I recently began a solo campaign game of the MMP title It Never Snows, a SCS title covering Operation Market Garden. This game seems to have generated very little buzz since it’s release. Reading CSW and BGG there appears to be quite a bit of disgruntlement about some of the rules and the lack of chrome or detail. I must admit my first impressions were along those same lines. Highway to the Reich being my favorite MG game, I found the lack of detail concerning.
What I find very interesting is that HttR and INS are the same map scale, 600M to the hex and company level units. That, however, is where the similarities end. The maps, though identical in length, are quite different. I find the HttR map much more hindering to the armor of both sides than the INS map.
The INS combat results table is also much bloodier than HttR. Despite it’s potential issues, I am finding the game play fun and tense. Because of the lack of detail the game plays fast and more time is spent moving units and resolving combat than is spent calculating combat modifiers and digging in the rulebook.
The game amazingly has followed historical path pretty well. I did do the historical drop zones. I have played through the first 6 turns of the 17 turn campaign game. 1st Abn is out of supply and fighting for it’s life. 82nd Abn is not faring much better. XXX Corps has linked with 101st and is across the Willems Canal.
Here is a link to the pictorial. I will keep adding to the pictorial. I will come back here and repost every few turns with an update.
[Editor Note] I could not help popping a few of my favorite shots from Tom’s album on here:
I have played the same scenario up to GT11. 1st AB in a narrow pocket at Osterbeek, Allied have just taken Nimeguen and the 43rd north of the Wall to rescue 1st AB. A great moment of wargaming.
!!! Awesome. Look at the size of those stacks!
That is a very enjoyable slide show! Your one sentence synopses of each photograph’s situation are clear and powerful. I look forward to seeing the rest of the battle. But one the one thing that is already certain about the final outcome is that the Operation Market-Garden went A Bridge too Far.
Unlike my AAR of HPS MG ’44, where it’s 25 pages long. lol
No worries about that. If you want you can use Word like you do and post 2-3 pages at a time. Different style of AAR as well. Which is exactly why I am glad you guys are all posting!
You included the Best addition to the map (photo 20). I like to use it too. It’s wonderfully made. I see many German troop positions in you pictures that I would not have expected to see, such as the 59th in Eindhoven without Americans already roaming around.
I’d love to play a competent German player, as I have not been able to figure out a good defense. (At least, not south of Arnhem.) I have a similar problem in Bastogne. I can’t figure out a good defense for the Americans. The bloody CRT* even at low odds and the potential for 3 attacks per turn really rewards aggressive play with armor. (Of course INS doesn’t allow the woods/town overruns that Bastogne does, so there are better opportunities to hold out in INS.)
* “Bloody” in that there is always a step loss, and you can’t retreat through an EZOC – even with
a friendly unit to provide cover – without taking further losses.
So I figure I may be playing the rules incorrectly, or I’m some kind of genius on the attack. But I don’t think either of those is likely. Still, the SCS game system is very enjoyable. Much more so than I remember HttR being back in the SPI days.
The 101st for all intent purposes is stuck turn 1. The land mostly in the polder meaning they have no movement turn 1. I had trouble getting them going and taking Son. 59th blocks the other direct approach to Eindhoven. I guess I could have Road marched right into Eindhoven turn 2 or 3, but didn’t think about doing that. Which proves incompetence can play for both sides. I thought throwing 59th into Eindhoven would slow down XXX Corps, but it really didn’t much. Maybe 1 turn. 59th is such a weak division. I really messed up the airborne and would definitely play them differently next time. I haven’t played Bastogne so can’t really comment on that.
Yes, the 101st is stuck, and in a rotten place. And the 59th is weak. And yet if the 59th can beat them to town, they can stack tall and really hold things up. Stacking 4 units per hex in Eindhoven next to the key roads will really slow things down.
Awesome. This is putting back into the “buy this game you fool” category. I keep going back and forth based on what I’m reading about it over the past couple of months.
But the image of the xxx corps coming the rescue of the Abn is too cool.