From: Brandon Einhorn Subject: Re: The Legend Begins: North Africa 1940-1942 (3rd) Coen van Antwerpen wrote: > > Hello, > > I was just wondering what peoples thoughts were on the game mentioned in the > subject line (it's by Terran Games). I had a look on Web-Grognards but > couldn't find a review for it. How good is it from a (i) historical and (ii) > playbility point of view? What's the system like for new-comers? > > Thanks, > Coen It has many strengths and weaknesses. Ther are many scenarios and a campaign game covering 1940-42. There are many special rules and variants (Italian Frogmen). The anti tank system is interesting with units having a combat strength and an AT rating. An 88 AT unit by itself has a combat strength of 1, but an AT rating of 4. Stacked with infantry its a tough nut to crack. Each difference in AT rating gives a column shift. There are rules on differnt ZOCs, and whether mech units are stacked right with the infantry or more spread out. There are differentiated air units, that can perform different missions. It uses a system by which there are a variable number of movement phases per turn, each player getting 3 or 4. This is done with movement chits whereby ones units can move 100%, 65% or 33% of their MA. Having said all this, I feel that much of the additional detail detracts from the game. If it were abstracted it would take very little from the "realism" (actually I think it would not lose ANY accuracy) and it would play faster. The designer (Mark Simonich - also designed Hannibal) tried to include too much, and its messy. An example, at the El Alamein scenario IIRC the Axis has more air units, when in reality the Allies had air superiority. Rather than differentiated air units, I would have used air points, and a more detailed supply system. Overall I feel it could have been better. At some point I will try to graff some of the systems from Afrika. I think the supply system from the Gamers Afrika is the best Ive seen at this level, but I really dislike the monthly turns in Afrika. I rate it B-. -- Brandon Einhorn beinhorn@ml.com From: Markus Stumptner Subject: Re: The Legend Begins: North Africa 1940-1942 (3rd) I think it is excellent, with some quite innovative mechanics. A campaign game is just about a possibility, but will still take a lot of time. Supply is handled in a fairly abstract manner (no computations or records), but detailed enough to be a significant factor for the scheduling of your transport capacity. The main problem we found so far is that there is no incentive for the British to keep to their historical doctrine which led them to use their armor in penny packets, thus they can stack their armored divisions full from the start and gain a considerable advantage in terms of killer stacks early on. Some house rule on this seems advisable. Markus