Chopper Strike - Midweek review of a classic strategy game from 1976.
A fun two player strategy game with two layers of play area! Can it be solo’d?
It’s Wednesday evening, picked up the dog from day care, came home after a long day to my newly dedicated play space. I small table I setup strictly so I can spend more time playing games, and less time cleaning up my crafting table/gaming table just to play.
I looked around the room at the shelves filled with games an and settled on Chopper Strike, a game I bought about 5-6 months ago and aside after taking it out of the box for a moment, I’ve not touched it since.
Chopper Strike from Milton Bradley originally came out in 1976 and is a multi-layer wargame involving Jeeps which move about on a map with numbered squares and above, the plastic “Sky Grid” contains the choppers, which move about on numbered squares that match the map.
The game plays a bit like checkers, only no one can move diagonally, which was a bit of a surprise. I was really thinking combat was more technical, like I was going to be shooting a certain number of squares away or something along those lines.
Instead, jeeps can jump over other jeeps, which destroys them, same with choppers. Choppers can bomb jeeps from above, and jeeps can shoot down choppers from below.
About 10 minutes into a game, the tan side was winning with 2 choppers and 2 jeeps destroyed, to 0,0 on the dark side. The game comes with 2 dice, a six-sided d3 and standard d6 (6-sided). Each player rolls the dice and can move d3 amount of either jeeps or choppers, the number of spaces on the d6. Each player must move the total amount of spaces rolled, no less no more.
Making do with what the dice give you is the key to the strategy, and again, I can’t help but refer to chess as a good example of how work the board. One needs to plan ahead so that one lands out of reach of the opponent, however you need to be mindful of what’s above and below you in at the same time.
The models are all functional pieces, the blade turns on the choppers and the guns on the jeeps rotate nearly 360 degrees.
The plastic has yellowed slightly, on the Sky Grid, however, it doesn’t hinder the play at all.
The instructions are 9 pages long, mostly describing how to setup the Sky Grid and assembly of the choppers and jeeps, they are in two parts, the blades and the guns must have come separately. I had to super glue a few of the jeeps guns back in place, but other than that everything was fine.
But can it be solo’d? I’m quite happy to say that yes, it’s easily played by one player, following the same rules I’ve laid out previously from Firepower via the list of ‘Priorities’. And of course they need to be modified slightly and can even be simplified for Chopper Strike. When playing the role of the enemy follows these simple rules:
When an enemy is in reach and it can be destroyed, it should be destroyed unless it puts the vehicle at an extreme risk, i.e. within 3 or less spaces of an enemy vehicle. Otherwise, move in accordance with the dice in a way that best suits the current player. That’s it. It’s simple and with some common sense, quite effective.
I played quite a few games, each lasting about 20 minutes or so, and found this to be effective enough to allow for some fun and immersive solo play.
I paid about $20USD plus shipping and think it was worth the cost of admission. Not to mention the miniatures serve as functional 10mm-15mm wargame figures. Double win for me. You can pick up your own copy of Chopper Strike on eBay for anywhere from $10-$40 plus shipping and there are plenty of them available for purchase should you want your own copy.
The mechanics seem simple, but really there is a lot of fun to be had, and it takes some thinking and brain power to successfully win the game.
Speaking of in the box… during my play time this evening, this little one was heard crying in the mulberry tree out back by my wife. It’s been raining all evening, quite hard and she was drenched. After spending a bit of time trying to get her to come to me, I managed to get her. No bitting, no scratching like I expected, just a lot of hissing and hoping. She’s about 5-6 weeks old, may not be a she… Lucky me, I’ve been at this so long, I already have a foster home for her, should her mother not turn up.
Please, spay and neuter your cats.
This is the 57th kitten I’ve rescued over the past 17 years. Male cats, if you don’t fix them will wander off, often never coming back home, because they all end up at MY HOUSE along with all their girlfriends and kids, where I have to get them fixed for you. I’ve been a volunteer colony manager for far more years than I intended. I was just going to fix the cat issue in my neighborhood, but little did I know how many uneducated and or just plain irresponsible pet owners exist in the world.
It’s never ending. And while my compassion for starving animals is also never ending, I’d love it if ya’ll could pass it along to your friends and family, to please remember to get their cats fixed, not only is it healthier for them, it assures they wont end up on the street where their life is shortened to a year or less on average. Life for 90% of male street cats is spent hungry, diseased, and often in pain due to the fighting over territory and attacks from dogs. Female cats experience very similar lives filled with fighting caused by hunger, and often on top of that, being pregnant with kitten’s who are likely to experience similar lives if they survive long enough.
Thanks everyone and sorry for the intrusion in the middle of the week, I got inspired and figured I’d jump on it. More to come Sunday evening as usual, most likely what you’re expecting, but you never know. I’ve not touched a single thing this week, not yet anyway.
Take care of one another, and be sure to check in on yourselves while you’re at it. Helping yourself is just as important as helping others. And again, please spay and neuter your cats, and your dogs and if you get a moment, educate those that don’t know. It saves lives.