From: Roberto Chiavini Subject: Two reviews Army Group South (S&T 188) This is a reprint of two games taken from SPI's Army Group South quadrigame, Rostov and Kiev, with new graphics for maps and counters (I think), but with all the original errata (and possibly several more). The system is a derivation of the one pioneered in Panzergruppe Guderian, used by SPI in several other designs of the second half of the Seventies. Like the previously reviewed Kharkov, I haven't liked very much both these DGs choices form a glorious past, especially with the terrible placement errata that both games have. Units are rated for attack-defense-movement and are reggimental to divisional in size. Graphics are not very good for my tastes, a step less than the usual medium quality you expect from a S&T game. The system is the usual move-combat-exploitation movement of this kind of WWII simulations, with several specific rules for both battles. Most of the Russians units come in play with their untried side (i.e. both players don't know the combat ratings of the unit until it is engaged in combat - and a few units are 0-0 value!!), but in Rostov most of them are randomly drawn for the set-up, but then turned upside before the start of the game. Most of the reinforcements instead are really taken randomly from a cup and placed on the map with their untried side up. Both battles last 13 turns and the games can take from 3 to 5 hours to reach conclusion (as the pieces are not so few). The major problem with both games are the errata, because otherwise the combat situations are interesting, with the Germans on the offensive, trying to use their few supply units to channel their attacks toward the territorial objectives, while the Russian player is limited in his local counterattacks by the limited range of his HQs (his units need to be in range of a friendly HQ for attacking and moving at his best) and the uncertainty on the real value of his untried units. As folio games, both these Russian front battles are good enough for a few plays, but the fact that they are not new games but simply a reprint of twenty years old games, and, most of all, full of errata, doesn't add marks to their evaluation. I rate this game 5 ½ (mostly for the errata) in a 1-10 scale.