Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Review: Dispatches From The Bunker #25

Walter Eardley
Much to my delight, I found the latest Dispatches From the Bunker in my mail box yesterday. It looks like another solid issue from the guys back East. Of the 3 scenarios, two of them have moved to my Wanna Play List and the third looks like a quick tournament sized scenario.

DB061 – Housing Crash – With all of the subprime news lately this scenario title made me laugh. The main “Oh yeah baby!” factor here for me is the scenario is played on Deluxe boards. I am a sucker for Deluxe and look forward to anything new produced for those boards. It is Kharkov 1943 and the Germans attack with 10 838 sporting 6 DCs and 3 FTs lead by a 9-2, 9-1, 8-1 and 8-0. The Russians defend with 15 447s a HMG, MMG and a couple of 50* MTRs. Many of the Red Barricades rules are in effect including roof tops, factories, Booby Traps level C and a stealthy designation for the Russian elite and 1st line squads. With only 5 and a half turns to take >= 17 buildings, those 838 will need to be the Supermen they are touted to be. Instant wanna play for me.

DB062 – Heroic Defense of Wake – This looks like a great Thursday selection for the Austin Tournament. This is the Japanese second invasion of Wake. It starts at night and moves into daylight. There is a LOT going on in this scenario. It is very heavy on overlays and terrain changes. I saw on the ASL Forums someone had created a PRN file from VASL. I think printing this out ahead of time would really help. There really is too much going on to do a detailed write up but to me it looks like a blast. I will tell you the Japanese landing craft start beached Fast Aground at start so no driving landing craft (those rules are brutal).

DB060 – Acorns in the Fire – This is kinda your basic 6.5 turn combined arms low squad density scenario. It looks like good tournament fodder but does not make me want to jump up and down and pull the boards out. 8 666 and 4 347s lead by a 9-1 and supported by 3 75 Shermans and a M4 105 attacking 2 467s and 5 447s supported by a couple of Mark IVJs on boards 19 and 43. It is probably a solid scenario but again it looks kinda vanilla to me. I will add it to my tournament collection.

There is an analysis of Bloody Bobruisk and some other articles which I will have to spend a little time reading. Over all it looks good at first glance.

Walter

No comments: