Alternative Titles/Edition History:
AKA The Spanish Civil War 2. SCW2 and its sister module SCW1 (both 2015) together comprise what is effectively the third edition of Guerra Civil/Condor Legions.
Publisher/Date:
Critical Hit (2015)
Product Type:
Scenario/Map Pack
Country of Origin:
U.S.A.
Contents:
16 pages rules, 10 scenarios, 7 untrimmed unmounted (heavy paper.light cardstock) geoboards in 14 9" x 12" sections, 492 die-cut counters (identical to counters from Condor Legions).
SCW2 (called The Spanish Civil War 2 in the rules) is, along with its sister module, SCW1, actually the third edition of an older product that has previously gone under the titles Guerra Civil and Condor Legions. The original module was broken into two separate modules for its third edition, presumably in order to charge consumers more. Readers should visit those write-ups before reading the following write-up.
In the years since the original version of SCW1/2 was released, this module has not garnered very much attention or acclaim. Guerra Civil received few playings on ROAR in 15 years, while no one even bothered to enter Condor Legions into ROAR at all. Whether this reflects a lack of enthusiasm for Critical Hit products, an interest level in the subject area less than many ASLers claim exists, or both, is hard to say. The only certainty is that every time this product has been reprinted it has gotten much more expensive.
SCW2 is the second half of the 3rd Edition of this product. However, one does not need to have purchased SCW1 in order to play the scenarios of SCW2 (however, players will need a host of official products, including Chapter F rules). The rules for SCW2 are essentially the same as in previous editions, though more attractively laid out and printed in loose-leaf (hole-punched) full color format. The counters are also the same as in Condor Legions–even to the extent of still proclaiming themselves as “Condor Legions” countersheets–which means that they continue to have the very dark green counters that marred Condors Legion to some extent.
That leaves the scenarios and the maps. SCW2 has 10 scenarios, all renamed-reprints of scenarios from earlier editions. The Critical Hit website says that the scenarios are “in color format,” but that is not actually true; the only color is the use of red for counter amounts, as in official scenarios. Everything else is black-and-white.
That basically leaves the boards and here is where things get interesting or irritating, depending on one’s point of view. The original Guerra Civil came with two unmounted geoboards (SCW1 and SCW2), as did Condor Legions, though the latter product’s boards were printed with a mis-sized hexgrid that did not allow proper mating with official geoboards. Boards SCW1 and SCW2 appeared in module SCW1, as did a third board based on the large overlay that came with earlier editions of the product. But SCW2 comes with 7 additional geoboards.
One might think that this was a good thing–however, that is not so, for several reasons. First, the physical quality of the boards are problematic, in that each board comes in two separate halves, each half printed on 9″ x 12″ heavy paper/light cardstock, and none of the halves trimmed. All have a white border around every edge, which means that players must laborious use scissors, a razor blade or some other cutting device to trim the edges off 14 different half-boards. Critical Hit saves some pennies, while players must painstakingly assemble their own boards, as if from a kit. The hexgrids are still not quite right, either, but in this case it won’t matter because the product does not use any official geoboards.
Second, the graphics of these boards use the “Sweet 16” style of geoboard graphics created by Critical Hit (more on that below), which is problematic because of the very bad building graphics. Buildings that do not line up perfectly horizontally or vertically appear with jagged, crude graphics that look pixelated as if from an old video game. The effect is ugly and irritating. The boards do contain new artwork for olive groves and vineyards, the latter cribbed from Primosole Bridge.
Where did these boards come from? The answer is that these boards are also re-treads. Actually re-re-treads. They are slightly re-worked versions of Sweet 16 geo-boards, which are themselves derivative “alternative” versions of official geoboards. Critical Hit first released several “Sweet 16” map packs, hoping people would spend a lot of money buying somewhat different variations of official boards they already owned. Then Critical Hit released “winterized” versions of these boards, hoping that people would buy them yet again. Then Critical Hit plagiarized themselves once more and slightly re-worked the same boards to include in their GWASL (World War I) modules. Now Critical Hit is offering the same boards for fourth time in just a couple of years, hoping that ASLers will re-buy them once more. How similar are they? To give an example, Sweet 16 geoboard x2 (a derivative variation on official board 2) appears in SCW1 as board SCW5. The only differences between x2 and SCW are the addition of a few olive groves. SCW2’s boards also appear in various Sweet 16 board collections and are clearly derivative from official boards.
To make matters worse, because these Sweet 16 boards, no matter what version, still differ from official geoboards (they are derivative, not identical), any scenario using them would require a complete re-playtesting, but there is no indication that any of these scenarios were playtested with the boards required here. Who knows what players will be getting themselves into? It’s a complete crap shoot.
SCW2 is priced at $59.95, which is a high price to pay for half of a module of this sort.
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