Alright, Circus fans, this is going to be a good one, so strap on your seat belt and let me take you downtown where the hookers and cheap heroin is. You see, there are very few games that I think are a solid 10 rating based on factors such as production quality, value, and the most important aspect of any game, the level of fun it provides. Well, Mission Command: Sea isn't a perfect 10, but it's pretty damned close. The one thing that it lacks, the one thing holding it back from a destiny of greatness, is just a little more complexity. But aside from that, it's nearly the perfect game. It's fun, fast, brutal, has a body count, and the winner doesn't win by amassing the most ubiquitous "victory points", you win by fucking the other guy's shit up, hospital-hurt style.

Many, many moons ago, I was an RPG adherent, drawing detailed topographical maps on graph paper and using Ral Partha miniatures that I'd painted when I was ten years old. I loved the idea of Dungeons and Dragons, although I was only lukewarm on the actual role playing. I think, in my heart of hearts, that my dabbling in Dungeons and Dragons, as well as my theoretical physicist cousins' love of war gaming, is what influenced my lifelong love of miniatures, fantasy war gaming, and really, board games in general.

Of all the games that I count as the most memorable, the most truly influential upon my psyche, the single most viscerally life-changing of them all was Gary Gygax module, "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks". It is, in fact, the only module I still own, after all these years. Now, when Wizards of the Coast announced their S-Series of modules that were to be reprinted, something inside of me re-awakened after a long, long hiatus. I am now considering going to my buddy David's house as he is a huge RPG nutter and holds weekly adventuring sessions. To that end, I acquired a copy of the first tome in the new S-Series, Dungeons of Dread.