With face to face gaming in vogue once more, I had a chance to be taught 'O-Group' by Dice Demon Steve.
With time in short supply, I hadn't even had a chance to read these rules, then quickly discovered, that in order to get the most from the game, you really need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of your force/nationality. This is probably the biggest plus-point and/or innovation in the game. These aren't simply 'traits by nationality', each force has a distinct national flavor based upon historical methodologies re. fighting battalion level battles.
So for instance, British pop smoke, US use marching fire, Germans are great equalisers and Soviets have numbers but are relatively inflexible; yes, these are simplifications of what is a very comprehensive and demanding system, but certainly it's worth some attention in terms of further gameplay. The fact that it is historically accurate, or Dave Brown has at least striven to make it so, should be reason enough to pursue this one further.
The system is orders driven, and I found my British being bogged down in the centre, whilst the artillery chewed my infantry, while my armour was exposed to long range fire - it's a different way of thinking for this one... though it's certainly an operational way of thinking, and to echo Stephen - 'you need a plan'. If you don;t have one, you lose focus on the battlefield, and are sure to find yourself without enough orders to rectify the situation.
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Early deployment.
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'pop smoke!!!'
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| Measuring range for the PAK40 on the hill. British artillery swamped it, but not before it had done some damage. |
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Bloody German ATGs - even a 50mm - ruin the allied day...
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On the British right, despite early hopes, MG42s mow down repeated infantry assaults.
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British armour on the left suffers horribly, for even suggesting that a flanking action might be in order...
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British infantry bogged down and munched by artillery in the centre.
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British armour on its last legs...
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A really well honed system - which needs more attention.
