MGPRP: Strategy & Tactics pocket reviews
Issues 30-39
· S&T #30: Combat Command
· S&T #31: Flying Circus
· S&T #32: Borodino
· S&T #33: Winter War
· S&T #34: Armageddon
· S&T #35: Year of the Rat
· S&T #36: Destruction of Army Group Center
· S&T #37: Scrimmage
· S&T #38: CA
· S&T #39: Fall of Rome
S&T #30: Combat Command
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"Bland, generic, nondescript. Pretty much covers it." JBB
"Blech." DDH
S&T #31: Flying Circus
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"I liked this better than Richthofen's War, though I think I was one of the few. It was
simple and playable (though not too realistic)" WEF
"I enjoyed this when it first came out, but I don't know how it stands up over time." TMB
"I have it, but the likelihood that I'll ever play it is small. Can you buy a WWI flight
simulator for your pc? (I really don't know). If you can, would anybody prefer pushing
cardboard markers around on a simulated instrument panel to actually "flying" a plane on
a computer? Well, I guess there's always that "opponent" factor that I don't consider." JB
"A wonderful beer-and-pretzels game. I remember lots of sessions in which three or four
of my friends would just shuffle the deck of control sheets and have a free-for-all,
keeping score by awarding Oreos." DAV
"One of a bunch of rather poor attempts by SPI to simulate aerial warfare.
Distantly related to Spitfire and Air War. A dog even though it was well received at the time." JBB
S&T #32: Borodino
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"One of S&T's outstanding efforts. This is an enlarged version of advanced NAW. Good play value.
Game first, history second." JBB
"Excellent, a must have." DH
"Of the games mentioned, I really like Borodino. It's a classic SPI type wargame along the
lines of their original Napoleon at War Quad, and Waterloo. It's not very colorful, nor
particularly striking, but none-the-less pretty nice looking. It is a good game to use as
an introductory game for some newbies, although I use other things." HSD
“Whats to say but Napoleon for your first issue,WOW! still a favorite of mine after all these
years. Uses the NaW game system. An "A" KM
S&T #33: Winter War
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"Winter War is a true classic of the bunch in my mind. I'm still regularly playing it: very simple
mechanics, low counter and rule density which accurately hamstrung both players.." DM
"A great game. I played this one over and over." JBB
"One of the best S&T Games." DH
"Winter War is one of my all time favorite games on the Russo-Finnish War. Simple, yet it works well.
A good game for showing people the advantages of maneuver over brute force." HSD
“My 2nd issue was also a WINNER! I still have this game at the top of my Winter War games
plus ranks to me as a good all round game. a "A"” KM
“I was very disappointed with the game. Compared with the OBs found in the article,
it had too few units, plus playing it solitaire was difficult because
of the dummy counters.” BB
“At the time it was fine. Though very unblanced. C” BN
S&T #34: Armageddon
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"I liked it. I did like the pluses and minuses for unit type when attacking or defending
against a different unit type." TES
"A rather blah tactical game." TMB
"One of the precursors to the Prestags series. Except this one had some features that
might make it pretty cool. I have it, and the likelihood that I will play it someday
is at least decent." JB
"Played this one a lot. It has a lot of guess work in it since accurate sources
for the OoB's or even numbers of combatants present at battles of this period are virtually
non-existent. If memory serves some of the scenarios were based on biblical passages
from the Old Testament. This was subsequently reworked and reissued as Chariot, part of PRESTAGS" JBB
"Near the end of the first ancients surge. Fun, but not the eye-opener that their first two were." DAV
“Having Phalanx i enjoyed this game using the same system. It was great refighting all those
different battles. a A-“ KM
“I taped this to a piece of plywood so I could move it, not much room in our house, so I played
most of my early games on the Living room coffee table. Played this one the most with my brother.
We felt it was kind of weird that the best defense
was to come out and attack the other guy when he came into range.” JV
S&T #35: Year of the Rat
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"I played, and didn't like it." JBB
"Mixed opinion (John Prados design, he loved it)" DH
"I really like this one, but no one else did in my circle of gamers. (back in
the 70's)" HSD
“Another good game and the war still going on too. Even with age this one still holds up. a A-“ KM
“Good simulation of the current conflict. fun. B” BN
S&T #36: Destruction of Army Group Center
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"Not much fun, not much of a simulation, not much of anything. One of the weaker efforts
in the Kursk series of games which gave us WitE 1 and 2 and
WiE." JBB
"Pretty Good, but there are better on the subject available" DH
"Pretty good, but I prefer many other East Front titles." HSD
“Having the other games in the SPI Kursk series I looked forward to this one. While not near as good
as the others in the series it showed how the Germans could get steamed rolled finally by the Russians.
a C+” KM
“I enjoyed the reverse blitzkrieg. Not a popular game, but I thought it modeled the situation well. C+” BN
S&T #37: Scrimmage
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"Ha..." JBB
"Not as bad as they say, but get Statis Pro or Strat-O-Matic" DH
"Howls at the moon." HSD
“Well I,m not a a player of sports games so this one left me flat (back then UPSET was more like it).
The only S&T game that I didn't go out and buy a Flattray/Boxed version of the game.” KM
S&T #38: CA
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"Played, didn't like it, don't remember much about it." JBB
"Too much chrome, but innovative." DH
“I didn't care for it. Boring counters and a dull map. C-“ BN
S&T #39: The Fall of Rome
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"My first S&T. Almost drove me from the hobby." MJP
"Remember it as a good game in a really bad presentation with much errata needed to make it playable." TES
"Lots of rules problems originally. Had highly anticipated it, but as Spock said (and I paraphrase)
"sometimes having is not as good a thing as wanting."" TMB
"I played this a lot, but it was crippled by errors." DAV
"Played it. Liked it. Can't remember much about it any more. When I got the new edition
in S&T I found myself unable to recall a single detail about the original game. Sigh. Old age...." JBB
“My first sub game when I was a wee lad. I really liked it. Though it is very unpopular.
Very tough game for the Romans (and solo to boot). B!” BN
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