• Ron Mosher

COVERAGE: Name says it all -- S'grad at the T'works 13-15 October 1942.

COVERSHEET: Full color picture of their now famous/will you get another picture Italian guy(big nose) in German Full-length mink coat with a luger?, plus tiny negative(as in photo) pix of city overflight with a small box containing some minimal data on contents - i.e. its Stalingrad and we researched it and here's the stuff. Backside is empty.

REQUIRED STUFF: Had to compiled this myself, so if I'm wrong --is it me or them?--Beyond Valor, Platoon Leader 2.0? or higher I presume? (Maybe I'm wrong, but if it's playtested with 2.0 will 2.11+ make a difference?), and some Red Barricades rules.

MAP: 40x37 hexes, full color, hexes slightly smaller than regular ASL hexes. Rail-lines treated different than ASL; is that Rubble or debris as you look across the map. But in the end the depictions are very different than ASL - for example in RB debris is easy ID'd as "some" board like thingees while on the DTW map just some small grey dots or something.. Rubble doesn't look like rubble -- O.K. it's "artistic" but I buy to play not hang on my wall.

COUNTERS: none.

RULES: 2.5 pages new terrain with pictures, only complaint is the partially destroyed bldg. picture is placed so I thought it illustrated the DEBRIS rule. CG rules uses PL 2.0 or PL 2.11? For PL 2.11 8 additional pages not included --you can download on web --but what about the dude with no access? 3 page charts (2 hard card on back of CG set-ups). 2 pages "corrections" to PL 2.0 - what use if inet access? Only one-half page actual rules and most of them a "variant" for MG use. There are 2 short CGs included, 6 scenarios and 5 scenarios - no long ones, a long one would have been nice.

CHAPTER DIVIDER: none -- but flimsy one sheet playaide, not hole-punched, contains reduced map and on otherside massively enlarged hexes for 2 buildings, called "large stack play aid".

SCENARIOS: 4, all on historical map, cartoon dudes, good photos, hardcards grey/white no colors, 5-7 turns on one-eighth to one-third of map. Minimal SSR's, look playable. Personal problem -- forget the "any mutually agreed upon alteration." think it s-cks big time.

OTHER STUFF: none but previous mentioned PL 2.0 mods (superceded by PL 2.11).

GRADE: C- If they had needed any counters and stuck in their usual kit stuff would be lower (bigger hexes, more scenarios, a big CG, kill the cartoons, better play aides, chapter divider, drop PL stuff and go to KGP/PB/RB rules, a B+) currently a good 20.00(not a typo) module, if you can live will the small hexes and have PL 2.0 (if you don't have PL 2.0 or access to Inet -good luck finding it and cost goes up).

For the non-US gang - A+ is the best and F is the worst in our grading system "E" is not given out. A C- is barely passing, a D- means you showed for class and only slept there on Mondays.

OPINION/ BIASES: The above is MY opinion. I am biased in favor of fun, playability, standard rules, good graphics(quality components) and a game a large bunch plays, so I can find opponents. Anything that screws that up I'll dump on. I have no vision of REALITY, only my own personal view of reality, and I don't think it's relevant here.

• Steven J. Pleva, Critical Hit

I've heard some comments about the size of the DTW hexes. Let me explain how we got to the current map.

In order to make the hexes larger, we would have had to:

A) Make the area of the map proportionally smaller, or

B) Make the map in two parts.

We rejected A because we felt that if we eliminated an area of the map, the feel would have suffered greatly. We needed the North and South sections of the map (the critical dimension). We could have lost some area on the Volga side, but that wouldn't have helped.

We rejected B for three main reasons. First, it would have driven the price higher. Second, it would've required a bigger table area to play. We received much feedback indicating that the RB-sized map was too big. Last, there are only two buildings where stacking becomes a real problem (hence, the reason for the "Large Stack Play Aid"). For the most part, stacking is not as severe as it gets in RB. The game (specifically the CGs) was designed to be more playable for those with relatively limited gaming time. We felt that a long/large CG was not what the average gamer was looking for.

Granted, you may not agree with our reasoning, but we felt that the end result was the best compromise for the most number of gamers.