[Consim-l] What I bought and what I played in 2006

[Brian McCue]

When I put 95% of my game collection into storage in 2004 and moved here to the
desert island with just 13 boxed games and a stack of ziplocks, I thought I would be
separated from my collection for only two years; I intended minimal purchasing, or
none at all.

As the two-year point approached it became clear to me that I would be here at least
three years, and now possibly four (which is the absolute limit as far as my employer
and I are each concerned). So I resumed game-buying, with an emphasis on "project"
games because I have little opportunity to play.

One set of purchases has been drawn from Critical Hit's Advanced Tobruk series,
starting with the title game and all the expansions, and also some of the other
titles. This system has matured since the game first came out, and is now quite good.
It is ASL-like in scale (squads, individual vehicles, 50-yard hexes), but not in
structure.

I see ATS as scratching an itch that is distinct from that of Avalanche Press's
_Panzergrenadier_, since the latter's scale is that of _Panzerblitz_, albeit with a
modernized system that includes command and control and with a design philosophy that
is closer to design-for-cause than is PB's, which I consider to be almost entirely
design-for-effect.

In each case, I have a problem with LOS-intensive games that are not doubleblind, so
I prefer the system's North Africa incarnations, though I have bought some East Front
as well. Also, a damaged ATS _Arnhem: Defiant Stand_ came my way for cheap, so then I
"had" to order the recently-released _Osterbeek Perimeter_ expansion.

My other acquisitions have been Avalanche games in the SWWAS series, _Leyte Gulfe_ (a
going-away gift from my group in VA), _Strike South_ (Java Sea) and _Bismarck_. I
have yet to make much of an evaluation of any of these.

Brian

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