Operation Cobra Rev 2

[Big Ivan]

Greetings All from the fat man from Cornland, USA...

OK Ed, I threw the gloves down and further insults may be forthcoming but in the meantime the challenge is on when Viller44 hits the TV screens near you. Pick your poison my friend and we'll have at it! When we're done we have fuel to tear apart the designer! That's a lot of fun in its own right!

I think Dan said somewhere about fresh meat. Well when your swimming in a shark tank its all fresh meat, Isn't it Dan?

OK my sales pitch....wait for it, here it is...

Somewhere long ago when I was extremely handsome, more reckless, ignorant, less needful of alcohol and brash I read where some fellow said that the Campaign Series is a great "Brigade Level" game where one moves and engages in combat with platoon size units.

My vision of a Brigade in CS: Roughly 3 Battalions and some support companies.

In my designs I've always tried to live by that, keeping the forces on the board no bigger than a Brigade (2x) in force total. With that you get a scenario in size 7-9. Add some artillery and airstrikes and the scenario is manageable in play and time.

The 250 meter hexes and roughly 6 minutes of time is the finite scale we have to live with. Some of these super large scenarios are a lot of fun to look at but in terms of the game scale kinda miss the mark. One of my pet peeve's is handling with any degree of accuracy the time transition from day to night if needed in a large scenario. Sure there is a way to mechanically set this with the game engine but night actions are way different than day actions as far as the individual units are concerned and I don't think the game scale or engine allows for that adjustment well. 

One scenario, and I don't remember the name or the author, tries to reenact the German 6th Army or part of it being surrounded at Stalingrad. Its a hell of a lot of fun to look at and my hats off to the designer for his intestinal fortitude in making it but I know for sure I would never start turn 1. For one thing, I would be afraid the engine would crash due to heavy loads mid game and all my hours spent would be down the drain.

Finally, One of my faves in scenario design is the great and powerful "von Niemack". In my honest opinion he got it right and his scenarios have stood the test of time. A lot of his creations are spot on classics giving any CS player much to do and think about yet still manageable with time. Personally I have had a lot of hours of enjoyment playing his creations and I truly wish he would have made more!!

Cheers!
John