Hi Pat, Operation Michael is not popular because it's an "All-German" show. Playing the Germans is a blast. The Germans are attacking for about the entire game, and much of the time with devestating efffect. The Germans have more units, superior units, faster units, more atillery, superior artillery, lots of sturm blocks; that can move in the exploitaiton phase, and the best toy of all, GAS-GAS-GAS! It's a fun game to play the German. On the other hand, playing the British is an aquired taste. For the British player it's crisis, after crisis, after crisis. You don't have effective artillery and you never have enough units, and you never get enough reinforcements, and the Germans never seem to stop coming. The Germans seem to fly accross the map, while yours plod along. It takes a tough guy to play the British! The British are not completely without hope. The British get exactly six tank units. Tanks triple all infantry and cavalry that are participating in the same attack. Of course the tank units must stack on-top, so as the German always knows where they are, and can target them for GAS and artillery strikes and tanks break down when you use them I attack with the tanks when I need to close a breach in the critical Northern trench line. The British player's one big advantage in the game is that the German needds to take damn near the whole map to win. So, you do have a chance! :-) As written, the game favors the Germans to win. The designer wrote an article in MMP's Operations Magazine, balancing the game quite a bit. I suggest using these balancing rules (The British need a break in this game) : #1 The German player _permanently_ removes one Sturm Block Unit of his choice every German reinforcement phase. #2 Exploit capable units can _not_ move in the exploitation phase if the unit is marked out-of-supply. #3 Tank units break-down only after they attack or after they move in the exploitation phase. #4 Tanks repair is acomplished by not being adjacent to a enemy unit, and not moving in a movement phase. #5 British reinforcements (not French) move quadruple (x4) movement points on the turn they arrive as reinforcemnts and must stop and end their move when they move within three hexes of a German Unit. With these rules the British should have a better time of it. Thanks, Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Collins" To: Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 7:19 PM Subject: Re: [boardwargaming] Games on my table! (Long) > > http://www.multimanpublishing.com/theGamers/scs.php I very much like "Operation Michael". It covers the Germans's last attack in the west in 1918. It's simple, yet the way the Sturm blocks combine/un combine do an excellent job of simulating the benefits/ drawbacks of those troops. I am mildly surprised not to hear more of this one. Regards, Pat Last Played: NWS: WWI, Monty's Gamble, Wilderness War