Games I Want: New version of NATO

I can't justify buying this at all:



But I really liked the original game. One of my big regrets is not taking care of that set, and losing enough counters to make it impossible to put back together and play. I can't spend a bunch of $$$ on a game so I can play it one last time, when I don't even have the time and space to set up the ones I do have to play - such as Third World War, War to the Death, and Panzer Blitz.

The new version seems interesting - two different NATO setups (1983, and 1988), changed units and such based on more available information, and a modern set of game rules.

Tempting.

If I could fine the space and time to play, I'd get a used copy of the old game, and play that - it's cheap enough, and it's fun enough, if you have space to set it up to play. It's a pretty brutal game. Airpower is abstracted into strike points, which degrade as the turns go on - air power is use it or lose it, as the game assumes you're using it maximally and suffering damage as you do. Units grind out of existance pretty quickly. And unlike in, say, TWW, US units aren't so tough that it's foolhardy to directly attack them with Soviet units.

The game had a really nice feel to it. Three scenarios - strategic surprise (the Soviets attack from a cold, unmobilized start), tactical surprise (the Soviets attack from a partially mobilized start), and extended buildup (the Soviets attack from a fully mobilized start.) In the first, NATO is caught flat-footed. In the second, NATO sees it coming but isn't fully ready to fight when the Soviets jump off into the offensive. In the last, both sides see it coming and are as ready as they're going to get.

My experience was that the odds of the Soviets winning were in that order, too - you'd get torn to shreds in the first scenario, but NATO just wasn't in position to stop you. In the second, it was more of a tossup - the Soviets had more going but NATO reinforcements came in fast and quick. The third I never won as the Soviets. It was too much of a meatgrinder even with all of those troops.

When I first played the game I didn't like it as much as TWW. The more I played it, though, the more I really enjoyed the challenge of the different scenarios and the very different gameplay. You didn't set up for attacks like in TWW, and airpower was much more useful to the Soviets. Smaller NATO units were in real trouble. But Soviet units would disappear in a blur of poor CRT results if you weren't careful. Overall, it was a game I liked a lot.

Hmm . . . maybe $20 and hoping for a place to set it up in the future isn't a bad idea, eh?

How do I justify my pre-order of Fire in the Lake? Hey, leave me alone, I can't be fully consistent.