Review after pre-publication demo played. | BoardGameGeek Forums

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

Chad Jensen — 2006-09-14T04:26:15+00:00

]]> Let's hope he can come up with a better satchel charge counter than that Stratego-looking thing you have on GMT's website.

Gregory,

I'm disappointed: You don't like my Wile E. Coyote bomb artwork?

Don't worry, that one's only staying on the Italian counters....

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

saxophone — 2006-09-13T23:38:31+00:00

by saxophone

]]> That is my home-brewed playtest art. GMT's art dept - led by the talented Mr Rodger MacGowan - is working on the "final" full-color illustrations.

Let's hope he can come up with a better satchel charge counter than that Stratego-looking thing you have on GMT's website.

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

Smougman — 2006-08-02T15:27:16+00:00

by Smougman

]]> I still get a little tinge of excitement in my gut every time I read a new review or report on this game. I really think this game series is going to hit that bullseye area between complexity and fun that will allow me to find players amongst ASL buffs and M'44 buffs equally.

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

Chad Jensen — 2006-06-22T16:48:36+00:00

by Chad Jensen

]]> MacGowan you say...think i'll get a copy. Thanks for the reply!

Thank you, sir. And welcome aboard!

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

macca — 2006-06-22T12:39:02+00:00

by macca

]]> MacGowan you say...think i'll get a copy. Thanks for the reply!

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

Chad Jensen — 2006-06-22T03:35:17+00:00

by Chad Jensen

]]> Re the counter art - is the counter art we see on GMT's site for CC the final version?

Murray,

Nopety-nope. That is my home-brewed playtest art. GMT's art dept - led by the talented Mr Rodger MacGowan - is working on the "final" full-color illustrations.

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

macca — 2006-06-22T02:32:25+00:00

by macca

]]> Re the counter art - is the counter art we see on GMT's site for CC the final version?

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

AllenDoum — 2006-06-20T17:44:14+00:00

by AllenDoum

]]> dalestephenson wrote:
I'm not aware of any games GMT has ever made with a mounted map, although the board for Winds of Plunder (not a wargame, but has a map) will be mounted.

Santa Fe Rails had a mounted map. And Rome a double-sided mounted map. Euro style in both cases. (No vally)

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

Beyak — 2006-06-20T15:20:07+00:00

by Beyak

]]> Cool, but just out of curiosity... How can you download this game and attempt to play it? I didn't see cards or counters posted anywhere.

Combat Commander

breakmanynecks — 2006-06-20T13:21:47+00:00

by breakmanynecks

]]> After downloading this game and attempting to play...
I would deffinitely call this game "ASL Lite" or "Squad Leader Plus" The basic game mechanic is entirely different, it reminds of John Hill's other Tactical Design "Fire Team".
I see a lot of potential here, but I'm real sucker for a good Tactical situation!

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

m:cafe — 2006-06-16T04:48:52+00:00

by m:cafe

]]> I'll be the first to say it; once you get a sheet of plexi-glass for your gaming table, you'll wish ALL of your games had paper maps!

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

dalestephenson — 2006-06-13T14:01:55+00:00

by dalestephenson

]]> nicktaruffi wrote:
Being a huge former ASL fan ( and current UP FRONT active player )I'm for sure interested in this game, bit I'm concerned about the quality of the maps: are they mounted ( rigid ) ? I was rather disappointed by the poor quality of GMT maps, even by the "deluxe" maps that even costs extra money such as Paths of Glory's.
Paper-thin maps can RUIN a wonderful game imho( such is the case for PoG )
My 2 cents

Paper maps -- six, double-sided. I'm not sure even the C&C:A box could stand up to twelve mounted maps, and I'd hate to think what the price would be.

I'm not aware of any games GMT has ever made with a mounted map, although the board for Winds of Plunder (not a wargame, but has a map) will be mounted.

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

nicktaruffi — 2006-06-13T12:45:49+00:00

by nicktaruffi

]]> Being a huge former ASL fan ( and current UP FRONT active player )I'm for sure interested in this game, bit I'm concerned about the quality of the maps: are they mounted ( rigid ) ? I was rather disappointed by the poor quality of GMT maps, even by the "deluxe" maps that even costs extra money such as Paths of Glory's.
Paper-thin maps can RUIN a wonderful game imho( such is the case for PoG )
My 2 cents

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

PaulBravey — 2006-06-10T00:56:32+00:00

by PaulBravey

]]> From what Chad said at KublaCon, Vol2 will contain Brits, Italians and French. I think he also mentioned the minor nations but I can't remember which set they're in, if at all. Volume 2 is already written - I think the only reason that it's being released as two volumes is sheer size.

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

Beyak — 2006-06-10T00:24:16+00:00

by Beyak

]]> tomg wrote:

With luck the game's designer would reply.
Tomg

Chad is very good at responding quickly to any questions regarding Combat Commander either here or in Consimworld. However, I know that he is in Tempe AZ for Monstercon right at the moment. He is due back in town on Sunday so probably won't be able to respond until then at the earliest.

I can't wait for him to get back so I can play some more CC

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

tomg — 2006-06-09T23:36:49+00:00

by tomg

]]> Anybody have any idea about Vol. 2 and if it'll release simultaneously or a while from now? And how will it be different?

It seems highly unlikely that Vol. 2 will be released with Vol. 1, since only
Vol. 1 is on GMT's P500 list. Beyond that it is hard to say how long it will
be until Vol. 2 is released. If the game turns out to be very popular Vol. 2
may show up as quickly as the expansion to Command & Colors did. I've got the
feeling that the designer has already done work on Vol. 2, so that is a
possibility. Then again Vol. 2 may take quite a while before being released
due to lack of interest or a lot of other product that GMT wants to release.

How will it be different? The game's web page indicates that the other
volumes will contain other nationalities. My quess for Vol. 2 would be
the British and Italians. It is also likely to contain new maps and new
scenarios. I would not expect the rules to change.

Off of the above is just my guess. You could try asking on the forum on
Comsimworld for this game,

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?50@982.5r8tb1UA6Nh.13@.1dd0...

With luck the game's designer would reply.

Enjoy,
Tomg

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

crusader4x — 2006-06-09T23:20:08+00:00

by crusader4x

]]> Anybody have any idea about Vol. 2 and if it'll release simultaneously or a while from now? And how will it be different?

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

jimmyqjr — 2006-06-09T21:18:56+00:00

by jimmyqjr

]]> Yeah, I was going to say, its like saying someone is between just born and dead!

Good review, thanks.

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

tomg — 2006-06-09T20:57:04+00:00

by tomg

]]> Thanks for all the comments.. I have make a couple of edits based on
the points mentioned.

Now lets all join together and chant

We want Combat Commander Now!
We want Combat Commander Now!

Enjoy,
tomg

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

sdiberar — 2006-06-09T19:24:50+00:00

by sdiberar

]]> tomg wrote:
This game falls between Memoir '44 and ASL
both in terms of complexity and in time it takes to play.

Don't mean to be picky, but almost my entire game collection fits this description.

Excellent review, I can't wait for this game to hit the streets!

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

BagpipeDan — 2006-06-09T05:30:37+00:00

by BagpipeDan

]]> *GMT DEVELOP THIS FASTER*

If we all think that hard enough everything will magically speed up!

Re: Review after pre-publication demo played.

Beyak — 2006-06-09T00:51:36+00:00

by Beyak

]]> Great review Tom,

I saw only a couple of details that you may have missed.

First, the secret objectives you said can only be achieved by the player holding the card. Well, not true. At the scenario's end all objectives are exposed and points are awarded to which ever side holds those objectives. The only advantage of knowing the secret objectives is that you know where to best allocate your on board resources.

Second, you said it would be easy to come up with a way to generate a random scenario. Its actually very easy. I believe a random scenario generator comes with the game.

Also, remember the Initiative Marker that can be passed back and forth to reroll dice rolls. Sometimes its a huge factor in the game and sometimes it never changes hands. Perhaps in the scenario you played it wasn't a big factor.

Anyway, great fun reading your review.

Review after pre-publication demo played.

tomg — 2006-06-08T19:43:47+00:00

by tomg

]]> Combat Commander Vol. 1 Europe is a game that has been generating
a lot of interest and has recived a lot of pre-orders in the short time that
it has been on GMT P500 list. Hopefully that means that it will get released
soon. After playing a demo, and watching two others, at Kublacon 2006, I
can see why. This game is well designed and a lot of fun to play. The
designer, Chad Jensen, was doing the demos. He is quite friendly and while
talking with him it was apparent that he has put a lot of time and thought
into the design of this game. The results are a well polished design that I
believe will be a very successful.

Overview:

Combat Commander is a squad level game of infantry tactical combat
during WWII. It joins several simular games in this scale and period
including Advanced Squad Leader and Lock 'n Load: Band of Heroes.
The designer's inspiration for this game was Squad Leader and Up
Front. So what makes this game different and worth playing?

First it combines a hex map and cardboard unit game with a card driven game
play. This has been done in quite a few games, but not for a tactical level
game. Looking at a gamme in progress one could mistake it for a game of
ASL. The map shows individual buildings, walls and roads. Each
cardboard unit is of a squad, team or leader. The values on the units show
its firepower, range, movement and morale, while leaders also show a command
rating. But to the side are two decks of cards and each player has a few
cards in their hand, much like in Up Front.

This does sound a bit like Memoir '44 in concept, but is actually
quite different. In Combat Commander multiple cards are played in
a turn while in Memoir '44 only one is played. In Combat
Commander a card play determines what type of action can be done and
the player selects the unit or units that undertake that action. In
Memoir '44 a card play indicates how many and which units may act
with the player deciding what actions those units will do. The result is
that Combat Commander feels much more like a wargame with deeper
tactical and strategic depth than Memoir '44, while not being that
much harder to learn and play.

Game Play:

The fate cards control several aspects of the game. Each card has 5
sections, Action, React, Event, Random Hex and Die Roll. Each section
is used in different situations. Each time a card is turned over only
one of these is used, and the others are ignored. Action is used when
a card is played as an action during the player's turn, and specifies
the type of action that one or more units can undertatke. Possible
actions include Fire, Move, Advance, Rally and Rout. React can be
used at any time by either player and includes such things as Assault
Fire, Ambush, Grenades, Dig In, Opportunity Fire and Smoke. They are
played in response to an Action being taken and often modify the results
of that action.

Die Roll shows the result of rolling two six sided dice. Combat
Commander does not use dice, instead when a die roll would be
called for, the top card of player's deck is turned over and the die
result on that card is used. There are 36 possible die roll combinations
with 2 six sided dice. A deck consists of 72 cards where each possible
combination is appears on two cards. Also if the die roll is surrounded
by a red box then this indicates a Trigger. These Triggers only take
effect if the card was turned over to obtain a die roll result. Possible
Triggers include Jammed, Sniper, End of Turn and Event. If it is an Event
then the next card is turned over to determine what event occured by
looking at the Event seciton of that card. Events include things like
Air Support, Booby Trap, Battle Fury, Hero and Pinned. Some Events
and the Sniper Trigger need to determine which hex that they effect.
In this case another card is turned over and the Random Hex section
is used.

In Commbat Commander players alternate turns. Each turn a
player takes a number of actions, typically 2 to 4 as specified by
the scenario, where each action is a play of a card and resolving
the action specified by that card. The number of cards in a player's
hand is determined by the player's Posture which is also specified by
the scenario. A Posture of Attacker gives 6 cards, Recon 5 cards and
Defender 4 cards. A player will resolve the results of one action,
including any die rolls and possible Events that occur, before selecting
the next to use as an action. Taking an action is optional and if the
hand does not contain useful cards one can discard and replace some of
them from the hand instead of taking any action. This is especially
usefull when the hand contains cards with the Command Confusion action.
This is a special action that indicates that card cannot be use to take
any an action. So hopefully that card has a useful reaction on it,
otherwise it takes up a space in the player's hand.

Taking an action involves activating one or more units which will
attempt that aciton. As is typical in squad level games one or more
units in the same hex, or some or all units within the command range
of a leader may be activated. Each unit may be activated only once
during a players turn. The handling of actions will be familiar to
those who play other squad level games. For example, movement involves
counting the movement points used to enter each hex. The terrian in
the hex and on the hexside crossed determines how many movement points
are needed. Also during movement the other player may fire on the
moving units if they are in line of sight and they play a card that has
a Reaction of Opportunity Fire. This means that there is always an
uncertainty when moving units if they wil be fired on or not.

Combat fire is also handled in a typical manner. The total fire power
is equal to the firepower of one unit, plus the number of other units
also firing, plus the number of weapons (such as machine guns) firing
plus the leadership (if a leader is involved), plus terrian advantages
(such as firing downhill), plus the sum of a 2 six sided dice roll. This
is compared against the targets morale, plus any terrian cover value,
plus the sum of a 2 six sided dice roll. The results of these two values
are compared to determine the effect, which can be no effect, target
becomes broken, or even the target unit eliminated.

There are two things that are different in the resolution of fire combat
in Combat Commander. First is that an event can occur as the
result of the die rolls. This gives a wide range of possible things
occuring. Second both sides can play cards as a Reaction during the
combat. The attacker can use reactions that increase their firepower,
such as Sustained Fire or Grenades while the target can use reactions to
help them such as Concealment. So the card play has a large effect on
the outcome.

There are many other things which the game handles such as melee,
ordnance weapons (but no tanks), mine fields, fortifications, calling
for artillary fire, etc. which I will not cover in this review.
Instead the current version (which will change little from the
released version) of the rules is available online at the GMT Games
website. The link to the rules plus sample maps, counters and
scenarios can be found at http://www.gmtgames.com/combatcomm/main.html

But how does one win a game of Combat Commander? A point score
is kept during the game. Points can be gained for eliminating enemy
units, moving your units off the far side of the board, control of
mapboard objectives and possibly scenarios specific conditions. At
start of each game 3 mapboard objectives are selected from a deck of
cards. One of these is placed face up and one is given to each player
which is only seen by that player. Also, during play addition objectives
may be drawn. Each objective is one or more locations on the mapboard,
often buildings, that must be controlled in order to gain the victory
points specified. This incourages both sides to push forward in order
to gain or deny control of potential objectives, since a player usually
doesn't know what all the objectives in play are.

Then there is the Initiative Marker which counts for one victory point
to the player holding it at the end of the game. During the game the
Initiative Marker can be used to cause another die roll to be made if
the player holding the Initiative Marker does not like the roll just
make, but then the marker is given to the other player. Since it is
worth a victory point, the player must decide when it is important
enough to use on a re-roll.

Combat Commander plays quickly with little or no down time.
A scenario can normally be played in about an hour with the couple
of longer ones taking up to 2 and half hours. So two scenarios can
easily be played in an evening. Both players are always involved
due to the ability to play cards for their Reaction.

The one scenario that I played felt like there was a fair amount of
luck involved, somewhat more than in a more traditional game such
as ASL. In addition to the die rolls, there are a some events
that occur. On the other hand this can keep the game interesting in
that you can never be sure how a scenario will play out. I don't
know if this is typical for the game or just due to having only
played once.

Componants:

Since the game is not yet released and final artwork is still to be
completed only a couple of things can be said about the componants.
First there will be over 600 counters of 1/2" and 5/8" size. There
will be 72 card decks for eadh of 3 nationalities, American, German,
and Soviet. Later games will add other nationalities. Included will
be play aids and a track display which shows the current turn and
point score amoung other things.

The game is planned to include 12 maps. These maps are not geomorphic
and cannot be combined. The playtest maps look very good with the
terrian easy to determine, yet subdued enough to make looking at them
easy on the eyes. Each map is 11 hexes by 15 hexes and measures 17 by 22
inches. This makes the hex size large enough that counters do not need
to be stacked to fit within the hex. It was vey nice to be able to
see all of ones units at a glance.

The rulebook is currently 24 pages and will likely change very little
from what will be released. The rules are well laid out, quick and
easy to learn. The rules suggest that beginners only read a portion
of the rules and can then play their first scenario. When references
need to made to the rules, it is easy to find the right place to look.
Also, I apprecaite that the rules include a glossary and index. A copy
of the current version of the rules can be found on the GMT Games web
site at http://www.gmtgames.com/combatcomm/main.html

Summary:

I am very impressed with Combat Commander and already have a
copy on preorder. This game falls between Memoir '44 and ASL
both in terms of complexity and in time it takes to play. The rules
are easy to learn, and game play flows well. All the work that the
designer has done shows. The game is very well designed and any rough
edges have been polished smooth. Most of all this game is fun to play.

Replay value is high, both because there are up to 12 scenarios included
in the game, and because of the events that can happen. I have heard
that the game will come with rules for generating random scenarios, and
I expect a lot of fan created scenarios to appear.

For anyone interesting in WWII tactical wargames, give this one a close
look. Unless you must absolutly have tanks in the game, I think you will
enjoy Combat Commander. I expect that this will get a lot of play and
with expansions planned that add other nationalities it will be around for
a long time.

For more details on the game see its web site at
http://www.gmtgames.com/combatcomm/main.html

I rate this a 9 out of 10. Note that only one game has ever received a
rating of 10 from me.

Enjoy,
Tom