Battle Group Fall of the Reich 1st impressions

[Grigork]

I've now managed to flick through the new Battle Group supplement and even had time to linger on some sections. Overall this supplement is of the same quality as the previous books. A nice surprise is some period specific rules that work alongside the core rules in Kursk and Overlord. The main difference is a new set of tokens. I haven't compared the new tokens with the old but as a guess I'd say the numbers are the same but the special events have been given a more last months of the war feel.

As you'd expect from a late war book you get the stats for the big tanks and guns e.g. Comets, Pershings, IS2s and Jagtiger. I like the German army list with the Volkstrum, Hitler Youth, Auxiliary units and the option to field any infantry squad or tank not already listed in Fall of the Reich. This to me evokes the ad hoc nature of the last defence.I was sad to see the NKVD officer go from the Soviet list.

The building rules have been fleshed out more to cope with the more urban battlefield and they use the same close combat rules for building from the core rules but expand on how buildings can be destroyed and the impact on those inside. I liked the fact that I can see that you don't need real floors for your troops in buildings and can use those terrain pieces that are just a shell or solid. Since most of my buildings are like this that is a plus.

Well that's it for now. I'm off to read some more....

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