Price: $14.75 and $13.85, including postage
Source: Game Designers Workshop, P.O.
Box 582, Bloomington Illinois, 61701
Subject: The war in the east. June 1941 to
April 1945
Designers: Frank Chadwick and Paul Richard Banner
The ebb and flow of the Eastern Front, the exhilaration of a panzer breakthrough followed by an enormous "cauldron" encirclement, the welling anger and humiliation as you see your carefully hoarded assault force cut to bits, gigantic air battles between groups of escorts and interceptors to see whose ground attack aircraft will decide the waiting land battle: This and much more is the bread and butter of Game Designers' twin game, DNO and UNT.
Together these two simulations allow you to game out the entire War in the East. There are so many innovations and refinements that it would be impossible to mention all but the highlights. Since the games bear a stiff price, a more intensive review is needed to aid the prospective buyer.
First of all the game resembles S&T's world war II divisional system with its familiar "move-combat- mechanized movement" phases, but takes this basis and expands it into an entirely innovative game system. The counters are well done and are in fourteen different colors. The five 21" x 27" maps included are not up to S&T standards and one wishes the designers would have included more terrain, but they are quite adequate for play. There are numerous charts and tables which greatly facilitate play. The rules are clear and well written and an errata sheet is included for the few errors that inevitably creep into a game of this magnitude.
One obvious problem gamers will have with this monster is where to play it. Few of us have tables large enough to place the five maps. I would suggest a visit to your local lumber supply store where you will find numerous types of panel board which will fit the bill nicely. If you happen to have a ping pong table- that will do.
The set up of the game is complex, made even more so by a complete revision that came with the components of the Unentschienden portion. The German advantage at the beginning is enormous. The numerous panzer divisions blast their way through the Russian masses and cut off their supply and retreat lines far in the rear. One problem the designers have solved is the fact that although panzers can get behind enemy formations they find themselves out of supply and vulnerable to counterattack. In ONO supply penalties take place after the first turn of isolation and you can avoid this by taking supply counters with the unit at a small cost in movement points. Failing this there are provisions for air-dropping of supplies, which was actually the case in the original campaign.
Another problem the designers have successfully mastered is the matter of combat between "pure" armor units and infantry. In previous games the risk of these kinds of encounters could be disastrous to the armor units but here we have something quite different. Each type of armor is assigned an "aec" and .'atec" capability. "AEC" is armor effects capability, while "ATEC" represents antitank defensive ability. For instance, a German panzer division is equal to three stacking points. Each stacking point of "pure armor," (a tank unit), is equal to one point of "aec". So a three-attacking point armor division is equal to three points of "aec". Now, a mechanized infantry division of two stacking points is equal to 1/2 "aec" per stacking point, giving the unit one point of "aec". An infantry division has an "aec" value of zero, (this changes later in the war when hollow- charged infantry anti-tank weapons were introduced). In actual combat an example would look something like this: A stack of three armored divisions, (9-10,10-10,11-10) attacking 3 inf. div., (4-6. 4-6, 5-6). the odds would round off to two to one-not very hopeful for the armor in most games. But in this example the "aec" comes into play and since the panzer group is "full aec" that is nine out of nine stacking points of pure armor, the attacker would get to add four to his die roll. At three to one with "pure armor," the worst that could happen to the attack would be a "defender eliminated."
Let's have another example. Say you attack with one panzer division, (10-10), one mechanized infantry division, (8-8), and one infantry division, (7-6). against the same defender, it would look like this:
- Panzer division - three stacking points
three factors "aec"
Motorized division - two stacking points, one factor "aec"
Infantry division - three stacking points, zero "aec"
Total stacking points = eight, total AEC = four
The above stack is 1/2 "aec", and according to the rules a stack that is 1/2 "aec" gets to add two to the die roll. The armoreffects benefit ranges all the way from an addition of one to the die roll if the stack is a minimum of one fifth "aec", up to plus four on the die roll if the stack is full "aec."
A similar system works in the defense but there you get to subtract from the attackers die roll if the defender is armor.
Looks hopeless for the poor infantry not quite. Included in the game are antitank battalions which may be added to any stack to add "aec" or "atec". Another method of lessening the blitz effect of armor is fortifications. Forts may be constructed by the numerous engineer units, and a unit on top of one gets to subtract two from the die roll in addition to having all armor effects negated. The best of all armor defenses is to have an infantry unit in a fort with several anti-tank counters you get to subtract four from the die roll!
One of the delights of the game is the ever-changing orders of battle. Continously throughout the play you receive reinforcements and replacements in both ground and air units. You are always allowed to replace your choice of artillery units and this allows you to reflect your present offensive or defensive postures.
The most dramatic changes occur on the Russian side where, about the time of the Stalingrad offensive. the player finally begins to receive armoured units sturdy enough to meet the Germans on something approaching parity.
The German player is allowed battlegroups for "destroyed" units while both sides have methods for rebuilding knocked out units. One of the most interesting features is the ability of German armored units to breakdown into component regiments.
For example, let's take the Gross Deutschland Division. It starts its career as a 4-5-10 motorized regiment and ends up, after several metamorphoses, as an 18-10 panzer division. At any time you are able to breakdown (or reform) the division into one 8-6-10, one 5-6-10, and one 4-5-10. This breakdown ability is one solution to the problem of holding a vast front after your infantry divisions have been decimated. Using this rule you are now able to simulate many of the operational accounts you read about in the popular literature available.
Air War
Next we turn to the air component. Basically you have three types of aircraft; fighters, acting as escorts or interceptors, shortrange ground-attack aircraft; and long range bombers, which can perform tactical as well as strategic functions. On each counter are printed four numbers. An air attack factor, used in air-to-air combat, a defense factor, a tactical, and sometimes strategic, bombing factor, and the range. Each of these factors vary according to the type of plane the counter represents. The types of planes change throughout the game from the earliest models to the latest jet fighters in 1945.
A typical air battle would go as follows: It's December, 1941, and the great Soviet winter counteroffensive is about to begin. The Russian airforce is beginning to reappear in the skies in ever-increasing numbers to aid the newly arrived Siberian armies drive the hated Germans back from the gates of Moscow. Three stacks of pe-2 bombers, each stack a maximum of five counters, and two stacks of Sturmovik 11-2 are heading into battle to add their tactical strength factors to the attacking Siberian forces. They are being escorted by three stacks composed of mixed groups of MiG's, YAKs and lendlease Hurricanes and P- 40Cs. They are met by three stacks of German fighters, Me 109Fs and a sprinkling of Me100Cs and Me110Es.
The superior skill of the German pilots is reflected in the fact that they may subtract one from their die roll while the inexperienced Russian must add one. A dogfight ensues as each group of German fighters must fight its way through each group of Russian fighters to reach the bombers. The Russians get the worst of it and soon the German fighters close with the bombers. Hopefully the Russian fighters have reduced the number of Germans enough to give the bombers a fighting chance. Each player has the option to abort his mission and return to base any time during the air combat sequence, but the attack factors of the bombers are often needed to decide the ground combat. The fighters rip into the bombers, several groups are destroyed, but enough break through.
But its not over yet. Each stacking-point of infantry and armor has one flak attack factor and the bombers must run this gauntlet next. Another nasty surprise is flak units. These "1-10" and "3- 10" units have four times their printed counter strength of flak and can cause serious damage. The player soon gains an appreciation for the accounts of frenzied air battles that raged over the skies of many an east-front battlefield.
There are numerous other innovations and minor details that together add up to make these games perhaps the finest east-front games now available. I would strongly recommend this game to anyone who has enjoyed the several other eastfront games now available and to those who are seeking a solid, innovative game .
Contrary to commonly accepted thought (that the bigger the game the harder it is to play solitaire), I think you will find DNO and UNT ideal for solo play. In fact the sheer size and the large amount of time required to play it through makes it an ideal simulation to play with oneself. The one key to all solitaire gaming that is little understood is that instead of competing against oneself you should attempt to replay history. A game as accurate as this is an ideal method or recreating or experimenting with various "what-ifs" and can give many months of playing pleasure!
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© Copyright 1974 by Donald S. Lowry
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