From: Pietro Cremona <asterix@LINKNET.IT>
Subject:      Thirty Years War Quad

Eric Pass sent a message to the ML asking for our impressions on this game.

I bought the original SPI game some years ago in Englad, from a friend who
did not like the period and I played it really many times.

It is a tipical game of the "classic SPI era", easy to learn, very good PBM
possibilities, solitaire validity, fast to play and funny enough to invite
you to play it again and again : actually I am playing a game of LUTZEN with
an AHIKS Finnish opponent.

As Eric says the main characteristic of the game is its "fluid" ZOC, that
oblige you to maintain a compact line and to form massed groups of cavalry
to flank your opponent.

Before each move you may fire your guns (a lot of luck is necessary here to
make a hit at long distance (6 or more hexes) and a hit means "desrupting"
and opposite unit: guns never destroy a unit - At short distance (1 or 2
hexes) the chances of hitting are very high ... but guns cannot move from
the original position) then you advance and you search the contact against
the more vulnerable part of your opponent.

  ZOC are fluid, and you may pass near an ennemy unit (if that opportunity
arise) without stopping, but you MUST attack all undisrupted units in your
ZOC at the end of your move.  This means that the initial shock is the most
important of the game : all units are "good" and (usually) in line, so you
have to soak off some of your units in order to have good chances against
other and REMAIN IN PLACE after combat, so that your opponent must
counterattack or retire.

As soon as the combat proceed, more and more units will be disrupted and
unable to attack untill reorganized so combat becomes "CRY HAVOC" as you try
to finish them off and gain points.

Victory goes to the side with more VP, and they are gained killing enemy
units and/or controlling specific hexes.

The best games are, in my opinion, Nordlingen, Breitenfeld and Lutzen (in
that order) : I recently bought the DG edition because their counters were
beautifull, but I haven't played THE WHITE MOUNTAIN yet.

I think that those battles are funny to play and give you some feeling of
the era, but they are not real simulations : I am not interested anymore in
complex games that perfectly simulate the real battles, as they are so heavy
to study and perfect field for rules lawyers (that I ... hate) so I must
confess that I am perfectly satisfied with THIRTY YERS WAR Quad.

Ciao

Pietro

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                                   Pietro Cremona     -  Old Hand Wargamer
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                                                        FORLI' - Italy
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