Unboxing impressions.
Legion Wargames kindly invited me to review my recent purchase of DBP so here it is. At present I can only really write a short unboxing style review as I have not yet had opportunity to play and enjoy the game. I purchased the game as I have recently begun to read the history of Vietnam's wars in the twentieth century avidly. I'll be reading M. Windrow's 'The Last Valley' alongside playing this game. The components are relatively few, namely; rules, map, counters and 5 player aid cards on light weight card stock, but all nicely printed. The player aids are French and VM combat tables, ESOP, VM trench map and fold out scenario set up card. The map is functional rather than pretty but has a lot of surrounding game tracks and off map location boxes. The counters have art work based in part upon contemporary images, or so it would seem. Some may have preferred NATO style symbols but I like these as a change from the norm which may as a whole sum the game up. The rules are apparently written in the order of the sequence of play. As I haven't played yet it will be interesting to see how this works. I'm looking forward to finding out. Overall this seems to be an interesting and innovative design. On the one hand it looks deceptively straight forward and simple but it is also clear there is a lot going on here, in particular supply, strong point assaults and the off map boxes. Lots of decisions to make. Regarding the VM trenches and their zone based progress (which is how the game models the approach trenches) I might have thought some better delineation could have been represented upon the map. It does look as if the only sure way to check their definition is via the play aid map. However I would also readily acknowledge that all games and art work have to compromise and this may be one of those. A preferable design decision to having a heavily cluttered map which game pieces may have obscured the detail of anyhow. One minor gripe – after unfolding the map once one of the spines showed signs of some wear and tear as of much use. I hadn't even back folded it However it is minor gripe which is inevitable with paper map games, an issue which has been around since the days of SPI. Speaking of which, apart from the old SPI Gondor, I don't think I have a siege game or have played one for a while, so yes very much looking forward to playing this.