MMP Panzerblitz - Hill of Death

[vince hughes]

Anybody played MMP's New version of this classic ?

If so, is it worth adding to the collection before new mods come out ?

[Lucky Eddie]

Anybody played MMP's New version of this classic ?

If so, is it worth adding to the collection before new mods come out ?

Vince,

I have seen this game played at a Washington DC area gameclub meeting this past Saturday ( 8 March). It appears that MMP has fixed many of the problems with the combat system. Unit activity is by chit activation, different than PG's use of leader counters and initative rolls. Counters are for the most part layed out as in the original game. The game's owner has told me that he enjoys the game very much.

Steve Gaughan,
aka Lucky Eddie

[vince hughes]

Cheers Steve

[Hugmenot]

I almost bought a used copy last week but ended up buying 3 used ATS games at a rock-bottom price! I think the 3 games together were cheaper than what I would have expected to pay for the ASL rulebook.

[vince hughes]

My interest is that I played a couple of scenarios when I was about 11 or 12 years old when an older friend (14 or 15 years old) on our housing estate introduced me to it. It was the first AH boardgame I experienced before SL. I am interested as it is the original Grandaddy of PG, albeit this is the rebuilt version, so I suppose Bionic PB ?

[JayTownsend]

I own it and I have played a couple scenarios but its been at least 4 years so I can't remember a lot of details but I thought it was worth owning. The rules were ok back then but the on line rules have been improved. I also bought the supplement: Carentan that Added some American counters, scenarios and a map. There is work being done on a second game from the Eastern Front but it won't be complete until late 2014 or 2015.

[vince hughes]

Jay,

I saw they were doing more work and that's what tweaked my interest. Of course, being platoon it is at PG level, but it may open up more opponents in another platoon game ? As you have been doing box-sets, it must seem strange that has a package with only 8 scenarios. No matter how well play-tested and (maybe) balanced they are, it does sound like a small amount. I've gotten so used to 112, 50, 40 etc, that the days of SL/PB packages having just 10-12 scenarios or less seem a bit sparse on the variation.

Thanks for the reply.

[JayTownsend]

Yeah Vince, they took years to get Hill of Death out and the scenarios are ok but nothing that stands out. The Eastern Front scenario play-testing seems like watching paint dry its taking so long but who knowns, maybe it will be worth it. I just don't see many games coming out very fast from MMP at this rate. 1 every 6 years, which really loses interest if you are into it being a series type game.

[campsawyer]

Yeah Vince, they took years to get Hill of Death out and the scenarios are ok but nothing that stands out. The Eastern Front scenario play-testing seems like watching paint dry its taking so long but who knowns, maybe it will be worth it. I just don't see many games coming out very fast from MMP at this rate. 1 every 6 years, which really loses interest if you are into it being a series type game.

Well, I believe all game companies go through the 6 year cycle, just look at Kursk. But Jay does bring up the point that the game is stuck in production and there is not much marketing around it, so it wilts. For MMP, ASL is still the king of the company and takes most of the resources.

Quite coincidentally, I was in NYC yesterday and stopped in one of the fun game stores in the shadow of the Empire State building and in looking at the selection I actually looked at a copy of this. As I read the back of the box, I thought I have this now within PG and the price of $40, I passed. Better stuff was just on the other shelves.

[JayTownsend]

I am looking forward to Lewis new version of Eastern Front Panzer Blitz.