31 Budapest '45
32 Bunker Hill
33 The Great War in Europe
34 Death and Destruction
34 Gazala
35 Mason-Dixon
35 Balkan Hell
36 SS Panzer 37 Mukden
37 The Moscow Option: Guderian's Gambit
38 The Great War in the Near East
39 Strike North: Scandinavia in WW2
39 Hoorah!
40 Buena Vista
40 Moscow Burning
31 Budapest '45 ------------------ "OK. Nice quick game. Limited FOG is always fun." PRC
"Game was okay, but didn't bear repeating. Seemed like every turn both sides adjusted the line a hex or two, every combat resulted in a step loss for both sides, and after the Axis declared their third surpriseturn and reached Budapest everyone had one step left." DEN
"At first I was disapointed in the time frame covered, I would have rather seen something on the later Lake Balaton Offensive. Once thisdisapointment wore off, I discovered a good little game. It is a rare game that allows both sides an attack and defense opportunity at once. The Soviets must capture Budapest while the Germans are trying to breakthrough and relieve the garrison. The roster sheets may prove awkward to some, butare they really more awkward than using the more common strength chits?" WS
"Good game, although play balance is suspect for us. For the record, think the much-maligned roster sheets were put to excellent use here - they produce limited fog of war while showing completely different unit capabilities without any hassle. I would expect that someone who can't be bothered to hold a pencil will ultimately not be up to thetask of reading wargame rules either." MS
"Played it against two opponents; one liked it a lot and the other found it so boring that he wanted to call off the fight in mid-game. I thought it was lots of fun and wouldn't mind playing it again. The roster sheets don't bother me much." SO
32 Bunker Hill ------------------ "A game that deserved better graphics. If you can get past it, a very nice game with a decent feel for the strengths and weaknesses of both sides." PRC
"Pretty ugly map. Game was okay, and I think gave a good account of the battle." DEN
"Sister game to Hougoumont and the system still is interesting,although I preferred the topic of the first game. Also, unfortunatelythe map is crude in comparison and gives the impression of night inthe Aleutians rather than sunshine in New England." MS
33 The Great War in Europe ------------------ "Ty should praise the day he met Ted [Raicer]. Close to the Hope Diamond." PRC
"Truly excellent. I actually did find the game well balanced, whole-war wise. I knew it was great when I saw the Montenegrin army counters. I like detail...and that can be different from complexity. A very good simulation, too." AW
"One of the few Commands out of the first decade that I've tried. Inever completed a game, but I had fun-fun-fun going through a couple of years, and analyzing opening strategy. Gem." DT
"Neat game. The only gem of the lot. Whatever the official word from Ted, during my playings the game had balance problems, and I was recently able to trade it for some other cool stuff rather than try to find a fix for the balance. It was good playing, and good trading. Thanks Ted!" DEN
"The most indicative thing I can say about this mini-monster is that I have played it several times thourgh--solitare. I love this game, and it is never far down on my to do list for a replay." CWM
"Too little played yet for ultimate judgment, but very interestingdespite a number of ahistorical oddities (like the attacker-friendlyCRT or the crazy supply rules). Awesome-looking when set up.Probably Beth Queman's best map." MS
34 Death and Destruction ------------------ "Added some needed errata. Okay if you like the Eastern front by Command, which I don't. Got a lot of money for the set even though punched, so it was cool in that regard." DEN
"By the time I figured out how to survive as the Russians in Proud Monster, I took one look at the number of counters and decided I was too exhausted to play the rest of the war out." CWM
Gazala ------------------ "If you liked Port Arthur, you'll like this one. If not, you won't. Samesystem as Bud'45." PRC
"A dud. Asymmetrical sequence of play kept British from doing muchinteresting. I was most disappointed." DEN
"Not quite perfect - some aspects, especially supply are so abstractthat they alter the character of the campaign - but the tacticalplay produced by the asymmetric sequence of play is good (hard for the British but very satisfying when it comes together), the fog of warreasonable and the outcomes believable. Gem under probation (I am not yet sure of the British ability to win if the German does not makemajor errors)." MS
"I tried this, but didn't find it as enjoyable as Budapest '45 though thesystem is the same. Can't really say why, though." SO
35 Mason-Dixon ------------------ "A gem and a half." AW
"This was the game that I most looking forward to during this recent period of Commands, but I was disappointed. Scale is really an issue for me here: It looks like the designer really wanted to show as much of the US as he could on the map, and to do that means creating large-scale hexes. But then you get into funky issues like intra-hex combat resolution--some of which appeared in this game. I didn't like that. The rules were not particularly clearly written either, imo. I'll be in the minority on this one: it was a dud for me." JB
"A huge bunch of experimental systems packed together. The topic is also well-chosen in that it allows to try out 70 years of operationalprogress on the same map - unfortunately, to learn to effectively useall those new ideas, I'd need to play this very often, but that won'thappen because the topic is ultimately insufficient to hold interest.Also, some aspects seem to have escaped notice, such as WW1 era supply lines being just as flexible and hard to break as 1990 ones (front lines? who needs front lines), and airmobile units move only twice as far over the course of a week as foot infantry." MS
"Have tried one of the scenarios so far and will probably try the others some time. I like alternate history." SO
Balkan Hell ------------------ "The map was terrible, as are many Queman maps, though I thought this one was her second worst after Piercing the Reich. I couldn't see the terrain." DEN
36 SS Panzer ------------------ "It was entertaining, but there was too much errata. I think a lot of itwas XTR consciuosly deciding to leave a lot out of the rulebook,stripping it to the minimum. This left a lot of players trying to findclarifications or making asumptions about what should have been clearlystated. As these asumptions were different from gamer to gamer, therewere problems when trying to play it ftf, as I found out. Still, I likedit and kept the game." DEN
"My first impressions were quite favorable, but they didn't last. It was animpressive game, physically. The amount of errata needed to work itthrough and the excessive die rolling quickly got old. I'd sooner returnto Task Force's Armor at Kursk." WS
"A roaring good time to play. Victory seems impossible for either side, butyou have a lot of fun getting to a bloody draw." CWM
37 Mukden ------------------ "Interesting mechanics -- I like the way XTR experiments withnon-standard sequences of play. But ultimately boring, and hencedisappointing." DT
"Another game killed by an asymmetrical sequence of play. Dud." DEN
"Played a couple of times. Ok." CWM
38 The Great War in the Near East ------------------ "A gem that adds much to Ted Raicer's initial game. I also found iteminently playable on its own." DM
"Interesting, but couldn't get into it." DEN
39 Strike North: Scandinavia in WW2 ------------------ "I am a Campaign Norway aficionado who owns all the games on thissubject I could find. This game is an interesting approach with a goodmap. I've found it works best as a Germany-invades-Sweden scenariofrankly." DM
40 Buena Vista ------------------ "Frankly, I've had a tough time interpreting the rules. There's a goodgame in there. And I am interested in the period. But it hasn't been easyfor me to intuitively grasp the concept of play..." DM
"Rules are sparse, leading to the same interpretation problems as SSPanzer until you get a lot of errata. Nifty game if you can play it." DEN
Moscow Burning ------------------ "A real hoot. Alt.hist....although I've tinkered with crafting a scenario for the anti-Yeltsin coup. This is very fun as a game. One player rebels, the other tries to stomp him out. Reminded me (of all things) of Awful Green Things from Outer Space...as bad things pop up unexpectedly all over the place." DM
"This is a gem. Forget about historicity; this is FUN. No game is alike, the outcome can be in doubt until the last turn, and there are lots of random events - I remember one game in which one fairly small Russian town kept being hit by nukes and plague." SO
