MDG NATO 1961 AAR - WW3 Begins w/Soviet Tactical Nucs

 And the war begins with a true bang - Soviet Tactical Nuc missiles and Air Strikes across West Germany. 

This is a different type of war than conventional. In this environment, combat units cannot concentrate for standard attacks and become targets themselves - instead, they move close enough to their target, but not too close, and attempt to deliver a nuc blow that prevents retaliation.

My current play thru is a somewhat unique case with starting the war with tac nucs, NATO has no air yet, and all US/UK units/HQs except 1 starting out of Tac Nuc range. The Soviets can selectively move forward and try to destroy (all) the US/UK units in range before they can respond. 

If Tac Nucs started after a turn or more of conventional war then it would probably be an even exchange and therefore maybe cause players to reconsider before starting. But if a side could orchestrate the current situation - surprise/mainly unanswered tac nuc attack it could be tempting.

So the priorities of the WP/Soviet player are:

Primary - Destroy enemy tac nuc delivery means. This means focusing on destroying US/UK units and displacing their HQs also w/nuc strikes to minimize/prevent retaliation.

Secondary - Destroy enemy defenses/units opening a clear path to quickly capture urban/VP hexes. At this point avoid nuking urban hexes as then they lose their VP value.

Here is the link to the YouTube video of the game play:

https://youtu.be/OhEUAeogAMc

Here is the map after the initial WP/Soviet attack - mushroom clouds everywhere. 

NATO/US response was limited to one unit starting in range (2 hexes) of WP units able to launch a tac nuc attack against a Soviet unit and in the south thru a mess-up of Soviet air strike tasking (me) US units were able to blunt the Czech armored spearhead driving on Munich before they were decimated themselves. Otherwise, it was all Soviet. 

At the end of the Soviet phase UK ground forces were totally eliminated, US ground forces were decimated, but the strikes against the US/UK HQs did not displace them far enough to prevent retaliation in the NATO phase. Also, there will be no defense against NATO airstrikes since all WP Air was used in the initial attack - a calculated risk.

But at any point, either side can choose to escalate to strategic nuclear war at which point enemy population centers become a primary target to attempt to destroy the enemy's national will.

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."