Playtest

GAME TURN 1

August 1 and 2, 1989

STRATEGIC STAGE

World Opinion

No change, no VPs earned

Strategic Cards

NATO player draws and plays event on Scard Al Qaida: “Muslim Uprising in the USSR. Reduce SP supply level by 30 SPs”

WP player draws and plays event on Scard French Nukes: “No more french reinforcements or replacements for entire game”

Comment: NATO player grins at Muslims seemingly joining their side, but the French almost bailing out of the upcoming conflict is a bitter pill to swallow.

Battle Cards

WP player draws 1 more Bcard which he adds to the 3 already dealt during setup. He draws and keeps secret the following cards:

· Landsturm (which he may use to counter the same NATO Bcard)

· Entrench (defending units bonus)

· Flexible defense (defending units bonus)

· C3i Failure (no deliberate formations, halve all ground unit MA)

NATO player draws ? (secret, after all)

Comment: the 2 defensive cards are not very useful at this point of the game (at least for WP), but the C3i Failure card is a mighty bonus as it will keep NATO units from moving AND putting up deliberate defense along the whole front during GT1!

Reinforcements

NATO reinforcements

· UK 2^nd Armored Division will enter play in any any full sea map edge hex under a TRANS counter

· US 401 TFW (612,613 and 614 TFS) arrive at Bitburg/Spangdahlem airbase from Torrejon, Spain

WP reinforcements

· 5 Soviet Divisions, 1 Czech Division, 2 airborne units and several support units will arrive in CSSR and GDR map edge hexes

· The Polish and Soviet Baltic Fleets may enter the map through any baltic full sea map edge hex during any eligible movement phase

· Several soviet Su-24 and Su-17 fighter-bomber regiments arrive on east-german airbases and the long-range bombers of the 46^th Air Army are available

Naval Strategic Movement

NATO

· US Los Angeles class SSN move from the East Atlantic to the West Atlantic

· A UK Task Force and a US SSN group enters the BCE map from the West Atlantic box

· One of the smaller norvegian task forces cruises off the coast of Stavanger (coming from the North Atlantic)

WP

3 Soviet Task Forces enter the Operational Map from the North Atlantic. They detect the US submarines but as they are out of range, no attack. On the other hand the US submarines attack one Soviet Task Force and score 3 hits. One of the Soviet TFs detects and attacks a Norwegian TF and sinks one of their subs.

Thus the first shots fired damage three soviet surface ships and sink a norwegian submarine. We write August 3^rd 1989 and the biggest clash of all times has started.

Unit Assignment Phase

Both sides assign unit modes to their ground and air units.

Supply Phase

Skipped on GT1. All units are automatically in supply.

Initiative Determination Phase

As per scenario instructions, the WP starts the game as initiative player. The marker is placed on the tracks display.

Weather Phase

Optional rule not used.

First Initiative Segment / Initiative Frontline Offensive

After discussing the main objectives of the first strikes and the means to destroy these objectives, the ground war starts with a massive missile strike of the WP against the Air Defence Network installations of NATO.

Due to the very poor accuracy of Scud-B missiles these are not launched, but the SS-23 missile is the best choice at hand for small targets. The only two SS-23 units fire at Messtetten (1hit) and Lauda (miss) ADN installations. The follow up missile strike is executed by the SS-21 regiments. Brokzetel and Visselhövede both are missed. All of the attacks were made with HE warheads.

The next step is the long range bomber attack with AS-15A Kent cruise missiles from the TU-142 Bear-F bombers. One hit scored on each, Börfink and Lauda ADN.

A soviet submarine group attacks a lone danish MCM in the Skagerrak Sea Zone and sinks it.

A Soviet TF (consisting of 1xCA, 2xFF, 1xSSN, 1xSS) attacks a west-german naval detachment (1xMCM, 1xSS) off the danish east coast. The german submarine scores a hit on the soviet SSN.

A Soviet TF of the Baltic Fleet (1xCA, 1xDD, 1xSS, 1xFAC) found a danish force of FF and SS south of Copenhague. The danish force was sunk, the Soviets taking no hit.

The WP player decides to play his C3i battle card (Bcard) which is immediately countered by the NATO player. This card would have halved the movement allowance of all NATO units and deliberate formations would have been interdicted to NATO units. The NATO player decides to play his Landsturm Bcard which would give him a DR modifier in his favor during the whole GT. This one is also countered by the WP player.

The WP air offensives foremost target is to eliminate the strong NATO ADN installation. A first wave of reconnaissance aircraft make their appearance in germans skies. The successful reconnoitering will double any ensuing hits by air-ground combat. The sites of Erndtebrück, Messtetten and Brokzetel are successfully reconnoitred.

The next waves of WP aircraft try to break through the wall of Hawk and Nike missiles. After having taken heavy losses due to anti-air missiles, ground unit AAA and a strong interception effort from airbases throughout Germany the WP air strikes put the air sectors of ATAF2 and ATAF4 on limited operational status.

The WP losses are one soviet reconnaissane unit, two complete Czech MiG-23 regiments and 22 hits on East German, Soviet and Polish air units. That equals about 300 aircraft lost in this first big air battle pitching the Reds vs the Blues. NATO losses are about a dozen US F-16 aircraft lost on interception missions and the AND station at Brokzetel is permanently destroyed.

Counter density

More details about the counter density as seen on my setup pictures.

1) my homemade counters are roughly double the thickness of normal industrial counters (see pic attached with the biggest "setup" stack of 16 counters)

2) the stacking rules: not more than 5 regimental equivalents (RE) per hex. With a batallion counted as 1/2 RE, a big maximum of 10 counters in a hex.

3) the picture shows the setup of the game. There will be a pre-war GT movement phase in which both players may/must move their units (additionally all eligible units are assigned a mode). At the end of this special movement phase stacking rules are in effect.

4) one of the goals of the playtest is to see wether counter density is too high. French divisions for example are represented by 1 counter whereas german and US divisions are broken down into brigades + HQs.

set-up of the monster

Counter density is high, but that's only the first draft. Setup is also based on the peacetime barrack allocations, which would surely not be the actual unit locations once tension had risen to the point of war breaking out. I have a couple of options in mind which will be tested over the coming days.

...the full monty attached shows an orgiastic mass of counters... don't be afraid of keeping an eye on this, evolution is an ongoing process.

Warsaw Pact setup

First full Warsaw Pact setup

First ground unit setup (partial)

The OOB for Ground Units is done, counters are done and the first massive playtest is scheduled for next weekend.

Have a look at the setup of NATO forces of Belgium, Denmark, the UK and the Netherlands.

Before you shoot away, I know it looks crowded, but most of these units are Batallions and should not survive the first game-turns.

Eagle versus Flogger

A soviet air mission is intercepted south-east of Kassel
by the US 22nd TFS from Bitburg.
The Soviet Air Mission is composed of 1 strike unit and 1 escort unit,
both MiG-27. The US planes are F-15C aircraft on anti-air mission.
Soviet Antir-Air strength 4, DR = 4, which would result in 1 hit on the US unit.
The ECM rating of the US unit is 7. DR is 2, 5 less which means 0 hits.

US Anti-Air strength is 8. DR = 0, which would result in 5 hits.The soviet ECM rating is 5 and the DR of 9 means the unit has to takeall hits. 5 hits are more than the hit rating of 4. The unit is destroyed and the counter removed.

The remaining MiG unit continued its strike mission and attacked the CRC Erndthebruck, alas it missed the target completely.

First air-air combat

First Fight - Air War - PLAYTEST

East German air units, JBG77 and MFG28, have entered the West-German airspace in direction of Hamburg.

The E-3A of 1st Squadron patrolling over Denmark have detected the attacking force of Su-17M4, as well as the CRC Visselhövede south-west of Hamburg.

The ground-air defence missiles launched have taken a heavy toll on the intruders. 4 hits have been achieved, the attackers have aborted their mission and returned to their airbase.

Naval Unit Counters

Some finetuning done to them.

NATO and WP air units

A big overwiew of the belligerents air forces. With a glimpse of the map, and the box. ;-)

NATO air unit counters and display

Yeaph, here they are. A partial view of NATO 2 ATAF fighters for freedom in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

WarPac air unit counters and displays

Here they are: the massive Warsaw Pact Air Forces. Counters are final and the initial setup as of August 1989.
Just before World War III brakes loose.