Well, once again Norm has helped me spend my pocket money. And very well spent it is too.
Norm posted about Velikie Luki by Legion Games back in December. This is, to be honest, one of my favourite battles alongside Quatre Bras, amongst others. This is largely due to the close run natiure of the situation. I have very fond memories of the GDW game White Death from the the 1970s which treated the battle at battalion level. It featured use of impulses and also used one of the best ever battalion level combat systems. This is the sort of system that creates narrative.
From a game played forty years ago, I still recall the massive Soviet artillery barrage that failed to hit a fortification hex, a Soviet infantry regiment being cut to pieces by a German battalion supported by a 20mm FLAK battalion, an artillery unit of 3rd Mountain Division abandoning their guns and evading the advancing Soviets to reach thier own lines. As you can tell, I played the Germans in that one.
Despite a reasonably sized map, it came with 400+ half inch counters. Even setting up the game would be challenging now, actually I have nowhere to put it!
For some time I had had my eye on the Vae Victis issue with their Vilikye Louki game but Norm's review swayed me. Interestingly enough, I ordered the game from the US. It arrived very quickly. Although the shipping exceeeded the cost, it was well worth the final price.
I recommend Norm's review for a complete picture of the game. The points that are important to me are that the map is small, the rules are short and there are 64 counters all in. The rules are straight out of the Jim Dunnigan wargames design book which means that the game is the thing, not figuring out how to play it.
Needless to say there are many other projects on the go. The problem is finding time to get on with them!
