From: moellerc@aol.com (MOELLER C)
Subject: Re:  The Big One

kohr@donner.mcs.anl.gov (Dave Kohr) writes:

"I'm curious to hear what flaws people think "The Big One"/"WW2" have. I
own TBO, but haven't had a chance to play it yet."

I picked up WW2 recently, but haven't done anythin with it yet.  I've
played The Big One several times now, and have enjoyed it with some
reservations.  The funky Zones of Control work very well, I think, and the
interaction of the different unit types is well considered.  I love the
Artillery rules for example, you can add one to any stack for free, a very
simple way to give an army some extra punch.  The U-Boats are either
useless or too powerful.  The rules don't say which.

My biggest gripe is with the combat system.  It isn't explained clearly,
and there are a lot of overlapping sequences.   For Example:  the Germans
are attacking a French unit on a French Coastal hex.  The German Fleet
supports the attack, and both German and French Air Units support the
attack and defense respectively.  We decided that the Air Units would
fight for the right to support first (Air-Air Battle).  If the Germans win
the air battle, the Fleet would support automatically;  if the French win,
they can choose to dispute the German Fleet's support (air-sea battle) or
not.  If the Germans win the air-sea battle, they can support, if they
lose they go home.  In either case, if the air unit survives, it can still
support the battle (seeing as it would be strange if battleships could
clear the german skies of aircraft). There are lots of times when these
sorts of questions arise.  The game's ambitious array of unit types, all
with varying abilities, creates an intricate nesting of sequences, and the
few pages of rules given aren't up to the task of sorting them all out.

The other problem with the combat system is the CRT.  Both players roll
1d6 on the CRT, and inflict damage on each other simultaneously (I think
it's something like a possible 1 to 4 "steps" of damage, with the bulk of
the results being 1's and 2's).  The player who inflicts the most damage
forces the other player to retreat.  If both results are equal (something
that happens a GREAT deal of the time), the retreating player is
determined by a "Higher Roll Wins" dice roll.  We've played many games
where this creates bizarre results.  For example: a German assault force
of 19 points (having a 50% chance of rolling a 1 damage on the land-land
attack table) has an even chance of being kicked out of France and chased
into German territory by a 2-point defender (who also has a 50% chance of
rolling a 1)!  We instituted a simple "fix" by giving armies a "Victory
Modifier" based upon size, modifying the Retreat roll that occurs when a
battle results in a tie.  The modifier is +0 on the first column of the
CRT, and increases by +1 for each column you move to the right (to a
maximum of +8 on the last column).  This means that even if the French and
the Germans in the example above both roll "1" for damage, the Germans
would have a Victory Modifier of +6, while the French would have a +2.  In
this case, the Germans would only rout if they rolled a 1 and the French a
6, rather than it being a 50-50 proposition.

The game's okay.  I'm a huge fan of the SPI WWI game (the one Decision
re-released with those stupid hats), and this is a similar treatment of
the WWII European theatre by Bill Banks, the man who brought us one of the
greatest games in history (Ancients).  I prefer Hitler's War, but TBO is
worth a few plays through.  One final tip:  go to Kinkos and get the map
enlarged to 11x17 on the color copier.

----------------------------
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featuring images and background on the Iron Empires universe. I can be
reached via email at moellerc@aol.com 
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