Saipan 1944

[campsawyer]

I can report that Saipan has landed here in Western Mass. Congratulations, Jay it is now arriving in players hands. Delivered in the morning mail, I immediately opened it and here are my initial thoughts.

The boards, impressive on the website, but came out darker than I would like after printing. Differences between heavy and light jungle maybe an issue for some as it will need good lighting to tell the difference. The variety of visual images are nice, but the TEC chart on the back of the scenario is in black and white, not making the identification any easier. The stock they were printing on is slightly better than the ones used for EB or KSF.

The counters, laser cut and look good. No miss cuts, burn markers or smokey smell. Some interesting new counters for the Japanese, but I am impressed with the Marine firepower, if these guys get into assaults there is no doubt the Japanese will take losses.

The special rules, fairly comprehensive for the game, but I have failed to find the rules describing anything different about cane fields. I assume that the regular field rules apply? Que Jay. Interesting rules for Satan tanks as well as MK7's. The best rules I found was the update to hidden rules. Which makes them totally optional in the scenarios.

The scenarios look interesting. Nothing really stands out as issues, playing will force them out. Most are smaller in length with a few longer ones, > 20 turns. There is some impressive OBA's in the few scenarios that I looked at. I look forward to giving them a try.

Overall it looks good. Production does look a bit rushed with the map issues and possible missing SSR's, but those can be overcome if the scenarios play well.

Good job Jay for getting this going.