I'd played Operation Mercury once before, in a hobby store. At the time I got pasted pretty bad as the New Zealander/Greek force, but enjoyed the system. I purchased Operation Mercury a couple months back after reading a book about the Crete campaign I picked up at the library (game publishers have to love a guy like me-- I read a book about something then go look for a game to buy on the subject). I didn't get a chance play OpMercury until last night for all the usual reasons. Having played the first scenario all the way through (versus a human!), and having achieved OVERWHELMING AXIS VICTORY as the German player, I developed a serious jones for this game. Pros: Variability. Don't you just love watching your supporting elements (battalion mortar team) land in the ocean and drown? It happened to me. Don't you just love launching an uncoordinated frontal assault versus fanatical, dug-in savage Maori tribesmen because you failed the command cohesion roll? It happened to me. But I laughed at danger! I really like the unpredictable in wargames, and OpMercury has it in spades. Good rules. The naval combat/search/supply sequence, while vastly important to the campaign game (more so for the Allies than the Axis) is still not the primary focus of the game overall, so the rules abstract naval combat in an elegant fashion. Air combat is also abstracted to a point, with different mission allocations and mission result boxes that affect how you will allocate air the next turn. I liked the different combat types: Assault, which is conducted in rounds and relies heavily on the units' "efficiency" rating to hang tough; and Maneuver Combat, which is more of a classic odds-based CRT approach to combat resolution. Artillery is treated the way artillery *should be* in a wargame-- as a support arm that can either bombard, support assault/maneuver combats, or conduct defensive bombardment. Best of all, I think, are the wacky command cohesion rules. If you are out of range of a HQ, you have to roll for each units' cohesion prior to an attack (under 3 on a ten sider). If you fail, you perform an uncoordinated attack. If you fail miserably, you perform an uncoordinated frontal assault. What fun! If you are *in* range, you role under the HQ's efficiency (usually a 6,7 or 8) which gives you a much better chance of coordinating your attacks. Good graphics. This is not the full-blown, "every counter is a work of art" GMT approach. The maps are servicable, with clearly depicted terrain differences. The counters are standard NATO symbology with colored symbols to show units. Very easy to comprehend at a glance, which is more than I can say for Battles of Waterloo or SPQR. Wacky unit mix. The game compensates the Allied player for his generally more brittle and less efficient ground units (and lack of airpower) by giving him a wacky mix of Greek partisans that come back from the dead, New Zealander convicts, British regulars, and a rag-tag of Australians. True, the Germans get those butt-kicking Italian San Marco Marines (seriously, they are rated high in this game) but the Allies win the prize for ad-hoc formations. Cons: Lamentable rulebook organization. The rules give the abridged sequence of play, then don't present the concepts in the sequence of play in any kind of order. I couldn't follow the air combat sequence, which in the book refers to Step 1, step 2, step 3... until I looked at the back of the rulebook, which had the super-deluxe annotated sequence of play (with all the steps listed on it). This is the only place in the rule book (the back page) where all this stuff comes together. I had to flip back and forth, scanning pages for concepts because the Table of Contents sucked so bad. Price: Reasonable, I think I got it under 30 dollars but had to get it from a mail order company because I thought the retail price was way high. How it Played: The scenario was to take Maleme airfield with a battalion of Sturm companies with supporting glider landings and support elements landings. The initial drop wasn't *too* much of a disaster-- I lost all but one of my artillery but kept my AT gun. The New Zealanders (with some Brit armour and AA gun assistance) stubbornly held on to Maleme for several turns. Due to the lateness of the hour and the victory conditions, this was not going to be a maneuver contest. I consolidated my Sturm regiments and performed several coordinated maneuver combats versus the monster Maleme airfield stack. I was fortunate that I managed to drop a smaller stack between the airfield and the rest of his forces, since the ZOC problems kept him from relieving the airfield. Several air bombardments on Maleme whittled his defenders down to the Brit AA and Armour unit. They succumbed to an all-out, supported, and coordinated attack the next turn. I held Maleme throughout the Maori counterattack easily enough (his best move was the assault combat, and my superior efficiency levels saved my butt). Overall, OpMercury is great fun. Like a good steak, combat is impressive and bloody. Variability makes it a fun time and highly replayable. Playing time was roughly 8-12, and we didn't finish the scenario (though he conceded the victory after Axis victory conditions were apparent). Regards, Walt O'Hara ohara_walter@po.gis.prc.com my opinions are my own.