From: Roland Lee St. George's Valour: British Raid on Zeebrugge, 1918 (published by Minden Games in Panzerschreck #8) This is a solitaire game very similar to Raid on St. Nazaire - the player controls British naval and ground forces that raided a German U-boat base in WWI. The game system controls the German defenses, which are comprised of the heavy guns of the base's defensive batteries as well as the guns of German torpedo boats that are moored at the base as well as German ground forces that begin to trickle onto the scene as the game progresses. The British player must brave the fire of the German guns, disembark his commandos who then go about wreacking havoc and scuttle block ships to close off the base and prevent any U-boats from leaving the base. By Panzerschreck standards, the game is a 'monster', containing a whopping (!) 168 counters and a 8-1/2 x 11 map. As in all games published in Panzerschreck, the counters are printed on paper and must be mounted prior to being cut. A single six sided die is required for play and players are advised to photocopy record sheets which are meant to keep track of the status of British and German ships and the German defensive gun batteries. The Fall of Rohm (published by Minden Games in Panzerschreck #8) This is another solitaire game from Minden Games - it is played with a standard deck of cards in addition to the rather smallish game board (4-1/4 x 5-1/2) which has a mini "map" showing Ernst Rohm's location and various tracks showing the status of the German economy, the German army, the SA (Ernst Rohm's private army) and the SS. The game is an abstract political simulation in which the player takes on the role of the leadership of the National Socialist Party of Germany just prior to President Hindenberg's death - your goal is to insure the smooth transfer of power from Hindenberg to Hitler! To do this, you must keep the German economy healthy, nurture the SS (which will eventually replace the SA in importance), keep the SA in line (the more "revolutionary" elements of the SA made the German army a wee bit nervous) and garner the favor of the German army (the German army was instrumental in Hitler's rise to power and Hitler's purge of the SA was one of the ways in which he secured their cooperation). The game is fairly abstract - each turn, the player deals out a card which determines Hindenberg's health (this is important since the game ends when Hindenberg dies), Ernst Rohm's location (this is important since if you intend to order a purge of the SA, if he's someplace out of the way, it makes things that much easier) and what "issue" the player will have to face this turn - the player then has to decide whether or not he'll order a purge of the SA, and what area (army, SA, SS or economy) he'll focus on - depending on what cards are dealt, some areas which are not dealt with will regress, which could decrease the chance of the Nazis consolidating their power base upon Hindenberg's death. Thus, the game is very much a balancing act. An interesting, fast-playing game based on a rather unconventional topic. Goring's War (published by Minden Games in Panzerschreck #8) This is the "mini-sim" for Panzerschreck #8 - it is a simple card game simulating fighter vs. fighter combat during the Battle of Britain. A standard deck of cards is required and game components consist of airplane counters and a dogfight display which records the relative positions of the planes. However, the counters and the display are not really needed to play - one only really needs the deck of cards so long as one can remember the information recorded on the counters (basically, two numbers describing the performance and the durability - "hit points" - of each plane). In some ways, this game is similar to GMT's Rise of the Luftwaffe although the ways in which it handles such things as altitude (relative in this game as opposed to absolute in RotL - also changes in altitude are dependent on what cards the player holds as opposed to being a decision that the player was free to make whenever he chose to) and gunnery (rather than play cards to "shoot", players "shoot" whenever their "position" - determined by what cards they played - is better than their opponents) are rather different. One nice thing about the game is how it handled ammunition - it is limited, with each plane carrying enough to fire five times - thus, in certain instances, a plane which can fire might opt not to if the amount of damage it could cause were deemed to be too low to be worth it. Although this adds a bit more record keeping into the game, I believe the hassle is negligible while adding a nice dimension to the game - that of the player opting to hold his fire and wait for a surer shot. Overall, the game is quite abstract (as any card war game is to a certain degree) while retaining some "flavor" of air-to-air combat. The rules are simple and take up around half a dozen pages. The game seems to have been intended for 1 vs. 1 dogfights although one could easily allow for more players (and more planes) by adding another deck or two of cards. ===== "Whenever someone asks me to define love, I usually think for a minute, then I spin around and pin the guy's arm behind his back. Now who's asking the questions?" - Jack Handey