Like you, if you care at all about modern warfare as we knew it at the height of the cold war then you are no doubt intrigued by the idea of a reboot of The Next War  [1978 SPI] as we discussed here.

The idea sounds great but hey….so much can go wrong and so much will depend on the designer keeping the soul of the original game while updating key aspects that were difficult, unworkable or unbalanced and turning them into mechanics that make sense.  The designer believes that the TNW heavily favoured the Soviets. I did not see that in my just one play, but I could see with extensive play that smarter working of the airwar, and more adroit Soviet opening moves could allow an easier time of it than my Soviets had.

After a conversation with the designer, Fabrizio was nice enough to work up a written discussion of the key areas of difference from The Next War from SPI and his new design 1985:Under an Iron Sky [1985 for short or UaIS].

He will cover off on Air War improvements, the political game and its impact on mobilization and reinforcements. How revolts , and unrest are handled, what happens with WMD’s and Chem warfare.  Then a look at key differences in how combat is managed and how combat results have been ‘fixed’. There will also be a brief comment about the tweaks on supply, land movement etc.

Look for that post in 5-7 days or there abouts.