From the Front - Bunker Assault!

[enigma6584]

I read the manual but putting practice in play is what really does the teaching here. You can read and read, think about it long but frankly for me playing the game against those who know it well is what teaches me the best.

I just finished a game with Dog Soldier where I was the Russians and he was the Germans assaulting my fortified line of bunkers. He maneuvered, I counter-maneuvered constantly moving disrupted troops out of the bunkers and replacing them with fresh troops. The battle went right to the wire where he at the last turn managed to take the bunker with the most victory points. I watched as this guy (Dog Soldier) maneuvered his forces around my stacked defenses and went right for the prize while ignoring those victory points which weren't going to get him that victory. In hindsight, I should have abandoned several bunkers in order to create another defensive line around the main victory point location, thus creating another tripwire which in turn might have delayed his attack and ensuring me a victory. Instead, as mentioned, I sat my forces in their bunkers trying to hold positions which he really wasn't interesting in going after, even after my forces were released from "fixed" positions with plenty of time to maneuver.

My defense against Dog Soldier was working but came apart because he maneuvered his forces much more efficiently than myself and already he had his eyes on the main prize while I was trying to defend everything as opposed to understanding what his real focus was. I found that out too late and didn't have enough troops positioned to blunt that last attack and lost this game.

I think this game does a pretty good job of "simulating" the grind of war in its 2D format. It has everything in it like assaulting fixed, fortified positions, maneuvering, terrain implications. I like the feel of fluidity in it, the constant need to be able to maneuver, hold, move again, hold etc., the need to think 3-4 turns ahead and be ready to change those plans due to what is just happened on the battlefield the last turn. There is so much it offers in terms of experiences with these battle scenarios. You can play a scenario one time and have a completely different experience on another try.

My only want with this particular game is more alternative scenarios to broaden my experience in "what could I have done differently?"