A Hell So Terrible: Capturing the Flavor of Verdun Through Cards and Mechanics

The Battle of Verdun has fascinated me since I was a teenager, especially after reading the book “The Price of Glory” by Alistair Horne. Such an iconic battle with so much strategic significance for the future conduct of the First World War, littered with heroic moments, disastrous decisions, and commanders who rose to the occasion – and some who didn’t. I’ve always thought this would make a fascinating wargame and with A Hell So Terrible, I’m taking my stab at doing justice to the drama and emotion of this epic struggle.

I felt that this battle’s story could not really be told well enough in a traditional wargame format and it needed to be more dynamic and narrative-driven to highlight the key events and decisions. I also wanted there to be a dramatic need for you to push as quickly as possible – an urge to accomplish your mission before the opportunity for a significant and possibly war-changing victory was lost. As such, I decided that you should play the game solitaire as the commander of the German 5^th Army and that a variation of the “angst” experienced by players while playing some of my other push-your-luck games would work really well in this circumstance. But I also wanted this to be a deeper simulation of the nuts-and-bolts of World War I combat and tactical decision making, so I decided essentially to grab bits and pieces of some of my other designs and meld them with an exciting new dice-assignment mechanic.  Hopefully, these will all work together to create a wargame that can be easily played, will follow the ebb-and-flow of the actual battle while being unpredictable and exciting to play.

One of my main tools to do this is one that I’ve used in the Blind Swords series (which includes GMT’s At Any Cost: Metz 1870) and the Black Swan series (A Most Fearful Sacrifice and The Rock of Chickamauga), along with many other of my game designs. It’s an approach I call “historically-weighted chaos” and I think this principle works well for A Hell So Terrible. Rather than script the game mechanics and events for what actually happened at Verdun and then make them unfold in chronological order, the concept of historically-weighted chaos is that you won’t know exactly what will happen next, but the things that do happen in the game did occur at Verdun or at least could have reasonably happened during the battle. Combining this philosophy with a “design-for-effect” approach, I think it is possible to produce a modern-style boardgame that is both accessible and a decent simulator of history. Thus, this campaign that is so rich with critical and memorable events on the battlefield can be played both as a challenging solitaire “game” and a reasonable simulation of the famous – and infamous – events that occurred over those hallowed fields and hills around Verdun. And hopefully you experience this design goal firsthand as you play A Hell So Terrible.

So, what am I talking about specifically and how is the history of Verdun handled in the game design? Let’s find out!

Voie Sacrée

The “Sacred Way” refers to the roadway that was Verdun’s sole lifeline. It provided a steady, but vulnerable flow of French reinforcements, replacements, and supplies into Verdun. It was this one avenue that kept the French defenses viable and its ability to do so was a near miraculous feat as men drove their trucks back and forth non-stop for months (it is said that one truck passed every 14 seconds!). The road was under constant bombardment from German heavy artillery and aircraft. This important strategic feature is represented by a special zone at the top of the map, highlighting the most critical portion of the roadway. Each turn, a die will be rolled to determine if the Voie Sacrée is interdicted or not. You can influence that roll by placing one or more “Big Bertha” markers into the area, signifying its bombardment by heavy artillery. In addition, if you manage to achieve “German Air Superiority” (which represents the ability of German bombers to hit that area thanks to dogfighters clearing the way), you will benefit from another positive DRM.

The interdiction status of the Voie Sacrée has multiple effects when applying certain Event Cards – mostly the ones that grant the French bombardment, reinforcements, and counterattacks. These cards will have varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the status of the Voie Sacrée. If successfully interdicted, these Event Cards will be weaker and thus not as potentially damaging to you. Therefore, with this simple interdiction mechanic and the layering of Event Card effects, the game can very nicely portray the vital role played by the Voie Sacrée.

Fort Douaumont

This iconic fort emplacement was Verdun’s largest and highest-elevated of the entire defensive complex. Fort Douaumont was the crown jewel of Verdun and carried with it intense national pride – a true hot spot for the French psyche. What is so bizarrely interesting is that it was almost totally stripped of its large guns at the start of the war and its garrison was tiny when it was assaulted during the early stages of the Verdun offensive. In fact, a small German party secretly entered the fort and captured it without a shot being fired! So how does a game manage to account for this kind of odd event without making it mandatory, but still allowing it to happen through the normal course of play? Fort Douaumont is a normal Fortress area in game terms, but it has to have some kind of special place in the heart of the French “bot”, as it was viciously fought over and eventually recaptured.

My solution to these two issues was to create the idea of a “Skeleton Garrison” marker. This marker is placed in the Fort Douaumont area on top of two randomly drawn, face-down French 2^nd Line units. The French 1^st Line units (Strength ranging from 6-10) represent better trained and veteran units. The French 2^nd Line units are generally weaker (Strength ranging from 2-6) and represent reservists. Usually, when you first attack or perform Reconnaissance in an area, you flip the unit’s token and deal with whatever Strength it has. But when there’s a Skeleton Garrison marker in the area, you actually flip both units and keep only the weakest of the two (for example, if you flip a 6 unit and a 3 unit, you would only keep the 3 unit on the map). That pretty much ensures that Fort Douaumont will be lightly defended when first entered.

And to simulate the desire for the French Army to recapture the fort, many of the French “bot” Event Cards will direct a strong counterattack against a German-controlled Fort Douaumont area. So, the French will tend to direct reinforcements and attacks against the fort once you have taken it… you must account for that extra pressure!

Key Historical Clashes That Will Not Go Unremembered

The Battle of Verdun has a number of famous and dramatic fights that give the battle such an emotional and memorable place in the annals of military history. Stories of true bravery, fortitude, and desperation. To represent them, I used the opposite of the “Skeleton Garrison” concept explained earlier: an “Elite Garrison” marker. This is handled in the same way as the “Skeleton Garrison”, but this time you pick the strongest unit out of the two you reveal! This should ensure that the famous hard-fought battles will never be a walk in the park! Here are the three areas where the “Elite Garrison” marker is used:

• The Caures Woods area, the amazing stand of the French Chasseurs under the command of the legendary Colonel Driant. These light infantry soldiers and Driant were initially pulverized by German artillery, but they fought to the last man from their demolished trenches and delayed the German advance.

• The heroic French stand on Le Mort Homme (Dead Man’s Hill), a key position on the left bank of the Meuse. Relentlessly assaulted by the Bavarian VI Reserve Corps, this position held out for months until finally succumbing to the attacks. The position was retaken by the French a couple of months later.

• The left flank of the Le Mort Homme defensive line, as secured by the Cote 304 heights area. The Bavarians vigorously attacked this hill to help outflank the impenetrable Le Mort Homme defenses and after bitter fighting, the German forces were able to overwhelm the garrison.

Left Bank French Heavy Artillery Positions

The sprawling French heavy artillery positions located on the left (west) bank of the Meuse River are represented in two specific areas, each of which has a special icon in it. These guns rained down flanking fire on the German units immediately to the east of the Meuse and were a thorn in the side of the Germans for the entire campaign. This nuisance effect on you is represented by the presence of a couple of Event Cards that can cause casualties on German units that are on tracks that would be within range of these guns (i.e., the ones close to the Meuse River). How do you deal with these? Well, you’ll need to drive your units up the two tracks that contain these two areas and occupy them. If both designated areas are captured by your German units, then these Event Cards become ineffective.

French II Corps Withdrawal

During the early part of the campaign, the French II Corps – spread widely and thinly across the entire right flank of the French defensive lines – was withdrawn to a more consolidated defensive zone just to the east of the city. Again, rather than script this event and hardwire it into the game so that you know when to expect it, this tactic is represented in an Event Card that forces French units on those two tracks to withdraw toward the historic fallback spots. And the card has multiple options on it, depending on circumstances. If the French have already been withdrawn or pushed back to or beyond the fallback areas, then the card will instead bolster the French defensive line here with an extra unit. Again, you will not know what to expect exactly, but the French “bot” will act and react based on the current circumstances on that front.

Conclusion

In summary, I hope that you enjoyed this explanation of my process for presenting historical wargames in a playable, entertaining format. My philosophy is that these types of serious military history games do not need to have 80 pages of rules, 2000 tiny counters, and three maps. Sure, many enjoy that style and more power to them! But I’m getting old and cranky and can’t deal with the complexities anymore. 😊 So, yes, I am now trying to design in a certain way to make wargames more accessible and fun, while maintaining their simulation value. Utilizing design-for-effect and historically-weighted chaos principles, I think military simulation games can be designed in such a way that more and more gamers, of all stripes, can enjoy them. I hope A Hell So Terrible is a step in that direction.

Join me next time when I cover specific game mechanics that capture the actual strategic options and tactical fighting of World War I combat as it raged across the fields and hills of the Verdun countryside.

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