Alternative Titles/Edition History:
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad packs #1 to #12 published in 2019, along with (for separate purchase), "brownie" and "winterized" versions of the maps in each pack.
Publisher/Date:
Critical Hit (2019)
Product Type:
Scenario/Map Pack
Country of Origin:
U.S.A.
Contents:
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #1: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB1), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #2: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB2), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #3: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB3), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #4: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB4), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #5: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB5), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #6: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB6), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #7: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB7), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #8: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB8), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #9: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB9), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #10: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB10), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #11: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB11), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #12: 1 large-hex nonstandard geoboard formed from 46 glossy 12" x 18" heavy paper/light cardstock map panels (RB12), 6 scenarios, 1 countersheet (countersheet not necessarily consistent from individual copy to individual copy).
Commentary:Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad is a series of (to date) 12 similar scenario/map packs published by Critical Hit in 2019, along with (for separate purchase) two sets of variant artwork maps for each pack. Each pack contains a large-hex (1.75″ hex size) non-standard geoboard (13 hexes by 33 hexes vs. the 10 hexes by 33 hexes of a standard official 8″ x 22″ geoboard) that is formed by assembling 6 glossy 12″ x 18″ heavy paper/light cardstock map panels. These boards are geomorphically compatible with each other, but not with any other geoboards. Each pack also contains six scenarios and a “bonus” countersheet that may be random and not related to any scenario in a pack.
The Make the Rubble Bounce series should not be confused with the Stalingrad Baby Bounce series, which is a different series. Someone at Critical Hit needs to stop bouncing. The Stalingrad Baby Bounce series is a separate but related series that uses the same artwork and scenarios found in this series, but with multiple MTRB products combined together and without extra-large hexes. To avoid overcomplicating an already complicated entry, the Stalingrad Baby Bounce series has its own, separate entry.
Desperation Morale has examined the first product in the series, Make the Rubble Bounce: Stalingrad #1, but has not examined the other packs in the series; however, they are all very similar.
One of the longtime peculiarities of Critical Hit is the unwillingness of its founder, Ray Tapio, to give credit to designers, artists, developers and others who may have contributed to Critical Hit products (he rarely even credits himself). Earlier products were more likely to provide such information, but as the years have dragged on, such credits have become very rare indeed in the products themselves, or even in the marketing materials for such products. One can understand the lack of playtesting credits, as Critical Hit has lost most if not all of its playtesters over the years, but the absence of design and artwork credits is very puzzling. Even when someone is referenced in marketing materials or rules, as often as not only the person’s first name (or even only a nickname) will be given, rather than the full name. No other ASL-related publisher does this and it is rather inexplicable.
The Make the Rubble Bounce series is a case in point. Some years ago, Critical Hit solicited designs for geoboards (which they published in products such as this one). In the MTRB marketing material, Critical Hit claims that these included three Stalingrad-themed geoboards. Fast-forward some years, and Critical Hit decided to print these boards, “the creation of one of your fellow hobbyists.” The “fellow hobbyist” who designed the boards, however, is nowhere actually named. Why? Unless the designer requested to remain anonymous, the reluctance to give him credit is just bizarre, but this is the sort of thing Critical Hit does constantly.
It appears that Ray Tapio decided to take the three boards, 1) modify them by extending their narrow edges by a few hexes (from 10 hexes to 13), as this is more compatible with the 12″ x 18″ map panels that Critical Hit has preferred to use for some years now, 2) enlarge them to have 1.75″ hexes (for comparison, DASL hexes are 2.2″ across), so that it takes 6 panels to form one geoboard, 3) create more such geoboards than the original 3 submitted, 4) hastily create a handful of scenarios for each giant board, and 5) release each board-scenario combo as a separate pack. Each pack is currently selling for $59.95, which is a lot for one geoboard (albeit large) and six (problematic; see below) scenarios. The name of the series, “Make the Rubble Bounce,” originates with a quote from Churchill’s World War II memoirs in which he mentioned the law of diminishing returns with regard to continued bombing of large cities, noting that after a certain point everything becomes destroyed and further bombing would only “make the rubble jump.” Various misquotations of Churchill in the years that followed often turned the phrase to “bounce.” It has no historical context with regard to Stalingrad.
Each pack, then, centers around the large-hex nonstandard geoboard contained within. In recent years, Critical Hit has had some problems with their building graphics, and these problems have often been exacerbated when those building graphics were blown up for large-hex maps–thus the idea of large-hex Stalingrad-themed geoboards raised big warning bells, because no one wants to purchase a map in which the buildings are all blurry, pixelated, or both. However, that is NOT the case for the Make the Rubble Bounce packs. The building artwork, which is different from standard Critical Hit building artwork, holds up very well to magnification. Indeed, one can see individual shingles on the roofs of small buildings, while there are some nice attention to details, such as some buildings with corrugated metal roofs missing the occasional sheet of corrugated metal. Overall, the artwork is generally good, although in MTRB#1 there was at least one little graphics slip where a sliver of terrain somehow ended up in the middle of a hex where it didn’t belong (it should be noted, this error is hardly noticeable except upon close inspection).
The artwork does have a couple of flaws, most noticeable of which is that the coutours of woods in woods hexes are often kludgy rather than smooth and natural. This is also occasionally apparent, though to a lesser degree, with roads hexes. However, these are really minor criticisms. At least in MTRB#1, the artwork services its purpose. One hopes the artwork in packs 4-12 is similar to that of packs 1-3 instead of being more similar to the building artwork in other Critical Hit products.
The boards are ostensibly “Stalingrad-themed,” but that is certainly debatable for some of them, given how many woods hexes there are in them. This applies primarily to the boards in the first three packs, i.e., the ones submitted to Critical Hit. The other boards, i.e., the ones presumably designed by Ray Tapio, adhere much more closely to the look and feel of Stalingrad terrain, with more shellholes, more rubble, more large factories, roofless factory hexes, Stalingrad-style gullies, and the like. If you love railorads, by the way, these boards are definitely for you.
Each MTRB pack comes with 6 scenarios. These scenarios seem to be generic scenarios cobbled together to play on the maps rather than scenarios based on actual historical encounters. Though unit designations are given for OBs in the scenarios, the historical descriptions are vague or nonsensical and are clearly not tied to any actual historical action. Here is the complete historical description (Critical Hit combining initial situation descriptions with aftermaths) for RB6 (Gaining, Holding Ground): “Stalingrad, Soviet Union, 28 September 1942: A Soviet soldier wrote, “Stalingrad is still holding out, and the impression is gaining ground that it may well hold. The Germans, it seems, are no longer even trying to capture it at one swoop, but simply trying to slice it up like a sausage–and that will take some doing. A lot of people in Moscow think that if Stalingrad holds for another six weeks, the Germans may have to pull out of the Caucasus.” Note that not a hint of gunpowder or conflict appears in this description. It is simply filler material. It’s not even a quote from a Soviet soldier; it is a quote from British war correspondent Alexander Werth. The scenarios in the first pack seem made up, contrived, and it is pretty likely that they were not playtested. Any value that they might have, therefore, is rather dubious.
Although all the scenarios in MTRB #1 use only the board that appears in MTRB #1, it appears that there are scenarios in later packs in the series that use not only their own included board but also boards from previous packs. Though Critical Hit website marketing material does not say that one needs to purchase earlier packs in the series, it seems this may be the case. The geoboards in this series are geomorphically comptabie with each other, though not with other boards.
Although Critical Hit marketing material does not say so, each pack in this series may come with a countersheet. However, the countersheets appear to be more or less random, more than one product in the series may contain the same countersheet, and different countersheets may be included in different copies of the same product. In the Desperation Morale copy of MTRB #1, for example, the included countersheet was a sheet of 5/8″ counters (176 total), featuring Soviet AFVs and guns, colored in Critical Hit’s red variant color. The AFVs are all small early war Soviet AFVs quite possibly none of which ever got close to Stalingrad. The copy of the same product purchased by Desperation Morale photograph contributor Jim Traver, in contrast, was an orange-colored 1/2″ countersheet (280 counters) dubbed “Russian Naval MMC/SMC 2018_1.” This scenario features, among other things, a new 5-3-8 squad type. Needless to say, none of the scenarios in the pack use such a squad type. Essentially the counters included here are throw in, willy nilly, just so that there are counters in the product.
At the same time Critical Hit released the MTRB series, it also released 24 additional products for separate purchase. Each of the 12 boards (i.e. 72 total 12″ x 18″ map panels) was first released with variant “winterized” artwork that replaces the green level 0 terrain of the originals with a white, ostensibly snow-covered hexes. Additionally, each of the 12 boards was also released with variant so-called “brownie” artwork designed to make the boards look more like Red Barricades terrain by turning level 0 terrain brown (which is ironic, because the brown hexes in Red Barricades are actually level one hexes; the level 0 hexes are the ones close to the Volga River). Each of these products is $32.95, meaning that if someone were crazy enough to purchase everything related to this series they would be forking over to Critical Hit over $1,500. There is probably at least one ASLer crazy enough to have done so.
For more rational ASLers, there is little reason to get the products in these series unless you are one of those extremely rare ASLers who likes DYO with extra-large hexes. The scenarios in the packs here do not appear to be real scenarios and the boards on their own are simply not worth the price–paying nearly $60 for a single board (even if it is large-hexed) just seems really, really crazy.
Note: The maps and “scenarios” of this series, but not the counters, were also bundled into the 4-part Stalingrad: Baby Bounce series, with each of those products containing the maps/scenarios of three of the MTRB products. However, the Baby Bounce maps have standard-sized, not enlarged hexes, and come with brownish level-0 terrain rather than the green level-0 terrain that is the default in the MTRB series (although, as with the MTRB series, one can buy green or winterized maps for separate purchase. There’s little more reason to get the Baby Bounce series than the MTRB series.
Leave A Reply