My Take on Operation Iraqi Freedom
The game covers the April 2003 liberation of Iraq by coalition forces, using 35 mile hexes and brigades/divisions/special units. The game is very basic and appears to be possibly geared toward non- paper and counter wargamers as an intro game (of course that doesn't mean that others can't enjoy it as well). The game is playable either solitaire or I-go-you-go, but has some interesting chrome with the unit special abilities, and the use of action cards (random events). The rules are clearly written and quite short, just 4 pages in length (rulebook formatting would have condensed this to 2 pages). Some grognard terminology, such as ZOC (Zone of Control), is avoided even though ZOCs are used in the game (they stop opponent movement and block supply lines for the Iraqis). The CRT (Combat Results Table) and TEC (Terrain Effects Chart) are standard fare, but eleven types of terrain or hexside features is a bit of a mismatch to the seeming effort made to present the game to non-wargamers. The CRT is based on force ratios and a roll of a d6. However, no die is actually required since the action cards each have a number on them which allows them to be drawn in place of rolling a d6 (the rules do not even mention using a die, another hint that this game is aimed toward the non-table top wargamer). Initial placement of Iraqi forces is noted on the reverse of each counter, a nice touch. One hex of the initial set-up does violate the stacking rules, but that was the only error that I noticed.
The biggest drawback to using this as an intro game to non-wargamers as presented is the need to backmount the counters. The counters themselves are reasonably nice (little pictures and tiny NATO symbols), but there is extremely little margin of error for mounting front and back since the information on the counters is placed too close to the edges (I barely got usable results in my mounting, but did not bother redoing them). There are also no instructions for mounting the counters, so anyone not familiar with DTP wargames (desk top published, in this case meaning non-professionally published wargames) may be at a loss. The map itself is reasonably nice, but the terrain is too subtle considering that it is going to be printed on a range of printers. The file format choices were also puzzling, JPG for the counters, bitmap for the map, and Word doc for the rules and charts. At a minimum, RTF is preferred over DOC for distribution to a wide audience with varying platforms and software. PDF files for everything would have been the safest choice, since experience tells me that some people will be clueless about how to scale the graphics files (perhaps I am just overly sensitive to this issue since color choice, resolution, file format, etc., are long debated issues in the electronic versions of maps and documents I output at work).
The winning conditions are tough, but reasonably so since the coalition has force superiority (capture five cities in eight turns and only incur a single step loss for all allied forces in the solitaire version or just two step losses in the two player version). Overall, this is a simple game, but I found it quite interesting to play through. I do think I will reprint the map at 150% or so, which will make the counters a corresponding 5/8", before I run through it again to make everything easier to read.
The wording of the editorial in Armchair General #1 makes me believe that the game was intended to be printed in the magazine. The article about the game that appears on the website sounds as if it were written for inclusion in the magazine. It is a shame that the game was not printed in the magazine since it would have been a good vehicle to bring more folks into the world of table top consim.