Review: 1-48 Tactic, Beer, Pretzels and Potato Mashers

Not too long ago I covered a bunch of fun games that I considered games, which are fun games that are quick, fun and not too hard on the wallet. A while ago I saw a for a game called from a company from sunny Italy. A lot of games hit Kickstarter and some of them actually get delivered to you, so when this came two weeks ago (it was 6 months behind schedule which is on early delivery for Kickstarter projects) I wanted to paint it and see what this game is all about. One disclaimer here, I used a game board with hexagons as a backdrop for my pictures, the game does not use hexagons within its mechanics.

The folks at Baueda claim it is a fast, engaging and fun skirmish dame that is also very deadly. From reading the rules (which ) I can say that it seems like they met this objective. Another thing to note that this game is a published that focused on the Russian Front.

This Kickstarter changes the focus of the game to the Ardennes and pits the US 101st Airborne against the German 26thVolksgrenadier Division. Each nation has its own starter pack and each box contains four 32mm models and comes with four pieces of terrain for your soldiers to weave around and duck behind. Each starter box also comes with cards that correspond to each soldier, tokens, two custom dice, and quick start rules. Once painted up all you will need are a measuring device and an opponent.

The game is very simple, you make up a force based on a set point total (36 points is recommended), each starter box has 27 points of troops (four models) so you can use the extra points to buy grenades. Then you set up your play area with the terrain included in the boxes on a 2’x2’ playing area. Once this is done you roll for initiative to see who goes first. Each turn a player gets five Action Tokens, and with these tokens, you can give your troops orders. They can move, shoot, take cover, engage in close combat or lay down opportunity and suppression fire.

You can also bank Action Tokens for another turn and actions like suppression and opportunity fire remain in place if the conditions for it are still met in following turns. Other actions like aiming for extra dice and throwing grenades costs extra Action Tokens as does negotiating rough terrain. Some of the characters can also move and fire if they armed with certain weapons.

The game used a D6 and each weapon can lay down a unique amount of fire with each shot. If you select to aim you get more dice in your attack. A model in the open is hit on a 4+ with distance and cover modifying the die roll. If a unit is shot at it can go down if you are 5” away and have a free Action Token. No matter the amount of dice each attack produces one hit and wounds the character. When this happens, you flip the character’s card over to its wounded side and place a “Wound Shock” token on the model at its loses its next turn.

The real neat mechanic is the opportunity and suppressive fire actions. Any character can lay down opportunity fire and when an enemy model comes within the radius of the opportunity fire token it stops and is attacked by the soldier who is laying down the fire. Suppressive fire needs an NCO and at least one other model to provide fire and prevents the models (friendly and enemy) from firing. This really gives the player a feeling of how fire and maneuver works.

For game scale, well the models are 32mm and are highly detailed and easy to paint. The game rules mention units, which can be 1 inch or 2.5 centimeters per unit. Weapons do not have a maximum range, so if you can see if you can shoot at it. At long distances, you suffer a die roll modification of -1, and grenades are much less accurate over 10 units.

Once you get the rules down the game plays quickly and like advertised it is very bloody. Right now only the starter boxes are available for those in on the Kickstarter. Those in on the Kickstarter were able to order extra characters for the first two forces and add on the yet to be released 28th Infantry and 5th Fallschirmjager divisions, each with another four models each.

I do not know if they will also have the terrain pieces or not. However I believe these packs will only have the models and character cards included in them. Based on the game manual, Baueda plans to add a lot more forces in the game to include British, Waffen-SS to finish the Ardennes campaign before moving on to other theaters of the war. It also seems that they plan to add heavy machine guns, artillery and anti-tank guns as well as vehicles in the future which will really expand the game.

Pros
As the front of the rules booklet states, this game is fast (under an hour), brutal and fun. The rules are simple to learn yet has a lot of flavor and interesting mechanics. Each model is essentially a character that a player controls that has unique abilities based on its training and weapons which gives the game a true taste of World War Two combat.

NCOs have special abilities and you can see how leadership plays in small unit tactics. I also like the low model count which I cannot see being more than six models at the 36-point level. The terrain is also a great addition to the game, while it is not required, it does allow you to play on any flat surface in minutes. The game is also geared for tournament play, however, with only 168 backers, tournaments may be a long time away.

Cons
While the rules are simple, I did have to read them a few times to get the hang of it. Things like the radius of an area under suppression fire is not something I picked up right away. Instead, I had to search the rules for an example of it (it’s the number next to the symbol of the NCO).

Once you play thru the game, any confusion about the core rules become clearer. One thing I am a bit curious about is how players will hoard Action Tokens in the first few turns in order to use them later on. While each character can only perform so many actions per turn (augmented by an NCO if in range), having a big wad of tokens mid-way thru the game can really make things bad for your opponent. Perhaps the rules will eventually cap how many Action Tokens a player can bank.

Overall
I love beer and pretzel games when I do not have a lot of time and want to get a game in quickly. This game is really on to something with its interesting and realistic mechanics which will even appeal to the most die-hard Grognards. I cannot think of another game like this. A fast play WWII game is something I always wanted. You can the quick play rules, cards and tokens right from Baueda’s website and try it out with any models on 25mm bases. I would suggest giving this game a shot and see if you agree that this is a good game that scratches a lot of gaming itches.