Thresher,
I have their rules but have not had a chance to actually play the game. I'm familiar with their tank-tank videos.
My overall opinion is that the games sequence of action and chit draws give a much more historically accurate portrayal of 1:1 skirmish combat than traditional games that us some version of unit activation or IGYG. You can really see the action unfold and the nuances, advantages, and disadvantages of dissimilar weapons platform performance. That's rare indeed in war games.
From watching the video and looking at their penetration charts, they've used Bird & Livingston's book for the data. For wargame playability, it does not get any better than that as I use the same data and formulas. But the game takes it one step further using the thickness/diameter comparison of the armor thickness and round caliber for penetration in the Anthology of Armor. That's great but too much detail for playability than I like for my degign but it is impressive none the less.
When you read the turn narrative it is very impressive but in my opinion overkill in the amount of data and the chit draw technique actually slows down the game.
The "Anthology of Armor" work is in my opinion, the best representation of penetration versus armor in a wargame. In certain circumstances, the penetration versus the actual thickness armor without calculating the compound angle can be a huge factor in determining the effective penetration of a round. I'm familiar with the concept and application but for me, it was too much for the game I designed.
Anthology of Armor has 210 pages of armor versus different thicknesses of armor charts. If you are into that sort of think it's worthwhile purchasing it because I doubt you'll find that data anywhere else.
Overall it's one of the best technical works out there for detailed 1:1 tank combat. Even if you buy the game and don't play it the data will go a long way in gaining a better understanding of tank-tank combat. The design and development team, from my viewpoint, really knows their stuff. My only complaint is I think it could have been simplified and made more playable.
Disclaimer: I'm somewhat biased in my evaluation of the game. I too use one-second turns but as a timing mechanism, and don't use the action chits as they do.
Mobius is probably more familiar with their approach and maybe this post will draw him out from his normal lurking status.
What say you Mobius?
Wolfhag
