Great New Stuff
By
S. Craig Taylor, Jr.
August 23, 2003
Lost
Battalion Games hasn’t been around very long and, for most of you, our
DRIVE ON STALINGRAD and
STREETS OF STALINGRAD Ready-To-Play Sets have
been around as long as we have. We completed STREETS just
a couple of weeks after DRIVE and, with the exception
of the two small promotional decks (KAMPFGRUPPE MULDER
and PAVLOV’S SEWER RATS) and the two
“Katrina” cards, all of which were introduced at conventions during
the last six weeks, they have been our only published products to date. I am
happy to announce that, thanks to hard work and sleepless nights by everybody
here, this is about to change in a big
way.
Next week, we will have two major new products available to sell and ship. The first and smaller release, the 384th German Infantry Division, is an Independent Unit Deck that can be used with any of the Operation Decks for greater play variety. Be warned, unlike the hard-driving 9th Panzer and 100th Jager Divisions, the 384th is basically a “plain vanilla” German division that can fight like crazy but lacks the “eliteness” of the two earlier German Unit Decks and promises some tough fighting for German players. A unit like this calls for greater reliance on the reinforcement cards to overcome setbacks during play than was the case with the earlier German units.
The second and larger new product, the OPERATION
URANUS Ready-To-Play Set, offers a new set of
challenges to veteran players of the earlier Operation Sets. The Uranus
Operation Deck reverses the preponderance of Axis attacks in the first two sets
and features seven of eight missions where the Soviets are on the offensive and
move first. The location cards represent a bleak, snow-covered landscape where
cover and protection are often at a premium. Both Unit Decks included in the
set are genuine “oddballs.” The Soviet 4th Cavalry Corps
is a non-descript cavalry formation that still has some unique features. It has
decent artillery, a little attached armor and the cavalry formations can
“raid” by Advancing forward and then using a final “March
1” text to retire to the rear after combat. The Rumanian 1st Panzer
Division was largely equipped with old French tanks, features some powerful
artillery, has a very
powerful anti-tank battalion and lots of “Combat if Defender” card
text - this is sort of an armored division that doesn’t like to attack.
This RTP has some really interesting play possibilities.
With these additions, more switching of Unit Decks between Operations Decks will be possible for greater play variety and, for the first time, six-player BATTLELINES games can be played where every player commands a different Unit Deck. No more “9th Panzer A” and 9th Panzer B” Divisions in the big slugfests!
In a final note, we give our best wishes for future success to John Caskey, who is leaving us to pursue an academic career. Becky Mauder, our Art Director, is wearing two hats and replacing John as our interim Marketing Manager.
