Bagration: River Assault – Product Review

By Tom Burgess

My good friend Ed and I have been playing the campaign for the last few months and we have been having a great time with it. When it came time for our sixth game, the campaign called for the River Crossing special mission that was covered in the Bagration: Soviet book.

Previously we had to use standard mission instead of a special mission because we did not have the still yet to be published Bagration: German book. So this was to be our first special mission played from the Bagration expansion for Flames of War. This would require some special terrain pieces and assault boats.

Fortunately Ed had bought We knew this terrain pack would have a river mat and card punch-out assault boats we needed, but I did not realize how much this pack actually had in it. Yes, this pack had the river mat and special pieces but it had so much more.

Also were included were all the special missions from both the Bagration: Soviet and Bagration: German books. These include Onslaught, Hammering the Line, and Swinging the Sickle from Bagration: German and River Crossing, The Crossroads, and A Foothold from the Bagration: German Soviet book. The terrain pack also included bunker, nest, wire, and mine counters for the Fortified Defenses in the Onslaught mission in Bagration: German. Finally, the terrain pack contains unit cards for German Bunkers, Gun Nest, Machine Gun Nests, and Turret bunkers.

At fist I did not think we really needed this terrain pack, as we have a lot of high quality terrain already. But for just $20US you get so much in this terrain pack that is useful. First off, you get all the special Bagration missions. So if you are just buying the Bagration unit cards and not the books, you can still get access to those missions through this terrain pack. Then there’s the obvious terrain pieces, which tough they are just two-dimensional, are nice looking and functional. Finally having unit cards for all those bunkers if very useful.

The bridge “counters” are two sided with a regular bridge side and a railroad bridge side.

I think we got our $20 value back from this terrain pack with just one good game, but we have many more to come and this terrain pack as certainly expanded our Bagration gaming far beyond my expectations. I guess it just goes to show you, you can’t judge a book….or a terrain pack…by its cover.

The Bagration: River Assault terrain pack in use at our last game.

FW266A Bagration: River Assault Mission Terrain Pack NOT provided by Battlefront.