READ 'EM AND WEEP

THE BIMONTHLY MAGAZINE ROUND-UP

"Stragety & Tactics" # 153, from Decision Games

"Command" #17, from XTR

From S&T we have "Twin Geeks", the Felix/Zama issue.

Zama, the fifth wheel of Decision's BagQuad, is more of the same cardboard pushing claptrap I harangued everyone about two issue ago. This time there has been some effort to add a little reality to the no-brainer system, but most of it, like Hannibal's elephants, goes awry, destroying everything in its path. Are you ready? Well, here goes.

•• The Carthaginian Sacred band was cavalry, not infantry. (Those were the Thebans, you dolts.)

•• Hannibal had no archers. Where'd these guys come from? An old Robin Hood movie?

•• The "Greek Phalanx" is legend, not fact … and it would have been Macedonian, not Greek. There is a difference, you know. And if it was present, which most everyone doubts, it would have been with the African Phalanx, in the rear line.

•• The Carthaginian deployment must have been formulated by Stevie Wonder.

•• The Elephants have the lowets Movement Allowance on the board - lower even than the heavy infantry!! And the rules force them to attack the Roman velites, the one group of units they would distinctly avoid. Again, there is NO effort to allow players to use elephants like they were used historically.

•• A Roman velites unit - skirmishers with neat headdresses - have a 1/3 chance of beating a Carthaginian Heavy Infantry unit. Oh, sure … and Lifetime subscriptions last a lifetime.

Like some doddering curate, it goes on and on to no effect, other than depression. It doesn't help that the ID bands for the Carthaginians are miscolored. It will stop you from playing the game, which, come to think of it, is a plus.

Chris Cummins' Operation Felix, which I was hoping was about the cat, is, in reality, an alternate history, German attack on Gibraltar. It sports a map which makes Gibraltar look like Robinson Crusoe's reaction to getting a mail-dropped copy of Madonna's new book; a rather clean, evocative system, including rules for the remote-controlled "goliaths"; a situation that is not exactly much fun for the Brits… sort of Singapore goes Club Med; which means minimal replay value; and no baboon counters. Not a bad effort for Doc Cellophane, but only for those who really want a piece of The Rock.

Both games look quite good, by the way.

And from XTR and Joe Miranda comes Tet '68. This is one of the few modern "battles" to pique my interest, and XTR has done a pretty good - if not totally effective - job of reining in Miranda's excesses. The graphics are also somewhat less "emphatic" than in the past. Most of Joe's stuff is heavy on the politics, National Will to Win, etc., and this is as good a place to use that as any. The Communist Player is going for political victory, the American for a military succes - a dichotomy that produces some interesting play decisions. After the rather dreary, endless set-up things move along right smartly. As such, it's sort of a Golden Book, Large-Print version of Nick Karp's monumental ouvre, Victory's Vietnam. Probably a bit more complex than one would expect from XTR, there's lots for the players to do, and plenty of optional stuff to throw in. A nice surprise if you're a subscriber, a good game to take a look at if you're not.