(06-02-2012, 08:13 AM)Shad Wrote: I would love to get into ATS someday. I like the all-in-one-box mentality and the somewhat-lighter-than-ASL approach. But I've promised my wallet that I won't buy any ATS stuff until I have a reliable face-to-face opponent!
I have so many unplayed classics on my shelf it's somewhat embarrassing:
- The Civil War
- Raid on St. Nazaire
- Ambush!
- War of Resistance
- Soldiers (West End Games)
- B-17
...and quite a few more modern titles I'd like to get into.
If somehow a group of players and a long vacation materialized out of thin air I think the first thing I'd grab would be AP's own Third Reich. That game really looks amazing and I read as much about it as I can... just not really excited to solo it! 
I played over 75 missions in B-17 30 years ago but I don't recommend the game if you like your games to include many decision points. I played it to kill time but I'd rather replay a baseball season using APBA, SoM, or PtP if I ever need a low-decision-count time-killer game again.
I played ~20 missions of Ambush, Move Out!, and Purple Heart in the 1980's and I liked this system. There is a good amount of tension and the scenarios are difficult to beat. Downsides are the 4-6 hour duration per scenario and the annoyance of the mechanics (identifying the paragraph on the scenario card and then finding it in the booklet).
With your time being so restricted nowadays, you may want to give the State of Siege engine from Victory Point Games a shot. The games in the series play in 45-90 minutes and although luck, and especially bad luck, can be an important factor, the games in this series have a good amount of tension and a high replay value. I am interested in the Napoleon-20 series which I hope to introduce to my 8 year old.
Plus not only it will make J6A happy (I think), it's good to encourage the company which Avalanche Press likely uses to do its laser counters - "We’re currently manufacturing counters for one well known small game company".
http://victorypointgames.com/articleDeta...247&page=1
