From: paulha@sonic.net (Paul Haase) Subject: S&T games rated (was Bottom 10 S&T Titles) What follows is an quick and dirty attempt to assign the classic S&T games (#18-89) to one of five categories: Bottom 10, Fair to Poor, Average, Good, and Top 10. Assignments are based on my rather arbitrary criteria including play fun, importance of game in the hobby, perceived history/lessons taught, artistic quality, and received wisdom. Several of my evaluations are really arbitrary as I haven’t played some of these games and haven’t even seen a few of the earliest or very last ones! For interest’s sake, I’ve included the SPI Games Chart rating (taken from the charts in S&T 68 and 89, whichever was nearest to when the game was published). “e” indicates estimate, “s” indicates rating taken from second edition of game. I haven’t tried to account for the steady decline in rating as a game grows older. I find it interesting that the averaged ratings track my assessments--I always felt they were more faddish than that. But maybe I’m the faddish one... Paul Haase San Rafael, CA BOTTOM 10 Panzer Battles (5.7)--what’s the point? Armada (5.1)--terrible errata hid nice game South Africa (5.1)--aim is to out bore each other Dixie (4.9)--high point: introduced command pts system Tito (4.6)--just too strange for me Fall of Rome (4.5)--garbled rules obscured interesting ideas Lost Battles (4.5)--notorious turkey Combined Arms (4.4)--ambitious flop Scrimmage (3.6)--football as war, with much errata T-34 (?)--unfortunate marraige of minatures and hexes Ave rating ~ 4.6 FAIR to POOR (12x) Paratroop (6.0)--three simple, fairly dull games Tannenburg (6.0)--great history, awful game Cassino (5.9e)--never could get it Crete (5.9s)--SPI’s first try Raid (5.9)--never got this one either Blitzkrieg Module System (5.8)--OK if you had Blitzkrieg... Constantinople (5.7)--boils down to a coin flip Kampfpanzer (5.7)--plodding plotting Bastogne (5.5e)--traffic jams jam up play Flying Circus (5.5)--first, not quite right, air game Plot...Hitler (5.5)--interesting attempt at power politics Punic Wars (5.4)--needs elephants or something (I add personalized leaders for starters...) Ave Rating ~5.6 AVERAGE (27x) Ney v. Wellington (6.6)--French are just too slow Patton’s 3rd Army (6.5)--point lost on me Cedar Mtn (6.4e)--another not so “Great ACW Battle” Grenade (6.4e)--point really lost on me Messina (6.3e)--ho hum Centurion (6.2s)--another tactical ancients game... Dresden/Eylau (6.2)--Dresden much better than Eylau Fighting Sail (6.2e)--fun enough but not Trafalgar October War (6.2)--pretty good Armageddon (6.1s)--more tactical ancients Veracruz (6.1)--interesting but wrong somehow Combat Command (6.0e)--attempt at command control for PB Kaisers Battle (6.0)--ehh Road to Richmond (6.0)--simple B&G fun CA (5.9)--facing rules improve it greatly Tank (5.9)--plot, plot, plot Grunt (5.8s)--tactical Vietnam=fun, fun, fun American Civil War (5.7)--odd, annoying command control... Operation Olympic (5.7)--near-miss solitaire try China War (5.6)--publication outpaced by events Battle of Moscow (5.5e)--another East Fronter Destruction of Army Group Center (5.5)--another East Fronter, but rather fun East is Red (5.5)--NATO in the east Flight of Goeben, Strategic (5.5e)--cat and mouse with some rules problems Wolfpack (5.4)--more a puzzle than a game Oil War (5.3)--simple fun, sort of presaged Gulf War Revolt in the East (5.1)--probably too simplistic Ave Rating ~5.9 GOOD (13x) Berlin ‘85 (6.9)--a fun item Desert Fox (6.8e)--a late goodie, maybe better than this BAOR (6.7e)--5th Corps follow-on PanzerArmee Afrika (6.6)--good desert treatment: 80 MP! Stonewall (6.5)--simple but dull situation, good TSS intro Wilsons Creek (6.5)--interesting but not so “Great Battle” Battle for Germany (6.4)--much play fun (incl. Patton fantasy) Kharkov (6.4)--first PGG knockoff Brietenfeld (6.3)--neat fifth wheel to excellent 30 Yr War quad Sixth Fleet (6.2)--very near miss, lotsa fun if odd reality Renaissance of Infantry (6.1s)--a Joe Miranda favorite Crusades (5.7)--multiplayer need hurt popularity Year of the Rat (5.5)--insight into latter days of Vietnam... Ave Rating ~6.3 TOP 10 Panzergruppe Guderian (7.2)--watershed for hobby, if lopsided Fifth Corps (6.8)--similar to PGG for moderns Cobra (6.7)--PGG knockoff that works better Borodino (6.6)--simple, superior classic Frederick the Great (6.3)--really catches feel of age Winter War (6.3)--good fun, good insight Fall of France ‘40 (6.1)--introduced (w/Kursk) classic system USN (6.1)--what it feels like to plan and run a war Conquistador (6.0)--fudged history makes for much fun World War 1 (6.0)--sums it up in 8pp, 22x17”, and 100 pcs. Ave Rating ~6.4