Richard Simon - Mar 27, 2011 12:18 pm (#51777 Total: 51892) I'm Not as Good as I Once Was. But I'm as Good Once as I Ever Was! OotW at GMT East is The Spanish Civil War. I had been looking at this game since it came out and couldn't quite bring myself to pull the trigger. For one thing, I have been in "Not buy everything that catches my eye" mode for some time, plus I have a game on the Spanish Civil War that I really like (Espagne 1936). But Bill Ramsay picked up a copy and while we were playing something else, i got a chance to look in the box. At first glance, this is a really nice-looking game. The Charles Kibler map is really quite attractive (and very function, as well) and the counters are both simple, informative, contrast well with the map, and plentiful. So not being completely immune to the temptations of well-turned game components, and since there was a sale at the convention, I managed to snare the last copy that they had, Several hours later, Bill and I got a chance to play this thing. I had heard that this was an "Old School" war game and I think that it accurate: It took Bill and I less than a half hour to grasp the basics and start pushing the cardboard. In this case, "Old School" doesn't mean tired and boring (like me), however. Just because many of the mechanics are tried and true, doesn't mean the game is trite and ewwwwwwwww. We played the first scenario, which represent the beginning of the war, and it starts out like a pillow fight - both sides swinging but not inflicting a lot of damage. (Although the Nationalists did have a couple of their pillows loaded with french bread ) It's challenging enough trying to figure out how to make headway with units that don't have the fighting power of a room full of hairdressers but soon enough, some of the units start upgrading, reinforcements start coming in, and the action starts heating up. Throw in some (nasty) random events and, before you know it, you're having some fun. Our play was somewhat sub-optimal, not because we couldn't figure out how to play but because we didn't realize some of the implications of the design decisions. For instance, the CRT is entirely expressed in step losses - no retreats (along with a short list of pertinent mods). Stacking is six units so it may take you some time to winkle the enemy out of the hex its defending (especially when half your attacking units have a combat strength of one ) The Republicans all start out in columns, which get penalized because they're both rank amateurs and as cooperative 9with each other) as a bunch spoiled six-year olds. But their columns eventually upgrade, some into units that are actually useful, and they start to get some air and tanks. The Nationalists have their own problems because many of their initial units don't upgrade - they simply leave the map. But they do get the Condor Legion and they also get some Italians who manage to hold on to their weapins and actually use them (quite well, actually) so things go back and forth. Quite a lot over seven turns, as a matter of fact. Our game saw the Republicans make some headway toward linking up the the two separated fronts while the Nationalists made lots of headway in the south. Not the way it happened, in reality, but quite plausible. I think it took us a little over two hours to play through seven turns (and we were absolute newbies to the game) and we enjoyed it a lot. We wouldn't play the same scenario the same way if we played it again but we would play it again. And this is the Introductory scenario. Look, I'm not telling you that this is the greatest game to come down the pike or that it's the height of simulation. But it has more than it's share of plausibility to it (i.e. feel), it's playable (and probably replayable), and it moves right along, and we had more fun than we anticipated. I really haven't seen a lot of buzz over this game, which, I think, is too bad. There's a lo more to this game than you might think. At first blush, I'm glad I bought it and I actually look forward to mplaying it again (and remember, this was only the Introductory scenario, and we all know about those . And we all know about them.