From: Joe Thomas Subject: Blitzkrieg 40 (was 'Victory in the West' and 'Stalingrad Pocket') Peter Card said... >The most recent Command magazine contains XTR's take on France 1940, >including a 1939 scenario. I haven't punched it yet, but the designers >notes indicate that it avoids what-if options, and the armies perform >as they did ( or would have, in 1939) historically. You also get >Hell Before Night, recreating the battle of Shiloh in the ACW, so this >is a high value package at a reasonable price. Fellow CONSIMER Mark Guttag and I played through the first 3 turns (6 couplets) of Blitzkreig 40 Sunday, and had a very enjoyable day. By the end of the third turn, Holland was cooked. Mark had pushed the Allies back to a line of the Senne/Sambre/Meuse/Semois/Maginot Line. Turn 4 would have seen me pulling out of the Sambre/Meuse "bulge" to shorter lines anchored between Charleroi and the French border. With decent German attacks, I would have been back to my final chance at a defensive line, the French border, needing a "Full Committment" from the RAF to hang on... Germans had lost maybe 12 steps, none armored. He held Turnhout and Namur, half of Liege and the eastern 2/3s of Antwerp and Brussels... Here's some of our observations. 1.) This game is big! Unit density and numbers are high. I guess this should not take anyone by surprise, it is the Fall of France afterall... 2.) The balance given by the victory conditions and the issues of the move/fight vs fight/move considerations (You pick one or the other for your entire couplet--2 couplets per turn. Germans get a favorable column shift for fight/move, French get a negative shift for move/fight) make the game interesting. 3.) Once the Germans penetrate, the French are doomed. The Germans don't seem to have much of a chance to do in the North however. 4.) What's the deal with the couplets? We could not determine any purpose for them that could not be handled by doubling the turn numbers. 5.) The Dutch don't have a prayer. The Germans seem to be able to roll them with very little force. DOn't be fooled by the large size of the Dutch force. All those -2 and -3 volatile units just look like real units! 6.) The Germans out reinforce the French, that came as a surprise.... 7.) My Allies had nearly no opportunity to attack. Some questions we had: Do reinforcements come in each couplet or turn? The CRT goes up to 6-1, above 6-1 is treated at 0/3 (defender loses 3 steps...3 units for the French as all are 1 steppers) The Germans can easily get 9-1 or 10-1 in some attacks. If the defenders are in terrain that give say 2 defensive shifts, does a 10-1 shift to 8-1 (and thus still in the 0/3 category) or does it go from >6-1 to 6-1 to 5-1??? Final point, we found each other through Consim-l, would have never found each other without it. Thanks to those that make this list a viable, active entity!!!! Do reinforcements come in each couplet? Joe Thomas Sr. Marketing Manager, Data Warehousing/OLAP Alliances Worldwide Alliance Marketing Oracle Alliance 415-506-5566 Fax:415-633-1646 jhthomas@oracle.com "Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectos Nunc"--Addams Family Motto