Tank Leader: Eastern Front, Designer Signature Edition 2024
May 4, 2024 10:41:41 GMT -5
mikeh likes this
Post by Whiterook on May 4, 2024 10:41:41 GMT -5
Yes indeed…if you’re wondering, “…hey, ain’t this the same game from West End Games back in 1986?”, it is! Compass Games acquired not only the rights to reproduce the game and upgrade it, but also secured the services of two of the subsequent game designers that came along when the other two series games were made (Western Front Tank Leader and Desert Steel).
Tank Leader: Eastern Front, Designer Signature Edition is a tactical level, two-player game covering armored warfare in the Second World War where formations are activated by playing command cards. This edition is dedicated to the memory of the original game series designer, John Hill, and includes numerous system updates as introduced in later entries of the game series. We have assembled a top-notch group of contributors, including veterans of the game series along with the original designers of Western Front Tank Leader and Desert Steel to deliver numerous enhancements to the game series.
This edition of Tank Leader: Eastern Front is another Classic Reborn! by Compass.
Tank Leader: Eastern Front simulates a variety of tactical situations facing a battalion commander of armored forces on the Eastern Front. It is not restricted to any single battle, area of Russia, or time period, but presents the players with a host of differing situations. Command, control, and communications (C3) is the pivotal factor in the game and is simulated through the use of formation cards which rate units’ C3 abilities. The card play portion of the game is critical, for it determines tactical initiative — who will move first, and how quickly a formation responds to changing situations. Numerous basic and advanced game scenarios are provided.
The game system is reach in detail to recreate tactical armored warfare, and features formation activations and operations, movement and fire operations, morale, tactical doctrine, non-vehicle units, anti-infantry fire, indirect fire, transport, entrenching, overruns, close assault, forward observers, area of operations, German and Soviet tactical doctrine, artillery, random reinforcements, and much more.
This Designer Signature edition represents a culmination of the forward strides made with subsequent games published in the series; Western Front Tank Leader and Desert Steel. Both designers of those subsequent game releases, Leonard Quam and Peter Corless, are collaborating on this new edition of the game along with other veterans of the game series to incorporate advances and refinements to the game system. Expect to see this and future games in the series to be published in the future!
Product Information:
Complexity: 4/6 out of 10 (basic/advanced game)
Solitaire Suitability: 3 out of 10
Time Scale: 60 minutes per scenario
Map Scale: 150 meters per hex
Unit Scale: platoons – 20-30 men, 2-5 tanks, trucks, halftracks, and 3-5 tubes of artillery
Players: two
Playing Time: 3-8 hours depending upon scenario
Components:
—description from the publisher
This edition of Tank Leader: Eastern Front is another Classic Reborn! by Compass.
Tank Leader: Eastern Front simulates a variety of tactical situations facing a battalion commander of armored forces on the Eastern Front. It is not restricted to any single battle, area of Russia, or time period, but presents the players with a host of differing situations. Command, control, and communications (C3) is the pivotal factor in the game and is simulated through the use of formation cards which rate units’ C3 abilities. The card play portion of the game is critical, for it determines tactical initiative — who will move first, and how quickly a formation responds to changing situations. Numerous basic and advanced game scenarios are provided.
The game system is reach in detail to recreate tactical armored warfare, and features formation activations and operations, movement and fire operations, morale, tactical doctrine, non-vehicle units, anti-infantry fire, indirect fire, transport, entrenching, overruns, close assault, forward observers, area of operations, German and Soviet tactical doctrine, artillery, random reinforcements, and much more.
This Designer Signature edition represents a culmination of the forward strides made with subsequent games published in the series; Western Front Tank Leader and Desert Steel. Both designers of those subsequent game releases, Leonard Quam and Peter Corless, are collaborating on this new edition of the game along with other veterans of the game series to incorporate advances and refinements to the game system. Expect to see this and future games in the series to be published in the future!
Product Information:
Complexity: 4/6 out of 10 (basic/advanced game)
Solitaire Suitability: 3 out of 10
Time Scale: 60 minutes per scenario
Map Scale: 150 meters per hex
Unit Scale: platoons – 20-30 men, 2-5 tanks, trucks, halftracks, and 3-5 tubes of artillery
Players: two
Playing Time: 3-8 hours depending upon scenario
Components:
—description from the publisher
This is the first remake, of the 3-Game Series originally published by West End Games; Compass Games are somewhere in the beginning development stages for Western Front Tank Leader, and I would guess that it may be a wait until 2025 for that one to hit our greedy little paws, but you never know, as Compass grinds out these wonderful old game remakes with spectacular speed! …Desert Steel is just a swimming around somewhere in the development backwater right now, but I would expect it hits full development maybe in 2025, as well? …I hope so, as I’m greedy, and I want my games! My wallet quivers in equal anticipation and fright!!!
Anyway, back to the Eastern Front… the best item to see an upgrade is the map…
If you look at the threads’ pictures in the West End Games version, featured here, you can see a dramatic upgrade! The artwork of a Shayne Logan never disappoints, as other game companies have come to understand as well. It certainly doesn’t have as much color as the original game, but is clearly superior and it does look more like an actual battlemap, with more realistic topography. I *think* the hill colors are distinguishable enough for my color-handicapped eyes
I also like the ghosted hexlines that is becoming more of a thing in modern made wargames. Rivers and bridges look more realistic. The scale is super-high bird’s-eye view, but the cities look nicely rendered for that scale view. All in all, I like what I see here!The Formation cards are the next item I see a dramatic re-do… see the ones pictured on the back box picture, above. The original game has solid colors on the backs of pure black and blue, the fronts pure white; and the cards were perforated punch-outables that gave you fuzzy pimple-edges cards in a non-poke sized offering, with ink press quality so ancient that the cards stick together horrible (sleeves solved that for me, though the closest standard size needed about a quarter inch chopped off the top-load side). The new cards are gorgeous, and to my tastes, far superior. Considering how much these cards are used, as the game revolves around formation activation, great cards are a must and what I thought was the biggest failing of West End Games.
The counters are sooooooooo much better than the original games, which was more akin to AH’s Panzer Leader style black silhouettes on solid color gray and red counters. Compass Games’ offering is a vast improvement all around, with colored silhouette art, divisional colored bar assist, awesome graphics, and denser colors on the counter foundation. I don’t own a copy yet, but I would gamble poker chips to the pot that the counters will have a smoother surface due to superior printing technology these days, as well as steel-rule die punching tech. The game counters are the eye candy of any wargame and these don’t disappoint!
The Player Aides are upgraded wonderfully, as well, and so much nicer than the original in my estimation… cleaner and not as garish as the originals, it follows to intent of the originals and I have every expectation that they will perform as the originals in making game play a breeze.
Lastly, the box art stellar! Compass Games never disappoints in this regard and in this offering, you feel the grit of the Eastern Front battlefield.
Man, I CANNOT WAIT to get this game. It’s on Pre-order now and I think this will be my 40th wedding anniversary gift to myself!!! …Juine 2nd is a bit away yet, but hey, it’s on Sale!!!
