by Robert Ellis, 20 May 2021 ~ #UnboxingDay
Having spent a fair amount of time playing Crossing the Line from Vuca, I was delighted to be given the chance to take a look at the latest offering from them, Across the Bug River, which uses the same core system as Crossing the Line.
Like Crossing the Line the artwork and component quality is first class and amongst the best I have ever seen. Its obvious that a lot of thought has gone into the design and presentation of the game, the mounted map in particular being a thing of beauty.
In the sturdy box comes a very well laid out rulebook with lots of colour illustratons and examples of play, plus some interesting additional background material and a very useful index.
click images to enlarge
There are two colourful scenario and reinforcement cards, printed both sides, and two player aid cards, again printed on both side. Also included is a very handy card with all the game tracks printed on it to faciltate solo play, which I think is a great idea.
I should add that all the cards are printed on very thick, durable card and feel very robust.
Turning to the counters, we have four sheets of 5/8” counters giving 396 in total. Like those for Crossing the Line, the counters are of a very high standard and are extrememly well designed and clear to read.
The single mounted map is again of very high quality and the artwork is superb. Unfortunatey, my skills as a photographer prevent me from doing the map justice.
Oh, and the game includes two ten sided dice!
I really can’t find anything negative to say about this game based on what I’ve seen so far and I’m really looking forwards to getting on the table. If it plays like Crossing the Line then it will be a gaming treat.
Once I have chance, I’ll do a more in-depth review of the game itself.
Definitely scores a 9.5/10 on the Bobscale.
Thanks for joining this month’s #UnboxingDay with the Armchair Dragoons and we hope you enjoyed our recon of our recent acquisitions.
You can always leave us your feedback in our #UnboxingDay thread, or in the comment area on this article, below.
The regiment also occasionally musters on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and occasionally at a convention near you, once we’re allowed to hold them again.
I am playing Crossing the Line: Aachen 1944 over Vassal with a British friend and we’re loving it. The combat mechanics took a few iterations to internalize but now we have it down. The combat is very attritional for both attackers and defenders (units loses individual strength points) and this adds realism for us as holes in the lines are made gradually, not through the result of a single dice roll.
Highly recommended.
I will buy all future games in this series!