Airborne!

Thumbnail Analysis Game Review

by Don Lowry


JagdPanther Publications, who now call themselves J.P. Publications, had a couple of new games we picked up at the Origins II Convention, and this is one of them. It comes in a 9"x12/', clear plastic, zip-lock bag, which contains: a 9"x12" "cover" or title, card; a 17 1/2 "x27" mapsheet (brown on yellow, heavy paper); two 5"x7" sheets of 1/2"-square, die-cut unit counters (blue on white "Airborne Units", white on orange "Defender Units"); a 17" x22" rules folder (folding into eight 8 1/2" x 11" pages); two 7"x9" clear plastic, zip-lock bags for keeping the unit counters ,,in, once they're punched out; and an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet with two "flight displays".

This is a squad level tactical game of airborne landings. It is quite similar to a previous game by the same publisher: Marine! The two players are referred to simply as the Airborne player and the Defending player. From scenario to scenario the nationality of the two roles may change or completely reverse. Each unit in the game represents a single vehicle, or heavy weapon, two machine guns or about 10 men. Each turn represents approximately 3 minutes, and each hex about 100 meters. Each player's turn is divided into the following phases: Airstrike Plotting (airstrikes plotted on turn 1 will hit on turn 4); Artillery Plotting (fire from off board plotted on turn 1 will hit on turn 2); Airstrike Execution; Artillery Execution; First Firing Phase (on-board howitzers and mortars are fired and then flipped upside down); Second Firing Phase (other units do the same); Movement; Airlanding (Airborne Player only); Close-Assault/ Hand-to-Hand Combat; Recover Phase (turn all units right side up again). All units have zones of control but only have to stop when moving directly from one enemy ZOC hex to another.

At that point the unit exerting the second ZOC may fire at the moving unit. Up to four units may stack in one hex, but must all suffer the full effects of any fire on that hex, and the defense factor of each unit is reduced by one point for each other occupant of that hex. Different kinds of units have different ranges, but the shortest is three hexes. The rules governing air landing are too long and complex to explain here but are thorough, realistic and cover both parachute and glider operations.

The scenarios provided are: Beginner's, Spanish Civil War; Netherlands, May 1940; Corinth Canal, April 1941; Point 107, Crete, May 1941; Sumatra, January 1942; Bruneval, France, February 1942; Primasole Bridge, Sicily, July 1943; and Behind Utah Beach, June 6 1944. This looks like a very interesting game that would appeal to most fans of modern tactical games. The rules are quite well written, though the printing o: them on a large folder, rather than a booklet, is unfortunate, as is the placing of the CRT and TEC within this folder rather than on separate sheets. Nevertheless the game is well worth the modest $5.00 price. It is available from J.P. Publications, PO Box 3565-C, Amarillo, TX 79106.

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© Copyright 1977 by Donald S. Lowry
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