From Soviet doctrine to chemical weapons, from air war to amphibious ops, passing thru REFORGER, electronic warfare & Polish revolts.
How do you turn World War Three, the worst nightmare of 20th century, into a living room sim?
Anthony Morphet and Fabrizio Vianello offer some hindsight on the design process & the decisions to take.
Live event was at April 16th 1200ZT, on Connections Online, and recorded session is here below.
Sponsored by Connections 2021 Online and Armchair Dragoon!
From Comrade Counter-Admiral Joe Kussey, an in-depth analysis of the options available to Warsaw Pact for Operation Garbo – the invasion of Sweden. The document is also available for download at this link.
After playing Scenario #3 several times and invading Denmark, I thought I would take a look at the difficulties of invading Sweden. Invading Denmark seemed pretty straight forward – capture Copenhagen’s three city hexes and win the game. Because of the WP helicopter and air transport fleet, supply is not major concern in that scenario, unless WP loses Air Superiority over Copenhagen. Given the massive advantage of ground support vs brigades with a defense of “1”, it was just a matter of getting units into position and providing air support to the Polish Marines. Would this be the case with Sweden? After setting up, it is clear that this will be more difficult than invading Denmark.
Upon review, several things stand out. Unlike Denmark’s situation further southwest, Soviet airfields are more distant from Sweden, ruling out attack helicopter support until an airfield is secured and repaired. In addition, Soviet forces set aside to conduct the opening invasion are relatively light given the size of Sweden: 3 Air-Drop battalions, a Marine and a parachute brigade. This will make splitting forces risky. With no major geographic objective that could end the game (such as the fall of Copenhagen), Soviet forces will have to capture a ground to win. WP will need to fight on a broader front. In addition, Sweden also has a better equipped army and will receive NATO reinforcements.
No matter if you are in Leningrad Military District or AFNORTH Headquarters, a map is what it takes to successfully organize an amphibious invasion of Narvik or an airlift to defend Tromsø.
Planning Maps are A4 format with national borders, ports and air bases highlighted. Get them, or risk disaster.
The VASSAL Module for 1985: Deadly Northern Lights is finally here!
Being a monster game, we have a monster module. Due to size and security measures, we had to create zip files containing zip files. Follow these steps to create the module and start your Scandinavian campaigns:
1. Download the two parts of the module:
1985DNL_A.zip
1985DNL_B.zip
2. Unzip the two files in the same directory. This will create two files named 1985 DNL.zip and 1985 DNL.z01
3. Unzip the 1985 DNL.zip file only.
This will create the final 1985 DNL.vmod module by combining the zip and z01 files.
A big thanks to our Combat Engineer John Rainey, to our lead playtester Dominik Häufler and to the others who made this possible!
EDIT 20210827 ZT: Module has been updated to version 1.02, adding missing Convoy markers, Hide Pieces Button and more. You will need the latest version of VASSAL to use it.
Incredible photo coverage of the first two days of war in AFNORTH sector. No words, only pictures.
By Big Board Gaming!
If you’ve answered YES to all of the above, then 1985: Deadly Northern Lights VASSAL playtest is for you!
You will test the Order of Battle and the module functions, and if you are really bold you could also be enlisted for preparing one or more scenario setup.
AFNORTH needs YOU! Enlist by writing to info@TRLGames.com!
….and COVID took the Wargaming Conventions.
As there will be no conventions in the foreseeable future, we decided to send to the front the strategic reserve of copies kept until now for conventions usage. In plain terms, this means:
As a side note, 1985: Under an Iron copies are now moving to the distribution points….Europe shipping should begin next week, US and Canada could take a little longer as they have to traverse the North Atlantic SLOC.
Oh well that’s it….The Convention Is Dead, Long Live to the Convention!
SITREP 20200730 1300 ZT: Following the tradition of the previous offensives, this one too was fast and bloody. 1985:DNL copies are gone, but stay tuned in the next few days for the fifty 1985:UAIS ones!
SITREP 20200804 1836 ZT: The 50 remaining copies of 1985: Under an Iron Sky – Third Echelon are now available on the product page!
Here’s a gallery of the Grognards reporting from the AFNORTH Front!
Thanks to everybody for supporting us in what has probably been our biggest endeavor until now.
Once again, Grognard Emeritus Kaya Moriya translated the whole “1985” set of rules into Japanese! Kudos to him!
The first Field Manual for 1985:Deadly Northern Lights, covering amphibious operations, is available! Read it to avoid becoming a tourist attraction at the bottom of Norwegian Sea.
