Mons 1914

The Mad Minute

Mons 1914: The Mad Minute covers the epic Battle of Mons, the first battle between the British and Germans in World War One, fought just a few short days after the Germans invaded Belgium. There are no trenches, very few machine guns – just rifles, bayonets, field artillery, and cavalry. This is the battle that the armies expected to fight. This is a grand tactical game. Tactical, because it uses fire and close assault for combat resolution, and “grand” because it covers the entire battle using the actual terrain and armies – you can fight whole battle, parts of it, or variations.

The game has many scenarios: three training scenarios, a large two-map historical scenario, several smaller one-map historical scenarios, and a set of very interesting hypothetical meeting engagements. Three of the historical scenarios are solitaire scenarios.

This battle looms large in the legends of the British Army. Here the plucky BEF with “rifle fire like machine guns” gave the dastardly Germans a bloody nose, or so the British histories say. The Germans for their part could be well satisfied – they met the “English,” pushed them back, and then chased them all the way to the Marne. Which view is correct?

Mons, 1914: The Mad Minute is the second game in the Rifle and Saber Series, first used in Gallipoli, 1915: Churchill’s Greatest Gamble. The series rules have been completely overhauled to speed play and ease learning. Key charts have been simplified and rules that were rarely used have been dropped, resulting in a faster and smoother game.