GMT's Next War: Poland

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

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Crossroads

I did not find a thread for this game yet, so as I had a chance to play a game vs @Tinkershuffle with his copy, at the local club, here's a few pictures and some quick comments.

I am writing this from top off my head, I am sure I messed up a few details, as this was my first game. With that said, here goes  :)

With only some four hours available to get the game going and, preferably, finished, we played the introductory scenario called "Suwalki Gap", with three turns, and no strategic map, just the operational map here.

I was commanding the Russian and Belorussian formations, while he commanded the Polish and NATO units, of which from latter some of them were already deployed to the area, with reinforcing air mobile units available for instance from the NATO Rapid Reaction Corps consisting of various European and US forces. And Canadians! Do not forget Canadians  O0

Also, on maps, are (Rocket) Artillery units and Helo formations. Former units move on the map, while latter stay on their Airbase, and support action within their range. They can change the airbase if they want, to be able to reach further, but if they move they won't be able to fight in the same turn anymore, unlike other chits on board.

Units are at Brigade or Regiment scale, with most of them falling into Armored formations or Mech or Mot infantry. Some of the NATO formations qualified as Light Infantry too. LI's got some special advantages, which turned out to make the day at the end of the play, even against the odds as seen here. Damn them!

Here 's the opening setup, with Russians arriving from Kaliningrad, and Belorussians from, well, Belorussia. As seen here, action is about to start immediately.

Weather was set as fair weather for all three turns, Russians were considered to have the Initiative for the first two turns, white the third turn was set as Contested, all that as set by the rules for this particular battle. No initiative die rolls, then, in this scenario.

Finally, Russia was considered to have Air Advantage for the first two turns (but not Superiority), with 4 air points for them vs NATO two, while the third turn was evened out as neither side having an Advantage, and two air points for both sides.

We played under Standard rules, so that was the air abstraction, with Advanced rules there would have been a separate air battle to be fought on tactical map to determine this (among other things).

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

mirth

"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

Crossroads

#2
On to Game Turn 1 then!  :bd:

Each Game Turn is divided into number of Phases, in which players perform actions in a certain order.

Supply is checked first, then, if one of the players have the Initiative, there's first the Initiative Movement and Combat Phase, where in this case Russia performs these steps. Then, before regular Movement and Combat phase, the defending player has a chance for Elite Unit Reaction phase, in which should he command any units with an Efficiency Rating of 7 or more, those units could move and do battle, if they had not yet done so.

Then, indeed the Movement and Combat phase (which is the only one in case of a Contested Turn). The last turn on this scenario per scenario rules, so all in all my Russians of all color have a chance to do battle five times (two turns with Initiative, and one regular one).

Battle done, there's the Reinforcement phase, then Victory points tally phase, as victory points are calculated every turn.

In Suwalki Gap, victory points are counted from who holds the four smaller cities in the North, where the Russians come from, and from the occupation of the major city next to Belorussian forces, towards South.

Move into contact!  :knuppel2:

Russians move along, but they have to stop once at enemy Zone of Control. Only formations with a stacking cost of "2" or more give a ZoC though, so the NATO ZoC comes from the Polish units underneath these Airborne units facing me.


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

#3
Combat is quite detailed even with the Standard rules. I won't bother to check from manual, so off from my head, again:

Per above, there's first the initial odds, where you count the Attack factors (first value) against Defence factors (second value). The respective Odds column is selected from the Combat Results Table. And that's where the fun starts.

Then, in this case, defender is in a city hex: move two columns left in the CRT. Then, choose your Lead units by both sides, they are also the first ones to take casualties, but first compare their Efficiency Rating, and move CRT per the difference. I lose on column here, as I only have 6 as my best unit ER, while NATO has 7. Any artillery support? Move one column right per artillery formation in play. And not done yet: If any Light Infantry in city hex, defending, move one column left.

Next, Die Roll Modifiers. Attacker is attacking at least from the hex sides: -1 to (my roll as I am attacking) DRM. If attacking from at least three hexes, another -1 to DRM. Multiple nations attacking together? Add 1 to CRM. Not in this case. Multiple formations attacking? If yes, as is the case add +1 to DRM per additional formation in play, one in this case.

Next, Air points. I allocate 2 of my 4 points, he allocates 1. Defensive Air always arrives, so +1 to DRM. I need to roll for my Air points, if they are intercepted. Then, same for Helicopter support. I have 2, he has 2 available, but I need to roll.

Seems quite complex and slow, but as it turned out, the odds were quickly determined, and felt quite right.

Here, sneakily, he had one of his Airmobile units cutting my supply through Lithuania, quite right as just this week there was a NATO exercise there where they practices cutting supply lines behind enemy lines. Out of supply units move and fight at half their factors, rounded down. so it hurts.

Also, on my left flank, the southern one of the cities has fallen to my forces already, with the northern one surrounded for maximum DRM advantage of +2 (minus the multi formation DRM -1).

Breakout imminent  O0


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

#4
One fun detail is clearing of the city hexes, as there indeed is a Not Cleared chit to be put in place, once you've defeated (annihilated or made to retreat) the enemies from the hex. That is another little battle to be fought and won, before a city is occupied, so it took some effort to clear my way towards south, as in here.

This is the situation at the end of turn three.

My Belorussians with some Russian support were able to fight their way almost in, destroying the French and Polish Bde defending the urban hex.

However, the brigade from 82d Airborne held on stubbornly, and they were able to fly in her sister brigade, so despite being completely surrounded, they held. And per victory conditions, held Russia at bay. Casualties come quite fast in this game, as their Design Note says, this is about modern warfare after all.

I probably should have flown my two Helicopter units from Kaliningrad towards that city, as they were out of range. Then, they would not have been able to support my clearing of the route there though, so not sure it would have paid off. At the end, as always, a couple of rotten die rolls at critical junctures held me up. Oh, there were some good ones too. So not complaining.

Next, we'll try a battle where the Tactical map (of all Baltics too) is involved.


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

#5
Quote from: mirth on March 30, 2018, 07:51:30 AM
nice  O0

Lots of positives, the negatives are mostly at this stage about Manual. First I thought this would be not too complex, with Standard rules weighing at some 20+ pages only. After I started to read them, I found however that it is heavy stuff indeed, all things are explained quite thoroughly, but only once. So for instance for DRM modifiers there was no cheat sheet or summary, instead you had to rely on having read through all unit types that are there, and how they affect what.

Edit April 24: Now that I have the game, I must add I got the above wrong. There indeed are quite excellent cheat sheets detailing the Column Shifts and DRM factors, with emphasis on excellent.

That said, definitively a thumbs-up for the series from me, not least because the modern Suwalki Gap set up is a sweet wargaming scenario

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

Here's the full set-up, from a BGG pic:


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

Great stuff Crossroads!  O0

This is on my table too, has been for more than a month, but I'm having a hard time groking the rules.... probably just need to focus more....

mirth

Counter clipping helps you focus.
"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

Crossroads

Quote from: Barthheart on March 30, 2018, 08:09:00 AM
Great stuff Crossroads!  O0

This is on my table too, has been for more than a month, but I'm having a hard time groking the rules.... probably just need to focus more....

...or to have someone playing with you who's played it before, like I had. It was not me only then having hard times with the manual  :buck2:

There was a nice video set of the series, watching that helped me a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogjJW-BBRrM 

I have to say that I really liked the game rules though, just unnecessarily difficult to get up to speed with them. It was really fun to see how the CRT chit moved left and right as we were resolving the battle, same with the DRM table chit, depending what you had available and who you were facing, and where. 
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: mirth on March 30, 2018, 08:11:21 AM
Counter clipping helps you focus.

Tinkershuffle had not clipped the counters, but no worries: I washed my hands thoroughly afterwards  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

Tinkershuffle

Excellent read Crossroads, really looking forward to our next engagement, the series has a ton of potential! 

Quote from: mirth on March 30, 2018, 08:11:21 AM
Counter clipping helps you focus.

Not gonna happen.


mirth

Quote from: Tinkershuffle on March 30, 2018, 09:14:58 AM
Quote from: mirth on March 30, 2018, 08:11:21 AM
Counter clipping helps you focus.

Not gonna happen.

I'll post pics when I clip the counters in my copy of NW: Poland.
"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

Crossroads

#12
Quote from: Tinkershuffle on March 30, 2018, 09:14:58 AM
Excellent read Crossroads, really looking forward to our next engagement, the series has a ton of potential! 

It really does! Next one, with Strategic Map involved (or whatever it is called) should be even more fun!

Quote from: Tinkershuffle on March 30, 2018, 09:14:58 AM
Quote from: mirth on March 30, 2018, 08:11:21 AM
Counter clipping helps you focus.

Not gonna happen.

That's alright, I forgive you  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

Crossroads

Quote from: mirth on March 30, 2018, 08:11:21 AM
Counter clipping helps you focus.

I just might end up buying this as well, despite of having a chance to play it at the club without owning a copy. Really liked it. Did I say that yet?
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