. Having played these five scenarios you should be well versed in the game mechanic, and confident enough to begin one of the Linked or Dynamic Campaign Games if that is your wish. Or, you could continue to play the scenarios. Either way, I feel you will be a very long while exhausting the play value that come with this game.

I certainly hope everyone who plays TalonSofts WEST FRONT gets as much enjoyment from it as we the testers did in being part of its creation!

Glenn Saunders