Hexsides and Hand Grenades

I spent a lot of time this year in what one might generously term "interesting circumstances". One of the outcomes of that was a game I had in the back of my mind for years. NATO Air Commander is the first game I have ever designed and I'm particularly humbled by the show of early support from playtesters and wargamers. Tom and Mary Russell, the heads of Hollandspiele Games, were particularly supportive and I am especially grateful for that. Just like the title says, this is a solitaire game that is supposed to put the player in the shoes of an Allied Air Commander during a hypothetical World War III set around 1987. To that end, the decisions you make in this game are big theater decisions and the scale of the game works on the level of flights of aircraft. Each turn, you're creating and assembling raids and assigning missions to air units, hoping to influence the ground war - over which you have limited control. The game came out of a desire to see more...

It is 0145 and the Ranger platoon commander has been woken up and assigned a mission against the godless communists invading Puerto Oro from the north. All I'd wanted was a mission...and for my sins, they gave me one. It was "anti-personnel ambush" just south of a small village that no one cared about enough to even give it a goddamn name. It didn't matter. We'd be out there wasting PSRF guerillas and that was alright with me. Three weeks in this shithole and I'd barely seen anything more dangerous than the skanks down at the local watering hole. By 0300, I'd gotten the briefing and planned out my next move. The platoon was to be inserted by UH-60s to the west of the objective. We'd move out in a zigzag fashion to get to the objective release point two kilometers away. If we weren't blown away by an enemy ambush ourselves, we would get to the Objective Rally Point, send in the rear and flank security teams and then position the assault an...

I've spent some time with Berlin '8 5 over the past couple of weeks now. I find it to be a bloody game with a peculiar agony awaiting both players who venture down its path. If you have already played the game, you will understand exactly what I mean. For those, who haven't tried it, you'll get an idea when you read the full playthrough report. I wanted to get something out there for B85 since I've been getting lots of people asking and posting and commenting about it. So here's the Setup and some notes about the game and why I've made certain decisions. The NATO player sets up first. For this scenario: The West German police (the blue units) set up on Supply Hexes anywhere in West Berlin and on any airfield control hexes. The Americans set up in the American sector (duh!) two hexes from any barracks hexes. The French and British do the same in their sectors. But before we do all that, let's look at the lay of the land, my son. We have ...

For me, 2017 has been the year of the magazine game. Last month's look at Nord Kapp from S&T Fall 1983 was a big hit. I thought it was an excellent game and it deserved a look back after all these years. I've been scooping up some other magazine games lately, some of which have been languishing on the shelves due to a lack of time. It has been a crazy summer so far and shows no signs of slowing as we move from the rainy season here in Japan towards the hot hot heat of tropical summer. This month, I would like to drag another S&T favorite off the shelf and take a look at it. Here goes: There we go - fresh from the March/April issue of Strategy & Tactics is Berlin '85, a game that focuses on a Soviet invasion of West Berlin in a WW3 conflict set in 1985. It's now I notice that so many people used that particular year for setting a WW3 conflict to happen. That includes General Sir John Hackett in his novels and Jim Dunnigan in this game. What's e...

I've just finished my game of Nord Kapp from the Fall 1983 issue of Strategy & Tactics. Wow! Great stuff. I loved this game. I played a standard scenario pitting the Soviets vs. NATO. If you're interested in the first half of the first turn of the game, I have a blog post that details exactly how the game works. Check it out before you dig in. Otherwise, here's how the whole thing went; Game Turn 1: NATO Turn Despite getting some RAF, Dutch, and American squadrons, I have no bases left in Norway to put them. They sit uselessly by while the Norwegians try their best to deal with the situation. The CHOD reinforcements land in Bardufoss without their equipment (it was destroyed by the Soviet airborne forces who found it sitting in Tromso waiting for them). Otherwise, the Norwegians manage to mobilize a reservist unit near Narvik, which cuts them off from supply from Evenes airbase to the north. The Norwegians take advantage of the situation to take Narvik back. ...

From Strategy & Tactic's 1983 issue, Nord Kapp is a game set in Scandinavia that features a World War III scenario between the Soviets and NATO. There seems to be a lot of curiosity about this game. Before we dive in, I should state that yes, I know the counter clipping showcased herein is a crime against humanity. I can only say in my defense that these are finnicky bastards that sat in a ziplock bag for almost 35 years. Seasonal Determination: The first thing we do is roll for season determination. Three six-sided dice are rolled to see what time of year the game takes place. We get a 4 for the first roll, which puts the game in Spring. The second roll is a 5, which means we have a June invasion. The final roll is for weather type. We roll a 1 and the result is "-", which means we have full range of movement through all terrain types. A roll 4 - 6 would have kept our mechanized and armor units tied to road-only movement. This is probably one of the most s...