From: Grant M Goodman Subject: CoA: Home Before the Leaves Fall THUNK!! What's that?? Oh, it's the sound of my copy of "Home Before the Leaves Fall" hitting my doorstep. Now THAT'S a heavy package for a two-map game. First impressions: Counters are the usual Clash o' Farms standard of beautiful. Some folks would prefer more emphasis on readability. The Belgian units have this unbelievably complex coat of arms on the reverse side. French are blue top half/red bottom half, matching their blue coats and red pants. Planes, zeppelins and balloons are shown as icons; leaders have portraits, and don't look Persian. The rest of the counters generally are NATO type, slightly modified. Oh, and did I mention there are 3,080 counters? Is this a world record for a single game? How about if you compare it to the Compleat ASL? Maps are a Joe Youst job. A nice job, but with a certain lack of contrast. A lot of it is clear, with towns and villages scattered liberally. The maps run from Dieppe on the channel in the NW, past Antwerp in the N (with 3 of Antwerp's forts existing on 3 "virtual hexes" off the edge of the map, into Germany beyond Cologne, Coblenz and Frankfort in the NE, then S past Basel into Switzerland, then W to include Besancon, to 10 hexes or so west of Orleans in the SW corner. Unless the game is a German disaster, there's a lot more Germany than you'll ever need. It's only a 2 map game, but you'll need another table or two to accommodate the charts. There's a separate 8 1/2" x 11" chart for each army of each side. That's more than 7 armies for the Germans, 5 or more for the French, plus 1 each for the BEF and the Belgians. A lot of action goes on on these charts, so it's hard to skimp on the space. Maybe you could do the same thing with pencil and paper or a computer spreadsheet in less space, if you were pressed for room. Scale is 5 miles/hex. Units are divisions/brigades/regiments, often with separate counters for the infantry, cavalry and artillery components of an infantry division or corps. Game turns are 1 week, but may be divided into 1 to 3 impulses of variable length, at the whim of the player with initiative. Rules are quite complex and lengthy. They are divided into "series" rules, under the title "Death of Empires", and specific rules for HBtLF. Does anybody know if the series rules can be applied directly to "The Cossacks are Coming"? Anybody found any major differences yet from "Cossacks"? The specific rules include 11 (?) scenarios of various sizes and lengths. The campaign game runs about 13 turns, with the option to extend it into (through?) November. Setups are quite lengthy. There are lots of specific rules designed to ensure that events track history rather closely. Leaders are sacked and promoted on historical dates, as opposed to in response to their performance in the game. Both sides are locked into their pre-war strategic plans for the first few weeks. This one is now quite high on my "wish I could play it" list. Grant Goodman, Belmont, Mass. : GrantG@juno.com In a recent interview, Governor Weld was asked about his reaction to his defeat by John Kerry in the 1996 Senate race. "It was not my first defeat. There was the Rhodes scholarship. The Marshall scholarship. Harvard Law Review. My life is a tangled wreck of failures."