The Matrix announcement for this game states "The sequel to Advanced Tactics is rolling off the production line and headed into battle!", which confused me somewhat, as I was never a big fan of AT due to the "clunkiness" I experienced on screen, when the game transitioned between turns.
However, on clearly seeing that this game covers specific campaigns of the early war era, I couldn't really fathom how this could be a "sequel" to AT at all? And I was very much releived. Decisive Campaigns Warsaw to Paris (DCWtP) appears to be a self contained, bona fide peice of historical goodness.
(Btw - The "Decisive" part of the title threw me too - I thought that SSG had released another wargame seeing that its titles are called "Decisive" as well!).
In the designer's notes VR writes:
When reading this, looking at the beatifully crafted NATO counters (packed with detail - welcome to the 21st Century) and seeing that 3 massive campaigns are covered - Poland, France and Britain - I just had to exhale "wow". Here's is a game seemingly offering grognardly, boardgame-like intensity.I added flexibility to each scenario but within tight constraints: what-if variants, a free setup mode, and a measure of cause and effect relations between the 3 scenarios in the campaign. All this allows some experimentation of how battles would have gone if small and medium sized events or factors turned out differently. In Case White, what-if variants include floodings, Polish forces defending the rivers instead of the borders and a variant where Stalin is sending limited numbers of volunteers instead of attacking from the east. In Case Yellow, what-if variants include further British commitment to the defense of France and cancellation of the Dyle Plan. In Operation Sealion variants include the British using Gas Attacks and deploying guerrilla forces.
So some questions:
1. This game has cards! How do they work, how are players given them, how many are there?
2. This game ooks IGO-UGO, is there any reaction or defensive fire (for want of some better phrases)?
3. What happens once a side clicks "end turn"? In AT the screen went archaically blank - sadly retro for me! Are things different now?
4. Is free placemement available in all scenarios and will the AI switch its force placements around too?
5. I see the rulebook is an ebook - regardless of how the game is purchased. How many pages does it have?
6. A modern approach to marketing in the hobby now days, is to release a rulebook for public perusal to help the buying process along. Can this be done here? I'd really like to see what's inside this game to make up my mind.
7. Related to (6) - are there any videos we can see?
Thanks again to all involved. Another really pleasant surprise for 2010.
Adam.
