My copy of Combat Commander: Europe arrived on Monday and after evening spent with a knife cutting off the counters, I got the game ready to play. I met Olli yesterday for a quick battle.

We played the first scenario, a simple meeting engagement between small Russian and German forces. Explaining the rules to Olli was fairly simple, I can see myself teaching this game to newbies without much trouble, once I get the rules straight for myself.

Our battle was pretty quiet, lots of pointless firing around, with little done. Only one unit was eliminated. It’s just not enough to fire with a single squad, especially if your opponents are in cover or supported by a good leader. Takes a lucky shot to get anything done with that kind of firepower.

I enjoyed the card mechanism, like I expected. It works really well. Of course you’re drawing the wrong cards all the time, but that’s really what’s expected with games like this. Choosing when to discard and when to act made some interesting decisions.

We played for two hours and didn’t finish the scenario. Some time was lost in reading the rules. Most of the time I found answers I wanted, but not always. I got a mortar from an infiltration event, and I thought there must be some special rules about mortars. Turns out there isn’t, really, it’s all in the counter. Takes some practise, that’s all.

So, I enjoyed it, and I’m definitely looking for more CC:E action!