Scoring Blitzkrieg commander 4

I recently said I'd recommend the "commander" series of games so it seems like as good a time as any to explain why. To do so I'll have a natter about the one I know the best and have played the most - Blitzkrieg commander!

Presentation  7

Ok, honestly, bit ugly. The cover is quite bland despite having lots of Shermans, a Tiger and a Hurricane on it as the whole thing is overall a blue/green (or possibly a green/blue) and so everything slightly blends together. But as we all know - "never judge a book by it's cover" (otherwise a lot of 40k would be highly rated).

Inside has a lot of text which makes it look a little imposing compared to some games but I have to say the "a lot of text" is due to the "a lot of content". Even though half the book (approximately) is tables that's because it covers every nation on every front for the entirety of WW2 with them so really it's an acceptable trade off.

Playability  9

For all that the game covers I'd expect it to be more complex than it is. Apart from buying air and artillery assets and organising the scheduled phase of the turn, which appear to be my personal blind spots, I've found the game to be surprisingly simple making it easy to play big battles. Artillery can have a bit of a "... then take away the number you first thought of" feel when you first read it but its actually not that complicated and gives a reasonable result for the batteries involved.

Ultimately when playing the game all focus is on managing your troops and not the rules. Which is nice.

Mechanics  9

First off, the orders system. It's the best system I can think of for simulating organising large bodies of troops over a wide area without relying on complex systems. Essentially it's the classic leadership test with negatives for repeated orders and distance between the units involved (because you can activate the same unit(s) over and over if the dice go your way). It's a fantastic bit of abstraction that means it works just as well for Ramses, Napoleon and Rommel which it has done, being the same basic system used in Warmaster and Black powder as well.

Something I want to explain about my tastes at this point is that I don't like games that mention something that it also says it doesn't have rules for. The get out of jail free arguments being "it's a toolbox" or "we want to give you a free hand". If I have to write my own rules why am I buying yours? It's like a restaurant having pictures up of food it doesn't serve! 

However what I do like is when a rule set says "here's our default but then you can also use this, this or this" which allows you to bend the game to your specifics and genuinely allows you to have a free hand by really being a toolbox. BKC has a lot of these alternative options which means its possible to tailor your game to suit the nations, theatres, circumstances and even scale of forces you use while still having a default to fall back to. To use the restaurant analogy this is an all you can eat where you can have gravy on your sweet and sour chicken. I mean you shouldn't, but you can.

Combat is quite straightforward too. You roll to hit the same way for infantry, tanks, aircraft and artillery so organised combined attacks are simple. Some units can't "hurt" other units but they can still potentially scare them off so nothing is useless but equally nothing conquers all. For example your rifleman can't knock out that Tiger but if they get enough fire on it in the right places then maybe the crew won't be quite so sure of that and will pull back. Now odds are they won't and the supporting infantry will come for your riflemen but that's a separate issue for you to work out.

So in short the excellent command mechanic combined with the damage system makes shooting, melee, Artillery and air power all not just viable but almost necessary which is a mark of a great combined arms game.

Flavour  8

What makes this specifically feel and play like a WW2 game? I mentioned the Sherman and Tiger tanks on the cover, right?

Well aside from that the profiles and lists in the book do steer you towards historical organisations of forces and there's 15 different scenarios to play which combine to make all manner of games with WW2 challenges and set ups. Plus there's the previously mentioned optional rules which can be used to recreate particular units and locations if you're looking to do that.

Support  9

There are supplements for Korea and the Spanish civil war, which makes sense as they bookend WW2 quite nicely. Both come with a few ready made scenarios that have a lot of detail plus all the lists and options you'd expect so if not exhaustive they're still a very good introduction to the wars.

Pendraken have a dedicated section on their forum and as is just about always the case there's a Facebook group too. There's now solo play rules available too for the more misanthropic/unpopular gamers out there.

Beyond that though there's not much I'm aware of for this game which, oddly, isn't much of an issue simply because the book already covers so much. If you want to play anything from the Japanese invasion of China through to the island hopping of 1945 you can with just this book (and possibly a few free downloads). Its not all El Alamein and Normandy inbetween either. There's lists for Norway, Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and more "minor" players across the globe.

In short anything you want to play in WW2 that isn't pure naval or aerial battles from company size up can be done from this one book using pretty much any models you like which I still find quite remarkable.

TOTAL  85

In summary this is a top 5 game for me. Possibly top 2. It's as versatile and flexible as you like and the only thing I know to put any players off is the abstract nature of some mechanics. A "big" one being that hits are removed at the end of a turn. As each stand can be representative of a whole platoon I quite like this as a representation of morale, shock and minor injuries or vehicular damage which the troops can sort out when not under immediate pressure. However there is the option of using "static hits" that are not removed which makes for a faster game and I think works well if you want a stand to represent a squad or single vehicle.

Whether you like the abstract nature or not really just comes down to a matter of taste.

To summarise my summary, as I said in my original tweet "would recommend".