Well, its been a few months. Work has been rather nuts, and to cap it all off, no gaming (well, there was that one weekend I played Napoleon, but that's another story).
Overall I have not been overly inspired to write army lists. I get as far as picking up the books, but that's about it.Even my Russian cavalry division is stalled as I have not picked any of it up for a couple of months.
I thought for the next wee bit, to try to get things going again (if that can happen when one is on holiday) I might visit my favorite MSH period, The central front in Germany 1975-1985. Now I must admit to having a bit of a love hate relationship with MSH.It was my first introduction to the Spearhead gaming system, and I still remember the amazement that I felt that my tanks were over the 1/2 way line on the table, and actually doing something rather than just sitting still and sniping. I find the rules far more complicated than their WW2 brethren. While this is understandable, I admit that I tend to forget some of the finer points, and indeed some of the lesser bits in the turn sequence (like forgetting to fire stands at the right times). One thing that does make it hard is that the army lists tend to be a bit on the bland side. The WW2 lists tend to have a whole stack of cool toys in a division, and its possible to knock up some interesting army lists without too much trouble. MSH brigades tend to be rather the same within a division, with few different 'toys'.
National differences are not quite as pronounced either due to arms exports (however this is not overly different from the US supplying that allies at the tail end of WW2). Actually, this isn't quite the case as at least 4 NATO nations had decent arms industries( France, Germany, GB and USA) plus some of the lesser nations, and on the WARPAC side most of the nations had some indigenous AFV's backed up by the ubiquitous Russian equipment.
The period itself is interesting as it sees the introduction of new technology on both sides, but comes before the introduction of the NATO uber tanks which completely take the fun out of the game. The Russians get the improved T64 and T72.
Next up, a closer look at gaming possibilities.
