by Robert Ellis, 21 March 2024 ~ #UnboxingDay
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Thanks to the generosity of a good friend, I very recently acquired a copy of volume one of this series of WW2 tactical games, designed by Mike Denson and published by GMT.
click images to enlarge
I had looked at the game a few times over the years, and even downloaded the rules to get some insight as to how the game works in comparison with other similar games, such as Band of Brothers, Old School Tactical, and Assault ‘41, amongst others.
It’s very different, but, since this is an ‘unboxing’ I’ll leave further thoughts for a later article once I have had a better chance to assimilate the rules!
So, what do we get? Well, its a pretty well filled box (could do with a deeper one, please GMT) and contains a copy of the series v2.1 rule book and a play book. Both are well produced and the playbook gives us a lot of examples of play plus some very interesting notes from the designer.
I did find that navigating the rule book was maybe not as easy as it could be, and in some cases, seemed a bit dis-jointed, although there is a pretty good index which helps a lot. No doubt this will become easier with use and as I get more familiar with it.
In addition, we get a record track and two double-size player aid cards (PAC’s) and four sheets of counters which I found to be very well die-cut indeed with most of them just falling out of the sprues and really required no cleaning up or clipping.
The counter artwork is nice – nothing outstanding, but pleasing and functional, and the info is easy to read in most cases.
The game also comes with four D10 dice, but you will need to also provide a D6.
We also get six double-sided, quite heavy card-stock, geomorphic maps and again the artwork is very good. My only somewhat minor criticism is that the black contour lines can be a bit difficult to see against a dark forest background, as are the hex outlines on this type of terrain.
A generally very pleasing package which I hope to see put to good use as there is a lot of re-playability contained therein. I now look forwards to getting Volume 2 – Airborne over Europe and, eventually, Volume 5 – For King and Country, an addition I am very much looking forwards to.
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