Pitman
Forum Guru
So as I've been working on my website update, I have been inspecting the recent Critical Hit historical module products of St. Lo and Desperate Hours and come to an interesting tentative conclusion that they represent a new type of CH product we may well see more of in the future, for reasons explained below.
Both of these products contain a historical map. But beyond that, almost everything is "off-the-rack" components. The countersheets provided are basically generic (and perhaps interchangeable between the games) and each module only has a measly 2-4 pages of rules--and, when examined, extremely few of the rules seem to be new rules or even necessarily relevant to the specific module (other than a few that contain terrain). Rather, the bulk of the few rules in each module is taken up by generic SSRs that have been common in CH modules featuring Americans and Germans recently, such as bayonet charges and marching fire ("borrowed" from Kinetic Energy a few years ago), Light Slope Rules, Handi-Talkies, Gammon Bombs, and the infamous "optional" Cargo Trailer rules.
Moreover, the scenarios tend to be simplistic, with forces typically arrayed simply on the map, and no reinforcements, using basic victory conditions. No playtesters at all are listed, and you may derive the necessary conclusions about that.
So basically these are cobbled together historical modules, with generic rules and a few scenarios hastily cobbled together for the historical map, probably none of which were playtested. Unless CH somehow gets a new playtest and development group to replace the one they lost several years ago, I suspect we will see a lot more of this type of product going forward, which require minimum effort on the part of RT.
Both of these products contain a historical map. But beyond that, almost everything is "off-the-rack" components. The countersheets provided are basically generic (and perhaps interchangeable between the games) and each module only has a measly 2-4 pages of rules--and, when examined, extremely few of the rules seem to be new rules or even necessarily relevant to the specific module (other than a few that contain terrain). Rather, the bulk of the few rules in each module is taken up by generic SSRs that have been common in CH modules featuring Americans and Germans recently, such as bayonet charges and marching fire ("borrowed" from Kinetic Energy a few years ago), Light Slope Rules, Handi-Talkies, Gammon Bombs, and the infamous "optional" Cargo Trailer rules.
Moreover, the scenarios tend to be simplistic, with forces typically arrayed simply on the map, and no reinforcements, using basic victory conditions. No playtesters at all are listed, and you may derive the necessary conclusions about that.
So basically these are cobbled together historical modules, with generic rules and a few scenarios hastily cobbled together for the historical map, probably none of which were playtested. Unless CH somehow gets a new playtest and development group to replace the one they lost several years ago, I suspect we will see a lot more of this type of product going forward, which require minimum effort on the part of RT.