A leisurely play of The Dark Summer
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My usual WWII opponent has started into Ted Raicer's "Dark" series. We play "The Dark Sands" recently, and today he brought over "The Dark Summer" which is the Normandy design.
There are things I really like about the "Dark" system, especially the way the chit pull system works. It allows randomness with at least some nod to historicity. The randomness being in the order chits are pulled, with the historical aspect dictating which chits are used turn by turn. It's an effective way to abstract supply for example. Since supply is only by trace, low supply quantities can be reflected in lower numbers of chits for that side.
I'm not super thrilled with the exceptions to what would normally be straightforward hex and counter gaming, but that's probably because I haven't read the rules closely enough to internal them. As it stands right now I think I like Dark Sands better than Dark Summer. But it is still a very good game objectively speaking.
We played 3 of 9 turns. I was the allies. I spent most of my effort into attempting to control supply, namely, cutting the Germans off. I probably would have won the game had we gone the full play, but we were both tired. First plays are hard, it is a lot of work to set everything up and read rules for a new game.