Great War in the Near East

Command #38

by Ted Raicer

Reviewed by David Fox

For those unaware, this is a sort of 2-in-one special. GWINE not only covers WWI in the Middle East as a stand alone game, but it also links with the parental Great War in Europe to enlarge the scope of Ted Raicer's popular design. Visually, GWINE is "Command", if not at its finest, at least in high gear There is though, lots of counter errata.

Essentially, GWINE is more interesting as a stand-alone game. You really get a feel for the theater's peculiar characteristics, too much so in fact, as the Turks keep running into sudden death historical game-endings. Two-thirds of the game will pretty much play the same way every time, but playing the Turks is so much like trying to solve an ever-changing puzzle that there's still lots of drama. The Allied player will get bored, though.

As a supplement to the much larger game, it's not that great an addition, although that is a function less of the design and more of the situation. While Ted Raicer has come up with some novel ways of reflecting historical events in the Event chits, the supplement is similar to the Far West Map in Victory Games' Civil War: a nice chance to divert yourself from the great events of the main theater, but one that tends to be overlooked during the flow of battle elsewhere.

So GWINE must stand on its own merits, which it does as a window into the particular demands and obstacles of this theater of war. For GWIE veterans, no sweat, although you can forget your 60-division offensives here. Ultimately, its more of a history lesson than a game. If you're interested in the theater, give it a try. For newbies, it'll be a nice introduction to its larger cousin's mechanics.

Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. 2 #24 Table of Contents
Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1996 by Richard Berg
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com