From: Roberto Chiavini 

Prussia's Glory (GMT)

NOTE: THIS IS A FIRST IMPRESSION ON THE GAME NOT A COMPLETE REVIEW OF 
THE SAME

The new quadrigame from GMT was waited with impatience by me and by
dozens and dozens of wargamers out there, who love GMT games and the
period of Frederick the great. New designer Robert Kalinowski try to do
his best to make a game that has in itself the most important things for
him, i.e. it should be fast to play, without cumbersome rules,
replayable, colorful and historical enough without being unplayable. The
final result may satisfy the designer and several other players, but
left me a little deluded in my expectations (that probably were simply
too high). On the plus side, game graphics are wonderful, with really
good maps and fantastic counters, with several different uniforms from
the glamorous Eighteenth century. You may not ask more than this from a
gaming company. A friend of mine noted – not without good reasons – that
the historical data on the units are a bit contrived, a few lacking, but
this is not necessarily a minus for me (and the designer make it clear
from the start). 

On the minus side there are certainly the rules and how they are
organized: in a peculiar decision, the designer choose to subdivide the
rules in three section, the first one explaining the major rules, then
the section with the sequence of play and at the end, as it is obvious,
the scenarios. The first two parts don't mix too well: there are no
evident errata in the explanation, but you have to run through the
sections continuosly, as you need a bit of the rule in one part and
another bit a few pages after. Nothing terrible, but not too logical,
for me. 

The system is standard Igo-Ygo, perhaps a thing of the past in a time
where the chit drawing activation system dominate the market, but it is
workable enough even for solo playing. Units are rated for combat,
morale and movement, with leaders having much weight in morale checks.
Much emphasis is given to the concept of army morale and there is an
interesting, but not too well explained system for tracking various kind
of losses, efficiency for the various components of the army, and
various level of army morale, from formed to demoralized to broken. 

The most complex and bad explained part of the rules is certainly the
combat system: it is full of innovative and even in theory particularly
actractive rules, with a mix of step losses and retreats, but it is
often unclear in how to put all this theory in practice and the players
are forced to several voyages to the rulebook hoping to find an answer
to their doubts. The fact that this answer is often found it's a
positive aspect of the game, but the fact that to find it the players
have to go through a treasure hunt among dozens of headings, it's not so
positive. 

I have tried a few turns of Rossbach, the battle game (one of the most
interesting aspects of the design is certainly the possibility to play
each of the four chosen battles or as the battle itself – with the
armies already in contact – or with more turns with all the time to put
the armies in position, making different decisions from the historical
one. A great idea, indeed) and I have to say, that, other than for the
negative aspects that I have already noted, I enjoyed the time passed
with the game, the graphical impression having a great part in this – as
simply arranging the units on the map is a joy in itself. 

My rate for this game is probably in the 6 ½ - 7 ½ range, a good
addition to my library, nothwistanding the critics that may be moved to
this game.