Combat Commander has to be approached in a certain frame of mind. It took me maybe a half dozen solo plays to really appreciate it. It started life as a card game and you need to learn it with this in mind. Hand management is crucial. However once you understand the way this works and come to accept the inherent randomness it is a wonderful and exciting game. At least thats how its been solo. I’ve played one game F2F and I’m not sure it went down so well. It was a good game and we enjoyed it, but its a big change after playing Conflict of Heroes for several months and rules that appear to be well written and an ideal reference manual prove to be less so.

Randomness can at first seem to dictate the gameplay but when you get your head round it you can see how in many way it is just simulating the constantly changing environment of a real battlefield. At the end of the day good tactics and an ability to deal with change will win the game.

Component wise it falls on the really nice side but there are areas I wish were better. Paper maps .. well there’s loads of them so mounted is out of the question. Graphically they are very crisp, clean, easy to read and well balanced. Functionally they are just about as right as they can be. Some of the chits are overly small for what they are and actually get in the way. The record sheet is perfectly fine but the chits you use to mark victory points etc. are just plain ugly and don’t fit with the otherwise excellent graphic design.

Board Game Geek entry