From: Carl Fung Subject: Re: Onslaught:Caution consim content! On Tue, 13 May 1997, Charles W. Sutherland wrote: > I have been tinkering with and old copy of Onslaught. I was wondering > if anyone has any experiance with this game as to balance. I really > seem to like it for some reason I can't put my finger on it though. > It seems to play fairly well with the germans having a chance to > through the allies a curve or two. I wonder how this would play with > the PGG system? Are you referring to the TSR/SPI game Onslught? Great simple game. This was my first wargame and sure didn't overwhelm me. But as I got into other games, I realized this game had some quirks about it that pretty much put the balance on the Allies. First off, the supply system was too restricting, More for the Germans but also the Allies. I ussually rate games on their ability to recreate how the battle/campaign/operation actually happened. In onslught, it is virtually impossible for the Germans to bring in as many divisions to hold the Normandy Front. On the other hand, I found it impossible for the Allies to break out of Normandy by Late July, as with Operation Cobra. With the two week turns, the CRT doesn't really afford the wholesale destruction of forces as what happened at Falaise. When the Allies do break out of Normandy, they do not have enough Supply points to reach the Borders of Germany by September. Granted, even Patton felt the sting of gas shortage, but I can barely reach the Seine when in history, Allied troops were on the borders of Germany. The paucity of supplies also does not allow the Germans still defending the coasts to pull back and defend Holland and more importantly Antwerp. The Siegfried Line battles are going to be tough going for the Allies but eventually they will break through, most often from the British up North and the Saar region. That is unless the Germans use the Last Offense option. But this is most fruitless, in game turns and in real life. By the end of the game, namely March, will find the Allies have either some or most of their divisions across the Rhine, but not the the extent the Allies did in March of 1945. That is, it is impossible to trap the Germans in the Ruhr area. One sleaze move is to drop all available paratroop divisions on the edge of the map and totally cut off all German supplies and rienforcements. That's it for historical accuracy. As for game design, it is good at the least. My two qualms about the game is the CRT and the supply points. The generic divisions make for easy setup but lose the "unit pride" sense. I want to know my guys I'm putting into battle. I think the SS Armored Divisions were woefully too strong. They could never take a pounding and were eventually defeated by using all available supply points just to encircle them and kill them off. Unfortunately there aren't tha many games that cover this subject. Several that come to mind are France 44, Decision in France, West Front and a few others. Many other just cover specific areas of this campaign, the Normandy battle, Market-Garden, or the Bulge. I recently purchased Against the Reich and it looks like a better version of Onslaught. Just me talking, Carl