Month: September 2011
Breakout: Normandy Deluxe Edition — First Look
L2 Design Group surprised a lot of folks by producing a new version of the classic Avalon Hill wargame Breakout: Normandy. Breakout: Normandy has been out of print for a few years now but is still a very popular game and still sees a regular tournament at WBC. Breakout: Normandy is a board wargame covering the first month of the Normandy campaign in WW2. It is an area movement game based on the system debuted in Storm Over Arnhem and recently seen in Monty’s Gamble.
The new L2 version of the game is known as Breakout: Normandy Deluxe Edition and was produced with the support of Don Greenwood the game’s original designer. Breakout: Normandy was one of those classic games that basically got everything right from the start. It was also originally produced with very nice components. So what does the new Deluxe Edition provide different from the original? Thankfully, besides simply getting the game back in print, not much. The map is 10% larger to accommodate the new 3/4″ counters and incorporates the first week of reinforcement displays. The map itself is the typical L2 heavy foldout stock. The counters are slightly larger but otherwise unchanged. The real change is in the rulebook. The rulebook is all new and is in full color and very attractive. The new rulebook incorporates all official errata to the original game and a few minor rules changes.
Don Greenwood describes the new rule changes in the excellent included designer’s notes. He has focused on the fact that after thousands of plays it became apparent that the Germans have a slight advantage in the game. He also does not like some of the tactics that have resulted. To address those he jettisoned the Victory Point for holding the Advantage. “To compensate the Allies for this loss as well as to address their earlier balance problems, Naval Bombardment Impulse join Air Bombardment Impulses in being ‘free’–which added a staggering 12 Impulses a game to the Allied ledger…. To complete the Allied Aid package, Weather Changes…were made less likely by eliminating their occurrence during air and naval bombardment. And lastly, players can no longer guard against weather changes by using the now non-existent End of Day dice roll modifiers.” That’s it.
If you are a Breakout: Normandy fan you will want this edition if only for the new rulebook. If you never played the game before and you have any interest in WW2 you should give the game a look. Highly recommended.
6mm Sci-Fi Vehicles — Review
We recently picked up some Old Crow 6mm Hammer’s Slammers vehicles and Plasmablast 6mm vehicles. Both lines are very nice and a great addition to any 6mm sci-fi force.
The Old Crow Slammers’ models are cast resin bodies with metal turrets and bits. The resin casting quality is simply the best we have ever seen. The casting is even better than Spartan Games’ models but the vehicles do not have nearly the level of detail of Spartan or ForgeWorld miniatures. But there is almost zero clean up needed for the resin and only a tiny bit needed on the metal bits. [Note: Old Crow sort of went into hibernation. You can try and email them for some items. They seem to have given their 15mm Slammer’s minis to Ainsty Castings.]
As you can see from the photos the models scale well with other 6mm vehicles. The design of the hover models does make them appear a bit large because the hover skirt (plenum chamber) sticks out all around the vehicle but if you look at just the actual body of the vehicle you will see it fits right in with the others. In general a lot of the GZG stuff is a tad small and the GW Epic stuff is a tad large.
We also couldn’t help ourselves from grabbing a few of the Old Crow naval minis. These are also extremely well done resin casts and are quite large. As you can see the Hover Landing Craft can easily carry one or more 6mm vehicles. Now we just need to think up a good scenario for them.
The Plasmablast models are all metal castings and are also extremely well cast. Only the smallest amount of cleanup is needed. Plasmablast has the Progenitor tracked line and the Orbital Combine grav line of models. Both are nice looking, unique, and quite complete lines of units.
As you can see in the photos the Orbital Combine medium grav tank fits in well with the other figures and the heavy grav tank fits even better.
Both companies responded quickly to our order and everything was well packed.
If you are looking for some good rules for 6mm sci-fi look no further than Strike Legion and Gruntz. Both are outstanding sets of rules.
[Updated: 2DEC13]
Napoleon!! — Revisited
It’s been a bit over a year since we last posted about a variety of Napoleonic warfare titles and thought it was about time for an update.
- Battles of Napoleon: The Eagle and the Lion — The bad news here is that the company that actually developed the game has folded. Fantasy Flight Games is only the distributor. This means future updates for the game are certainly in doubt. On the positive side Wings of War was in the same boat and recently got picked up by another company so there is some hope BoN will be saved similarly.
- Napoleon’s War: The 100 Days — Battle Pack 1 and Battle Pack 2 are both available. They include new maps and scenarios but no new figures.
Napoleon’s War II that covers the invasion of Russia should be out soon. - Commands & Colors: Napoleonics — GMT Games released its latest addition to the Commands & Colors line. It is probably the most approachable of any of the Napoleonic titles (NW is just as easy but C&C:N blocks are less fiddly than the NW figures). It is a lot of fun and coming soon is the Spanish Army expansion.
- Waterloo — Warhammer Historical has gotten in on the Napoleonic fun as well with their new Waterloo miniature rules. The rules are a large 288-page hardback book “… representing the forces of France, Britain, Prussia or their allies. This rulebook is focused on the campaign and battle of Waterloo, the climax of the Napoleonic Wars, but the rules within allow you to recreate battles from across the entire period (1792-1815) and even beyond.” We have not seen this yet but it sounds good.
- Black Powder — Rick Priestley and Jervis Johnson, both of GW fame, produced a new set of miniature rules that cover Napoleonic warfare. Specific Napoleonic supplements will be out soon but the 184-page hard back core rulebook covers the basics. The rules are intended for 28mm but easily modified for any scale. They are perhaps not the best choice for a first time Napoleonic gamer but are well done.
- March Attack — Crusader Publishing has also released a new set of easy to play Napoleonic Rules called March Attack.
- Napoleon at War —
Perhaps the most interesting development is Man at War Miniature Games’ release of the new Napoleon at War miniature rules and miniatures line. We have now seen these in person and they are very well done. Man at War seems to be attempting to do for Napleonic warfare what Battlefront did to WW2 mini gaming with Flames of War. The rulebook is extremely well presented — and FoW-like — and the minis are equal to if not nicer than Battlefront. The miniatures are 18mm and are being released in various boxed unit sets. All of this is designed to make Napoleonic gaming easy to get into for the newcomer. It remains to be seen if Man at War will be successful but if you have any interest at all in Napoleonic miniature gaming Napoleon at War is certainly worth a look. We hope to have more soon. The Meeples & Miniatures podcast Episode 79 has a great review of Napoleon at War. Noble Knight Games is one U.S. based distributor we found that carries the NaW line and we found them very responsive.
[Updated: 21OCT11]
The View from the Turret 
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