Magazine Vae Victis 188 : Operation Licorne

Issue 188 of Vae Victis (September–October 2026) offers a comprehensive overview of historical boardgaming and wargaming, featuring reviews of new releases, historical miniatures, gaming scenarios and military history articles.

This special game edition includes a complete wargame, Operation Licorne 2002-2011, covering the French military intervention in Ivory Coast.

In November 2002, an armed rebellion broke out in Ivory Coast, with rebel forces taking control of the northern part of the country. France reinforced its military presence to protect foreign nationals, secure communication routes and prevent the conflict from spreading southwards.

The game allows players to recreate several stages of this intervention, from the initial security operations to the decisive fighting in Abidjan in 2011.

Included game: Operation Licorne 2002-2011

A modern tactical wargame based on the En Pointe Toujours! system.

The game features five scenarios covering the main stages of the French intervention:

1. Crépuscule ivoirien (Ivorian Twilight): securing roads and evacuating Western civilians.
2. Sagaie and VBL in Action: French forces conducting security operations.
3. You Don't Force Calvi!: establishing defensive positions to prevent rebel forces from advancing south.
4. Armoured Medical Evacuation: fighting during a renewed outbreak of violence.
5. The End of Gbagbo: the final fighting in Abidjan in 2011 and the arrest of the Ivorian president.

Players command French troops and Ivorian rebel forces. The game features armoured vehicles, light military vehicles, armed pick-up trucks, rocket launchers and anti-tank weapons.

The En Pointe Toujours! rules system is presented in an updated version adapted to modern warfare.

Game specifications

Magazine contents

New releases – Hex-and-counter games

• The Far Seas
• Cuius Regio
• Thunderbolt
• Army of the Potomac
• The Weimar Republic
• 3 Days of Gettysburg
• Great War at Sea: Far Side of the World
• For the Motherland

Boardgame reviews

• War & Peace
• Révolutions
• Donning the Sacred Heart
• Seljuk
• World Order
• Iron, Blood, Snow and Mud
• Baltic Empires

Hobby and miniatures

• The Hexasim Adventure
• Entrammes 1793 (Tigres et Lions)
• Cynocephali, 197 BC
• Dennewitz 1813
• Ia Drang 1965 (Au Contact)
• Beau Geste (The Men Who Would Be Kings)
• Warriors of Athena
• Trenches and Barricades
• Daimyo
• Grenades and Sharpened Spades
• Tanks and Troops

Scenarios

• ASL
• Memoir '44

Art of War

Operation Licorne: Ivory Coast 2002-2011.