This is a review of the scenario introduced in The General Jul-Aug 1975 Vol. 12 No. 2. It's the one with the Tobruk cover.

For 15 cents I Xeroxed a copy of the counters, got out the Elmer's glue and some cardboard, and manufactured some units. Turned out pretty good if I do say so myself; all in shades of grey, the Belgian units were almost the same color as the Germans but they had a "grainier" quality so I could tell them apart. [Two copies in different colors would have been better. Red and Blue?]

Victory: The Germans must 1.) Capture two of the three western fortresses; Sedan, Diniant, or Namur. 2.) Exit 70 Mech. factors and 3.) not lose more than 25 Mech. factors. Let the scenario begin:

First of all, a wave of German infantry enters the map. What was kinda neat was that the infantry's road bonus is 2 X, cavalry 3 X, and Mechanized is 5 X; very different from Bulge '65's infantry zipping around as fast as the Mechs. Soon, the panzers were passing through the infantry headed for the forts. This was met by Belgian and French "speedbumps", numerous 1-5s and 1-3s that got pushed back into new defensive positions. This was the pattern for the first 7 outta 10 turns. Luckily, the Germans lost only one 4-5 Mech unit due to the almost unavoidable Exchange results of the high odds CRT. Lose two 16-5s and it's GAME OVER, dude.

One problem I found was that one French unit, the 10-3, had no NATO symbology on it. Was it inf? cavalry? an art. unit? or a garrison unit with a 3 MF misprint? Wikipedia soon set me straight: it's an Infantry unit.

One thing different from the normal Bulge was that very few Allied units enter from the far north and south map edges. There's no need to protect the sides of the bulge and plenty of newly arrived reinforcements to guard the supply line. One less worry. Around the VP forts, I was entrenching like crazy. Finally, on Turn 9, a 1:1 assault takes Sedan; a one-in-six chance! From there, 75 Mech factors exit fulfilling one of the three victory conditions. Meanwahile, the drives toward Namur and Diniant had stalled; just too many blocking units made it impossible to attack the forts at the inevitable low odds. As in Afrika Korps, the game came down to taking 2 of 3 Tobruchs in the final turns; a few die rolls settle the game.

Final thoughts: It was short and fun; something that would fit nicely into an evening. Perhaps it needs an overrun rule to eliminate all those pesky, ahistorical, suicidal Allies. Or perhaps the German Mechs should have by-passed the speedbumps and left them for the infantry to clean up. They need multiple assaults on the forts to have a chance at victory.

Worth the effort? Yes, but if I had the time, I'd rather play Bulge '65.