Tactics in 'They Shall Not Pass'
By Doug McNair
March 2007

They Shall Not Pass is unique among the Avalanche Press pantheon of games, and not just because it’s our first game of World War I ground combat. It’s a game about a battle which nobody was ever supposed to win.

As designer William Sariego says in his introduction: “The German plan . . . was one of the most cold-hearted in military history. The German commander in chief, Erich von Falkenhayn, conceived a plan to bleed France white by a simple battle of attrition, without regard to the suffering of his own soldiers.”

The battle did have the desired effect of drawing France into a year-long, bloody battle over one piece of ground. In game terms that equals a draw, so it’s the job of the players to defy the dead hand of history and either pull off a victory for France against overwhelming German numbers, or win a quick victory for Germany despite their own commander’s best efforts.

Game Situation and Setup

They Shall Not Pass covers the first nine days of the battle, when each side had a chance to achieve some level of victory before the action settled into a long and bloody stalemate. The game map depicts the town of Verdun and the three trench lines to the north of it. The infantry units of French XXX Corps set up in the northernmost trench line. French divisional level artillery set up just south of that trench, corps-level infantry can set up in any trench hexes desired, and the corps HQ and corps-level artillery set up in the central village of Louvemont.

The Germans start with four different corps, setting them up on the north board edge. It’s their job to overwhelm the French, do maximum damage to them and take control of as many towns on the board as possible before French reinforcements (which begin arriving on the third turn) stop the German advance.

German Tactics

The Germans need to be very aggressive to pull off a victory against the well-fortified French. They start the game with overwhelming troop numbers, but this changes as French reinforcements arrive. They’ve got to do a lot of damage and grab lots of territory early. The factors that do remain in their favor for most of the game are their advantages in artillery and their pioneer units.

There are three different calibers of artillery: army-level, corps-level and divisional-level. The larger calibers can barrage enemy units directly or use interdiction fire to slow enemy troop movements and interfere with their supply lines. The smaller calibers can fire offensive or defensive support to increase the strength of their troops in assaults. The Germans begin the game with a huge artillery advantage, but they need to use it carefully due to the advantages the French get from their trenches and forts. How the Germans use their artillery can also change during the game. Early on, they want to barrage enemy units to break their morale. But as French reinforcements start arriving, they’ll want to use interdiction fire to slow the progress of those reinforcements to the front and to cut the supply lines of reinforcements that make contact with German units.

The German pioneer units are also crucial to German victory, because they add to the odds of any attack they’re involved in, and can advance farther after eliminating French units or causing them to retreat. They (and any units stacked with them) are also the only units that can move during the German Breakthrough Movement phase. How the German player manages his pioneer units is a vital issue. He can throw them into lots of assaults to increase his odds, and thus risk losing them before French reinforcements arrive). Or he can hold them back and use them to exploit any breaches his other units make. Finding a way to balance the two tactics is vital for the Germans to reach their territorial objectives while still remaining strong enough to deal with the French in the midgame and endgame.

French Tactics

The job of the French is much simpler: Hold back the Germans and do maximum damage to them until reinforcements arrive, and then use those reinforcements to stop the Germans, turn their flank and take back as many towns as possible.

They’ll have to sacrifice a lot of front-line infantry units to the cause of damaging the Germans, but they’ve got to preserve their artillery units at all costs so they can get the defensive support they need to stand up to the German human waves. Barraging German corps HQs in the hope of disrupting them is also an effective tactic, since units belonging to a disrupted HQ can only trace offroad supply lines through five movement points’ worth of hexes. Out-of-Supply units are vastly reduced in strength, so this is an excellent way to defang advancing German units.

Rules Update

Before I start the game summary, I need to address one rules issue. After we first published They Shall Not Pass, we received positive feeback from players who said the game offers lots of excitement, since the French must retreat early but receive reinforcements “in the nick of time” to block German advances. But then we received feedback about rule 8.44:

8.44 ZOC Negation.

The presence of one or more friendly units in a hex negates both Strong and Weak enemy ZOC in the hex for all purposes (8.42, 8.43). Thus, all unit types may always enter, move, advance and retreat, and trace supply through all hexes containing one or more friendly units, with no extra MPs spent and no morale checks required. In addition, units may “leapfrog” through a series of such hexes if one unit enters the first hex and stops moving for the phase, a second unit enters the hex with the first unit and then moves to another hex with an enemy ZOC and stops, and so on.

Some people said the last sentence — the “Leapfrog Rule” (and NO, that was not meant as an anti-French slur . . . sheesh . . . ) — is too generous to the Germans, in that it allows them to infiltrate the trenches more easily than was historically the case. A very aggressive German player who pays no mind to the danger of having his supply lines cut can take an inordinate amount of territory very quickly if French units do not roll well against the German rearguard units.

After studying both points of view, I’ve decided they’re both right. I have a personal bias toward a more mobile game, but designer William Sariego says that the game should realistically be more static, with the Germans straining for a while to bust through a trench and then make a mad dash to the next one.

So, to avoid spoiling the game for anybody, I think the best solution is to rename it the INFILTRATION RULE (with apologies to amphibians everywhere), and make it an optional rule. Players who prefer a more mobile game can use the rule, and those who want to see the Germans work harder to bust through each trench can decline to use it. To compensate for the more rapid advance of German units, change victory conditions to say the Germans get one victory point for every three towns they take control of when using the Infiltration Rule.

That done, on with the game. For purposes of this replay, I won’t be using the Infiltration Rule.

Game Summary: Turn 1 — February 21, 1916

a) Weather Phase

The weather is always good on Turn 1 (the Germans timed their attack so they could get planes up in the air to spot for their artillery).

b) German Organization Phase

All German units are in supply at game start.

c) German Bombardment Phase

Due to pre-positioning and sighting, German artillery gets a +1 column shift bonus on barrages and interdiction on Turn 1. The Germans have set up their units across from the French units near road junctions, and they start by barraging those units. At the west end of the battlefield, German 7th Reserve Corps’ artillery combines with German offboard artillery to barrage a French infantry regiment in the trench north of the town of Brabant. The barrage gets the +1 bonus mentioned above and another +1 bonus for it being a good weather turn, but a –2 penalty due to hitting a target in a trench. The German player rolls a 4 and scores an M result, meaning the target unit must make a two-die morale check. The unit’s morale of 6 gets a +1 bonus because it is in a trench. It rolls a 7, which exactly equals it modified morale, so it isn’t demoralized.

The next barrages hit the French infantry in the trenches toward the center of the map, across from German 18th Corps. The 18th Corps has twice the amount of corps artillery as 7th Reserve Corps, so they decide to barrage two different hexes, with each barrage receiving support from offboard artillery. The first barrage rolls a 5 and scores an M1 result, meaning the French unit gets a –1 penalty to its morale when making its morale check, but that’s negated by the +1 trench bonus. It rolls a 6 and is not demoralized. The Germans then barrage the infantry regiment just to the west of the previous one, but they roll a 1 and don’t harm it.

Farther east, the tactical situation is a bit trickier. The plateau east of Beaumont has no roads or towns and is thick with woods and hills, so attacking there makes for fewer short-term gains. But the French infantry is also spread thin in the trenches there, so breaking through at that point would offer pioneer units a chance to advance east or west during the Breakthrough Movement Phase to cut off French frontline units.

Third Corps therefore barrages the French infantry unit in the hex midway between Beaumont and the eastern edge of the plateau. All that’s left for offboard artillery is the German naval battery, and the German player saves that for the bombardment of the French unit near the eastern road junction town of Ornes. But even without offboard support, both the 3rd’s corps-level artillery units bombarding together roll a 6 on the 7-10 column, scoring an M1 result on the infantry unit. It rolls an 11 and is demoralized.

Finally, German 5th Corps’ one corps-level artillery unit barrages a French unit north of Ornes, with support from the French naval battery. The barrage scores an M result, but the unit rolls a 4 and is not demoralized.

So, the French line holds resolutely, except for the isolated unit near the woods east of Beaumont.

d) German Movement Phase

All German infantry and divisional-level artillery can move (corps-level artillery that fire in the barrage segment can’t move). They advance to attack positions on the hexes they bombarded, except for some units that take up flank security positions, and others that attack additional hexes to try and overwhelm the French player’s ability to provide defensive artillery support. In addition, 5th Corps (on the east end of the battlefield) sends some units forward to pin down French units in the trenches near Ornes, but they send most of their infantry west to exploit any breach made by 3rd Corps. The most concentrated attack falls on the demoralized French unit, the one just to the west of it and the one west of that near Beaumont.

First off, German 7th Reserve Corps attacks a French infantry unit in the trenches north of Brabant, and another four hexes east of it. The French player commits his 72nd Reserve Divisional artillery to fire defensive support for the French unit north of Brabant, and that drops the odds of the German attack from 7-1 to 3-1. The Germans roll a 6, taking one hit (which the pioneer unit in the assault must take) but inflicting three. The French infantry unit must take half the hits against it as step losses, rounded down because it’s on defense, so it takes one step loss and retreats two hexes to satisfy the other two (otherwise it would be eliminated). The stack of German units that contains the pioneer unit advances into the trench hex, putting its ZOC behind the French unit on the road northwest of Brabant, meaning it will be out of supply later this turn.

The attack east of Brabant is tougher due to the target hex having woods and a trench, and even after the divisional artillery fires offensive support the attack odds is 4-1. The only French artillery that could fire support is the corps-level artillery with the French HQ, but the French player wants to save that for the stronger attacks in the middle of the board. So he lets the Germans attack without firing support, and they roll a 3, inflicting three hits to two. The French player takes a step loss and retreats two hexes, and the German player takes two step losses (one from a pioneer unit) and advances into the trench.

Next comes 18th Corps’ attack north of Beaumont. The Germans commit their divisional-level artillery units to offensive support and bring the attack up to a base of 10-1 odds, but the French 51st Division commits its artillery to defensive support, and after the trench bonus the attack drops to 4-1 odds. Unfortunately for the Germans, they roll a 1 and each side takes two hits. But that’s enough to force the French to retreat out of the trench to avoid being annihilated, and the Germans take two hits and advance to the trench.

The next attack to the east is against an infantry unit in a trench in the woods, and both sides have their divisional artillery hold their fire, so with the –3 defensive column modifier for terrain the attack goes in at 3-1 odds. The Germans roll a 3 and each side scores two hits, so the French take a step loss and retreat while the Germans take two step losses and advance into the trench.

Last comes the attack on the demoralized French unit two hexes to the east, and both sides pour in all their available artillery, so the attack is at 4-1 odds. The Germans roll a 4 and score three hits to one, forcing a two-hex French retreat and advancing into the trench.

e) German Breakthrough Movement Phase

Two German pioneer units of 7th Reserve Corps lead the units with them southward into the breach between Brabant and Haumont, cutting off a second French unit near Brabant. Then a 3rd Corps pioneer unit at the breach east of Beaumont leaves a unit in the trench behind it (to protect its supply line) and then moves southwest with another unit, putting it next to the fleeing demoralized French unit in hopes of making it surrender. It’s also now to the rear of another reduced French unit that fled from a trench to the northwest, and if that unit doesn’t get some support or pull out fast, it will be cut off next turn.

f) French Organization Phase

The two French infantry units in the trenches near Brabant (on the west board edge) have been cut off by advancing German ZOC and are out of supply. They also won’t be able to move this turn because you can’t move directly from one enemy strong ZOC to another, so the French need to get units next to them to re-establish their supply line. All other French units are in supply.

Next, the demoralized half-strength French unit that fled from the trench east of Beaumont tries to rally, and just barely fails to do so (rolling a 5 against its modified morale of 4; it gets a –2 morale penalty for being reduced-strength and demoralized). Since it failed to rally and is alone in a hex adjacent to a German unit, it surrenders and is removed from the game permanently. That opens a breach straight to 51st Reserve Division’s artillery and the Corps HQ in Louvemont!

The French player gets no reinforcements yet, but he gets one replacement, which he uses to bring a reduced unit near the western breach at Brabant up to full strength (he has fewer units there to respond).

g) French Bombardment Phase

The French player has two unfired artillery units — the heavy Left Bank artillery in Forges, and his railroad gun. The Left Bank artillery barrages the German units that took the trench near Brabant, but rolls a 2 and does no damage. The rail gun barrages the German units in the breach east of Beaumont (the ones that caused the fleeing units to surrender), but it also rolls a 2 and does no damage.

h) French Movement Phase

The French rush units westward and adjacent to their cut-off units, so that if they are still alive by next French Organization Phase they’ll be in supply. Others reconstitute the western line as best they can, and units near the central breakthrough pull back to the second trench line.

i) French Assault Phase

Nobody attacks, since French units are spread out holding a line and therefore can’t concentrate to get good odds on any German units. They’ll have to wait for reinforcements to arrive before they can do anything but defend.

j) French Breakthrough Movement Phase

French hunter units move up to reinforce weak positions in the line.

k) Mutual Recovery Phase

Everybody flips their artillery units back to their unfired sides, and the turn ends.

So, after the first day at Verdun, even though the initial German artillery barrage only demoralized one French unit, the German infantry managed to breach the northernmost trench line in five places. They took damage doing it, but they receive three replacements per turn (courtesy of Falkenhayn), so they’ll be able to go at the French units that fled from the trenches with gusto.

As for the French, one of their units surrendered, two are out of supply and three are at reduced strength. They’ve still got a decent defensive line, but part of it on the west flank is out of the trenches, and their center has retreated to the second trenchline. If German artillery does better next turn, the French right flank may need to pull in fast to stop a major breakthrough.

Will the French hold the line until reinforcements arrive? Tune in next time for Day 2 and find out!

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