Combat Commander

[freeport_pirate]

I've finally had a chance to get back to playing some Combat Commander, GMT's boardgame of WWII infantry tactics. I played a game with Rob Heinsoo maybe a year and a half ago and liked it. (He was really tight lipped about what he was working on at WotC; in August I found out why.) I've wanted to give it another go ever since and lately I've gotten

Comments

[ptevis]

I enjoyed both and am starting to get a sense for the rhythm of the game and what you can and cannot expect troops to achieve.

This seems key to not only this particular war game, but many others as well.

[freeport_pirate]

Indeed, and it's something you really only get a sense of as you continue to play. The game gives you the data but play helps you interpret it.

[waiwode]

I found the cards too random, and especially in the beginner scenarios Artillery Request and Artillery Denied become essentially extra Command Confusion cards.

Thus the first game we played the Germans couldn't move at all (although they could Advance out of cover into the open once the Russians took the central house) for the first couple of turns, and with +10XP randomly added to the central house the Russians walked up, entrenched, and won, while in the second game we played the Americans never fired once, but won through a series of lucky Sniper events and a missed Artillery barrage that ended up on a pile of three broken German units ... routing them.

If we play again we think we will use the third faction's deck as the "flip" deck, to somewhat mitigate the pain of flipping over all the cards you need.

In the end, although it was talked up well, I regret the expenditure of 75 bucks on Combat Commander: Europe.

Doug.

[david_chunn]

After playing Crossfire, no WWII combat game will be the same. In fact, I've never played a more intense miniatures game at all.