Black Gold
Mississippi Bonzai
Natos, Nukes, & Nazis
Poland '39
Berlin '45
Victory in Normandy
Red Sky Morning
Smithereens
Wahoo!
Black Gold
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"Gem 'cause I like alt.hist. Interesting and tinkerable. Germans/Japanese
fight over Iran. Complex:7." DM
"These are all gems if you like alt.hist, which I do. The results
in such game lack a bit of substance for me though." JD
"Gem. Love the NNN world." TS
"I found the Japanese just didn't have enough punch here. OK." RL
"Complexity 5. Fun, manly gaming " RF
"Gem, if you like alt-hist (and I do)." DW
"I thought, "well I'll give the alt.history thing a try." I just
couldn't get into it. Either I lack imagination, or I lack a sense
of humor or something, but if this was all there was to board wargaming,
I'd be a minis guy all the way. For me, a dud--but not because it
didn't work as a game. It's just the topic seemed so totally crazy
that I couldn't see the point of it." JB
"Alternate history is fun. I've solitaired Black Gold and found it
difficult for the Japanese to break through the initial German defence
line." SO
Mississippi Banzai
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"Gem. see above. But not as good as BG. Bloody CRT. Stalingrad in
the US midwest. Complex:5."
"These are all gems if you like alt.hist, which I do. The results
in such game lack a bit of substance for me though." JD
"Gem. Can you hold back the horde whilst awaiting reinforcements?" TS
"Minor Gem. I like this the best of the three, espically with the
nuke rules."
"Complexity 5. Ditto [Black Gold]." RF
"Gem, but not as good as Black Gold." DW
"Complexity 3(4?). A good slugfest in the American Midwest. Good,
brutal, mindless mayhem." DGH
Natos, Nukes, and Nazis
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"Gem. see above. Get the Moves mag that featured a detailed look at
this Miranda design. Beautiful components. Interesting interplay
between air/ground rules. Refight WW3 in Europe. Complex:7" DM
"These are all gems if you like alt.hist, which I do. The results
in such game lack a bit of substance for me though." JD
"GEM! Good, fun game with plenty of options. This game and its
brethren are tailor-made for the "funky unit" aficianado." TS
"Intresting game, designed by Joe Miranda, has a reasonable background
to how history developed, lots of special units and political rules.
There was supposed to be a chinese front counterpart that never
appeared." RL
"THIS is one of my all time favourites. I have solitaired this over a
dozen times. Most of the time NATO wins, usually due to overwhelming
airpower. The only strategy that I have been able to come up with for
the Nazis is to launch a massive holding box raid on the first turn,
and try to catch NATO without any strategic air, so that I can nuke
the USAF, RAF, French, and everyone else's airforces into oblivion. I
am still trying to figure out what I should do with my special forces:
Try to organise partisans and stir up trouble behind enemy lines, or
use them as elite strike teams against enemy air holding boxes. The
former is more effective for the Nazis than NATO, as the SS have a LOT
of security troops to deal with spec.ops types and NATO doesn't. I
usually end up sending lots of terrorists and subversives as the
Nazis, and doing lots of holding box raids as NATO. Another reason
for avoiding the holding box raid (HBR) for the Nazis is their extreme
shortage of MAC units, whereas NATO is awash with them. Once the
Nazis lose theirs, it is unlikely that they will be able to replace
them, as they can't even keep their front-line TAC up to
strength." DGH
"NNN is a gem, both as a game and because of the detailed explanation
of the background for this particular alternate world. Balanced, too -
I've lost both as NATO and as Germany :-( Too bad the Asian companion
game was never published." SO
Poland '39
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"After being defeated by Case White with its enormous number of
sub-divisional unit counters, enormous number of unnecessary air rules (for
this one sided battle, anyway), and enormous wasted map space, I was really
looking forward to Poland '39. At last - a playable div-level operational
game on the campaign that started the big show. I punched my copy
mmediately upon arrival. The rules were straightforward and the components
clean and good looking. Half way through the first game, though, ennui
descended, and we found it an effort to keep pushing counters. It just
seemed to lack that little spark - that feeling of specificity - that makes
these things worth the work even the simplest require. As the Germans have
such overwhelming strength I think the situation requires something more
than the generic XTR WWII game system employed here; pehaps even some
Command, HQ, and Supply rules (anathema, anathema!) to show the expert
planning required of them to gain such an "easy" victory." DT
"Some years ago, maybe some of you guys remember a little
Poland 39 ziplock game by the same people (I think) who did
Jagdpanther/Battlefield magazine. God, I loved that little game!
Graphically, it was pretty homely, but it had...what, *something* that just
kept bringing me back over and over (You know, you say to yourself, "this
time I'll give the Poles the extra AT units, and see if they can hold 'em
off for another turn or two."). Anyway, you can probably tell where I'm
going with this: the Command game was just nothing like this; in fact, it
was kind of like nothing much of anything in particular. I can't really say
this was a dud; I mean it worked ok and looked decent at least. It was
basically another Miller Lite. And at some point, don't you just start to
think, "why bother?"" JB
"This one was never as much fun as berlin '45. I can't really say why." RL
Berlin '45
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"I liked it though I played it solitaire. I don't know how competitive
it is." MP
"Berlin seemed like an exercise in futility unless you chose the
alternate history scenario." CWM
"Fun game, lopsided, but fun." RL
Victory in Normandy
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"Interesting game that focuses on activation points, the allies start
with 2 a turn and can go up to 5, the Germans start with 3 and stay
that way. Very simple clean mechanics and quite a bit of nailbiting.
I'll have to say it was not my favorite game on the subject (BKN and
an older spi/tsr game on a respectively smaller/larger scale are
better IMHO). I did like the game however. I would call it solid but
not outstanding." PB
"Unqualified gem. A great look at the campaign. Looking forward to A
Second Front Now!" JD
"Loved it. Who would believe that you could play 80 turns in a sitting.
The corps support units were a nice touch. It really taught resource
allocation. I've lost as both sides!" MP
"Mabye I don't get it, but this game reminded me of an interminable
bad meal. Well, can't please everybody I guess." AR
"Played it three times now. Once on an Express train from Heidelberg to
Hamburg. Small map, great system (Bring reinforcements now or attack?).
Good balance, if the German player manages to keep the Allied troops in
the Invasion zone. Once the Allies break out, the Command Points help
putting the Germans to rest. But 80 turns may only sound like much. In
this game they are NOT." PK
"Tried it once or twice. I was a bit disappointed; probably because I was
playing BKN at the time..." JH
"VIN, though overshadowed of late by BKN, received quite a few replays." CWM
"I think it's pretty difficult to get anywhere as the allies, but
it's also a very good game." RL
"A classic design. I did playtesting on SFN as well. Imagine invading France
when there is still a real German army!" TR
Red Sky Morning
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"I really enjoyed this very alt-hist. ziplock. A
semi-strategic look at a 2nd US-Japanese war in the Pacific circa 1990s.
Had the distinction of appearing right around that book "The Coming War
With Japan". Area movement. Premise: Japan turns rabidly
nationalist...buys the Sov Pac fleet, adds a few surprises of its own
(stealth carriers, etc.) and lines up against the 7th Fleet. Very bloody." DM
Smithereens
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"Smithereens is a gem, but be sure to include the errata. I didn't like the
one-factor Allied units though." JD
"This is XTR at it's best/worst. Beautiful Map, clean graphics for the
counters, clear rules, - and it plays nothing like history. The Soviet
and Allied strength is so great that the germans only tatic is to build
massive city hedgehogs from turn one on. While not nearly as exciting a
game, Omega's Victory in Europe models the collapse of the Riech much
better." RL
Wahoo!
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"Wahoo is cool." JD
"'Like this game. Plausible alt-hist with a neat rule for initial entry.
(they may not be where you want them.)" MP
"I got this primarily because my former house in DC was located on the map
and was very disappointed. As with most later era XTR alt-history games,
there no background to the battle, just a quick not that Lee's here,
Washington's over there, and the AoP will come down that road shortly.
What irritated me more than anything was the lack of historical unit
designations. You moved around a bunch of 4-6 units with ID's from
1-99. What fun :(" RL
