World at War: Eisenbach Gap

Hey, any of you guys played Mark H. Walker's WORLD AT WAR: EISENBACH GAP yet? I just ordered it...looks pretty awesome, it's a hypothetical US/Soviet cock-up circa 1985. Platoon level, T72s versus M1s and there's freaking HIND HELICOPTER counters. 10 pages of rules, so it's accessible. And it has a mounted board. Get outta here! Interested to hear any impressions from early adopters...I'll have it next week and I'll likely do a review on Gameshark.

I see you're also quickly moving down into the lonely abyss of wargaming. Despite my complete inability to keep up with all the particular rulebook nuances of each, it doesn't keep me from checking out new wargames. This one looks awesome. I especially like anything having to do with Russian history, and think this would be a good one before I dive into Triumph of Chaos.

Oh, I've always had an abiding interest in wargames...lately, I've found a lot more satisfaction in wargames than anything else and since 2007 was kind of a dry year for me in terms of wargaming, I'm going to make up for in 2008.

TRIUMPH OF CHAOS looks very cool- it's pretty much the PATHS OF GLORY system which is really intricate- lots of rules, lots of specific circumstances, and so on. Not a beginner's game at all. EISENBACH GAP looks like it's very newbie friendly but it's a different sort of game- not a CDWG and Platoon-level rather than strategic level.

Quite the opposite from cdg's -shitloads of die rolling apparently. Wargaming is where it all started, predates rock, paper scissors and probably farting at the dinner table. MBT by AH was a great game with a nice toolbox approach. It's good to see the cold war getting it's due now that it's "History".

Yeah I'm also on a wargame thing, and I am interested in WoW, but I have too many unplayed heavies at the moment. I've made a pact with myself to play more and buy less. Go figure...

I've always wanted to try Triumph of Chaos... the price is steep and god knows I'd never find a fucking local player of it.

Never played Eisenberg gap though. I would like to see more high budget wargames that are hypothetical situations or Sci Fi or whatever. It seems like now that wargames are doing well (GMT, MMP, etc selling many products) they are even more conservative than they used to be in topic.

I would love to see a new scifi wargame. Perhaps tactical. I know there are older things like Starship Troopers, but a new tactical treatment in a nice setting, even licensed... would be sweet.

As a guy who was a huge fan of games like SPI's Next War, and GDW's Third World War, Eisenbach Gap sounds sick! Can't wait to check it out.

Hey Gary, if you can find a copy, a great sci-fi wargame was SPI's War In The Ice, a hypothetical war between the US and the USSR in Antarctica. A pretty decent game wrapped in an awesome theme.

Was tempted to buy it, then realised it was far better to let another guy do it for me... 1st rule of wargaming. Bought Prussia's defiant stand and preordered Warriors of God, Sekigahara, and Breakthrough:Cambrai instead.

Now, he pretended he would buy it. But that was cheating, I'm afraid.

I don't know anything about Eisenbach Gap. I fear it could be too simple.

Looking forward to your review.

Michael Barnes wrote:

I'll have it next week and I'll likely do a review on Gameshark.

Looking foward to that as well.

I wonder if there's a market for a full module type tactical sci fi wargame... I'd be very tempted to start playing ASL alien edition. Put in different races and their exotic weaponry... sort of a hex and counter wargame WH:40K. That would attract me personally...

I've got this Eisenbach Gap (and Neuroshima Hex, too) on order now. I look forward to your review Barnes as, while it's too late to "unspend" those dollars, I'm hoping that my initial impressions that made my credit card nearly leap from my wallet to buy this title will be confirmed by your first play...

(Since the late cold war was when I "came of age" both politically and as a gamer and was also the subject of a lot of my grad studies, I love this topic in gaming and I'll be damned if it doesn't get about the shortest shrift of 'em all. Does the world really need yet another Napoleonics game when there is so much great "what if" gaming to be had in the cold war 'round the world)

This game is top notch. I stopped playing board games for years after my teens, but last year decided to revisit them. After joining a local games club and playing mostly Euros, then discovering AT type games were way more fun, I finally wound up with war games - and Eisenbach Gap was the first one I have really gotten my teeth into. It is simple, but that is the beauty, it plays out in under 2 hours, is easy to teach and creates a great atmosphere. It ticks all the right boxes, perhaps only losing out in areas where if one side gets the luck with chit draws and die rolls early on, then they'll be in a great position to go on and win.

Red Storm Rising and Harold Coyle's books were some of my favourite reading about 15 years ago, and the game is very evocative of that.

Gary Sax wrote:

I wonder if there's a market for a full module type tactical sci fi wargame... I'd be very tempted to start playing ASL alien edition. Put in different races and their exotic weaponry... sort of a hex and counter wargame WH:40K. That would attract me personally...

You might want to check out Sniper: Bug Hunter. It's a stand alone game in the Sniper! series, where you shoot up space aliens invading your spaceship - yes just like the movie or Awful Green Things from Outer Space.

First edition Sniper rules didn't have overwhelming reviews, but TSR twitched them to the better ( like for example chit-pull instead of secret note taking to determine player turn.)

The game's oop but cheap by the way, once a copy shows up on ebay. Shouldn't cost more than 20 bucks.

I just found my Bug Hunter counters on Sunday night! I love that game and really played a lot of Sniper! I like the system.