radegast
Posts: 5
Joined: 8/15/2003 From: London, the English one Status: offline
|
Anyone out there familiar with the cardboard and paper board game from designer Jack Radey which deals with Korsun Pocket? A massive board game (the board is approx 2 * 2 metres) about 1200 playing pieces and 800 markers it was (is) a wealth of information about the battle. Unfortunately unplayable, I remember trying a scenario with the 16 and 17 Pz divisions on the Gnoloi Tisich ((sp?) I think) where each hex seemed to have about 15 counters on it! Not good for the shaky hands! The opening breakthrough and encirclement scenarios were a little easier to handle, but even so mega complex. Cried out for computer power I even went as far as to program a (then) state of the art calculator for combat odds calculation to ease the burden a little. The rules went as far as modeling different types of ammo supply for different classes of artillery, and some units were represented down to the company level! Jack's games were always amongst the most enjoyable for me, not least because of the irreverent manner in which his rules were written, to the extent tht at one point it states that if your opponent does x you are permitted to beat him round the head! Unfortunately, Jack dedicated Korsun Pocket to the 'Brave men and women of the Red Army who gave their lives in the Great Patriotic War' and was immediately branded a communist! This made him somewhat of a pariah in the community, which in the seventies seemed to comprise, at least in the US, solely of fascists. Makes one wonder where the world would have been if the Great Patriotic War had never been fought. Jack did a number of other games, the most relevant to Korsun being Kanev, the paradrop over the Dnieper and Kirovograd, the precursor to Korsun. I've still got these games somewhere, must dig them out for comparison. Edited for typos.
_____________________________
Get your retaliation in first!
|