To: <admin@grognard.com>
From: Roberto Chiavini <mumaye@mail.dada.it>
Subject: two reviews for Grognard

Remember the Alamo (TSR)

This is a microgame design published by TSR in the early Eighties
simulating the famous struggle at the Alamo in 1836.

The game comes with a mini-map of the Alamo mission and its surroundings
and 84 thinly die-cut counters, representing the various Texan and
Mexican forces present in that battle. The graphics of the map and of
the units are very good for a game appeared almost 20 years ago, very
pleasant to the eye, equal to several good DTP effort of today and
better than several other ones too.

The game is played on an unlimited number of turns, until one of the
part obtains its victory conditions (based on the number of enemy units
eliminated from play).

Each unit (there are infantry, cannon and leader units) is rated for
melee and gunfire die roll modifiers, while movement is fixed (3 squares
for each unit, less the cannons which are unable to move). 

The game is based on a simple sequence of play and rotates around tons
of die roll to obtain retreat or elimination results in melee or fire
combat. There are even rules for line of sight (non clear in a couple of
instances, but all in all playable) and for the use of ladders for
scaling the wall of Alamo.

The situation is very good for solitaire play, as the Texans are almost
certainly doomed, but the system is too easy to be really effective and
boredom rules after a few dozen rolls.

Only for real fans of this battle or for people loving to roll tons of
dice (but even them may try Eric Lee Smith's Alamo - published by SPI
and reprinted by Decision Games - to get more fun).

I rate this game 5 «  out of 10.