Well I’m obviously a little biased as I wrote DKH, but for my 2c I’ll tell you what I think (in brief). Just for reference, I’ve played DKH hundreds of times, and Incursion only twice. The chap who had it at the club said it was broken and that the Germans couldn’t win. We played with me as the Yanks (I won) and then swapped sides (I won again – he only got one model off when I pointed out how he could do it). This isn’t to say that my opponent is dense, far from it, just that the learning curve on the two sides is very different. He’d already played it several times before we had a go, but he’d not *clicked* with how the Germans needed to be played. This difference in learning curve is true of both games (and many others).

I can see that this is going to get way too long for this space, so I’ll try to summarise:

The themes are obviously very different: alternative WWII and fantasy. I like both, myself.

Price: Each DKH set is a stand-alone game, complete with miniatures for £35 (less if you shop about). I have not bought Incursion because the miniatures are so nice. Playing the game with card counters is the same game mechanically, but a far lesser experience. When I worked out how much it would cost for the game + miniatures it was about £120. Too much, in my view, for what was an OK, but not stunning, game. Which leads me to…

Game play: Incursion uses action points to buy each step forward, each turn a model makes, etc. This is a level of detail more than DKH uses. Personally, I think this works at times, though I don’t think it really adds to my enjoyment much. I discarded this level of detail as unnecessary for DKH, which tells you something. DKH is designed to have a great deal of depth, replayability and expansion potential. You can play straight out of the box or take it as far as you like. Incursion felt a little limited to me, though I did only play it twice. I would expect that there is more to it than I saw, though how much more it could cost to get there I don’t know. Both games are expandable with extra models, but models for DKH are rather cheaper. Both games play by taking actions with individual models to achieve missions. DKH uses separate tiles which can give more variety in layout of scenario than the Incursion board.

Components: Incursion is on thicker card than DKH. Both look very pretty (same excellent graphic artist). DKH has all the models you need in the box, Incursion has card counters. You can buy models for incursion separately with each side (Axis/Allies) costing about the same price as the game again, each, on top.

Summary: with my limited experience at Incursion taken as a caveat, I felt that the game play for Incursion was a little thin compared to the simplicity and depth of DKH. YMMV. If Incursion had been the same price as DKH (including figures) I would have bought it anyway because the APE models are lovely and I like the theme. I can imagine playing it every now and again. Unfortunately, it simply isn’t worth well over £100 for an occasional run out, at least. Not to me. There are too many other places I could spend that amount of money on toys and have more fun. For example, I spent £106 last friday and bought starters for two factions of Infinity, a beautiful Smog miniature, the rulebook for Dystopian Wars, some paints and a spray. A bit scattered, but you see what I mean.

If someone gave me a copy of Incursion I’d be happy to keep and play it. I am slightly curious to see what extra depth I’ve missed (I assume there is some). I have DKH because I wrote it, but even if I hadn’t it’s price point, completeness and replayability would probably add it to my collection. You should read the reviews at Frontlinegamer’s blog, and elsewhere. There are a number of DKH reviews about, and there must be some for Incursion too.

I hope this has been useful. I’ve tried to be as fair as possible.

Jake

* more gaming musings at http://www.quirkworthy.com *