Go for Broke vs Saipan 1944

[Tony M]

I purchased Elsenborn Ridge and Black Panthers recently and was thinking about Go for Broke as possibly my next purchase. But the Avalanche website says you must have Invasion 1944, Elsenborn Ridge and Liberation 1944 to play all of the Go for Broke scenarios. How many of the Go for Broke scenarios require maps from Liberation 1944 and Invasion 1944?

I'm also looking at Saipan 1944 as a possible next purchase. I would imagine that there is not a lot of maneuver in that game for the Japanese side, which should make it a good solitaire game. Does anyone out there play Saipan 1944 regularly? The maps are gorgeous.

[Juiceman]

I purchased Elsenborn Ridge and Black Panthers recently and was thinking about Go for Broke as possibly my next purchase. But the Avalanche website says you must have Invasion 1944, Elsenborn Ridge and Liberation 1944 to play all of the Go for Broke scenarios. How many of the Go for Broke scenarios require maps from Liberation 1944 and Invasion 1944?

I'm also looking at Saipan 1944 as a possible next purchase. I would imagine that there is not a lot of maneuver in that game for the Japanese side, which should make it a good solitaire game. Does anyone out there play Saipan 1944 regularly? The maps are gorgeous.

19 of 29 need Liberation while 9 of 29 need Invasion, that could be a combination of maps or counters, if it is counters you can sometimes get away with using counters from other games as long as they are of the same country, maps are a different story. 
Give the Pacific a try, especially since you are interested in mostly infantry, I have Saipan but have not played it, it gets a good rating from other players, one of these days I will be back to the Pacific, started my PG fixation with the Kokoda Campaign but have been bogged down in Europe with a brief stop in China.

[plloyd1010]

A count of scenarios in Go for Broke 3 shows that you can play 13 of them with the Elsenborn maps. If you want to get a jump on the scenarios before getting Liberation 1944 and Invasion 1944, (here's the plug again) Vassal has you covered.

Saipan has more open ground. You might like that better than Kokoda. It make the match-up between firepower and assault armies very clear.

[Juiceman]

A count of scenarios in Go for Broke 3 shows that you can play 13 of them with the Elsenborn maps. If you want to get a jump on the scenarios before getting Liberation 1944 and Invasion 1944, (here's the plug again) Vassal has you covered.

Saipan has more open ground. You might like that better than Kokoda. It make the match-up between firepower and assault armies very clear.

I was not suggesting he go to Kokoda only merely stating I have not been back to the Pacific since finishing the game, Kokoda, like Guadalcanal and Jungle Fighting are not games for the faint of heart.

[JayTownsend]

I purchased Elsenborn Ridge and Black Panthers recently and was thinking about Go for Broke as possibly my next purchase. But the Avalanche website says you must have Invasion 1944, Elsenborn Ridge and Liberation 1944 to play all of the Go for Broke scenarios. How many of the Go for Broke scenarios require maps from Liberation 1944 and Invasion 1944?

I'm also looking at Saipan 1944 as a possible next purchase. I would imagine that there is not a lot of maneuver in that game for the Japanese side, which should make it a good solitaire game. Does anyone out there play Saipan 1944 regularly? The maps are gorgeous.

Tony, I can highly recommend Saipan. Of course, I am the Designer but if offers a wide variety of scenario types & sizes, unit types and offer a link to the many expansions or add Ons to this game, like: Marianas 1944, Leyte 1944 and for the future, Fall of the Philippines 1941-42 and The Emperors Tanks/Death of the 2nd Tank Division: Luzon 1945. 

The maps are some of the nice in the series.

[Tony M]

Thanks, guys for the replies!

@Jay - I've read a number of your comments on Saipan 1944 over at BG. It sounds and looks like a fascinating game. I was also poking around this forum and saw your posts for Leyte '44. My wife is Filipino, so I don't think she will object to my spending money on that one as well. I showed her your pictures of the maps for Leyte '44 and she said "wow!"

I see that maps for some PG games are of different sizes. For example, the Afrika Korps maps seem to be bigger than the ones for Elsenborn Ridge/Black Panthers that I am currently playing on. I really hope the maps for Go for Broke, Saipan and Leyte are of the smaller size, because I have limited table space. It's a mystery to me why for so many years wargame companies always used such large maps. How many of us have room to have a large table set up for days or weeks at a time? Especially now, with so many of us being of the generation that grew up with SPI? We have spouses, and some of us have children and even grandchildren. Who has unlimited room for wargaming? And at my age, if a map is bigger things on the other side of it are harder to see, even with my glasses. 

I like a smaller map, so I can see all the pieces easily and don't have to stand up to reach units on the far map edge.

[joe_oppenheimer]

Most PG games use those 11 x 17 maps. Some of the older games used larger paper maps --- Afrika Korps, Desert Rats, Beyond Normandy, and Cassino. Cassino has four large maps so you can play the campaign (or one can, I don't have the space), but also has many cool scenarios that use only a portion of the map. Guadalcanal has large paper maps that have smaller maps printed on them (so it's possible to fold the map and play some scenario on a smaller space).

[rerathbun]

The most recent game to have large paper maps is Cassino '44, released in May 2009.  All games since then have the standard 11x17 inch cardstock maps.

[Tony M]

I've seen comments on BGG about issues in the past with the Saipan maps being less than user friendly, and with the counters being smudged due to laser printing. Is this still the case?

[rerathbun]

No more laser-cut counters, they're all the new silky-smooth type.  There are a few counter sheets that are being re-used from older games, but all of them are from the giant stocks of pre-laser die-cut counters.  The laser-cuts were all ordered in small batches, so I'd be shocked if any are still in the warehouse.

My Saipan maps are good, but I can't vouch for anyone else's.