From: "James B. Byrne" Subject: Re: FW: CSR Awards On Tue, 30 Sep 1997 12:46:56 -0400 Ron Walenciak wrote: > I haven't played Kreig... doesn't it use cards? Perhaps that kept it down in > the voting (I have a suspicion that many hard-core wargamers don't find the > use of cards as a plus.) Just my 2-cents. > One of the BEST war games ever, UpFront! uses nothing but cards. However, about Kreig, a VERY GOOD game in itself, even if it does stoop to using counters and maps and such. Kreig is straight HuGoEyeGo panzer pushing, EXCEPT when a BLITZ card is in effect.. Other than that the cards only serve to guide players down historically valid paths without forcing them to go unwillingly. If you wish to follow the actual course of events of WWII as represented by the cards then there is an option which allows this by simply dictating which cards are revealed on each season's interphase. Kreig uses the cards only to limit the political, diplomatic, and/ economic options of the various factions of WWII. It keeps the players to some reasonable proximity of the possible; without forcing them into a straight jacket model of the historical road and it severely circumscribes the possibility of the fantastic. At each seasonal interphase, each faction must select one card from those available in their hands that will be revealed and come into play at the start of the NEXT season interphase. They then turn up the card that they selected for themselves during the PREVIOUS season interphase. This is strategic PLANNING, something notably absent from most other games on the subject. The active card for each faction for the current season governs things like the arrival of reinforcements on each turn, additions to or removals from the national force pool, belligerency status and a few other things like blitzkreig turns. As each season has a different number of turns, exactly when a card comes into play will affect the TOTAL amount of reinforcement steps that it represents. But each card also has other effects and so you are constantly walking a tightrope between conflicting desires and needs. The selection of cards that are in a player's hand on any given turn are limited by the current level of war that the German player has reached. Once the German player reveals a TOTAL WAR card then all factions receives all of their own TOTAL WAR cards. Before this point each nation's selection is restricted to their initial "LIMITED WAR" options. As there is a limited number of LIMITED WAR cards it is inevitable that at some point TOTAL WAR will occur. However the timing of this is very much up to the German player. Certain cards may be added to or removed from a given factions's hand based on the date, or on the play of a card from their own hand, or the play of a card from that of another faction. This very elegantly represents the loss of flexibility in making future decisions once a certain course of action has been embarked upon or after a period of time has passed, or once an opponent has committed to some action. If you have played any of the large WWII ETO games like War in Europe, Hitler's War, WWII-ETO etc. you are aware how possession of historical pre-knowledge on the part of players causes play to depart in highly irregular patterns from the actions of the actual participants. The cards in Kreig act to correct the tendency of players to "improve" upon history by not making the same diplomatic or economic decisions/mistakes that were made by the real leaders in WWII. By limiting the options available and having consequences measurable in game terms, the cards eliminate much of the perfect historical hindsight problem from the play of the game. If you have played WWII games where "production" was a feature then you know that there exists a class of player that will build all of the Panzers first then all of the PG then all of the infantry etc. Or all fighters and no bombers. Or all subs and no surface fleet. Or some other insupportable variance from historical norm, all designed to exploit some feature of the game's combat system. They do this in complete disregard to the historical needs or capabilities of the producing power. To correct this tendency various and extensively worded rules are added to the game to force some semblance of reasonableness. The cards in Kreig address this problem as well. You get what is sent to you, and you don't get it unless there is a reason for it. If it is 1941 and you are not going to lead the Wehrmatch into the USSR then guess what? The production ministry isn't going to be sending you those nice new Mk III's either. What then? So we'll play that card anyway, but hell no, we won't go! Then what happens is that you have lost the future use of that card. A card can only be played once. In any case you may be directed to attack somewhere (Fuher Offensives) or you will see a major hardening of the Soviet's attitude towards you. Consequences, always consequences. And when you do go into the USSR later, you won't have the extra combat power of a second season's Blitz attack to save your sorry .... if you don't take all the marbles on the first go. This represents the loss of strategic depth. In effect the cards take the place of the national leadership / civilian authority and leave the player solely in the role of supreme military commander. You can influence the national leadership, but you cannot control it. You get what the economy can produce based on the overall situation. It may not be what you want, but who said being top dog in the military was all roses. I believe that the approach taken in Kreig with respect to the cards is quiet elegant in concept. The same effect could have been had by having a table of options (as in WiF) and having the players select from a set of chits, but the cards are much more convenient. This is a game of WWII ETO which works, and works well, and does not require that you either give over your garage for the duration nor plan on spending three years to see it out to the end. HIGHLY recommended. Regards, Jim --- James B. Byrne Harte & Lyne Limited vox +1 905 561 1241 9 Brockley Drive fax +1 905 561 0757 Hamilton, Ontario ByrneJB@Harte-Lyne.ca Canada L8E 3C3