Yeah ok now that I read the freaking rules.

Now that I have had a relaxed perusal of the counters.

Now that I have fondled the board

Now that I have re read the rules

Now that I have said…”the Hell with it lets punch this bad boy and just get it on”, here is what I think.

The counters are still stunning. I dig the art, I like the photos on certain counters. I’ll post some from in game.

Now here is  a tip girls. Just cut the counters out in the long strips. They are WELL attached at the spine corners. Then a deft little flick of the knife on each counter and you are clipping free with perfect clean counters…..Dunno how they did that but so far I have had to only clip 10 counters.  The paper layer on the counters is good. In some LnL Publishing games there were issues with random counters peeling. Not here friends. Dead Sexy. I imagine the map in full game is going to be a riot of color and action. Can’t wait.

 

The units them selves – check it out.

But what is assault movement? I know we have Melee, do you use AM to do Melee (move into the hex?).

The Choppers are soooooooooooooooooooo bad ass.

Ok. So lets talk a little about the rule book.

HEY, Pay attention and stop drooling at the counters. Eyes on me please.

I have a few minor quibbles. I found the conversational rule book style to be less succinct…. I think. I’ll know more once I play.  But I enjoyed the reading, I just had to read it all twice.  It helps me to learn if there are God Forbid – sub points.

If any one has done a 3.1 rules summary please tell me where it is.  Much of it feels similar in style to WaW ( I KNOW….I KNOW its not the same.  I got it.)  But I can almost finish the sentences for some rules.  I like that.

When a designer like Dean Essig uses OCS/SCS or TCS as a series set of rules it opens up avenues and games at much lower pain of knowledge acquisition than starting from scratch.  The LnL Publishing games feel like that in some ways.  Though not directly related the structure and the mechanics behind many of the systems from Squad thru company and I hope/bet/assume Division are similar enough to aid the learning cycle versus starting from scratch.

Now, the some would say folksy style really is very heart warming, but I want to rush thru this and GET IT ON.  So screw Batman lets get to the point (Read the rules – insider joke).

There are 4-5 typos. No biggie but one or 2 left me doing a double take.

Now that I have read the rules the map and the dots on the map make more sense. Red Dots are what I would call hardened structures, concrete, stone buildings etc.  No! Not bunkers, but just not wooden.  They also are taller I believe.

In my video I said that LnL HotG was the first modern era module.  Thats wrong. They did a ‘Nam module.  Hence the lack of chopper rules in the module specific rules, they are part of the core 3.1 rules.

I desperately want this to be a cool series. Then I can transition my collection of Combat Commander games out of the house. I was keeping them as a introductory level game for my kids, but I dont think its a fit, and I ‘m a bit frustrated playing it solo.

If this plays well it could be my new, and final squad scale wargame of choice.