Putin Strikes

Started by besilarius, January 10, 2016, 08:48:43 AM

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besilarius

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panzerde

Quote from: besilarius on January 30, 2016, 12:11:52 PM
https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/rand-wargaming-the-defense-of-the-baltics/

Looks like the Baltics have no chance with present NATO arrangements.


GMTA. I was just mulling this RAND study in the context of this game. This isn't the first time I've heard that NATO in the Baltics would be overmatched based on current deployments.
"This damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" - Jean Lannes, 1809

Castellan -  La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

bayonetbrant

That's not new - there was a big discussion of that about this time last year.  We even covered it on The GrogCast when Airborne Rifles was on.

http://grogheads.com/?podcast=grogcast-season-2-episode-3
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panzerde

Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 30, 2016, 01:08:52 PM
That's not new - there was a big discussion of that about this time last year.  We even covered it on The GrogCast when Airborne Rifles was on.

http://grogheads.com/?podcast=grogcast-season-2-episode-3


Yeah, I remember when it first came out. Not sure why it's all over the place again this morning, but it did make me think about this particular game when I started seeing it.
"This damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" - Jean Lannes, 1809

Castellan -  La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

Crossroads

Speaking within concept of Putin Strikes, it is too bad the game map pretty much stops by the shores of the Baltic Sea, instead of covering areas of Sweden and Finland as in the map in the article linked above:



Of course, by its own admission Putin Strikes covers only the beginning phase of such an all out attack, but in doing that it misses on the exact reinforcement schemes that would likely take place.

I've read about plans to store heavy military equipment in Estonia, Latvia and Lituania, but yet it is obvious with Belarus likely being available to Russia from the word go any reinforcement would need to cross the Baltics from Germany Denmark and Sweden, likely.

Then, it becomes obvious how important the Baltic islands of Gotlands (Swe), Saaremaa and Hiiumaa (Est) and Aland (Fin) would be for any effort to isolate the Baltic states. Secure those islands, equip them with modern S400 etc missile systems, and the marine route is effectively cut. Add to that the availability of modern surface-to-air missile systems in Kaliningrad and Belarus too, and the NATO air superiority advantage is effectively compromised.

Also, Putin Strikes includes Swedish and Finnish counters, but looking at that map again it would be obvious they'd not be deployed in Baltics, but would be busy securing their own areas, including the said islands.

So any news on the game the article talks about? Would be on my games-to-buy list in no time    :knuppel2:
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 30, 2016, 01:08:52 PM
That's not new - there was a big discussion of that about this time last year.  We even covered it on The GrogCast when Airborne Rifles was on.

http://grogheads.com/?podcast=grogcast-season-2-episode-3

Just listened this through  O0
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

panzerde

From the article:

Quote
They also note that "full documentation of the gaming platform will be forth-coming in a subsequent report." We'll look forward to reading more.

So it sounds like you could put it together on your own from that once it's released. For the most part it sounds like a pretty traditional game. Might be interesting to do something similar in TOAW IV when it's released.
"This damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" - Jean Lannes, 1809

Castellan -  La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

Crossroads

Quote from: panzerde on January 31, 2016, 11:40:44 AM
From the article:

Quote
They also note that "full documentation of the gaming platform will be forth-coming in a subsequent report." We'll look forward to reading more.

So it sounds like you could put it together on your own from that once it's released. For the most part it sounds like a pretty traditional game. Might be interesting to do something similar in TOAW IV when it's released.

Oh yes please!
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Emailed them to ask about their ETA:

QuoteGame has a few things to do before press. Best estimate for shipping, 3 quarter this year.
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

panzerde

Well, I guess it's time to break out good old Battlefield Europe and play that for a few months while I'm waiting...
"This damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" - Jean Lannes, 1809

Castellan -  La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

Crossroads

Well, it seems they read my mind about extending the game North of Gulf of Finland. Another game in the making, preorder being considered  :smitten:

Putin's Northern War: The Struggle for Finland

PRE-ORDER price: $34.95
Projected MSRP: $49.95



Game Design: Ty Bomba

The crisis being modeled here, though not much discussed (yet), will certainly come into being if the drift of the two "neutral" Scandinavian nations toward NATO membership continues. That would, in turn, most likely occur if--probably in reaction to the growing Muslim immigration crisis there--a conservative government came to power in Sweden. Part of that altered worldview in Stockholm would then likely also move that government to want to join the Western alliance. Since the Finns are already allied with Sweden (and Denmark), it's hard not to imagine such a shift wouldn't also pull Helsinki in the same direction.

All of which would be unacceptable to Putin. His goal here would therefore be to bring off a quick and victorious blitzkrieg-like campaign against Finland, while probably also seizing the low-hanging geo-strategic fruit of Sweden's Gotland Island. That would allow him to install a fully subservient government in Helsinki, turn the Baltic Sea into a Russian lake, and simultaneously recast Sweden into Finland's former role: a quiet and pliant neutral. This game can be played as a stand-alone, or it can be used as part of a new "Grand Campaign Scenario" for combined play with its parent game, Putin Strikes.

This is a wargame in which solitaire play is possible, but is more usually played with two, whereby one (the "Russian player") commands the Kremlin's forces and the other (the "Allied player") commands the Finnish-Swedish alliance opposed to him.

This isn't a simulation of the "opaque (a.k.a. gray) war" techniques most recently used by the Russians in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Rather, it's designed to facilitate the examination of the strategic possibilities (along with their operational undertones) inherent in this potentially larger and more drastic situation.

Each turn of play equals half a week of real time. Each hexagon on the map represents 20 miles (32.5 km) from side to opposite side.

The Finns and Swedes have their entire combined ground force in the Allied side's OB. The Russians would be looking to wage and win this campaign as quickly as possible, but without logistically and administratively disrupting their entire ground force. Accordingly, they are given everything normally available in their Western Military District reinforced with all the new offensive-oriented units they've lately been creating. That includes almost all of their special operations branch, the expanding list of new heavy divisions, and the ultra-elite Order of Suvorov & Kutuzov Heavy Sapper Brigade. The system in this design is the Big And Dumb Armies Simulation System (BADASS). It's based around the idea large First World armies almost always begin major wars well trained and fully equipped. Unfortunately for those in their frontline units, both the training and equipment usually only make them ready for the previous war, not the one they're about to fight. Beyond that, the initial period of such wars is characterized by only a partially abandoned peacetime psychology among the officers and enlisted. That is, no one as yet appreciates what it means operatively to be in an all-out war. All that comes together to give overall performance a high-risk, volatile and fragile quality: no one as yet knows what's actually possible or wise to try to accomplish. Seemingly powerful units therefore easily become "disrupted"--especially as gauged in relation to similar units' performances later, after everyone's been thoroughly schooled in the art of war as it exists in the present.

The system therefore doesn't play--when looked at on a step by step basis--in a way common to operational-level simulations. The whole thing has a Go like quality to it. That commander will succeed best who--rather than reacting to or launching operations opportunistically one at a time--plans his campaign and then campaigns on that plan. Of course, it's also true no plan survives first contact with the enemy. So, even as you plan, you must do so while leaving within your scheme of operation at least some capacity for opportunism. Strategy is not simple; it is complex.

In this system we also explore the philosophic backlash that seems to be building throughout First World militaries in regard to the increasing organizational dominance of brigades over divisions. That is, even as the former have increasingly come to be the unit-of-choice for deployment at both operational and strategic levels, there's growing concern brigades may be too large to employ the dexterity needed in counterinsurgency operations while being too small to hold up for long in any force-on-force shootouts between First World opponents. Hence the contrasting characteristics generated by the differences in size between brigades and divisions are highlighted here.

Projected Contents:
- One 22x34" game map
- One half-sheet of die-cut, mounted, full-color playing pieces
- One book of rules
- Dice
- Game Box


Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

We haven't had active SAAB Draken's since mid 1990's, so not sure what's going on there...  :D
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Meanwhile:

Putin Strikes: The Coming War for Eastern Europe

$54.95 Pre-order pricing has ended for this item. This game is now at press and should ship in the July/August time-frame.
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

panzerde

Saw that yesterday. They sent me a discount code and I was tempted to order the new game, but I really would like to try Putin Strikes before I buy anything more...
"This damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed" - Jean Lannes, 1809

Castellan -  La Fraternite des Boutons Carres

Crossroads

Quote from: panzerde on June 26, 2016, 11:22:53 AM
Saw that yesterday. They sent me a discount code and I was tempted to order the new game, but I really would like to try Putin Strikes before I buy anything more...

That's the responsible, adult approach to this of course. I was not able to resist though... sent the preorder. Maybe we can try Putin Strikes over Vassal, once it arrives?

In another event, I made a mess of the FPC PBEM++ game set up that was waiting (email sent about that earlier today)  :(
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY