I love history. I have averaged finishing a book per week since I was eight years old. My two great loves are good science fiction and military history. I have read Band of Brothers, Brazen Chariots, Ivan's War, Enemy at the Gates, and innumerable others. Throughout my reading I have searched for the game that would evoke the sense of BEING THERE and charging into the guns that I received from the best of those memoirs.

I played Panzerblitz: too dry. I tried ASL: too impenetrable. I tried ASLSK: Just barely penetrable, but no one else would play it with me. I tried Tide of Iron: better but still not quite right (probably because of the poor scenarios). I tried Combat Commander: closer still but not there yet. I tried Memoir 44: nice complexity but not very realistic. Then I took a leap of faith and tried one last time.

Conflict of Heroes arrived at the door a little over a week ago. The box got pretty smashed in transit, so after I beat it back into shape, reinforced it with PVA glue in the seams and left it to dry I got around to the rest of the components. Six boards (I got the bonus swamp board by buying directly from Uwe) with some fairly standard european countryside: hills, roads, villages, and a one-horse town (although they probably ate him by December). Workmanlike, nothing spectacular. The four sheets of counters were a great deal more promising. One inch square, and nearly a quarter of an inch thick, depicting a squad, crew served weapon or vehicle in muted tones with values clearly depicted. Two big square books, one for rules and one for scenarios, a deck of cards, a reference sheet, and two dice rounded out the package.

I took a look through the FAQ and errata and was a little disappointed. There are some misspellings (Diffuse Mines?!) and card errata. Yech! Out came the marker and the pens. After a little unsightly touching up, the game was ready to hit the table.

Since the game is touted as being ridiculously easy to play, I decided to teach it to my son. Eight years old, he has a good handle on Memoir and can play CCA if I remind him that evasion is an option. Tide of Iron and Combat Commander were both beyond him. Clash for a Continent is probably his current favorite. We racked up Firefight#1 and an hour later were hooked. It has been on the table for a week now. Playing for about an hour a night after dinner, we have made it through Firefight #4, including all teaching time.

So what is it that makes this such a fun and accessible game? Well, a variety of easily understood options is probably the key. After a little pre-turn housekeeping, the winner of the initiative becomes the active player and usually begins by activating a unit. That unit receives seven action points. Each unit has a cost to move and a cost to fire, which it does so by expending those action points. After each expenditure of action points, the inactive player may react.

This is where the game gets INTERESTING. The simplest way to react is by choosing a unit you have not used this turn and having him perform a single action (usually firing). After this SINGLE action he flips over and is done for the turn. That's right: DONE. Hits the showers, collects his check, clocks out until next turn.

So what if you don't want to spend your guys' only chance on one lousy reaction fire? What if you've already spent it? Well options exist. In addition to unit action points, you also have a stash of Command Action Points. You can pull these out of the bank to pay for a unit to perform one of his tricks without flipping (and hence being finished for the turn) or even if he's already flipped.

Basically this represents the Captain (you) sending Sergeant Stumkopf (represented by three or four command action points) down to scream at Private Fritz, get him to put down his bratwurst and light up those Ivans circling around your left flank. The problem is that Sergeant Stumkopf won't get back till next turn, leaving you shorthanded at HQ (you usually only have six to nine Command Action Points to spend per turn).

This is a tough choice because Sgt. Stumkopf is a really useful guy. Up to two Command Action Points can be added directly to ANY die roll. Yes, that is ANY DIE ROLL. Infantry attacking a pesky tank? Send Sgt Stumkopf! "Come on you lazy bastards!" Need the initiative? "Captain, I think Ivan is infiltrating our right flank!" You begin to get the picture.

If that weren't enough options, the game comes with a deck of cards that can be played for in-game effects: stronger attacks, free activations, double actions and the like. The numbers of cards are very limited, however, suppressing any wild effects on the game. Some are free to play, others require the activation of a unit or the expenditure of action points or command activation points. All are self-explanatory.

Combat is very simple. Units have a firepower: Red for high explosive/small arms and blue for armor piercing, with some units having both red and blue firepower at the same time. They also have two defensive values which are also either red or blue: one for attacks from the front and another for attacks from the rear (usually lower). The attacker checks line of sight, declares any command activation points he is spending to modify the roll, throws the dice and adds the attack strength. The attack strength is halved if you are attacking without a matching colored firepower. This produces an interesting effect whereby your incredibly powerful tank-killing gun can be utterly ineffective against infantry (the Ivans refuse to oblige by lining up so that your AP shot can kill more of them).

If your modified attack is equal to or higher than his modified defense, you pull a random damage chit from the pile and place it atop the target, usually producing effects that hinder its combat effectiveness. A second hit kills the target. Hits can be removed from live units by successfully rallying the unit (an action or reaction that costs 5 action points and is not available for vehicles). Die roll modifiers exist for terrain, close range firepower, close combat, and plunging fire but are simple to understand. Group fire and group movement are present and simple: the group shares a pool of seven action points and pays the fire cost of the attack for the unit acting as the "base of fire" for attacks or the unit with the least favorable movement cost when moving.

Once you've spent your unit's seven action points and declined the right to flog him any further using command action points or cards, he flips over and your opponent gets the chance to activate a unit. Active/inactive status passes back and forth until both players pass in succession, ending the turn. Objectives are scored and the turn marker moves ahead.

So, exactly what is so great about this game? As I've said, I've taken a whack at almost every tactical level WWII game on the market and always been left unsatisfied by the amount of "ruleage" required to play. For example, games either ignore opportunity fire (making for a very poor simulation) or have complex rules covering the topic (making for a very poor game). COH handles this by allowing reaction fire, card-driven opportunity fire, and Command Action Point driven fire. Basically if the other guy has 4 CAPs in the bank then charging across three open hexes to assault his unflipped machine gun (with a fire cost of 2) is a bad idea: he'll light you up in every hex on the way across.

Another example is the gun shield, the little metal dodad protecting the crew of an anti-tank gun. ASLSK#2 had three paragraphs dealing with how to handle gun shields: in COH the gun's defense is blue (armored) from the front and red (soft) from the back. Problem solved, no extra rules involved. This integration of smartly designed components with a minimalist ruleset made the game ridiculously easy to learn; my eight year old can play and even win!

The heart of the game can be summed up in one word: Tempo. If you can make your opponent burn his options reacting instead of acting you can run the board. Reacting and damage control actions are heavily penalized by the system. This is really the essence of all modern warfare and makes the game a great model of small unit actions.

The game comes with 10 scenarios. Another two have been posted to Academy Games' website already; pretty good support considering that most people are still waiting for a copy of the game. The scenarios have a programmed approach, introducing the rules of the game across the first five scenarios for easy digestion. Experienced wargamers may feel free to read ahead.

While this first offering is somewhat limited in scope and flawed by minor printing errors, it is a great introduction to what I think will become a tremendous line. It captures a great deal of the chrome of other tactical wargames with almost none of the headaches. I'm very excited to see what'll come next.

I think you covered about everything in the rules.

Well, one bit.

1. Some hit markers effect your stats, making it harder or impossible to do certain things. Also one just kills you when you get it.

2. If you hit by 4 or more, you kill the target.

Very nice breakdown of the game.

Well, he ought to stay in the breakroom at least, because he's not necessarily finished. A used unit can still take actions using CAPs. Which is a deadly thing to remember: even though a unit is flipped, it can still participate if needed and the CAPs are available. I guess Sgt. Stumkopf can REALLY get them up and moving or firing!

I am one of the poor sods still awaiting their copy of CoH. After reading this marvellous review the waiting becomes unbearable. Thanks fot that (and the great review)!

I left out the two odd hit markers: in stats we always called those "outliers." With only a two in twenty chance of getting either, and a 15% or less chance of getting the +4 point auto-kill with an average FP unit (say 4FP) you can't bank on it happening reliably. With single unit fire you're shooting to slow the enemy down and keep him busy rallying on his own turn instead of doing anything constructive.

Nice review, and your style made it fun to read as well.

The more I hear of people playing this with their 8-12 year olds, the more I think I might actually get my husband to play!

It's a great game. It captures the fundamentals of small unit actions in a very accessible format. It also has nice production values, card errata aside. I'm getting older and sorting out hundreds of 1/2 inch chits isn't as entertaining as it once was. CoH also has a visceral feel to it that more complex games lack.

In same boat with you, waiting and waiting. I'm also in the midst of trying to solidify my understanding of the ASLSK rules, and every time I read something about CoH I just want to put ASL aside but I'll press on while I wait.

I just ordered this from L2...Lord only knows when I'll get it, judging by some of the other threads concerning delivery of this game.

I have played most of the other tactical games the OP mentioned, and I'd agree with his assessment of them, for the most part. ASLSK I'd differ a little, only in that through VASL, you can find opponents on line (but he may be looking for FTF, in which case, yeah, some folks are put off by the rules, even the "simple" SK rules )

What I'm playing now almost exclusively is Lock n Load, which is the perfect blend of rules/complexity vs fun for *me*. Coming from having played some ASL and ASLSK, it took a while to get used to the shortage of defensive fire options...but it makes for a much quicker and smoother flowing game, all things considered. And the cool thing about LnL is that once you learn the system, you have the ability to play Vietnam, Falklands, WWII, and Mogidishu scenarios.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Company of Heroes, just to see how it fares against all of the others.

I also gave LnL a try. What frustrated me about the system were the spotting rules (which require LOTS of die rolls) and the need to sometimes roll high and sometimes low. Remembering which was which was a major pain in the backside. That being said, I liked the skill cards and hero aspect of the game.

I have CoH, and it's everything that's been said about it and more. The
production values are through the roof, the rulebook is simple and easy to understand, and the replay value of the scenarios is endless. It's not unusual for me and my wargaming buddy to play a scenario a couple of
times a night, either switching sides or trying again with the same side
to correct bad initial placement in the first game. The rules are easy but the tactics are deep, the combination of Action Points, Command Action points, and cards gives each player a LOT of options. I've been wargaming for 35+ years, from the AH classics to present day, played SL
when it first came out, played some ASL, ATS, LnL, and Panzer Grenadier.
They all have their good points, though I do agree with the previous messager about the spotting rules for LnL, along with a rulebook that seems to have been hastily put together. Since I only have the first edition of LnL, Forgotten Heroes, I'm sure that Mark has cleared things up though.