war to the death
Is a boardgame designed by D.W. Alexander and edited by Omega Games in 1986 (1st ed.) and 1994 (2nd ed.).
It depicts the problems suffered by the
French armies in Spain during the Peninsular War from 1810 onwards. The
French player must confront the British (the Portuguese army is abstracted, the Spanish regular forces and
the Spanish Guerrillas and. The boardgame emphatises the logistics aspects and requeriments that are different for French, British
or Spanish.
More information about this game in:
http://www.isimulacrum.com/GamesDB.html
http://grognard.com/reviews/wardeath.txt
http://grognard.com/reviews/wardeat1.txt
As in the real world, the game is heavily biased against the French following the historical guidelines (for example
the French units transferred from Spain to the Grande Armee for the Russian invasion). The game mechanisms
are very different for French, British and Spanish sides and their complexity
is moderate. Ultimately, this plays in favour of the solo player: it
becomes very easy to concentrate in a given side fully forgeting the
others!
After buying the boardgame and having discovered Cyberboard, I
developped a first game-box for War
to the Death, including the initial situation given by the designer, march of 1810,
before the creation of the Massena's Army of Portugal.
In general, the original map included in 'War to the death' reflects well the limitations imposed by
the Peninsular geography, but adoleces of some inconsistences. With the
help of Pablo Martin, a Spanish wargamer whom I found at
the Consimworld Forum,
the original game map has been modified to make it more similar to
the true state of the Spanish road communications network at the beginning
of the XIX century.
| Old map | New map |
 |
 |
A new gamebox
has been developed including both maps so the players
could choose the more adequate to their whishes.