The skinny version? Rejoice! This is a great expansion.

In a little more detail, the Memoir 44 community over on the Days of Wonder forums have long requested this expansion, primarily via a thread with 381 posts and 33648 views (and still rising, amazingly!), and at last the Brits are here. The expansion brings us new national characteristic rules for the British and Commonwealth and Italian armies, new terrain types, additional tiles of established terrain types, new North Africa scenarios, and a whole new category of unit: the Special Weapon Asset.

The Special Weapon Asset, in this expansion an 'anti-tank gun' asset represented by a panzershreck mini (called bazooka in the expansion rulebook), plays beautifully. You simply embed the mini within a standard infantry unit, a concept introduced first in Battlelore, and the asset provides the unit with additional capability. I tend to think of the unit as a standard infantry unit but with additional AT support elements. This impacts mobility, hence no taking ground if you're lugging around anti-tank weapons. Panzershrecks weren't used in North Africa, but the mini is representative of all manner of anti-tank weapons and so allowing a little poetic license is appropriate.

Regarding the British infantry mini, it's great to see the desert uniform. The mini looks good, although I think the helmet looks like a mark III 'turtle' helmet, which was actually a '44 helmet type. I'd have preferred the famous mark II with the wide brim - but how nit-picky is that! In any case, when the figures arrive they may look more like mark IIs than they do in the picture. The Crusader and the 25pdr minis are both mouth-watering, although it was recently pointed out that the Crusader mini has 6 bogie wheels rather than the 5 it should have. It's a small issue since the rest of the tank looks excellent, and the number of bogies will be unnoticed in play.

The Stiff Upper Lip rule is cool, giving the Brits a 1 die battleback if they're down to their last figure and not pushed back in close combat. Other characteristics of the wartime British Army - donkyish leadership and brewing tea at inappropriate times, like in combat situations (see Villers-Bocage) - can be assumed to be built into the British command card allocation.

The Italian national rules are great, and the Motorised Divisions rule allowing Italian units to retreat 1, 2, or 3 hexes for each flag taken is simply a stroke of genius. Whoever it was at DoW that came up with that one deserves some kind of award. How do you meld the popular (not in Italy) perception of Italian troops having brittle morale and running at the drop of a mark II helmet, with the reality of a brave and determined bunch of guys who were poorly armed and poorly led? How about the Royal Italian Army Motorised Rule? Sublime.

The Airpack isn't used in this expansion. Perhaps air power wasn't decisive in these battles, but there were aircraft available to both sides over the course of the campaigns covered. After playing the scenarios as intended, players missing the familiar drone of the Merlin might want to take an Air Sortie card each at the start of a battle.

Oh my gosh, it's true, the Crusader has six road wheels. It looks like the bottom of a Centurion.

At least the tank has sand skirts, and the topside isn't bad--distinctive angled-armor turret--but the driver's compartment is very oversized (this is probably a consequence of the length distortion caused by that sixth road wheel). Nonetheless, a recognizable British tank with good flavor for the Desert War and a much better choice than Matilda, Churchill or a rehashed Sherman.

The 25 pdr is correctly shown on its circular pivoting base.

The Tommie does indeed have an odd-looking helmet. I'm betting that will be the production piece. Nice wool socks, though, and a classic pose.

The AT asset is a curious miniature--weapon, no crew. Wonder if the British AT piece is the same bit in tan, or something different? (What would it be--surely not a PIAT?)

The far-more-generous-than-usual DoW preview for this module is a welcome sharing of information. I hope it presages a new era of "glasnost" for DoW's pre-publication information.

Really looking forward to armor fights in the desert!

Since the AT asset is "manned" when its placed with infantry units, it actually makes sense not to have it depicted with a unit on it. Also, I believe that the AT asset won't be considered part of any nations unit, but a unit that is interchangeable with any nationality in the game. I bet it remains grey.

A review when it looks like you haven't even played the game yet?

I'd never review a game I hadn't played. In fairness I've played some but not all of the scenarios, and it's the first I've seen of the Italian national rules, but I think my review doesn't mislead in that respect. The rest I'm very familiar with

I forgot to mention the wool socks, Barry. I SO love the wool socks

Is this shipping already?

It's on pre-order Chris, but the rules and scenarios are up on the DoW website and freely downloadable, and the wooly socks are clearly evident.

Does this really look like a review to you? It looks to me like a detailed and informed story about the expansion. Since it is an expansion to a game that has been often played by many people, I believe the detail in this story is warranted and can be believed.

Excellent! Thanks, I'll have to check them out!



One can never have enough wooly socks.

I think its because its in the "Review" section of the forum.

I guess that's OK for people who only read labels.

Do you notice I'm keeping a stiff upper lip about all of this?

Hey - tough crowd!!

Nice synopsis Yangtze.
Maybe we can rustle up some serious hot-desert actions [oo-er] at next year's Expo tourney (Hay Festival permitting, of course).