Yep... it's another pretty negative review of a game I really want to like. Hopefully I do such a lousy job that you decide to buy the game anyway.
This review is based on seven plays (total) of the first five scenarios, and from compiling the War Stories collected rules threads from all Liberty Road and Red Storm rules threads that existed at the time, and from getting in Internet slap-fights with the designer over the definition of "hexside." There are 12 scenarios in the game, plus another 12 in the companion game War Stories: Red Storm(the rulebooks are nearly identical), so if you want an easy way to dismiss this review, consider that there's quite a bit of the game that I haven't seen.
For a solid overview of the game's systems and nice photos of the components and somewhat less enraged jibber-jabber, I recommend <PERSON>'s review.
Links to other games I'll compare minor bits with War Stories:
- Band of Brothers: Screaming Eaglesand Band of Brothers: Ghost Panzer
- Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! – Russia 1941-42and Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel! – Kursk 1943(I haven't played later games in the series)
- Combat Commander: Europe(I haven't played much other than the base game)
Boring paragraph about my emotional history with this game: caught up in Sturm Europa!/Michael <PERSON> fever, this is one of few games I've ever backed on Kickstarter; although I wasn't totally clear on what I was buying, excitement was high. Shortly after funding, there was drama where <PERSON> was off the team; I was pretty sure that money was down the drain. Then, as the rulebook drafts started getting posted, they were looking surprisingly good... really good. A year later, big beautiful games arrived. I couldn't believe it: those crazy bastards had actually pulled it off!
That, uhh, was the high point.
Let's start with the stuff I love--I mean really love, the reason I'm having to wipe away tears as I write this, the reason you may begin to suspect I'm launching into angry rants on unrelated topics intentionally.
Actually, first, I suppose I should get this out of the way:
Yeah, yeah, components.
The components are great. 993
I mean great--all the cardboard bits are thick enough to make Fantasy Flight fanboys jealous; the graphic design is clear & professional, with the rulebook's margins packed with helpful diagrams; everything you need to know about terrain effects on movement & combat are printed right on the terrain pieces themselves; all the map & counter & card & rulebook art is consistent... this game looks great.
(Except for the Wreck markers; they look like Carrion Crawlers from the old D&D Monster Manual.)
(Full disclosure: maybe the reason I'm fine with the artistic style is that I've been spending a lot of time looking at Band of Brothers: Ghost Panzerinfantry counters, which I think I've grown to aggressively hate.)
Oh, Band of Brothers reminds me: it looks like the War Stories box isn't going to fall apart. Amazing, this... cardboard box technology. I haven't tested this yet, but I believe you could beat a home intruder to death with a full box: it's that sturdy and packed full o' wood. If you're on the fence about this game, consider the safety of your family.
When applying the stickers to the blocks, you do have to do the "which side of this block is least messed up" thing, but having bought over 20 block games from 4 publishers, I can't remember one where that wasn't the case.
(A minor complaint is, given all the stuff that can happen in a single turn, with various units interrupting others, and some units activating twice, it might've been nice to have a few markers to indicate stuff you need to remember for the whole turn, like which units have already taken opportunity fire.)
(Oh, err, uhh, there's also a fair amount of errata for the cards; it took me ten years of arguments to scribble on as many cards in as I did in my first week with War Stories.)
To end this section on a high note, it comes with a cloth bag to draw combat chips from; that's a nice touch. (Although slightly silly, as you also need another bag or a cup for drawing damage tokens from.) And they embroidered army symbols on the bag?! Are you kidding me?
However, I've been defending the "NATO symbols & paper maps are just fine" hill long enough that my affection can't be bought with your "mounted mapboards" or "cloth draw bags" or whatever else kids are into these days. I will say no more about the components.
"I just love the stuff I love! 386