Skirmish Campaigns: Rommel's Route to Verdun

The first Skirmish Campaigns booklet I would like to cover is World War I: Rommel's Route to Verdun.  This is a 60 page staple bound, black and white book covering Erwin Rommel's exploits in France in 1914.

The meat of the book is a set of 12 scenarios which can be played individually or grouped into 4 short campaigns.  The scenarios themselves are all based around encounters and engagements that Rommel himself describes in his book Infantry Attacks (originally published as Infanterie Greift An in 1937).  Rommel commanded a platoon in the 7th Company, 2nd Battalion of the 124th Infantry Regiment and the scenarios revolve around a set of small engagements that he was personally involved in.

The book starts with a single page introduction, a two page explanation of the Skirmish Campaigns format, a table detailing how to translate the scenarios to various sets of rules, a strategic map, a description of Rommel the Warrior and an annotated bibliography before moving into the actual scenarios.

The scenarios are all platoon size or less and, as you might expect in 1914, none require any vehicles.  The terrain is all relatively straightforward as it's mostly woods, fields and roads; however, a couple of scenarios require buildings and one, which is set in part of the town of Bleid, requires eight plus a church.

I have slowly been playing through these scenarios as you can see in the following posts:

• Recon at Cosnes (it's the fourth game in the post - the photos are here)
• Contact at Hill 325
• The Mussy-la-Ville Road

They have all been interesting and challenging scenarios. all the more so having read Rommel's book.  Obviously no everyone has the appropriate figures (although I've always thought the early WW1 uniforms are some of the most interesting) but the scenarios could easily be modified if at the expense of the historical flavour.

If you're interested in early WW1 skirmish or Rommel himself then this booklet is certainly worth a look.