Only for the Malaya '42 Campaign.
The couple of times we played it was great. From memory, it depended a bit on chit-pulls; if Yugoslavia chooses not to fight and Rumania stays reliable then it probably narrows down into a slugfest around Istambul. Otherwise, you have weak, poor-quality ground forces, limited air assets, lots of space and divergent objectives. My memory was of some very dynamic games with plenty of room for NATO counter-attacks (and for those counter-attacks to run headlong into the Soviet second echelon coming the other way).
The only game in the series I thought didn’t make sense standalone was the Northern Front. It would probably get interesting if the Soviets provoked Sweden, but why would that happen? Otherwise, all you’re doing is fighting along one long series of chokepoints.
Yeah there’s nothing really on Matrix I want at the moment other than AB. First reply to this post who has been on the forum more than 1 year and can answer what the 627th destroyer in the US navy was better known as gets it.
The USS Thompson, which famously became the Caine in The Caine Mutiny
Yeah, Northern Front isn’t interesting on its own, but when combined with Battle for Germany it gives the Soviet airmobile all kinds of options.
Man, what a great series. I finally clipped and sorted all my counters last year after decades of having them sit in old plastic hardware trays.
He moved from MMP to Compass I think, I really like his Japanese wargame imports so I was happy to see him continue to produce them. I will try his new modern game for sure but its is Japanese collaborations that are really good I think.
The rules are a work of art in my opinion. The airwar rules alone are brilliant, but across the board Chadwick out did himself in this game. Genuinely a playable monster. Enjoy that one.
The way I have heard it described is that there may have been a lot of help and backstopping at MMP and that he was more doing the development end of things rather than the R & D. Japanese collaborations as you say. Angola (a redux of an earlier design) is another example.
Now there is no net with Compass, like there was at MMP. They still don’t have finalized working rules that they care to release and say “these are them” for Fire & Ice.
Hmm I made the right choice not buying Korea then I guess. Yeah come to think of it I dont think I own any of his actual design work. Just his collabs.
I wish I hadn’t bought it. And I am definitely not buying his “end it in 1972 and try to make it the Fulda Gap” Operational-echelon (but Regiments and Divisions? Whatevs…) Game on the Vietnam War that is theoretically teed up. Forget the F & I experience, I think that title would enrage me akin to the way Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor enraged me on Film.
Well justified imho. I get very annoyed by premature or hard endings in large scale games.
That is annoying to me, but trying to shoehorn Vietnam into the Plains of Europe is positively Westmoreland-esque in it’s ignorant hubris. And induces anger in my Historian’s soul, rather than annoyance.
Oh and incidentally the Stalingrad expansion map is reprinted for Old School tactical. I recommend the system although you should all be aware the map is NOT modular so it requires decent sized table space.
Since Compass is big into redoing classics, they should do the Victory Games Vietnam instead.
I agree. I think the rights to all the VG titles are in Avalon Hill-land however. That means Hasbro. Unless the designer has acquired them. No one talks about it, but that basically seems to be the “rub” on a straight up reprint. The Korean War: June 1950 - May 1951, Designer Signature Edition likely had Mr. Balkowski going under the hood, and completely new art would have to be made. And even that is just for Pre-Order. It hasn’t actually been published yet.
I should have bought that mega millions ticket. I would buy out the AH bits from Hasbro and have at it.
If I won the lottery, Mega Million style, I’d buy all the rights from Hasbro and Doc Cummi-Crazy California to all the classics and sell them back to the designers for 1 dollar a pop. The original Art still has copyright issues however.
If anyone ever does want to try this I know some of the folks at Hasbro, had dinner with the CEO a couple of times. Happy to try for intro’s. I recall mentioning it at a trip when I was with EA and their attitude was generally “these rights came with D&D, we think they have some value, so we want to hang on to them, but happy to license them out to serious partners as we have no plans for them.” I imagine its the same these days.
Yeah, unfortunately that (which is probably a peanuts amount in a boilerplate to them) kills the paper-thin profit margin in a near-cottage industry.
Probably yeah :(