The Western Front

The meat grinder: piles and piles of dead infantry.

Until the tanks come along when, assuming Larry is intelligent enough to make them 4-1, the balance will be tilted a little more towards attack.

From Larry’s Q&A

"Q. How will the Western Front be simulated in the game?

A. I don’t want to get too deep into this. I will say, that there is only one round of combat dice rolling per turn per battle. The game, IMHO, feels very Western Front as you play it. It’s very cool and interesting how this system works and plays out. I like how it feels."

That might not be much of a meat grinder since there is only one round of combat, but it does sound like it will be slow. If it’s like I imagine it, to take the enemy territory, you will have to defeat the whole defending force in one round. The numbers advantage needed for that as big as those initial stacks looked would be very hard to get IMO.

I am pretty excited just because its innovative. Maybe some might think it’s “not Axis & Allies” but A&A is constantly being redefined, and that keeps things fresh for me.

@Flashman:

piles and piles of dead infantry.

Many years ago, prior to WotC’s involvement with the Avalon Hill brand, I saw a magazine advertisement for Avalon Hill products which showed a disorderly pile of plastic infantry miniatures of many different colours and types, over which the historical quote “Let God sort them out” was printed as a caption.