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Date Posted: 05:28:08 02/04/04 Wed
Author: Mark Dyson
Subject: A couple of newb opinions
In reply to: Mark Dyson 's message, "Hello and a question" on 19:11:54 02/01/04 Sun

Currently my sources are, as I mentioned, 3rd Ed. COI manual and the v1.04 "Classic Squad Leader" (hereafter called CSL) printout.

Interesting note on that printout: I still have a decent stack of issues of The General that survived both my mother and my ex; In Volume 20, #4 I found a very useful article by Bob Medrow ("Getting it All Together," page 23) that addresses both my desire for a 'unified' approach and the later effort by Ian McDowall in CSL to physically compile all the latest rules under one cover (without having to get mired into the ASL money pit).

Anyway, I digress. Resources. I've been comparing the differences between the CSL rules (mostly the armor ones; if you hadn't already guessed I'm a wannabe tread head) and the COI version, as well as referring to the SL/COI charts and tables that come with VSQL. By the time my copies of the games arrive I'd like to have at least the kernel of an approach mapped out as I dive into the learning pool. I believe I've formed two opinions--at least as informed as they can be given my current source material.

1. I like the added complexity of the COI armor rules, and believe I'll like the GI additions even more. Bear in mind, I own and very much like Tobruk--though during the Hal Hock/Don Greenwood word wars of the late '70s I found myself resonating more with Mr. Greenwood's arguments than with those of the defensive-seeming (and lamentably late) Mr. Hock's.

2. I'm very ambivalent concerning the bypass rules et al. But, in that vein, I’m just as ambivalent concerning the LOS rules. I’ve played tabletop miniatures, and (obviously) I’ve played hex-based tabletop. I start to get leery of rules sets that start out hex-based and then try to integrate miniatures-like functions like using printed features instead of hex limits. To its credit SL does a yeoman’s job trying to offer the best of both worlds; I’m just offering my opinions and not declaring intent to boycott or anything. ;-) I think I would have been more comfortable with the hexes-plus-miniatures approach were the scale more like that of, say, Close Assault/Firepower (both of which I own and like). I’ve seen the ‘Deluxe ASL’ approach using bigger hexes, and my reaction is, ‘So, add more little hexes inside the big ones.’ I guess my point is, if you’re gonna use hexes, and then try to make heavy use of a unit of measure even more granular than that, maybe your initial decision of hex scale needs to be re-visited.

Heh. Lest I sound like I’m ranting, I’m the one who owns all those mega-fiddly other games and who just dropped a chunk on the whole SL series, so hopefully it’s obvious how much promise I see in the SL approach. I’m still an opinionated cuss, though.

Cheers!
Mark

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  • And wrt to VSQL ... -- Mark Dyson, 06:36:09 02/04/04 Wed
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