The game is an IGO UGO system. I like the command and control system with a minium number of orders with randomness added for the total. Also, as you purchase units based on the size of the battle, this will have an effect on the total number of orders. A battle rating added up by point costs of units, each with a rating based on it's status, and all add up to a number. As the game goes on and casualties happen, or other issues, and random chit is pulled to subtract the BR number, or add a random event.
This gives it that fog of war flavor. When your BR gets to low, the game ends, as your side most likely would quite the field at that time. So it's not about killing the whole enemy, or exhausting yourself doing so, but husbanding your forces to acheive victory. It forces people to use more realistic tactics.
To this end, I found that the game also uses aimed and unaimed fire, and suppression of the enemy. To suppress the enemy can be just as good as killing them, in that you can maneuver and take objectives, while still causing an effect on the enemy, and force the BR to decrease to a breaking point, before yours. The game is not so grainlular to fight in great detail close combat, artillery, mortars, and infantry or tanks, and even aircraft, but enough realism for use of appropriate tactical choices, without bogging down. There are reserve movement or overwatch, and opportunity fire as ordered. Each unit when activated gets two actions, and can move and fire, or fire and move, or fire and fire again.
Its all D6s, and a lot of them. Spotting is important, as fog of war and use of smoke seems to be worked into the chances for aimed or unaimed fire, versus a lot more rules of hiden units and the like. I like the artillery and communication rules, and "close combat" is very simplified at being within 5" of the enemy.
I like that even with the 2nd edition rules, I still use all the books.
As I use 28mm, so the battlefield gets crowded if I don't watch it, but I have a custom 10 x 6 table which I built in the garage, so that seems to work well if indeed I need the space. I use metal bases for the figures and group them on stands for ease of play, with magnetic group base, to keep them together.
As an option to take up less space with my 28mm figures, I use casualty markers and less figures to equal a team. Also, all of my vehicles are 1/56 with or a few larger 1/60 scale, but no 1/50, 1/48, or 1/43 scale models to full up the spaces.
The game requires some preparedness to make it work smooth, but the end result is worth it.
I did not want to do a review of the game, in as much as I wanted to simple describe gameplay a little.
likes the look of the Soviet KV-1 tank, and plunges into a project to paint three of them - plus a spare KV-2 turret!
