This scenario play through took us 8 sessions to complete as we were trying to learn the 2nd Edition IA rules. It was an unpleasant & frustrating experience. The rules set is very poorly-organized, unclear, and sometimes contradictory for an overly fiddly game that like PG, generally favors the side on defense in most cases. The awful and extremely wonky road movement rules prevail in this game -- and for no good reason as there are only horse-drawn, horse-mounted or leg infantry units (2/3 of a movement point per hex!) involved -- when there were no mechanized, and virtually no motorized units in 1914! The combat results tables had not been adapted to suit early-WWI combat and there were notes relevant to impact of AFVs and other WWII-related equipment and situations that were not appropriate. The required use of the extremely gamey Fog of War (FOW) rule made for a difficult-to-sequence and tiresome encounter. Very few well-coordinated attacks resulted. We were continually having to consult the rules, portions of which were often on different pages in the rule book.

In this encounter the Russians managed to eke out a victory and we both enjoyed the Cavalry Charge rule.

Our hope is that there will soon be a major rewrite of the IA rules. I give this mess a very generous rating of 2.

In the meantime, we decided to try a second August 1914 scenario to checkout the off board artillery (OBA) rules.