More BGG math trade stuff

In a hope-renewing display of international cooperation, the postal services of the United States and Canadia worked together to take for-freaking-ever to deliver me my last installment of games from the last BGG math trade I participated in. I finally got the box last week, though, and finally sat down to check them out over the last couple of days.

For this lot, I traded away an unopened copy of Strike South, one of the Second World War at Sea series of games by Avalanche Press. I still have three other SWWaS games on the shelf (Bomb Alley, Midway, Eastern Fleets). I like the system well enough, but Strike South's specific subject matter never really grabbed me, I guess. I picked it up as part of a bundle, and I'd had it up for trade for quite a while. In return, I got a copy of one of the introductory Advanced Tobruk System ("ATS") games, 101st Screaming Eagles (by Critical Hit), and Red Parachutes (also, coincidentally, by Avalanche).

Red Parachutes was published in the mid-90's and is an unapologetically old-school hex-and-counter-fest. It is a big ole game, with just under 1,000 counters. Honestly, the chances of me ever setting this thing up, let alone actually playing it, are pretty close to nil. If I had infinite time, that'd be one thing, but I don't. So I just don't see how this ever makes it to the top of the priority list. I'll probably put this one back up for trade.

I traded for this lot, though, because of the other game I got, the ATS intro. I've had my eye on that system for a while, and I'm happy to finally have one of the games. Any tactical-level WW2 game (miniatures or otherwise) is automatically going to get a second look from me. I've made peace with the fact that I'm never going to get into the genre's granddaddy, Advanced Squad Leader. I've read a lot about ASL, and I've come to the conclusion that it's just ... too much. No knock on the system itself or its adherents; I'm just pretty sure it's not for me. ATS has always looked like an intriguing alternative, though, with a lot of the meat and depth of ASL -- but a fraction of the overhead.

The Screaming Eagles game comes with a rules folder for the "Basic Game," which is an abbreviated subset of the full-on ATS rules. There's a reference card with the handful of tables used in the basic game, four scenarios (printed separately on two cards), an 11" x 17" map, and way more counters than you actually need to play any of the included scenarios. The production quality is adequate, but nothing to shout about. The counters are on nice stock and are pretty utilitarian, but they do have a little bit of color to them. They also have drawings of men, guns, whatever, instead of just NATO symbols. That's a big plus in my book.

The rules are just four pages long -- albeit, four pages that are dense with a very small font. Still, there's not that much there, and it's not too hard to get through them. They strike me as generally fairly well written, but I definitely think there are a couple of passages that could have been more clearly worded. Anyway, I've read through them at least a couple of times now, and I don't believe there's anything in there too difficult to grasp, or particularly groundbreaking for a gamer with a bit of experience. Play is broken down into movement, firing, and close assault phases ("segments" here), units have movement points, troops taking casualties must make morale checks, etc., etc. I'd say overall, it feels like pretty comfortable and familiar ground.

One thing I definitely like about the system right off the bat is its abandonment of the IGO-UGO model. Players alternate activating individual units or stacks, which generally may only move or shoot in a turn. A game turn continues until both players have activated all of their units (that they want to). So, every unit has the potential to act every turn, but, again, generally they can only move or shoot, not both.

I also like the opportunity fire rules. Basically, every time a unit spends a movement point (either by actually moving or just pivoting, in the case of vehicles), any enemy within LoS may shoot at it, if the firing unit hasn't already been activated during the present turn. Taking an opportunity shot counts as the firing unit's activation for the turn, so it is by no means a "free" shot. There's certainly nothing particularly innovative about this system, but I do like the way the rules seem to strike a balance of making moving in the open a highly risky proposition while not turning opportunity fire into a completely game-dominating mechanism.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this trade, and I'm anxious to set up ATS for a solitaire session or two.