THE MINOTAUR MINI-TOUR

HUNTERS FROM THE SKY by WIG GRAVES and DEAN N. ESSIG

from THE GAMERS

2 22x34” mapsheets, 840 counters, 28-page Basic rules book, 16-page game rules, 2 charts and tables booklets, two dice; boxed. From The Gamers, Inc. 500 W. 4th St. Homer, IL. 61849. $39.

Reviewed by SCOTT JOHNSON

Hunters from the Sky has dropped IN on hobby store shelves, hot on the airborne heels of GMT’s Operation Mercury campaign for Crete game. Hunters, the sixth game in The Gamers’ Tactical Combat Series, simulates the airborne assault on Crete’s Maleme airstrip on May 20-23, 1941. The game’s scale is platoons and individual vehicles, 20 minute turns, and 125 yard hexes. The game also sports the new, streamlined version 3.1 rules, which are supposed to be the finally fiddled variant. Then again, it’s hard to believe that Dean can ever leave the series rules alone for very long.

The Gamers is definitely pushing the “slick” for this game: slick box, slick maps, and slick counters. I mean this not just in the sense of a “jazzy” appearance. If you play Hunters, make sure the windows are closed, because a sudden breeze will move the slippery counters across the polished maps. (This actually may have some practical application in a Winter War version.) Of course, we again got lots and lots of color, all over the place, so much so that one starts to wonder when Dean will put the brakes on his graphics software.

The players’ situation is equally slippery. The German player drops his glider- and parachute infantry in the midst of the Commonwealth battalion defense zones, forms up his scattered forces, and then attempts to clear out all defenders from the Maleme airfield to pave the way for the airlanding reinforcements which will arrive nearly 32 hours (80 turns) later. A full day at the office, indeed!

This daunting task is eased by the justly infamous Commonwealth Creforce Command (who else?), the professional harrumphers who have rigidly anchored their forces to their corresponding battalion defense zones. None of their unreleased forces may stray more than ten hexes from their BDZ until they are released, and they aren’t fully released until 96 turns after the initial air assault. So they sit tight, waiting to be hammered by the German invaders, instead of dashing out to annihilate the scattered paratroopers… which is the Commonwealth player’s ardent wish.

The game allows a looser release rule by having the Commonwealth player roll two dice each turn. If they come up 11 or boxcars, then one battalion may be released. This is much like the Civil War Brigade series initiative rule, where the front-line commanders finally become weary of the Army Commander’s stupidity and inactivity and go take their forces on a solo attack (…the “I’m tired of this sittin’ around crap, let’s go get those guys and tell the General to go to hell” School of Thought). While not many wargamers would consider such decisive assertive action to be “insubordination”, court-martial boards tend to take a somewhat dimmer view.

The only way to get the ball rolling early for the Commonwealth player early is to have released battalions. At the start of the invasion, only a few units are released, and these are only a few companies and squads that are made of scratch units, RAF detachments - all their Spitfires got destroyed on the airfield, so they were left without a job - and the more colorful units, such as the three Bren carriers, two Matilda tanks, the Field Punishment Center platoon (a band of viscous orange thieves … the Dirty Navel Dozen, as it were), and the Band platoon, repelling the invaders with a medley of Gilbert & Sullivan, one presumes. The only thing missing was to bring the Minotaur out of retirement. This is the reaction force to the initial airlanding assault regiment of the German XI Fliegercorps.

One factor that keeps Hunters from being a Teutonic stomp-fest is the placement of the 22nd New Zealand Battalion, which will cover the main objectives. The other factor which will put a crimp in the German drive is the bothersome presence of Commonwealth units in the drop zones.

The German player only knows where the few released units and the location of the BDZs are, not the precise placement of the battalions’ units (as what was, historically, the case), so the German player guesses the best location to drop his units and writes these drop zone locations on his landing plan. The Commonwealth player then places his units, which will invariably be dispersed like a web in order to catch the greatest amount of gliders and paratroopers. If any of these air-dropping units land in an enemy-occupied hex, they are eliminated. They may also be eliminated, or reduced, by landing close to (up to three hexes away from) enemy unit(s). Since the BDZs interlock and cover most of the maps, and the air drops can deviate and scatter over a wide area, the German player can be in the throes of a full-blown catastrophe at the start of the game.

After the hunters have fallen from the sky, play begins in earnest with the surviving German paratroopers forming up some sort of coherent defense after being scattered across the countryside. Dropping and then assaulting during the same turn for paras is a bad (or desperate) idea, since they’re in a state of disorganization. Glider assault troops don’t suffer from this penalty and are fully able to make the early game assaults, if they survived the drop.

Infantry Assault is pretty much the name of the game here. There’s not much artillery, and the Commonwealth player only has two tanks (Matildas) which will probably break down if they move anywhere … or become Stuka food if they become a nuisance. This is too bad for the Commonwealth player because these two Matildas have the potential to be great nuisances to the Germans, who have NO anti-tank weapons or capabilities and must rely on their dive bombers to save them from hostile armor. The three Mk. III light tanks which arrive with the Commonwealth reinforcements are easy pickins for the assortment of anti-tank guns that the Germans will have by then. Some days, it’s just not worth getting up in the morning.

Play quickly degenerates into a swirling, light infantry, rat fight for the 27-hex Maleme airfield and the overlooking Kavkazia Hill. This area is guarded by the scratch units, RAF troops, the 22nd New Zealand Battalion, and the anti-aircraft guns located in the airfield Bofors pits. All this must be cleared out if the German is to receive his reinforcements, which are to land on the airfield, and digging those pesky New Zealanders out of their foxholes can be an ugly business.

Because of the inherently chaotic situation of the battle, the series command rules are not used, and the dearth of armor and artillery is a boon to players, removing much of the detail that makes TCS accessible only to those committed to platoon-level WWII tactics, all of which suited me just fine. There’s no way the command rules could be used here, because, on Crete, chaos reigns supreme. The Spanish Anarchist Militia would’ve felt perfectly at home here.

For those who are interested in a good, WWII tactical battle system, but were wary of the detail that the TCS has heretofore provided, Hunters is a good way to introduce yourself to some fun gaming.

CAPSULE COMMENTS

Graphic Presentation: Slick and beautiful. The box cover art is strangely plain, though.

Playability: Not having command rules, hardly any tanks, and little artillery is a big plus in this category. The release rules make solitaire play easy.

Replayability: Only four scenarios, but they are interesting enough to encourage repeat play.

Wristage: Heavy.

Creativity: Nice streamlining of the series rules, and the air transportation rules are quite nice.

Historicity: The usual, top-level Gamers insight.

Comparisons: This is the first tactical battle game on the Crete fiasco. Operation Mercury is the best campaign game, although slow and frustrating. Air Assault on Crete still has the bonus Invasion of Malta game.

Overall: A good simulation on a confused, viscous slaughterfest for an airstrip. The play is prolonged, but not boring.