Vae Victis Magazine #172

Vae Victis is a French language game magazine published bimonthly. Vae Victis offers articles on military history (analysis of strategy and tactics throughout the ages, presentation of the units used in military campaigns) and all about what is going on in the war-games world together with critical analysis and new release box opening. The Special Game Issue includes wargame comes with a map, die cut counters and rules booklet (English translation of the rules available on the Vae Victis site).

This Special Game Issue including the game: The Ogaden War 1977.

The Ogaden War pitted Ethiopia and Somalia against each other for control of a desert plateau, populated by nomadic shepherds, on the border between the two states. Taking advantage of the revolution which has just ousted Haïlié Selassie from power in Ethiopia, Somalia launched two liberation movements supported by it to conquer this territory. Faced with their failure, the government then committed its conventional forces from July 1977 to recover this province. This conflict took place in three phases: an insurrectional phase between May and July 1977, a conventional phase from July 1977 to January 1978, then from this date, an Ethiopian counter-offensive which will recover the ground lost until March 1978. This conflict doubles as a ballet opposing the Soviet bloc to the Western powers. But it also pits two Soviet allied countries against each other. The USSR will choose Ethiopia against Somalia, which will allow the reversal of the military situation on the ground.