GDW Third World War
- Thread starter Enoff
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Enoff
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Who would have thought in the 80s that Europe would look like it does today? I can only get as far east as Poznan on this map.
I am certainly glad it didn't turn into a Twilight 2000 dystopia. I've been having fun lately reading several books on the Cold War. I haven't gotten deeply into it, being focused on the early Cold War at the moment, that because of Reagan's bellicosity and the Nato exercises of "Able Archer" in 1983 the Soviet leaders did think they were about to be attacked. Its just by a miracle war didn't happen.
Able Archer 83
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83
I am certainly glad it didn't turn into a Twilight 2000 dystopia. I've been having fun lately reading several books on the Cold War. I haven't gotten deeply into it, being focused on the early Cold War at the moment, that because of Reagan's bellicosity and the Nato exercises of "Able Archer" in 1983 the Soviet leaders did think they were about to be attacked. Its just by a miracle war didn't happen.
Able Archer 83
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83
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Certain elements (Strong EU, brushfire wars in the Mid East) were common themes in Cyberpunk lit; a collapsed Soviet Union less so but not unheard of in the same body of lit. Even the Euro was predicted. Mind you, the CP genre gets Japan all wrong, but it got Europe pretty close in a lot of CP lit.
Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired was nearly prophetic.
Enoff
SOC-13
I don't remember if I read that or not, I think I did but I've forgotten what it was about.
I am sort of on a sixties roll of spy noir having watched Richard Burton in John le Carre's "The Spy who came in from the Cold" 1965 and now watching Michael Caine in Len Deighton's "The Ipcress File" 1965 So my perception of time is distorted. Oh and another spy film I watched half of with my girlfriend is "The Good Shepherd" 2006 with Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, William Hurt, Alec Baldwin directed by Robert De Niro who is also in the film about the CIA and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963. Maybe we will get a chance to finish that tonight, pretty interesting. So you can see I am mentally in the midst of the Cold War
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Enoff
SOC-13
Its been so long since I've played a war game I've been looking at an old Jim Dunnigan game from 1973 only eight pages of rules compared to twenty six or more, not counting the other three books, in Frank Chadwick's game. I'll eventually get to GDW's Third World War but its a monster game.
SPI NATO: Operational Combat in Europe in the 1970's
SPI NATO: Operational Combat in Europe in the 1970's
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"Third World War" is one of my favorites from back in the '80s; my brother and I played a lot of that, as well as Victory Games' "NATO". I think one of the reasons I became a big Chadwick fan was TWW.
TWW doesn't have to be a monster game, the four fronts are separate theaters. Arctic Front is the smallest, in terms of frontage, and might be my favorite. It's also possibly the most affected by die-rolls (Norwegian Sea control). Persian Gulf has a diplomatic pre-game card game, each player trying to win allies before the shooting starts, it can be interesting. That game, and Southern Front, both feature a lot of open space that armies might not be large enough to control completely. TWW: the Battle for Germany is the main event, and can turn into a slugfest or a rout, depending on how well the Soviets can make their attacks.
Overall, I'd say there is a noticeable, but not overwhelming, advantage to NATO, especially in the long-term. The Soviets have to drive hard to win.
TWW doesn't have to be a monster game, the four fronts are separate theaters. Arctic Front is the smallest, in terms of frontage, and might be my favorite. It's also possibly the most affected by die-rolls (Norwegian Sea control). Persian Gulf has a diplomatic pre-game card game, each player trying to win allies before the shooting starts, it can be interesting. That game, and Southern Front, both feature a lot of open space that armies might not be large enough to control completely. TWW: the Battle for Germany is the main event, and can turn into a slugfest or a rout, depending on how well the Soviets can make their attacks.
Overall, I'd say there is a noticeable, but not overwhelming, advantage to NATO, especially in the long-term. The Soviets have to drive hard to win.
That scared me away from it until about 1984-5 or so, then I fell into it big time. My group was all high-schoolers at that point, and at least 3 of us were dreaming of military careers, so I guess that became a pull.
Enoff
SOC-13
There is another vassal module that someone has made covering the same topic but based on one of the SPI games called The Next War. Amazing how complex some people have gotten into programming these modules. As an example I guess you can click a button and it shows the SAM launch radius.
