Driven by dozens of plays, 100’s of hours and a desire to re implement the framework of the 1978 Mark Herman, Jim Dunnigan & SPI ‘Mafia’s’, The Next War  comes

 

a fresh look at a very large and complex topic.

The Next War as envisaged for 1985. Who is doing this?

Thin Red Line Games a new wargame company established by Fabrizio Vianello who for the longest time had a fantastic blog walled War Without KIA.

Which was my inspiration to get off my back side and put Mark Hermans title on the table!

You know I’m a fan of innovation, scrappy new developers and designers and moving the industry forward. Here is another potential LEAP forward!

Fabrizio’s design appears to capture much of the essence of the old TNW, but until we read the rules we wont know for sure. Initial indications are however very promising. Fabrizio starts with a reworking of the maps that while much more modern honour the elegance of Simonson’s limited palette and restrained design.

 

Of course no expose would be complete without a shot of the Fulda Gap area!

Airfield boxes with more functional room to work showing active, and flown/destroyed –

A summary of some of the unit types and  characteristics is below, you can see its TNW roots below:

 

 

As can be seen here:

Ok. So it looks good. What about the rules? What is different? What is new? 

Are they clear and concise, will we have questions?

Lots of challenges to assess here but this is where some faith on our part comes to the fore.

I hope to have a pre release copy of the rules soon , and as soon as the game is ready to ship, I’m planning upon putting this sucker on the table to aid our understanding of this event.

 

Wait? What “EVENT?” why is this an event I hear you say.

Well, for decades, folks have said, if only..this, and if only that..were fixed, changed, done “right”.

Well that time is here. This company has taken the bull by the horns and shaped an impression of the game that was TNW, into something we can all purchase, and try and see what the designers vision was.

Actually I take that back only four hundred of us can do this. As it is a very limited print run.

Fabrizio has taken on the ownership and cost of making this game without a Kickstarter, with no P500, and nothing but his passion and Lira [ok Euros..;)] to make his vision a reality.

I’m getting mine. I hope you get yours if you are a fan of the 1985 Hypothetical WWIII in Europe era at the semi monster scale.