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Hold the Line vs Command & Colors

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There Will Be Games

HoldtheLineAs a kid I grew up a good part of my life in the suburbs of Washington D.C. Not only did we live 20 minutes from about 30 free museums but within a 50 mile radius there were dozens of Civil War battlefields.   Uba would claim that me and my dad dragged her to every Civil War battle field on the east coast but in reality she came on about 3 trips with us and me and my dad. Probably, she came with us to Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Antietam. At the same time I received my second war game as a kid, the SPI Quad game with a plastic cover Blue & Gray 2.   Me and my dad ended up playing all the Blue & Gray 2 and later my dad bought me Blue & Gray 1 so we ended up playing all 8 battles.  In every battle I played the Union and he played Confederates.

Blue & Gray was a simple war game by today’s standards and probably very dated.  The Infantry were all 3-3 meaning they could move 3 spaces and had a combat value of 3.  Combat was done through a Combat Resolution Table.   I learned a hell about the Civil War and about war gaming tactics from this simple game.

I guess we might all be driven to search out the things from our youth whether it’s our sled called Rosebud or a simple tactical war game.   Maybe this is my answer to Sag’s question last month why we go back to that box.   But I think I’ve found my Rosebud in little war game called Hold the Line http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/35342 from Worthington games.

Hold the Line is a tactical American Revolutionary war game that includes the following battles: Long Island, Harlem Heights, Weitzel's Mill,Trenton, Hobkirk's Hill, Eutaw Springs, Bemis Heights, White Plains, Kings Mountain, Brandywine and Monmouth.

It’s obvious that there are a number of very popular simple and modular tactical war games out there.  The C&C, M44, Battlelore, Battle Cry, Maneuver, Combat Commander and other games all fit the bill.  I’ve always enjoyed playing these games and I actually own 4 of these games. I’m going to use C&C games as a comparison vs. Hold the Line. I’m not doing this to bash the C&C games but just because everyone is pretty familiar with the C&C games.

Hold the Line, For Honor and Glory and Clash of the Continent from Worthington games actually have a lot of similarities to the Commands & Colors system. Both C&C and Hold the Line uses a blank map board that the terrain can be changed for each scenario. Both games are played until you capture some amount of flags or victory points (usually between 4 – 8). Both games take between 45 – 90 minutes. Both game systems have units that can usually take 4 hits to kill but in attack strength doesn’t decrease as a unit takes hits.

There are slight difference between C&C and Hold the Line.

1. In Hold the Line firing units roll the same number of dice no matter what the range is, but with a reduced chance of hitting per die, in C&C the chance of hitting remains the same, but longer range fire uses fewer dice. No Preference

2. C&C games uses special dice and Hold the Line use regular dice. I prefer regular dice. I like to know immediately when I roll the dice that I’m hitting on 5 or 5-6. One of the things that drove me crazy about Battlelore was trying to remember if I’m hitting on green shields or blue swords. The dice in C&C, Memoirs and Battle Cry aren’t as bad but I still like looking for 6’s. Advantage Hold the Line.

3. C&C games use strategy cards to determine actions. Each general or army gets a certain number of strategy cards to choose from some cards are better than others. Some you’ll get to move and attack with a whole bunch of units and some you’ll only get to fire with 1 unit. Sometimes the attack will only be on one flank and other times you may only get to move 1 type of unit like the archers. Hold the Line uses Action Points. Each army starts with a number of action points 2 or 3 and then you’ll roll a d3 dice. So each army will end up with between 3 – 6 Action points per turn to use how ever they want. I know many people like the strategy cards of C&C games but I personally like rolling a d3 (I love games that use d3 dice). The strategy cards of C&C seem very gamey to me after playing the simplified Hold the Line Action Point system. The only draw back with the Action Point system is that you may find yourself only using small number of troops. When I played the battle of Harlem Heights the British Player only played with 6 of his 20+ units and I only used about half of my units. Advantage Hold the Line because it’s more fun and simple to roll a d3.

4. Use of Leaders. I love games were leaders are important. C&C games uses leaders to various degree. In Battle Cry the leaders are fairly important where there isn’t any leaders in the base Battlelore game. In Hold the Line leaders are critical. Leaders may force march troops. Leaders can also add bonus to attack and moral. A leader stacked with units can rally troops by using an action point. If an army unit is damaged and down to 1 strength the leader can raise it up to 2 strength. Since victory is based on how many units you destroyed, rallying units so they’re not destroyed can be critical to winning at Hold the Line. Perhaps the most important thing about leaders is that if you lose a leader you’ll lose 1 action point. So in Hold the Line you’ll have to balance out using your leader and protecting your leaders. Advantage Hold the Line.

5. Components. Both games have great components. C&C uses tiles, M44, BC and BL all use plastic minis. Hold the Line use heavy large chits. The chits are like 1” by 2”. Since this review is on F:AT, I’ll have to give the advantage to C&C.

Hold the line vs Command & Colors

6. Set up time. Because Hold the Line uses the big easy, to read chits vs. minis the set up time is very fast. One of the reasons I gave up on Battlelore was that set up to fun ratio wasn’t good. Battlelore takes 15-20 minutes to set up and put away and the game may only take 30 – 45 minutes. Hold the Line take 5 – 10 mintues to set up and put away for a 45 – 60 minute battle. Advantage Hold the Line.

7. Scenarios, maps and feel. For some reason many of the C&C game scenarios seem a little to generic to me. Two army’s line up with a few hill and forests mixed in and the then the armies battle it out. I think each Hold the Line scenarios seem a little more unique than the C&C scenarios. For example in the battle of Trenton, Washington has crossed the Delaware and has surprised the Hessians. The British Army is a complete mess in this battle. In the battle of Long Island, Washington must form an orderly retreat or get completely annihilated. Advantage Hold the Line.

8. Ability to play on teams. This is where CC:A and MM44 really shines. One of my favorite gaming experiences is playing Overlord CC:A or MM44 with 8 players. Hold the Line doesn’t offer this. Advantage C&C.

Here’s how I’d rate the modular tactical war games that I’ve talked about:

#1. Hold the Line – Shines above the C&C games in my book

#2. CC: Ancients – Great unit mix (elephants to skirmishers). Overlord.

#3. Battle Cry – Simplest of the C&C games but it has a quick set up and leaders.

#4. M44 – I like M44 almost as much as Battle Cry and Ancients

#5. Battlelore – A distant last

 

There Will Be Games Hold the line vs Command & Colors

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