GMT's Next War: Poland

Started by Crossroads, March 30, 2018, 07:49:49 AM

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mirth

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1882080/siege-warsaw-aar

QuoteNext War Poland arrived in the mail yesterday and I spent the afternoon clipping and looking through them. I decided to set up one of the standard game scenarios to get a feeling for the capabilities of the units (particularly the Russians). This is my first AAR ever, so this is a bit of an experiment for me
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Barthheart

Degenerates everywhere....  :P

Crossroads

#17
Quote from: mirth on March 30, 2018, 10:08:38 AM
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1882080/siege-warsaw-aar

QuoteNext War Poland arrived in the mail yesterday and I spent the afternoon clipping and looking through them. I decided to set up one of the standard game scenarios to get a feeling for the capabilities of the units (particularly the Russians). This is my first AAR ever, so this is a bit of an experiment for me

Them counters, from his post  :smitten:

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

James Sterrett

The basic game cooks along reasonably nicely once you get used to it, and the Clearing mechanic is a good way to represent issues of securing captured territory (now called "consolidation"...)

However, we've found that the air war is a small number of decisions followed by a huge number of die rolls.  We wound up jettisoning all of the advanced game except for HQs and logistics.

The many die rolls for Sea Control in the basics game irritated us, so we jettisoned those too.

Both the air war and naval control models seem - to me - to have been an attempt to simplify and streamline the game, which is a noble goal.  However, the net result is a lot of process-overhead in a game that is fairly process-intensive already. 

"So, smarty-pants, how would you improve it?" I hear someone ask...  and I don't (yet?) know, other than the crude mid-game surgery described above.

Crossroads

Thanks for the heads-up. We indeed played with Standard rules, albeit with Supply in play from Advanced rules.
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Tinkershuffle

Quote from: Crossroads on March 31, 2018, 12:51:16 AM
Thanks for the heads-up. We indeed played with Standard rules, albeit with Supply in play from Advanced rules.

Small correction, supply rules were also optional standard rules. :)

Crossroads

Quote from: Tinkershuffle on March 31, 2018, 02:18:53 AM
Quote from: Crossroads on March 31, 2018, 12:51:16 AM
Thanks for the heads-up. We indeed played with Standard rules, albeit with Supply in play from Advanced rules.

Small correction, supply rules were also optional standard rules. :)

Cheers, that's right. There's the Standard rules, with options to add to them. And then there's the Advanced rules, with alternates to try, on them too   <:-)
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Bison


Iconoclast

+1

Like to see the game being played, haven't had first hadn experience, but the Next War Series has always been intriguing.

Cheers
Wer seinen Kinderglauben sich bewahrt, in einer reinen und unbefleckten Brust, und gegen das Gelächter einer Welt zu leben wagt, wie er als Kind geträumt, - bis auf den letzten Tag: Das ist ein Mann!

Pinetree

Quote from: James Sterrett on March 30, 2018, 05:19:57 PM
The basic game cooks along reasonably nicely once you get used to it, and the Clearing mechanic is a good way to represent issues of securing captured territory (now called "consolidation"...)

However, we've found that the air war is a small number of decisions followed by a huge number of die rolls.  We wound up jettisoning all of the advanced game except for HQs and logistics.

The many die rolls for Sea Control in the basics game irritated us, so we jettisoned those too.

Both the air war and naval control models seem - to me - to have been an attempt to simplify and streamline the game, which is a noble goal.  However, the net result is a lot of process-overhead in a game that is fairly process-intensive already. 

"So, smarty-pants, how would you improve it?" I hear someone ask...  and I don't (yet?) know, other than the crude mid-game surgery described above.

Try out the alternate air rules from Supplement 1. They're a mix of the advanced and standard rules.
Gen. Montgomery: "Your men don't salute much."
Gen. Freyberg: "Well, if you wave at them they'll usually wave back."

Crossroads

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Quote from: Pinetree on April 01, 2018, 07:16:41 PM
Quote from: James Sterrett on March 30, 2018, 05:19:57 PM
The basic game cooks along reasonably nicely once you get used to it, and the Clearing mechanic is a good way to represent issues of securing captured territory (now called "consolidation"...)

However, we've found that the air war is a small number of decisions followed by a huge number of die rolls.  We wound up jettisoning all of the advanced game except for HQs and logistics.

The many die rolls for Sea Control in the basics game irritated us, so we jettisoned those too.

Both the air war and naval control models seem - to me - to have been an attempt to simplify and streamline the game, which is a noble goal.  However, the net result is a lot of process-overhead in a game that is fairly process-intensive already. 

"So, smarty-pants, how would you improve it?" I hear someone ask...  and I don't (yet?) know, other than the crude mid-game surgery described above.

Try out the alternate air rules from Supplement 1. They're a mix of the advanced and standard rules.

Thanks for the tip, that did it, I caved in and ordered both the game and Supplement 1 to go with it!  O:-)
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

James Sterrett

Quote from: Pinetree on April 01, 2018, 07:16:41 PM
Try out the alternate air rules from Supplement 1. They're a mix of the advanced and standard rules.

I'll look into that!

Crossroads

#28
Quote from: Crossroads on March 30, 2018, 08:05:44 AM

We'll play next with Tactical map as well, where the whole of Baltics will be covered.  :smitten: 


We played our second session yesterday, moving from the first scenario 17.1.1 Suwalki Gap, played only on the operational map, to 17.1.2 Red Storm: The Baltic Invasion, which uses the strategic map, solely, and does not yet have any naval or amphibious action. We used Standard rules, again.

This time around, I commanded the Baltic / NATO forces. Woe the free world! Especially as the scenario description hinted this will be a complete Russian stroll in the park. Alas, it turned out it was not.

Further BGG forum reading revealed however there's errata in the Russian OoB for this battle. Check the proper OoB from HERE.

Here's the opening gambit. NATO player sets up first, having mostly Battalion level units available from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, with a few pick-from-the-cup reinforcements which for me called for a Brit and French Battalion and a US Mech Bde with Apache support. I opted to set up to deny free access to most Land Areas. On one hand that spread me rather thin, but on the other hand, this scenario is only three turns (first two with Russian Initiative, and third one Contested).

Russian player must attack from either Belarus and/or Russian Land Areas, so no sneaky attacks from Kaliningrad. He has Airborne units though.

Victory is determined by receiving victory points per friendly Land Area, plus additional point per Baltic capital (Land Area with a national flag) in friendly control.

Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Barthheart