From: Doug Murphy Subject: Green Line: Chechyna (long) I have had fun playtesting this GameFix game which I believe is due to appear in the June issue (bumping back the remake of 3W's 2WW) and have been especially interested to see how closely it can follow current events. Truly an example of life imitating game. The only other time I've noticed this was with Arabian Nightmare, the S&T Desert Shield game which was the first to I've asked and got permission from Kirk Schlesinger to mention it. GL:C is an direct systemic development of Joe Miranda's Red Line: Korea which appeared in GameFix #6. In opposition to RL:K's basic setup with Scenario Options, GL:C has four scenarios which range from the historical, to Chechan first strikes and a larger Russian Civil War. In addition, a random events chart covers everything from Chechan "terrorism" to Russian anti-war protests and UN ceasefires. The game ends either in a UN ceasefire, on turn 10 or 15. Victory is decided on the basis of accumulated political points which are gathered by each side depending on game actions. In addition, the Russian gains big points for holding Grozny and surrounding towns and oil fields. The Russian can hardly be denied a military victory. In other words, he has enough troops to literally carpet Chechyna, but the political cost of such an approach would lose him the game. In true Joe Miranda fashion, the political point chart is the heart of the game. (BTW, there are antecedents of part of this system IMO in both Holy War: Afghanistan and the Trajan games.) Both players must consider their strengths and weaknesses in terms of the number of points actions or outcomes would gain or lose to them. In addition, the game is finely balanced; either player can win. I'll illustrate by talking about the basic scenario: Free Checyna! Basically, the Russian is initially challenged in both approach and tactics. He has an HQ, 1 combined arms, 3 mech, 1 air assault and 8 security units. The rebels have an HQ, 1 mech, 5 infantry and 10 militia. Grozny is a two-hex city in the center of the 11 x 17 map but there are multiple avenues of approach and generally rugged terrain all 'round. The rebels set up first and must decide how to defend Grozny. They can't guard everything. We explored multiple strategies but the most effective one is based on holding Grozny. In one game, the Rebel decided on a front-loaded defense and guarded appropriate roads heavily. The Russians swooped in through a Rebel gap and took an undefended hex of Grozny and suckered the Rebels into abortive and costly assaults to take it back. In another game, the Rebel fought a bit for Grozny then basically took to the hills and led the disconcerted Russian on a costly bug hunt in the mountains (because dead Rebel units don't count for VPs.) Russians have air, armor, air supply, airmobile, security, mech, heli, special ops, and propaganda units to choose from, all of which cost pol. pts to activate. If the Russian loses any units, they lost pol. pts. If the Russian uses air or assaults, he loses pts. Much like in RL:K, the Russian can be caught OOS and crushed by a Rebel counterattack. This happened everynow and then to aggressive Russian players who got caught too far forward. In one game, I lost some substantial and costly air assault units to this over-aggression. The Rebels are mostly infantry and militia but have patriots (not the missles but foreign volunteers). Games can be very tense as the Russian attempts to take and hold his VP hexes without accruing big pol. pt. penalties and the Rebel has a merry time blocking him. Indeed random events and random rebel reinforcements (with militia popping up all over the place) made every game different. The best Russian strategy is to establish a strong force to assault Grozny, keep tabs on the pol. pt. markers so that one doesn't call in too many units or conduct too many costly assaults, and use the airmobile units to hook around rebel flanks or block a la hammer-anvil isolated stacks. In addtion to RL:K mobile, probe and assault CRTs, there is a ground attack table and psych warfare table (conducted by special ops, propaganda and patriot units)