Bob Nash - 05:40am Sep 22, 2000 PST (#249 of 251) I just managed to get a copy of Last Gamble by Hobby Japan. Thanks Art! It even seems to have some extra counters that might be variant/replacement counters! The game is everything you have read Randy Heller posting about it and more. Probably the best Bulge game I have ever seen. Dav Vandenbroucke Again - 05:49am Sep 22, 2000 PST (#250 of 251) Currently playing Operation Shock Troop & Master of Magic So give us some details about what makes this game so great. I keep hearing that it's wonderful, but I don't know why. What makes it better than all the other (some good, some bad) Bulge games? Bob Nash - 10:24am Sep 23, 2000 PST (#251 of 251) Dav: With the caveat that my playing time with this has been limited to solitaire play and relatively few hours so far and some glitches may be revealed as I get more time in and play ftf; these are the things that strike me the most: 1. Unmatched depth of research and design input leading to clear, elegant rules. Danny worked with MacDonald as research assistant when Time for Trumpets was done and uncovered more info about the battle and status of units involved than anyone else had to that point. I do not feel there has been much new since, so that it is still close to "state of the art" in terms of historical accuracy. He apparently had access Pentagon's noted empirical study of this Battle which led to Dupuy's Hitler's Last Gamble and Numbers, Predictions & War. He had input from other good Bulge game designers (like Bruce Singaglio), beyond his own experience (both good and bad) with Wacht, Battles for the Ardennes and Dark December. It was a four year design process with playtesters of note including Ty Bomba, Winston Hamilton, etc. This game has "focus" too. Danny kept target scale/scope in mind and incorporates everything- and i mean everything- of imporance at that scale, but does not try to crossover to other scales. (One of my pet gripes is a design that loses its focus, e.g., an operational level game trying to incorporate articfical, quasi-tactical subsystems.) 2. He shows you how the rules evolved and described why he did his design the way he did in detailed notes so you understand every element of the design, from why combat factors were calculated the way they were to why specific rules were incorporated the way they were. 3. The game is manageable in scale and scope with two maps and 600 counters and as noted, easy to follow rules that are not convoluted, are explained well and are relatively simple. Production was first rate. Large hexes, well done map and good physical sytems/graphics facilitate play and make it easy to set up and execute turns. (Plus, its attractive.)As a result of points one through three, there is amazingly little errata: "Kough" for "rough" on the terrain charts and one problem with Trois Points that is easily fixable. 4. Everything you have read that is important to the battle is fully featured in the game; but handled in an elegant manner that does not seem overly "gamey" or too "mechanical". (Many Bulge games have traffic rules or exploitation rules , for example, that seem too "gamey" to me. It is not a good "design for effect" approach a la John Hill, but a bad "ends justifies means" view that makes the game a poor vehicle for teaching historical lesssons. This one minimizes those flaws.) 5. There are literally dozens of small but vital nuances to the rules that make it an extremely realis1tic simulation of events that occured yet are seemlessly integrated so as to be unremarkable unless you look for them. In the "basic" game, you have to consider supply, creation and use of reserves, traffic management, best use artillery, of exploitation, engineers and "strategic" movement (vital for Americans to reach Bastogne and other essential blocking points first in early turns and vital for getting German Reserves where they need to be in second week on.) The "advanced" game includes things that are unique to the Bulge: Allied Airpower/weather/air supremacy; 150th Panzer Brigade; surrender rules; armor operations, night combat, disengament, allied fuel dumps, combined arms, armor superiority, kampfgruppen, attack coordination,etc. Then there are "optional" rules for more flavor: German paradrop, fog of war, commanders, efffects of malmedy massacre, roadblocks, GHQ Tiger battalions, Flak and Panjerjager units, tank-recovery and repair, allied air observationfue shrotages, certain artillery restrictions. Finally, there are variants galore to keep things interesting, but in a plausible, historical way...no outrageous alternate history what ifs. Hitlers Last Gamble tried to do this, but seemed a hodgepodge of good ideas and subsystems that did not "fit" together; all chrome and no game, due to production and development flaws by 3W. This is the way the game was meant to be: all parts seemlessly integrated to give you every single nuance that made the Battle of the Bulge unique. I have played almost Bulge game that was designed as a historical simulation as well as game and many that were more game than simulation, albeit fine and fun to play. I have never seen every single factor important to the battle so seemlessly integrated into a workable rules system. It is a good game and outstanding simulation that would impress any scholar of the battle as well as a moderately experienced "gamer". It is not push push like Dark December. It does not have the noted flaws of Wacht, a game I hold in high esteem. It is much more of a simulation but equal to Bulge '81 as a game. It is much more historically accurate and cleaner in feel and play than Bastogne or Bust or Wave of Terror. It is more detailed than Bitter Woods (which I consider one of the better "games" that also is a fair "simulation".) It is much deeper and better done than Battle of the Ardennes. I do not have enough playing time yet to call it the definitive simulation; I will defer to Randy Heller for that. The few runs through I have done so far were as much learning exercises. Each game has been a near thing. Every time I play I learn from mistakes. So far, I have been guilty of: not using the strategic movement to fullest advantage, not using the U.S. antitank units and engineers as well as I should, not pulling out of key blocking points in time to preserve units; not staying at some points long enough, resulting it in deeper penetrations; not using German armor efficiently, letting infantry impede progress of my panzers along certain roads; not bypassing strongoints, leaving those for the following infantry to clear out or mask; not being aggressive enough in pushing forward and exploitation; not choosing my points of attack, especialy in in week two, properly or providing good flank protection. The game "feels" like a good model when playing and the lessons learned from play are not just lessons on how to play a "game" (a la Russian Campaign), but in history as well as the studies of the battle are full of examples where my historical counterparts made the same errors or worse. In short, ask me again in a year of playing this and I will be able to tell you in specific detail why it is better than sliced bread. The fact I see myself playing this a year from now speaks volumes itself. Most games I buy are good for a few plays and then out and on to the next, especially where there are a number of games on that topic at the same relative scale. I usually do not see myself playing even the best games I have ever tried for more than six months or so. I can count only a dozen games or so in almost thirty years of playing that have survived the ages and the challenge of the latest and greatest games on the subject. Most of these survived in my ever changing collection just because they are so big it can take years just to get around to playing a full campaign five or ten times. Wacht was one of them, until I got Last Gamble...now Wacht is on the for sale block. (I confess, however, that I plan to get Wacht II: not to replace Last Gamble,but as a complement to the game. There will always be a place for a good regimental scale game to complement a good battalion sized game on the Bulge.)