Combat Commander

I’ve finally had a chance to get back to playing some Combat Commander, GMT’s boardgame of WWII infantry tactics. I played a game with Rob Heinsoo maybe a year and a half ago and liked it. (He was really tight lipped about what he was working on at WotC; in August I found out why.) I’ve wanted to give it another go ever since and lately I’ve gotten to play twice. Ray and I played the first scenario a couple of weeks ago and last Tuesday Rick and I tried one from the Paratroopers pack. I enjoyed both and am starting to get a sense for the rhythm of the game and what you can and cannot expect troops to achieve. I really like the card-based system. It allows the game to nest a lot of info on each card, but you only need to use a small section of it for any given action. It’s also a nice way to represent the fog of war, since you do not have the godlike control over your troops featured in many wargames.

I decided to drop the money to get my own copy of the first game in the series, Combat Commander: Europe, only to discover it’s currently out of print (though a reprint is on the way). The Pacific version is also coming soon, and that looks interesting. Rick and I have decided to make this our game of choice for the next month, so we can get better acquainted with the rules through weekly play. Luckily, he has both CC: Europe and CC: Mediterranean already. After that we should probably go back to minis for our next game. I haven’t pushed around enough lead in 2008 and must rectify that.

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