| Raid on St. Nazaire is an Avalon Hill solitaire wargame based on the British raid of the heavily defended French harbour of St. Nazaire on March 28th, 1942. Codenamed "Operation Chariot", this raid intended to destroy the only naval repair site on the Atlantic coast big enough to accomodate the battleship Tirpitz.
The game consists of a map drawn from an aerial photo of St. Nazaire from just before the historical raid, dice (regular D6s) and cardboard counters to represent ships, UK marines, Germans, etc. The rules are not very complicated, but maybe a bit confusing on the first read through.
During a game, the player's task is to survive the harbour defences for long enough to land the marines (not an easy task), perform sabotage missions while under fire (even more difficult), and then retreat to safety (almost impossible). The player scores victory points for demolishing the various objective buildings, and a victory can be claimed if he or she performs better than the British troops did historically.
The game is totally discouraging the first time one plays it. The heavy harbour defences will easily sink half your ships, thus leaving you with only half the troops you thought you needed. It is not easy to reach the sabotage targets before the Germans are on the alert either. My advice is to try the game a few times before judging it, for you will perform much better with some experience. Once you learn the trick, winning the game is actually not that difficult.
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