"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more..."

Title: A Scourge of Stone and Spirit: The Siege of Harfleur, 1415
Price: $*
Designer: Paul Rohrbaugh
Graphics Designer: Tim Allen
Publisher: High Flying Dice Games
Published Date: 2022

Subject:  The siege of the port of Harfleur France by the English King Henry V, in 1415 during the 100 Years War.   

 A little history:  This battle was part of the 100 Years War (1337 AD to 1453 AD, actually 116 years long). In Mid-August 1415, Henry V invaded Normandy with an army of around 10,000 men to besiege and captured the port of Harfleur after a gruelling five-week siege on Sept 22, 1415.  This is also recorded as  the first time in a siege that gun powder cannons were used.

With winter coming and his force already depleted to aprx 6,000-7,000 men by the fighting and a wave of bloody flux (aka dysentery - still a killer of a million+ a year in this day and age), Henry decided to withdraw to English-held Calais and regroup.  What happen after the siege a month later is the "Battle of Agincourt" occurring on Saint Crispin's day, 25 October 1415AD.  

 

This campaign of Henry the V was also in the Late Middle Ages, forever immortalize in the equivalent of a TV movie,  Shakespeare's play "Henry V", around 1599.  A very good play, click here if you would like a free pdf of it.

Abbreviations Used:  WA=Wall Area, M=French Militia Unit, FMaA=French Men At Arms, EMaA=English Men At Arms, FP=French Player, EP=English Player, ERL=English Resistance Level, FRL=French Resistance Level,  EB=English Breach marker (the back side of the EMaA), EAL=English Artillery Level, EML=English Mining Level, CF=Combat Factor, CD=Card Draw, LDR=Leader, ACT=Activation, TM=Turn Marker, TRT=Turn Record Track. PBG=Pocket Battle Game, 1D6= one die-6 sided, RE=Random Event. I am going to do my best to use these in the review and I am NOT going to use the obvious abbreviation for Breach Marker.

Hey, I've seen this before:   Why yes, yes you have. 😲 The gaming system has been used in few other games that Paul has designed.  I recognized one, but he put me straight onto the others.  The first is the pbg "Nothing So Well Lost: The Siege of Rhodes", "Guarding the Land: The Siege of Fort Griswold" (the last review I did and the one I recognized), "Not Men But Devils", and "Surrender Unto Caesar". 👍 

Note: Being part of a small group of games that are not the same, but very close is a good idea. I know when I like something, I wouldn't mind playing a few other games like it.

Player Supplied Components: The player will need to supply 1D6 and a deck of cards or purchase the card set from HFDG. (1.0) 

Components and Physical Quality:  The graphics designer or "artist" is Tim Allen.  With (at the time of this review) 109 games in print, Tim looks to be on every game publishers list of artists.  Also, the principle artist used by Victory Point Games (I wish they were still active in the publishing world), and used by others such as High Flying Dice Games, his work is legendary. 

Game Map: The game map is of the surrounding area around Harfleur France and is presented to us as area movement.  This is IMHO about the only correct way to show the siege of an entire town.  At 8.5" x 11" in size it is larger than a PBG, but small enough to take on trips.  How small? Heck, I bought the game within a few days of it coming out, but lost it until a few days ago.  I had used it as a book marker in a large book.  Thank goodness I needed to look at that map of Gettysburg last week!  😁

Counters: The counters are double sided and small in number, only 21 total.  Also, the counters are 18mm (bigger than usual, very NICE for these old fingers). 

The English have 9 Men At Arms on one side and a wall breach on the other, 1 ERL marker, 1 EAL marker, and 1 EML marker.  While the French have 2 men at arms and 4 Militia. These are on both sides with one side being a reduction, 1 LDR, and 1 FRL.  There is also a turn marker. (1.0)

One will need to mount the counters.  If you never mounted counters before, you can click here to see how to do.  

Of course one can purchase mounted counters from HFDG, but one will need to cut them apart using a #11 knife or a utility knife.  Price is $* for this service.  Why do this? Well, lining up a front and back is a little bit hectic to get it "just right" and if you like thick counters....  

Note: $* means I have no idea of the cost these days.  Things change too much these days and I don't want to go back and have to change the blog again.

Complexity: The game is considered introductory, though  there are 3 variant rules to increase the complexity, such as taking into account an Impatient King, Boggy Ground, and Critical Walls.  I would recommend that all 3 variant rules be used. (12.0, 12.1, 12.2) 

Is There a Card Set: You bet! Here is what the HFDG card deck looks like.  Pretty snazzy, these are. Why get 'em?  Well, you won't have to do all sorts of removing cards to get the cards ready for play. And these are designed for the game. Order from HFDG by clicking here. Enter which card set you want on the last page in the box at the bottom.

Setup Time: About 5 minutes, if that long.  Actually longer to get the card deck ready than game setup.

Playing Time: Anywhere from 30 mins to maybe an hour.  Me, I am use to the gaming system and play (the card draw is actually a favorite of mine), 20 min to 45min easy.

Solitaire Playability:  Very rare do I have the time to play a live opponent.  I gamed this one solo and found it to be fun and exciting.

Addenda: Yes and it is below-

Page 1, 2.0 Play of Game (correction): The player that draws the first Joker card performs a Random Event DR check.

On Page 3, 11.0 Random Events, DR = 6. (count sentences)
Sentence 3 - clarification - If a French unit is returned to play, it enters reduce.
Sentence 4 - If the DR result is <  there are no reinforcements.  Put an underline under the < sign as it should be "less than or equal to".
Sentence 5 - remove the words "or less" after "DR result was 1 or less".

Note: as of Oct 27 2023, the above addenda has been fixed in the game rules. 

Card Deck Setup: Using a regular deck of cards, remove all the face cards, separate the cards into two decks by color, a red deck for the British Player (BP) and a black deck for the French Player (FP).  Each player gets a "Joker", too. Shuffle the deck.  Remember, Aces are not consider face cards and are "odd" or "1".  (1.0)

Rule Differences: The rules are very polished and straight to the point.  If you have played PBGs and most of HFDG games, then you will know of the card draw system.  I am going to only touch on the little differences this game has.  

Note - Numbers such as (2.0 or 6.0) after the sentence refers to the rules section where you can read the rules.

The game has 7 turns consisting of many rounds.  Players turn their top card over and highest card wins the round - 

1) If the winning card is odd, the winner can do 1 ACT then the loser of the round can do 1 ACT. (2.0)

2) If the winning card is even, then the winner can do 2 ACTs and the loser of the round gets 1 ACT.  (2.0)

3) If the CD is tied, then no one gets an ACT and play proceeds to the next CD. (see 2.0)

4) If a joker is drawn, then the person who drew it rolls on the Random Event table. (2.0 and 11.0)

5) When a joker is drawn a second time, play stops. The turn marker is moved to the next turn, decks are reshuffled, and play begins again until the FRL is reduced to 0 at the end of any turn, or no later than turn 7.  Any other result, the FP wins. (9.0 and 10.0)

6) No EMaA starts the game on the map. The EP brings them into play by first creating Breach Markers. Up to 3 breach markers can accumulate in any one WA.  And on the back of the EMaM are the "Breach Markers"(2.0).

The Game has a few differences when it comes to the Activations (ACTs). Each ACT allows a side to do one of the following (3.0):

1) Bombardment (see 4.0) (both) or
2) Mining (see 5.0) (EP only) or
3) Assault (see 6.0) (EP only) or
4) Counter-mining (see 7.0) (FP only) or
5) Sally (see 8.0) (FP Only)

Other things that can be done in an ACT-
1) The EP can recycle "Breach Markers" by voluntary removing them from the WAs (no ACT required) during that player's portion of a Round. (3.0)

2) Also the FP (only) may move 1 (odd CD) or 2 (even CD) unit(s) (this is a free move) to and from any WAs before performing an ACT, but ONLY if the FP wins the round. (3.0)

Play-Balance:  The primary focus is on the English as they need to be attacking to win the game.  I have played 20 or so games and out of them, the English have won 15 or 16, I lost count.  I believe it is probably 60% to 40% in favor of the English.

Summary: Why a card draw system? Simple. Battles are chaotic affairs. Nothing goes right 100% of the time and those things that do, one chalks it up to the war gods picking a side.  Using the cards for movement and attack shows how command and control basically goes right out the window. People hide, run away, with too much smoke, battle noise, and confusion reigning supreme.  Nothing is perfect.  Outside of using an umpire to manage a game, using a card draw simulates these problems well.   

Using area movement, the breaching of the town's walls, mining, counter-mining, the French sally forth using a card draw system and area movement shows a lot of thought and play-testing to make this game work and feel like a siege. 

Though the game's footprint is small, the rules are finely written and mesh well together.  I believe this is the first, if not the only game to show the siege of Harfleur and though this is a small game, the design of it is truly huge.

This siege of Harfleur and battle for the town is the start of Henry V's reign as king, leading up to one of the most important English battles in history a month later, Agincourt.

I do believe you will like this game. Not many counters, but a lot of good play.
-ab

The game’s afoot.
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry “God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”

William Shakespeare's Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1

 

This blog is considered to be a living blog. Changes will be made to it as needed to clarify, correct errors or update with new information. Also, this is my opinion, right or wrong.