Game Preview: "GLOBAL WAR: The Sun and the Swastika" Preview by R. Ben Madison, talossa@execpc.com ********** The original (1975) SPI "Global War" game was an ambitious project, covering the entire Second World War in all actual and potential theaters, from Europe to the Pacific to (in theory, though there were no units) Latin America. Unfortunately, SPI's Global War was marred by innumerable problems (see the review here on the Grognards page) and never lived up to its potential. Since about 1984 a team of designers and playtesters in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area has been working on a completely revised and updated version of Global War, tentatively titled "Global War: The Sun and The Swastika." Decision Games (of Bakersfield, CA), heir to the old SPI empire, is actively pursuing the game and is seeking pledges (pre- orders) while the game is currently in their hands for playtesting. As the chief designer I can share some details of the game with its potential audience here on the Grognards page. * Overview: GLOBAL WAR is a complete redesign of the 1975 SPI classic game of the same name. In short, it is a simulation of the entire Second World War in every actual and possible theater, from the Atlantic Ocean, Europe and North Africa, to Ethiopia, India, East Asia, Japan, the Pacific-- and beyond. Every detectable armed force on the earth is included--the countermix includes the land, sea, and air forces of more than 90 separate nations on every continent, including North and South America. There are 1,120 counters (four sheets) to represent the military forces. Detail is spread evenly around the world; the War in Europe may get the most of your attention, but you ignore the Pacific at your peril, and if things get out of control in North Africa, Ethiopia, or China--your priorities may suddenly change! The new GLOBAL WAR is designed to focus a player's time, energy, and attention on the military and strategic aspects of the war. A series of more than 300 Event Cards introduces economic, diplomatic, and political crises in such a way as to demand the player's attention but does not distract from the basic "panzer-pushing" of the game. Production rules are simple but realistic and do not involve any "bean- counting" of production points. Optional rules allow for oil and resource requirements, codebreaking, industrial retooling, variations in rail gauge, more weather effects on aircraft, the tactical brilliance of generals, and added detail in land, air and naval combat. The impressive worldwide map incorporates a unique "sliding-scale" approach, allowing one seamless worldwide battlefield but giving more detail to areas (such as Europe and Southeast Asia) where the war actually took place, and less (Siberia, the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa) where it did not but could have. The result allows a single set of rules to be used for every theater and avoids the disjointed split- scale treatment found in World in Flames with separate sets of rules for each theater. For some online samples of the maps (in the early hand-drawn version), you can go to http://www.globwar.com, which has been established as the official web domain of the project. *Counters and Combat System: GLOBAL WAR involves a chess-like system of alternating pulses and dispenses with the simplistic "YUGO-IGO" system common to most wargames. Unlike most wargames where (for instance) the whole Axis moves all its units and fights, then the whole Allied side moves its units and fights, and then it's the end of the turn, our system is much more like chess--you move a unit or a stack of units, then I move a unit or stack, then you move a unit or stack... until everyone is done or can't move any more. This creates an incredibly tense environment where you can't set up some "grand plan" because your enemy is always moving to respond--though his responses may be meaningless in the face of your brute force. The land movement and combat system, invented by Wes Erni, is the heart of the game. Its integrated system of combat modes puts players into the situation of having to make realistic battlefield decisions. The modes are not a rock-scissors-paper guessing game; instead you choose specific modes based on your exact battlefield objectives. Do you want to take territory or do you want to grind the life out of enemy armies? Do you want a flexible or a stand-fast defense? Are you using infiltration tactics or "charging up the middle"? All these decisions and more are yours to make. Players looking to role-play are well-served; GLOBAL WAR abounds in leaders, not only the great Generals of World War II (Manstein, de Gaulle, Yamashita, Patton, Montgomery, and many more) but the game also includes Admirals as an optional rule (Raeder, Somerville, Spruance, and many more). * The Event Cards: The Event Cards are the other main contribution of the game; they simulate two thousand different occurrences, like planning and preparation for amphibious assaults, diplomatic initiatives, military coups (Yugoslavia 1941 for example), alliances (Japan's subversion of Thailand; Spanish neutrality), and "border wars." (The "Border War" is quite clever--it just names two countries, e.g. Peru and Ecuador; if both are neutral the Axis and Allied players both pick a country. If that country is picked by both sides, nothing happens; that country 'wins' the border skirmish and the Event ends. But if each side picks a different country, then each side gets the country it picked as a minor ally. Historically both sides "picked" Peru in their 1941 war with Ecuador... but in the game World War II might very well spread to South America.) GLOBAL WAR's Event Cards are the result of years of historical research involving over two hundred of the best books on World War II--from History of the Second World War by B.H. Liddell Hart, to Gordon Prange's At Dawn We Slept, and countless others--all scanned with an eye to recreating for players the tense and unpredictable world of the 1940s. In GLOBAL WAR, you are the General Staff of your country's armed forces- -you often have your leader's ear, but sometimes you don't, and you are saddled with the irascible decisions of Hitler or Stalin, or your hands are tied by the President's or Prime Minister's political needs or cronies. The Event Cards handle this situation very well in a way that does not impose a burden on a player's memory, or make players into unrealistic demigods who can (for instance) point at neutral countries and "make them my allies." Minor countries have their own agendas and governments which you must accommodate--or crush! * You can own GLOBAL WAR! GLOBAL WAR is currently under consideration by Decision Games, the world's premier publisher of new and classic wargames. Pre-orders are entitled to a 25% discount off the purchase price when the game is published, so send in your pre-order pledge today.... If GLOBAL WAR is not yet on the DECISION GAMES website, go to their site and e-mail them telling them to put it there (politely :-). The website http://www.globwar.com will be maintained to present any errata, new scenarios, additional notes and Q&A's when the game is published, and may grow to include a discussion group to aid the GLOBAL WAR community. GLOBAL WAR is the definitive simulation of the Second World War and is one hell of a good ride. In fact there are no artificial "victory conditions"; victory is based on your own survival or conquest. Have you defeated the dark scourge of fascist tyranny, and led the starving, brutalized peoples of the earth into the broad, sunlit uplands of freedom? Or have you achieved your place in the sun, crushing inferior nations under the heels of your jackboots? The fate of the world is up to you--it is in your hands now. Banzai! R. Ben Madison Join the Kingdom of Talossa! http://www.execpc.com/~talossa