The new shiny Command Card set covers the US Army and Marines in the Pacific. I went over the Unit Cards recently, so I needed to finish with these. This set follows the norm for command cards. It is not a must have to play, but a must have to give flavor and options to the army.
In an interesting twist, this set is actually two sets. One for Marines and another for US Army. They even doubled option upgrade cards! Like the unit cards, they could have split this into two sets. However, they did not and we save a little money. With that said, doubling the upgrade card portion is an odd choice…..
They Marines get a few different formation upgrade options to play their infantry. First, the set expands on the Naval infantry, by giving options to pay them as a full company with options. The option to add the marine Raiders is a great choice in my opinion. Nothing like a little recon in force! These finish off with the Marine Parachute company. An uncommon unit, but fun too. These pretty much run the gamut to give you most any option you want to play a Marine force.
The Army formation upgrades are more focused than the Army options. You get the normal Engineer company upgrade and a few custom weapon units. These include the old 155mm artillery battery and even some British equipment in the shape of 25lb artillery and even universal carriers. In a surprise move, they include the Philippine company cavalry platoon (even though Battlefront never made these miniatures). This gives me more incentive to finish my 1941 US troops! Finally, you get a card for the 25th “Tropic Lightning” division. These types of cards are always my favorite and what makes or breaks these sets.
Next we have a number of command cards that give you weapons options upgrades (or downgrades). Like most of the sets, I think a lot of these should just be in the unit cards and rule books… However, I would rather have them, than not. Here we get both flame tanks and an M3 Lee option for armor platoons. Both the Army and Marines get regular and amphibious transports. In addition there are cards for Alligators for both forces. There is a downgrade for replacing Garand rifles with earlier Springfield rifles and more 155mm artillery. Considering these units did a lot of island fighting, there is not surprise that Naval Gunfire Support is included. There are also heavier AA options and even a War Dog card for Marine units! Everything here is quite fun, just wish it was in the main unit options.
There are three each special character cards in the set for each force. We do not tend to use these in our game, but there to add a little flavor.
The set finishes off with the standard upgrade cards for both the Army and Marines. The card are basically a duplication. It is possible I missed something, but they seem the same to me. Maybe with a closer read, I might see some differences. In any case, the normal upgrades that let the player do interesting things with their platoons, making them even with other army sets.
As mentioned, you do not have to buy this set to play either the Army or Marines. However, if you want the options, this is the only way to get them, as they are not in the book. With that said, I think this is a very nice set. It gives you different formations and equipment upgrades to expand possibilities and niche units. I think it is a solid buy.
- Manteuffel