I cant speak for you, but my mind races to creative ways to capture what I see hear read and experience and translate those things into a board wargame….ALL the time. I never have got past the Ideation stage.
Not so Brian Train. Brian has created more games than I’ve had stewed monkey eyes.. a lot more. Many dozens even. [LINK https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/1678/brian-train]
Quick outline of the game play concepts are necessary in order to grasp what happens and why. This is my 30 second take on the game.
Pull a card [act if necessary], Chap with the most PR (Political Will or Public Relations value] chooses whether it is a strategy turn or a combat turn. Ukraine gathers some PR points from allies.
If it is a strategy turn you choose (secretly) chits denoting your desired level of effort in 1 of three categories (Balls deep/meh and who cares)….ok. Max/Medium /Modest. After each side pops down chits on the track the initiative player chooses a category to go first with: Military/Information or Diplomacy. The level you choose determines how many dice you roll for ‘action points’.
Each is resolved for Initiative player then 2nd player. Each category has a specific purpose to either push up your PR or drag down the enemy PR (INFO), Push/ pull countries to one level of support or another (DIPLO) and get stuff on the board to fight with (MIL).
Nearly everything you do has some impact elsewhere you may not like. Cards blow nice plans up. Dice mess with intentions for the turn and your players ability to react and counter act can be a challenge also. There is a small aspect to this conflict representation that does seem to enable or allow the enemy to ‘follow its path’ regardless of your actions.
You lose by having prestige points dropping to zero (0), otherwise over the 9 turns we will tally VPs for area control + net PR points.
Below you can see the Prestige points advantage the Russkies have 32 vs 16!
Turn 1
Cards:
MOLDOVA:
Aligns with Russians and that friends is not good.
FUC% EU:
Russians roll double 1 [bad thing] +4 PR to Ukraine
This ends the turn.
Turn 2
X
Seriously… This may be a short game! SVOBODA -1d6 PR
Ukraine rolls 6,6, SUMSKA Russian
Turn2 conti…
RUS card- ISIS crisis RUS hold onto. Russians gain 3 PR via Information Strategy -5 UKR -3 Russ
DIPLO RUS move Poland -2
Ukr rolls for POL and RO moving both 1.
RUS subtract 9 PR (2d6 =5 )
MIL
4 pts for Russians Place SF in Alessa, Belarus and 2 Tanks Mobilize, now playing the ISIS crisis.
T3
UKR UE sanctions -4 Russ now 16 PR.
RUS –
Mil place 2 in Russ ready, and SF in Donet. Dnipr. 1Xireggular in Odessa Ukraine fail to neutralize x2
DIP 4 pts Russian
UKR Dip 11! Attempt to influence USA and France 7 /6. US moves to Intervene France to Support.
INFO
Russ -3 Ukr -4 Ukraine +5 for end turn bonus’s.
Turn 4
Pts: UKR 11, Russ 8.
DIP UKR 11 again. GB 7 moves up 1. Russ drops US back to Support.
INFO both buy PR.
MIL Russ place 1 irregular.
We can see the plummeting Prestige of the UKR, RUS double down to press it closer to ZERO.
Diplomatic rolls and US support cause a massive swing of fortune.
Turn 5
DIP Uk 2 pts!but move Pol while Russ move GR and Fr to Neutral.
INFO
Mil max effort – 8 2 Para and 1 irregular +2 Inf . Donets and Dniper
Russians realize spending PR too early will bite them, so they must jumpt to war phase or combat turn.
Speaking of resolve, look at ‘dem dice…
Kyiv falls..or one would think. Fighting irregulars proves to be challenging. Kiev stands for another turn!
T6 combat turn
Russ=9 Ukr =9
Donetska symbolic attack…Russ get 4 hits Ukr 3. PR Russ drops to 5 UKR up to 20
Russian paras netraliz irregulars in Kyiv using Asymetical warfare. Odeass -1 PR each as both sides are involed in Kinetc effort. But PR drops to ZERO for Russians!!
A quick scan of the board sees that Soviets miss played their efforts and would earn few VP’s to mitigate the run away PR train of the UKR.
