The terrain overlays are slightly less glossy; marginally, I think that I prefer them, yet prefer the older terrain art work for the snow-bound tiles of the Bulge Campaign. By historical necessity, some of the campaigns included in the previous game cannot be part of this package when focusing on the American side of WWII. North Africa, Italy, the Normandy Campaign and Germany obviously feature, but in come three Pacific campaigns: the Philippines 1942, Saipan 1944 and Okinawa 1945. To accompany the new Pacific Campaigns, we have new jungle terrain and a separate Battalion Deck for the Japanese. These are identified on the front of the cards by appropriate symbols and pictures.
The Leader cards feature artwork in muted colours, while the illustrations on the cards with scenes and equipment from WWII remain the black and white type found in Tiger Leader. We already know that some people liked them and some didn't - I did. So, presumably there's still the difference in taste now - and I still like them. No surprises there!
As before, oodles of high quality counters and cards, all very familiar, as is the whole sequence of play. So, for those of you familiar with the Leader series and especially with Tiger Leader you may wish to skip over the next sections.
In game terms, the combination of Campaign and Objective is most significant in producing SO [Special Option] points, which are the purchasing power for the troops you stock your campaign with and to buy a few sundry benefits. Your units range from basic infantry, including machine gun and mortar teams, through armour and light armour to anti-tank, half-tracks and artillery. You can also buy trucks and scouts, but these don't appear as counters on your map. Instead, trucks help in reducing the SO cost of attacking enemy battalions in specific locations on the Tactical Display Sheet, while scouts allow you to extend the standard number of 5 turns in a battle. Both can be absolutely essential buys at times.
These will be the total number of enemy Battalions that you will face over the course of a typical campaign which will last from 3 to 5 weeks. Each week, you will make the choice of which of these Battalions you will fight and the number of them that you destroy by the end of the campaign will determine your level of success.
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