Eastern Front is a very good solitaire expansion for the Conflict of Heroes series that in many ways improves upon the gameplay of the multiplayer version.
The refresh / spent rules in this version are certainly better and more intuitive and the rumored enemy aspects are compelling as are the automated vehicles. My only complaint is that the wording on the cards for the Artificial Intelligence could be clearer, but this solo game is quite fun to play and much better to physically handle than most wargames that I own if not every single one.
Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! (second edition) (2012) Review
My third foray into wargames is Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! (second edition). Of the three war-games I've played, this one certainly has the best rule book (perhaps this is related to it being the 2nd edition?) and although there are a lot of elements, this system is logical, albeit a bit more abstracted than my favorite war game (Ambush!).
Criticisms are small and for the tiles, which oddly have the directional arrow of the vehicle/infantry pointing skyward rather than the direction that the vehicle/infantry is facing/pointing their weapons. (The directionality of fire is an otherwise great mechanic of this game.) Also, why is the flank defense listed above/before the front defense? Other than these two counterintuitive decisions, the system is logical, the counters are good, the map is great and the game play is swift, though requires strategy and foresight.
Although Awakening the Bear! lacks the narrative development, characterization and immersive vividness of Ambush! and Codeword Cromwell, the physical elements of the game are very good, and it would be possible to teach somebody how to play this in a relatively short time. An enjoyable, solid system that trades the immersive qualities of heavier wargames for ease of use and faster action, and for these reasons will remain in my collection.
Cave Evil (2011) Review
Excellent atmosphere, grim laughs, memorable adventures, and widely varied gameplay. The first board game that I ever enjoyed as much as the dice throwin' role playing games that I grew up playing, and my current favorite board game ever. It's great to see so much creativity on display in all departments: Rather than standard elves, zombies, and dragons, you'll encounter or employ Old Mold Mouth, Scaled Stalker, and Dart Adder and many other creations that are unique to this game. Combat makes sense and digging and collapsing are great options. An incredibly immersive tabletop experience in which hours fly by unnoticed. Each game is remembered not as a game that I played, but as a secret and morbid war that I waged.
Ambush!
Note: Ambush! is my second full on war game and another example that Weight/Complexity ratings of war-games on the Board Game Geek website are not commensurate with board games of different types. Agricola, which is weighted at 3.63 (8/16) I could teach somebody to play in about 15 minutes (and learned from the awful rulebook in about an hour), whereas Ambush!, which has a weight of 3.22 (8/16), I have a pretty decent grasp of only after playing two complete games, reading the rulebook for hours, re-reading some of the book, consulting rules threads (of which there are many), and watching a video, where the player got a lot of the stuff wrong.
Three of my favorite games are complex---Cave Evil (#1!), Codeword Cromwell, and Mage Knight---but still, Ambush! feels much heavier. Part of the complexity comes from the amount of exceptions to each rule, and part of the complexity comes from some poorly explained and occasionally counterintuitive rules: the many Line of Sight question threads attest to this fact. But the major part of the weight of this game comes from an uncommonly well detailed combat system that takes into account the firearm, the focus of the shooter, the distance of the shot, the health of the fighters, the terrain of the target, the intervening terrain, the relative elevations of the target and shooter, the likelihood of weapons jamming, the likelihood of accidentally expending too much ammunition, and (my favorite detail) the stances of the shooter and target. All of these things are taken into account for each minute phase of combat...and other variables may come into play as well. This system and the event decoder (and paragraphs) are the biggest mechanical strengths of this game, wherein the sense of adventure is quite high.
It is clear that greater comfort with the many systems of this game would make playing Ambush! more enjoyable, but this could never be played quickly by me. The feather weight paper components make the tactile part of the experience an effort rather than a pleasure--- these counters would not stay in place if Ambushed! by a mild sneeze and there is not enough room to actually see the many things you are required to stack in each hex. (If the map were mounted and could accommodate the counters, and if the latter were visible, and if the cross-referencing were simpler, this would be my second favorite board game ever.) Still, there is satisfaction with every small victory, frustration with every defeat, and apprehension with the arrival of every new enemy. In addition to the detailed combat, the enemy A.I., and the variety of events, the overall thematic success is probably why this game from 1983 is still being played and discussed by war game enthusiasts today.
Overall, Ambush! feels like high school homework, albeit those rare assignments that I found enjoyable to do.
Greenland (2014) Review
Note: My feelings are based on the second edition solo variant (and not positive enough for me to teach to others.)
Phil Eklund certainly arranges a multi-pronged dice game with Greenland, and the rule book was clear on most points, but the experience was not immersive at all for me or even engaging. It is more complex than Tiny Epic Galaxies, which is the only other lil dice game like this that I've played, but the objectives in that game are more compelling as the elements ratchet tighter with every turn. Instead of escalating tension, Greenland alternates cycles of "bad stuff happens" and "deal with it." Victories and defeats left me cold, and by the end of my first game, I just wanted to finish things up. There is a different thought process in this game for sure, and I am going to investigate the far more complicated Eklund game High Frontier and hope that the complex format better serves this designer. Overall, this game felt like accounting, albeit superficially thematic accounting.