· S&T #80 Wilson's Creek
· S&T #81 Tito
· S&T #82 Fifth Corps
· S&T #83 The Kaiser's Battle
· S&T #84 Operation Grenade
· S&T #85 Fighting Sail
· S&T #86 Cedar Mountain
· S&T #87 The Desert Fox
· S&T #88 BAOR
· S&T #89 Sicily: The Race for Messina
S&T #80 Wilson's Creek
-----------------------
"I like Great Battles of the American Civil War games so I liked
this one. Good, but not a gem." TES
"I like the battle & Missouri ACW and I am a big fan of N. Lyon so
I naturally enjoyed this one." LM
"GBACW if you like that sort of thing." MP
"A good intro to the GBACW system because of the limited size of the
forces, relatively short length, and CSA movement restrictions in the
early turns. The USA player had a selection of widely-separated
roads to use for his main attack, so replayability was high." DSB
"Nice treatment of the battle. Pretty balanced too." DM
"Wilson's Creek (80) was one of the first of the redone GBACW series,
featuring smaller battles to fit in S&T. The designers had to employ
a lot of special rules to simulate the near-total surprise of the
Confederates and subsequent confusion. I don't think it was the best
of the series." GGG
S&T #81 Tito
-------------
"Dud. Area movement and topic put me off." TES
"Bad." LM
"Area move. Bizarre map. Never could get into it." MP
"Picked this one up in a shop in Ipswich. Always thought it looked
interesting, despite all the negative press it's gotten practically
since Day One, but have never had the time to try it out." DLF
"One of the most "hate" games. Area movement and the static
situation probably turned us off." DM
"Well, for what it's worth, I thought it was kind of fun. I thought
that I actually learned something about the region, and about
irregular, partisan warfare too." JB
S&T #82 Fifth Corps
--------------------
"I like the system and I liked this one. Very good." TES
"Played it a couple of times. The friction rules were interesting
but a little tedious in practice." MP
"Not much experience with this one -- the Friction Point system
initially turned me off. The FP system inflicts "step losses" (that
don't affect combat strength) not only for combat but for each
movement as well. Furthermore in a single turn the opposing sides
can engage in any number of move/fight sub-turns. I had feared that
this meant each turn would last forever, but when I finally played
the introductory scenario I found this not to be true. Only the
first turn lasted forever -- after that all the units had to be much
more careful about burning FP's." DSB
"Prior to this most of my historical wargaming experience had been
with Avalon Hill titles, so it took a bit of adjustment to get used
to SPI graphics and presentation. Once past the initial culture
shock though I liked it. Played Fifth Corps a couple of times, had
fun with the armored cav units dashing about. The map featured areas
I had been living in and had been stationed nearby." DLF
"I for one loved this series, esp. the Friction Point concept.
Preferred the later games in the series though where the designed
cleaned up the rules." DM
"Fifth Corps (82) introduced a friction-point system that may have
been frustrating at first, but proved to be a good game once you got
used to it. NATO forces look fragile, but appearances are deceiving.
When combined with Hof Gap, its sister boxed game, you could do the
US Army in Europe in the late seventies/early eighties. We military
types stationed there at the time were really surprised how
accurately the designers pinpointed company-sized unit locations!"
GGG
"This was the full meal deal with the friction points. I thought it
was kind of an odd system. I liked the later games, when the system
was made "lite"." JB
S&T #83 The Kaiser's Battle
----------------------------
"Good." TES
"Good." LM
"'Don't see how the Allies can survive." MP
"An unexpected winner. Allied units die like flies, but the German
forces are fragile and they have stiff victory conditions -- to win
they must essentially advance from one map edge to the other (along
the long axis)." DSB
"The graphics were a bit plain but the game was fun; rapid German
breakthrough, slogging down as the offensive ran out of time. Think
I played this only once." DLF
"Loved those interesting unit graphics. Brittle Allied units but
challenging for the Germans to win." DM
"Kaiser's Battle (83) I liked, but not a lot of my friends. XTR's
1918: Storm in the West is better and covers the entire battle, not
just a sector." GGG
"Oprah sez: Don't go there girlfriend. I couldn't wait to get my
mitts on this one, and again, it was a case of wrong expectations.
What I wanted was a new and improved 1918. What I got was this
piece of crap. Maybe everybody else likes it, but I'm giving it a
dud with extreme prejudice." JB
S&T #84 Operation Grenade
--------------------------
"Victory in the West system. Like Typhoon (I think) Like the
variability in units and combined arms rules." MP
"More suited for solitaire play than a competitive experience
because the outcome of the game can be determined more by some key
die rolls (for bridge destruction and garrison unit entry) than by
player decisions." DSB
"I liked the variable strength counters, but it just couldn't
liven-up the op situation: Patton before Metz, big impact of
river/weather." DM
"An interesting, innovative yet simple system for combat during the
age of sail. Suffers from not including any DYO information so one
can only play the bundled scenarios." GS
"Read the rules several times but never got a chance to actually play.
The accompanying article was excellent. Nice short rules, serviceable
components. I still hope to dig this out and study it, and compare
it to the earlier SPI Frigate." DLF
"An undervalued classic. Very unique approach to Age ‘o Sail. The
designer noted elsewhere it is one of his favorite designs. Might've
been great with more visibility as a bigger game." DM
"Tried it, but it made me yawn." JB
S&T #86 Cedar Mountain
-----------------------
"Almost gem. A real nail biter for the Union to hold those victory
hexes long enough to win." TES
"Good game, nice use of Berg's system." LM
"Another ACW game in the same flavor as Wilson's Creek." DM
"Cedar Mountain (86) was a good GBACW slugfest and remains, amongst
us down here, one of the best of the series." GGG
"It also made me yawn (and this means that it was 5 S&Ts in a row
that just left me cold." JB
"I once toured the battlefield at a VOLUNTEERS Civil War Gaming
Retreat. The map has some important inaccuracies. Nevertheless the
game itself is interesting to play. Besides, it's another rare case
of a manageable GBACW title." DSB
S&T #87 The Desert Fox
-----------------------
"Gem. Looking forward to the redone version." TES
"I liked this one, nice improvement over PanzerArmee Afrika." LM
"Very popular but I'm not a fan of North Africa." MP
"Loved the mag cover. Nothing struck me as interesting in this
design as opposed to the loads of other Afrika games." DM
"And then everything was redeemed. One of the best N. Africa games
out there. Can't wait to get the remake. The supply system here
was intricate enough to make you think, but not so overpowering as
some of the later systems. This is a definite gem in my book." JB
S&T #88 BAOR
-------------
"Good." TES
"Another Fifth Corps. Eventually, you'd have all of Germany. The
Cold War ended as the last installment was released."
"The 2nd in the Central Front series: See Fifth Corps. Up north
with the Brits." DM
"BAOR (88) was the last of the Fifth Corps series using that rules
set; unfortunately there were no rules to combine it with Fifth
Corps/Hof Gap. I remember reading the proposed game topics and
seeing Cannae (drool, drool) in mega-detail. Then they folded."
GGG
S&T #89 Sicily: The Race for Messina
-------------------------------------
"Interesting system, but I didn't care for it." TES
"Good but not great." LM
"Best of the bunch. Victory in the West system." MP
"I held off playing this expecting it to be a bore, but the
historical campaign scenario turned out to be quite interesting.
The victory conditions are tied to Axis evacuation of the island,
so the defenders can't just sit in an impregnable line forever. The
design also seemed unusually well suited to mountain warfare." DSB
"A great game for the American players. Good also solitaire." DM
"Ok, and here we get to the last game that SPI put out in the
magazine when it was theirs. After this, they went on hiatus (you
know, it was that famous "assets but not the liabilities" line).
Back to the game: Personally, one of my fave all time S&T games.
It's subjective, but I think it's got a great "feel" for the
campaign. I loved the "chit-pull" system in this game, and I
always fudged it to make sure that the 5FJ got the best strength
points on its chit pull. Not to launch into a different thread or
anything, but this ability to vary the strength of a unit (via the
chit pull) is one of the great things about the paper wargames that
is not readily duplicated (as far as I know) in the computer
wargames. Anyway, this was a definite gem as far as I'm
concerned." JB
