Point Blank - Winter Victory Expansion

From Lock N Load Publishing:

In December 1944, in some of the most bitterly cold weather experienced on the West Front. German forces thunder into the snow-covered Ardennes forest, opposed only by a few exhausted Allied troops as German armor and infantry forces raced across the allied lines and into the countryside. The Allied player is in a desperate struggle to hold the front line and repel the all-out German offensive.

"Point Blank Winter Victory" is an expansion module for Lock 'n Load Publishing tactical World War 2 squad card "Point Blank V is for Victory." "Point Blank Winter Victory” is for 1-2 players and adds exciting new combat units, such as the German Tiger II, more famously known as the King Tiger tank, and the American M4A3 tank. New terrain and objective cards and been included expanding already on the large terrain types in the game. "Point Blank Winter Victory” takes you out of the dog days of summer and leaves players to contend with freezing weather with our added new snow and fog rules.

Each of the 12 new scenarios included presents the players with a unique situation involving squads of men, support weapons, leaders, and individual armored fighting vehicles.

This game pits the forces of the Allied and German forces against each other in the frozen Ardennes forest during the Battle of the Bulge. Each player has victory conditions determined by the scenario in which to defend or take objectives, seek and destroy their opponent’s units, or one of many other different scenario objectives.

The game is played on an abstract map board made up of terrain cards in the game and managed through a distance system that accounts for the range to targets, line of sight, and defensive attributes. The player has units that start out on the map and gradually work their way towards their objectives by advancing through the battlefield, all the while conducting combat actions against their opponent or defending their troops from return fire or whatever hell awaits them. Players draw cards from a common action deck where they will play actions on their units on the map board. The game is an IGOUGO impulse system, and turns are managed when the action deck is exhausted. (Some scenarios may require multiple deck exhaustion to finish the game). Actions in the game consist of Fire, Move, Assault, Rally, etc. The action cards contain dice icons on them to determine random results.

One of the unique features of the game is that it contains a deck of terrain cards that are not part of the action deck. As players change terrain, they will draw a terrain card in which their moving units will occupy. Some action cards, such as Recon, help players manage what terrain they occupy, but your opponent may have other plans for your moving troops during their turn.

The game can be played in about an hour (depending on the scenario size), and if you cannot find an opponent, then try the game solo system. In general, the gameplay is fast and exciting and compares to such legendary game systems as Up Front.