Warren Sogard - 01:23pm Jun 4, 2001 PST (#5604 of 5617)
"The General added a very wise remark. 'Look here, you're always wanting
to get things done,' he said to his companion reproachfully, 'And I
admire you for it. But you ought to try thinking in historical terms for
once.'" -- Robert Musil.

I had an opportunity to play the Gamers' new release FALLSHIRMJAEGER
(FJ) this weekend. FJ is the best new game this year and possibly since
PATHS OF GLORY. There is nothing terribly new in FJ that we have not
seen somewhere before. The Standard Combat Series (SCS) is a set of
rules (7 pages) which applies to a family of games by the Gamers. FJ
also has a short set of rules (9 pages) which are specific just to FJ.

FJ covers the battle for Fortress Holland from May 10 - 14, 1940. The
game lasts 15 turns (with the last turn only having a German player
phase). What FJ gives in spades is a very focused and surprisingly
intensive look at the German attempt to paradrop and air land two
division deep in Holland in order to capture bridges for the oncoming
German ground forces so that Holland could be knocked out of the war and
an attempt to keep Holland out of the war by capturing the Dutch Queen,
her government, the Dutch gold reserve and blow up a large refinery
south of Rotterdam.

The game provides simple yet effective defferentiation between elite
paratroopers, Dutch reserve units being called up (since Holland really
was not prepared for war nor expecting it), artillery and what a German
panzer division (the 9th) would look like. The scale for the map is
aproximately one kilometer per hex and the units represent platoon and
compnay formations (the smallest scale yet seen in an SCS game).

The game, much to my surprise, provides fascinating strategies to both
the Dutch and German players. Both sides get the opportunities to
conduct desperate defenses and ferocious attacks. In short, I think this
is a gem of a game which most serious gamers will want to own. The
battle for Holland covered in this game is quite similar to
Market-Garden in 1944 (and thus familiar to who know the old SPI classic
HIGHWAY TO THE REICH -- yet much more accessable and playable).

FALLSHIRMJAEGER is one of those happy moments in our hobby when a
classic is born. Hats off gentlemen, we have another gem. I can not wait
to begin my next game.