So this game, the SPI ‘classic’ I am sure has many adherents.
However a good read of the rules, a perusal of the tables, and a quick turn have convinced me that this game is not for me for a small handful of reasons.
First off scale. Yes I knew it was strategic going in. However the cramped nature of the game and the hacked together supply transit rules really leave me cold.
Secondly the combat system. There is almost no penalty for attacking regardless of odds. Go ahead try and roll a 6 on a 1d6 and get that lucky loss and automatic retreat. Even at +0 or 1:1. This encourages a bloody conflict on a 3-4 hex sized Western Europe. The NATO/US alliance should ALWAYS attack. Especially if you can roll 6’s!
3rd the Air Naval war is troubling. I have not figured out why yet but if I can man up for one more turn I will.
Below you can see the Soviet attack North of Yugoslavia went well! With captures of industrial capacity. As did the Northern plains attack. The ‘Fulda Gap’ is threatened on both sides.
The attack into Greece yielded no result.
Which probably brings me to the bigger issue.
These games in the main were for sure innovative for the time, had cost restrained art that was elegant, and most of the rules sets worked…well sorta. The problem is that we are now well ensconced in the 21st C.
Many of these titles deserve a second chance, with a fresh set of eyes, a new palette and more user friendly interfaces. If you are a designer and want to beg or borrow from these designs please do not just cut and paste your self thru a Kickstarter. Please invest the effort to bring fresh ideas, new thinking, better mechanics, smarter wording on the rules and cleaner, more beautiful counters and maps. We will buy it. I promise!
Which in conclusion leads me to think that overall I’m going to divest all games that are ‘nostalgia’ buys, or sub par players. While I love the box art, I can just d.load a jpeg from BGG and print it and frame it right? That seems better than bloated shelves with 100 magazine games and ‘deluxe editions’ of now in todays market mediocre games.
Too harsh? Maybe. But we can always buy them back.
I’m with you! I’ve done some serious purges of games I have ‘just to have’ or that I don’t ever intend to play again even if I liked them. I’ve only got a few hangers-on that may be on the FB page very soon!
Heretics! It is sacrilege to dispose of any game. Expect an unexpected visit from the Inquisition.
Wait! No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
I had forgotten I actually had a copy of this game. Like many other games from the era of routine Laker appearances in the NBA finals, I had intended to revisit it when I retire. I now need to pull it out of deep storage and reassess.