Duel of the Giants: Eastern Front First Impressions

Duel of the Giants: Eastern Front sees one player play as Russian tanks trying to get to Berlin.

The other player is German, trying to stop them.

Tank battles on the Eastern Front. Russians vs Germans. As the German player, are you prepared to defend your section of the front against the endless Red hordes? Or, as the Soviet player, are you going to be able to break through the Fascist lines and continue the advance towards Berlin?

Duel of the Giants: Eastern Front Game Overview

Quick Rules Summary

The Russian player will control 16 face-down tokens, 8 of which represent real tanks and the rest decoys. They will move them across the board using terrain as cover trying to get their tanks to the other side of the board and to Berlin.

The German player will program 2 invincible tanks, control a recon plane, set up artillery and place mines. All with the goal to stop the Russian player from advancing.

How do you win?

Destroying the Russian tanks gives points to the Germans. Destroying the German plane and artillery, damaging their tanks and also getting the Russian tanks off the map scores points for the Russians.

Most points win… I think? More on that later.

Main Mechanisms

The Russians have hidden unit deployment and hidden movement.

The Germans have action programming as they lay out cards to move their two tanks around.

USP

This game was released in 2010 and they make a big deal about the game having 11 minis which I’m sure was quite the selling point back then. They are nice though, very much like toys but functional enough.

Theme

I played this with the same person I played the Undaunted: Stalingrad and it very much felt the same.

Russia vs Germany, tanks, tactical gameplay. Obviously, Stalingrad has much more to it but what I’m saying is, this theme has been done a lot.

Setup

Setting up the game doesn’t take that long, just get everything out of the box.

Setting up the board involves players taking turns to put stuff on the board which takes a while.

Components & Artwork

The tanks do look OK and have rotating turrets which is important for combat.

Everything else is pretty good, especially for a 13-year-old game.

Ease of Teaching

This is easy to teach, it’s all open information.

There are a few rules that need clarification, a crib sheet would be useful.

Similar Games

Pick a 2 player World War 2 game. I’ve already mentioned Undaunted. You could also look at games like Fury of Dracula for PvP hidden movement.

Duel of the Giants: Eastern Front Review

Positives

Sneaking, bluffing and misdirecting with the outgunned Russians is good fun.

Defending with the powerful Gemans is good fun, but…

Negatives

…the Russian side seems easier which makes the asynchronous part of the game a mismatch.

The rulebook is not very good which means the game is slowed down as we query specific situations. It doesn’t seem to explain why the score track is so short. Do you win if you get to the end? No idea.

An updated rulebook and/or crib sheet is needed to help with game play, especially some rules clarifications.

Duel of the Giants: Eastern Front Summary

OK, but I don’t feel I need to play it again.

Jesta ThaRogue