macrobo
King of Boxcars
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2005
- Messages
- 1,267
- Reaction score
- 625
- Location
- Geelong Melbourne
- First name
- Rob
- Country
ISRAEL GOES TO WAR PRODUCT RV
Up front I would like to declare that though I do buy CH, I am not trying to do more than describe my purchases for others and anything akin to valued judgements that enable the CH bashers to “lock and load” – I would ask them not to visit the CH website here in this thread
In the absence of Mark P, I felt the need to describe how different the CH experimental engine has gone in this area of war gaming and to describe the ASL version as best I can.
This area has really gone a long way now in material, design and comprehensive covering– its early beginning and additional products have been massively superseded both for my three phenotypes of ASLers I use below (you can be more than one): the Historical Buff, the Collector and; the ASL player.
Bob O’Conner should be recognised here – It was his dream it is said. I don’t know him but I do appreciate his efforts!
It is a MUST that you do visit Mark P’s site http://www.desperationmorale.com/product-tag/arab-israeli-wars/ . He does immense work as usual and my simple references to what was and what is will never be in his league.
I also mention in only a superficial way the previous CH products so I can use them for comparison but more just refer to what happened then they turned up on my desk – played a few – mainly solo back then but since out of print and well superseded – I have little to offer in my review of the past.
I personally am mainly an ASL player 80% now so I looked at these products through the eyes of someone who loves Tank Battles (I loose many so no expert) – aka tread head. I am also “King of Boxcars (just ask my opponents) and thus when a rule needs a lucky roll – I will roll bad….I thus will talk about my “feel” when I rolled the dice like – “pure infantry chewing with very difficult terrain to slog through” or “I tried to win with X tank versus Y tank and just could not roll low enough!”. I am never a very good historian but love to read and learn from the blurbs so maybe 10% there. The other 10% is collector – I am not a completest (I have skipped lots of CH products and never renewed many re-releases) but did love to have counters of new tanks (whether they are absolutely accurate only time will tell) – I was happy that the MMP official Centurion from Forgotten War (that I have played that one scenario with!) looks identical but alas we have only a few things like that to compare. I was hoping for a lot more of Russian gear versus US/Brit gear in FW. Though the scenarios I have played give you a feel for the troops, I was let down by MMP that the Centurion game was they leave the board and in reality NO tank vs Tank stuff made me really disappointed with FW – I think that was the historical reality I am sure. So to have M60s take on T55’s is just in principle a way cool thing to do. So finally for an ASL player like me, I appreciate a product that shows Cold ward battles. Even cooler is that the Arab nation’s take on British and US materials (like a hypothetical Russian versus NATO battle) so you get to pitch similar era modern tanks against each other!
Counter design is a tough mission and the original 2001 counters were very ordinary and the 2018 ones are very very flash! But to keep to copyright they are different I suppose to MMP.
Board design was also a big leap in the new selection– 25 new desert boards and a big map of Jerusalem (done heaps better that the 2001 version) in the new CH style as expected (a bit harder to stick side by side)
Scenarios- I would say 70% rehash but it hard to easily say – I would have to know what is completely out there (match up all re-treads from CH mags etc) so I only get to compare the Genesis 48, Genesis II and the 3 CH Mags and what they had – I will probably describe most and try and mention if we have seen them before. With 47 scenarios in the combined new products compared to the known 4 in Jerusalem 48 and 22 in Genesis 2 as well as another 6 known in CH mags (as well as the unknown things I never collected) – we get to experience not just the light the sampling we had in the Genesis II product like only 1 scenarios in 1973 and 3 scenarios in 1967 and 4 scenarios in 1956. We get a more extensive selection with 8 scenarios in 1973 (Valley of Tears), 8 scenarios in 1967 etc. This does very much expand the dream of a tread head like me of being able to play Soviet Tanks versus US and Brit tanks of modern eras,,,,, There are added toys like modern day anti-tank weapons with special abilities that are used in different types of scenarios like ones with them as the sole focus or using them in a combined arms approach. I do appreciate this attempt at experimental design for a WW2 system trying to explore modern combat. - On with the RV......
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