La Revolution Francaise

TWO REVIEWS:

La Revolution Francaise

AZURE WISH

Alan Moorhouse, London, England

The game is for six players each of which control a political current (tendance) in revolutionary France and begins just after Louis XVI is captured at Varennes.

I will outline the game I was in recently. I played the Montagnards (Robespierre's lot). Their main aim is to defeat the constitutional Monarchy, install the Terror, guillotine as many people as possible including the King and hold onto power at the end of the game. The game is 8 turns long, each turn representing 6 months. The game begins with the Feulliant faction (Constitutional Monarchists) in power. These guys proceeded to restrict emigrants and suppress the aristocrats. I would have applauded this measure except that it quieted the Paris Mob (partially my power base) and drove the inflation rate up. This faction and the Marais (centrists) then outvoted us left wingers on some civil measures to increase their popularity. This caused the Girondins (Republicans, the Montagnards just call them wet) to attempt a coup which failed and 2 of his leaders (Brissot and Petion) ended up in the slammer.

Meanwhile the Royalist Faction was stirring up trouble and along with pleading letters from Louis to the King of Prussia and the bad economic situation, the European Coalition against France was formed and foreign armies attacked France.

Great! Just the chance the revolutionaries were looking for. Up until now my faction had been spending its money trying to control Picardy and foment revolt in the Marais controlled regions (mainly because the Marais player kept trying to persuade my 2 least fierce leaders Danton and Desmoulins to join his faction). Now I had the chance to grab some power.

I teamed up with the Girondins and Sans-Culotte (Communists, he calls me wet) and we contrived to hold another coup sponsored by the Girondins. With an Austrian army at the gates of Paris (the Government could not afford to pay the troops) and the Paris Mob rioting due to sugar shortages, we instigated a popular coup and set up the Convention. This government system ensured that I had some say in Parliament, Louis was imprisoned and the Feulliant were outlawed.

The voting system becomes very erratic under this system (votes are cast as a dice roll with each faction modifying the dice) but I decided to table a motion to execute Louis. A random event that turn had produced evidence of Louis darstardly deeds and gave a favourable modifier to the vote but only the Sans-Culotte supported me (surprise-surprise). In spite of this I only needed a 6 on 2d6 or more.

The roll for a head roll 4! damn! To try it again I'll need to install the Terror. Here goes!!!!!

Unfortunately it was about 2 a.m. (we started at 9 p.m.), turn 6 and we decided to call it a day.

Racking up the VPs we see that the Feuillant and Marais have more VPs than us Reds so its only between them. As the Feulliant had just been kicked out of power the Marais win! Gironde second, me third, Sans Culotte fourth, Feulliant fifth and Royalists last. The foreign armies weren't doing very well.

Karel van Schoor, Temse Belgium

I have been told that the English translation is not so successful. The game is 90% political and treats the period 1791-1795. Players represent political factions (tendencies-- no political parties yet at the time), from left to right: Sans-culottes; Montagne (so called because they had their seats in the assemble on the highest ranks to the left!); Girondin; Marais; Feuillant; Royaliste. Each tendance has regional control markers, meaning clubs, local assemblies & population are most favorable to that tendance [France = 26 regionsÑonly one control marker per regionÑregions can become neutral also.] and several personalities (either steady or controlable by another tendance); Sieys is the champion here: tendance principale: MaraisÑtendences secondaires: Girondin t Feuillant; with the exception of d'Andr and Louis XVI, the Royaliste has steady personalities that cannot be controlled by other tendances ... while, for example, the historically victorious Marais dont have one steady personality: theirs have all one tendance secondaire! Personalities have no numerical ratings but have one or more regions d'influence listed. For the leftist tendances this is mostly Paris. For the Royaliste: France-ouest (Vende). Paris is a special region (badly explained in the rules! I had to think several days about it before I finally understoodÑwell, I think I do) in that it can be controlled in a special way not available for other regions: by controlling the commune (calmer and souleur la commune are but two of several actions possible and you need to have a personality present in the regions where you want to undertake actions). Other actions that are not regionally bound are: arrest other personalities (not a free-for-all here! Depends on the current government [see below)]and a bunch of other political factorsÑvery historical so it seems just one example under Thermidor [see below]: Marat can be arrested as a Òpersonalit non parlementaire but Billaud-Varennes, Callet d'Herbais and Barre can only after the Lais dexception ... has been voted), buy personalities (retainer ˆ sa cause une personnalit) with primary to secondary being more difficult than secondary to primary tendency; buy deputies in the national assembly which is related to the voting of laws (well, laws are actually voted for only under the Legislative and Thermidor (see below) ... under the Convention and Terreur (below) no deputies needed ... Now, all these actions are resolved using one and the same 2d6 table ... which column you use depends on your renomme (can be modified however, e.g.: action complet use renomme +2 if region is neutral). Renomme is an important concept in the game: added to the number of regions you control: 1) it determines the order of play for each turn; 2) it is a big part of the Victory Point total; and, as explained, the better the renomme the better the column for all your rolls! Renomme goes up & down as a result of: a) events! a whole bunch of these. Each government (see below) has its own set, subdivided in Economie/Politique/Contra-Revolution/Commune de Paris ... an example of the last category under the Legislative Emente du sucre ... or (category Politique) Discours de Jacques Roux ... b) laws that have been voted (rolled for) c) whether or not you attain certain objectiuves declared at the beginning of each turn (definition a bit vague here, house rules needed) d) Banquerante. The government itself has its own renomme and its own budget ... and is played by the most representative tendance.

Regimes politiques: very important! Historical version / Open version.

The historical version starts with the Legislative and normally evolves historically: Convention Terreur Thermidor. There are eight game turns, representing 1/2 year each [October 1791 September 1795]. To determine who has won you start counting VPs, but victory depends also and foremost on the regime at the end of the game (8 turns): each regime has its own way of determining the actual victor. Each player (tendance) has its own player aid. These player aids mention how well your tendance will generally fare under each possible regime, as ++, +, =, -, -- and this can go up and down while regimes change (generally down for Royaliste, up for Marais, quite variable for the other tendances). Steering the political regime in the right direction towards the end of the game is probably the single most important strategy of the game [but how! Not straightforward ... many possibilities here. Seasoned politicians, show what you can do!] Thus the game starts with the installation of the Legislative. Now, each regime has its own set of particular rules. The Legislative for example says (among many other things): government is either Feuillant or Girondin (vote of confidence needed here every turn); election every four turns (that is: assembly dissolved new deputies e.g., ˆ droite: 1 deputy per controlled region for Feuillant; au centre: Marais has 1 deputy per controlled or neutral region + one deputy for every 2 Royalist regions, etc.) if regime stays that long! The conditions for transition from Convention to Terror (very important for leftist players): 1) The commune has risen to level I, II or III (thus: any level) by Girondin, Montagnard or Sans-culotte 2) either a royal/catholic or coalition army is present in region Paris or adjacent regionÑor 12+ regions are controlled by Royalist & coalition! These were the conditions for transition to convention; direct transition from Legislative to Terror has similar but stronger conditions.

What important concepts are still unmentioned? There are four tracks on the game map (besides play order & turn track, and renomme track): an economic track a coalition track a track for the commune de Paris and finally a track for the Clerg r fractaire (the priests who refused to swear oath to the constitution) or interior contrarevolution.

¥ economy is treated very abstractly: all actions (even proposing laws) have a cost in assignats and the amount of assignats you receive each turn is more or less related to the regions you control (each region has an income value region Paris scores highest every 1000 assignats expended (by all players) increases the economic track with 1 box; also influencing this track: events and laws. Once level III is reached all costs (but not income) are doubledÑlevel III: tripledÑthis is inflation! The track can go down (for example: if Libert des Prix et des Layers Êis voted: -7! But the renomme of the tendance who proposed this law gets -2 and the commune track [see below] +3 boxes)

¥ both Clerg rfractaire and coalition tracks favor the Royaliste level III for the coaltion track means activation of coalition armies (declaration of war atgainst France). There is a law which, if voted, results in France declaring war and the coalition track immediately goes to 20 (highest box). These armies enter France and follow a pre-programmed path: e.g., larm e Prussienne de Brunswick et des Princes francais: MetzÑParis ... larm e Sarde: enters and stays in Marseille as soon as the Convention/Terreur are installed ... Spanish armies: one enters in Montpellier and another in Toulouse but only if Convention/Terreur are installed, and they stay put ... English fleet under Admiral Hood disembarks and stays in Marseille if controlled by Royaliste and Convention/Terreur are installed ... emigrant army of Quiberon under Comte de la Puisaye once Brest and Nantes are Royaliste and Convention Terreur are installed: they stay in one of the above regions or move to Paris via Nantes-Angers-Tours-Orl ans if other coalition armies control Paris ... lÕarm e Anglo-Hollandaise commanded by Duc d York: once Conv./Ter. installed it enters Lille and stays put. The royal/catholic armies enter the game from inside France (hidden) once the clerg refractaire track reaches level III and the Royaliste wants it; in Cholet/Angers/Nantes. They have no pre-programmed movement path but can be commanded by some of the steady (remember?) Royalist personalities who are also generals: Charette, Chouan, Chathelineau (femme), Cadoual. Movement is 1 uncontrolled region/turn, but unlimited through controlled regions with no revolutionary armies (see below) by the Royalist if he wants movement (and he has to pay 100 assignats/turn/army).

Then, of course, there are the revolutionary armies controlled by the tendance/player representing government: 4 regular armies placed in the beginning of the game (Lille/Metz/Strasbourg/Marseille) and up to 16 Òarmes de voluntaires appels lors des conscriptions et des leves en masse by voting laws; however the coalition/clerg rfractaire tracks go up doing so. The role of armies (an army is just a counter-no numbers!) for the Royaliste is: military controlÑimplies political control. Further, a bonus of +2 for any action undertaken by Royaliste in military controlled regions. If Paris is military-controlled by him, government decides where the new capital will beÑcommune temporarily out-of-game. Royal/catholic armies (there are three of them) have special abilities/restrictions. The role of revolutionary armies in the game is: fight coalition/royal-catholic armies and calm revolts (regions go in revolt by event or actions undertaken by personalities ... some regions are hot ones (as shown on the game map) and have a greater chance to revolt successfully (a +2 for renomme when determining the column you use for the roll) ... revolts can also be calmed down by actions and doing so might result in control by the tendance undertaking the actions with one of his personalities. Combat is extremely simple: use the 13-14 column of that all-purpose table (5/18 chance of success for each side when two armies oppose with a 4/9 chance for status quo ... and modify the roll by +1/-1 for each supplementary army). There is a special rule for the one Commune army (but in combat it is treated like any other army).

I elaborated somewhat on the militry part of the game so that you can see whether it is of any interest for designing The Campaigns of the Revolutionary Wars. Another part of the game worth mentioning is Justice or what happens with arrested personalities? (prison du Temple, beautifully rendered on the game map). The procedure depends on the regime in place. Results are liberty!... prison one more turn... or guillotine. Theoretically it is possible to loose all your personalities and if no other non-steady personalities remain to persuade to join your tendance... not so good! but not out of the game yet. There are also special rules regarding Louis XVI (special powers; his abduction; his process: here his fate is voted: la Mort? pargn? having serious opposing consequences (tracks going up or down).

This was the basic or historical game! There's also the open version, including many other regimes that could have happened, each having their set of special rules! But there are also additional whole new rules to use: Coups dEtat Populaire or Militaire Refrendum Constitutionnel. Haven't yet read any of these rules. Feel rather intimidated by so much political rules! I'd rather call the open version Advanced La Revolution Francaise. First I need a better grasp of the basic game. Even that will take a lot of time! Will report more later ...

Yes, many rules are very confusing and there are not many cross-references ... but it is wrong to suppose a game with so much political detail should be playable right out of the box. This is no Kingmaker with abstract but intuitive rules and event cards. Rather, consider this game as a history book and read it calmly, several times ... everything slowly becomes clear, elegant, and logical. No more cross-referencing necessary to understand the flow and interaction of the game. (Of course, rulebook page-turning remains necessary while playing but do you know a politician who knows the constitution by heart?) Yes, you have to invest a lot of time but in doing so you learn more history than you thought possible from a game also, that's the intent of the game as explained by a Paris University professor (in history I suppose) on the very first page! (but maybe not in the English translation?) ... This is a game like troubled water becoming crystal clear the more you learn of the historical background many other games show the inverse trend: they become muddier the more you know of the historical background. I think your 1807 is also a case of the former. I shall have to decide how to spend my next months: studying advanced French Revolution or delving deeper in your 1807 as a preparation for the Polish Tour. Both are serious undertakings: the only history I ever learned, up to the present day, comes from games! So I always have to start from zero!

Also, I forgot to mention the many quotations buried in the rulebook in the right places (literally hundreds! again, may not be translated in the English rulebook). ... Not only do these quotations tell a story on their own when you read them one after another they reallly help clarify & understand the game and the personalities of the game, already beautifully & faithfully rendered, come to live!!

The rulesbook also contains examples of play. In retrospect it is well-organized. All contradictions and ambiguities I originally thought were in the rules have disappeared like fantoms. In short, this is how an excellent rulesbook should be! Sometimes even all the military color of the Napoleonic era seems to pale against the grandiose and tragic battlefield of the revolution!

By now, Kevin, you will have understood that I'm somehow even more interested in all the human affairs surrounding Napoleon's Polish campaign, than in purely military matters! So I hope we'll also learn about the fate of the lowest ranking soldiers ... the psychology (the minds not only in military matters) of the commanders: what was in their mind except military glory: nothing else? ... about the relation between the armies, the Polish soldiers, and the Polish peasants ... did the army take Polish women for pleasure? ... These Tolstoi counters of 1807: any relation with the Tolstoi of War & Peace? (never read that book, otherwise I'd know?) ... Any relation between the Brunswick of the Prussian army and the sisters that played such a role in the life of Beethoven, born in a very enlightened aristocratic family so it seems and enjoying an education incomparable even today.

In this respect I found your Study Folder in 1807 most interesting. I can even say that, without having read it, I probably would not even have considered joining the tour! It is both a military and a human testament. So I'm confident we'll