Played scenario three 'Action At Galmanche' from IABSM3 today at Stephen's in order to give the rules a try after our positive view of Chain Of Command (COC). Of course different scale with these being based around an infantry company rather than a single platoon as in COC.
We stumbled greatly over the card deck at start being unsure as to which cards are in from beginning. After playing a few turns then restarting, we realised that it's simply the Tea Break Card and two opposing Blinds cards. Once we saw how Blinds interact with the Spotting rules and Tea Break Card it all came clear. We then found the various Movement, Shooting, AFV and Shock rules easy to pick up (as essentially same/similar to COC) and the game fairly cracked along.
The rules have several ambiguous concepts (which the writers sort of expect player to 'common sense' a solution. For example not very clear when/if the Forward Observer card appears in deck or if he has to Deploy from a Blind to take actions. Also whilst it states tanks can fire Smoke the rules do not seem to cover it specifically (only indirect barrage style smoke is outlined) and we remain unsure if a single tank can fire smoke or how large its effect area is ?
Infantry units are fairly brittle as they can take combos of kills and shock often in large amounts. One thing we really liked was the multiple actions units can perform each activation (degrades through casualties and shock) and how they can activate on their own card or relevant Big Man card, this made the single German PAK40 very effective in the game despite facing four Shermans. The 'Ronson' rule make Sherman crews brittle with high chance they will abandon their tank.
As in most WW2 games the attacker has a tough old time against concealed and dug-in troops especially when lacking Artillery support (I got only a preliminary stonk).
On balance I liked the rules in many aspects but would probably plumb for Panzer Grenadier Deluxe or the Battlegroup series as 'go to' sets.
Sergeant Steiner
