WW2
Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich — Review
Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge was recently released by Matrix Games. I have only had a chance to play around with the training mission so far but it quickly became apparent that CO:BftB is simply an evolution of the original Airborne Assault series. CO:BftB has numerous improvements but basic play is essentially the same. Considering that Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich is one of my all time favorite computer wargames this is a good thing. It also means if you are considering purchasing CO:Battles from the Bulge then a look at Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich should help you make your decision.
Below is a review I wrote a few years back for Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich. It is too early for me to comment on changes in CO:BftB, but I can mention a few things that have not changed: There is still no ability for units to scale with zoom; no ability to rewind to watch other events; no ability to see a regular TO&E diagram view for formations; graphics and sound are basically the same. But CO:BftB still has the same great game play and it is after all the Bulge!
The Fires of Midway — Now Available
The Fires of Midway WW2 card game is now available. FoM is the second game in Clash of Arms’ War is Hell series. FoM covers Pacific carrier warfare including not only the Battle of Midway but also the battles of the Coral Sea, Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz. It is a two player game but also includes official rules for solitaire play.
We have had a read through the rules but have not played a game yet. Physically the game is similar to the Hell of Stalingrad game. Unfortunately this means it has the same sort of garish, over designed graphics. But the presentation is functional and the historical photos of the various ships and aircraft are nice. Movement is done on a side map, search is conducted by drawing cards, and combat is performed through card play and dice rolls. All of the major facets of WW2 carrier combat are covered.
Overall the game looks very interesting and we look forward to getting in a game. BoardGameGeek has PDF versions of the rules and tables available for download.
Stalin’s War — Now Available
GMT Games’ WW2 card-driven wargame Stalin’s War is now available. Stalin’s War covers the east front during WW2. Turns are seasonal (with a special turn for June 41) running to Summer 45. Axis units are armies (which can have up to four steps on two counters) and corps. All the panzer units are represented as corps (controlled by Panzergroup/Army Headquarters). Soviet units are armies and fronts, along with their large (but irreplaceable) 1941 mechanized corps, and late-war Guard cavalry-mechanized corps.
There is a bit of errata for the game already but it looks good overall (although we wish game publishers would banish 1/2″ counters). You can get the rules and some series replays in PDF format.
There is a review of Stalin’s War on BoardgameNews.com.
[Updated: 23AUG10]
CO: Battles from the Bulge Videos Available
Matrix Games now has a couple of video tutorials on how to play Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge.
Battles from the Bulge Video Tutorial 1: Getting Started
Battles from the Bulge Video Tutorial 2: Assess, Plan, and Order
Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge — Now Available!
Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge from Matrix Games is now available. Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge is the latest incarnation of the older Airborne Assault series. Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich was one of our favorite operational level wargames so we have high hopes for CO:BftB.
Panther Games brings us to the Winter of 1944 with Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge. Although the Battle of the Bulge is ground that has been visited by wargamers before, it has never been done with this level of fidelity and historical accuracy. The most advanced and realistic model of command decision-making implemented in a commercial wargame, combined with thorough historical research on the battlefields and forces involved in this campaign sets Command Ops apart from the competition.
There is now a demo available. Update 4.1.235 is now available.
[Updated: 23AUG10]
Flames of War News
Battlefront announced its plans for the coming months. Even after previous announcements they managed to throw in a few surprises. Over the next year we will see for Flames of War:
- Early War: August 2010 will see the first early war book, Blitzkrieg. 180 page book covering the invasions of Poland and France. This will be followed next year by the Africa theater and Russia.
- Late-War Italy: Dogs & Devils will be the next late-war Italy book. March 2011 will see a second book.
- Market-Garden: Airborne fans get a special bonus. Not only is Firestorm Campaign: Operation Market Garden coming out in May but Battlefront’s first board wargame is also being released! A Bridge Too Far: Operation Market Garden uses the Firestorm Campaign:OMG board and pieces but is a stand-alone game.
- Pacific: They have not ruled out visiting the Pacific theater in 2012.
[Updated: 8JUL10]
Tide of Iron: Fury of the Bear — Coming Soon
Fantasy Flight Games announced its latest expansion for Tide of Iron will be coming soon. Fury of the Bear will add the Russians to the ToI system. Besides Russian miniatures and additional German minis, nine new winter map boards will be included.
Incursion MI-13 Commandos– Review
We got the pre-release pack of the new Incursion MI-13 Commando miniatures. The MI-13 are the new British special forces unit for Incursion. As with all Grindhouse Games’ minis they arrived quickly and were crisply cast with almost no flash. The unit consists of 7 complete models: 2x Gut-Gunner, 1x Grenadier, 1x Paddy Mayne, 2x Commando, and 1x Corporal. Except for Paddy all the units have separate heads so you can mix and match as you wish or use heads from other ranges. The weapons are separate but mostly consist of just the forward half of the weapon along with a molded on hand so you can’t swap weapons between figures. Read the rest of this entry »
White Star Rising — Beta Rules
Lock’n Load Publishing posted a PDF of the beta rules for their upcoming WW2 tactical board wargame, White Star Rising. The game is the long awaited World War 2 version of the World at War system. The rules are basically complete but do not include any scenarios and will receive some final polish before publication. Overall nothing surprising in them as they are basically the WaW rules with some minor tweaks. It does look like WSR will ship with a nice selection of formations for the Americans, British and Germans.
Incursion – MI-13 Coming Soon
Looks like the Brits are on tap next for Incursion. At least four new figures for the MI-13 Commandos are close to being ready for production. They feature separate heads so you can swap them with others from West Wind for greater variety. Beta rules and the Paddy Mayne card are available for playtesting.
See our review.
The final rules and cards are now available. A nice surprise was the inclusion of Gracie, a new MI-13 unit. Gracie is a new ‘light mech’ unit. No art for it yet but it should be interesting when it arrives.
[Updated: 23APR10]
The View from the Turret 
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