By the time of the first and second battles of Ulanov, the rules concepts of Great War had, to a great extent, already solidified. It was now a matter of playtesting. The twin offensives at Ulanov proved that most of the rules functioned smoothly, with the exception of the Incremental Card Movement System. The idea itself is sound and worked well, but the composition of each card deck was still a problem. The Russian troops seemed to plod about the field, bored and listless. Their attacks developed slowly and their defense was scattered and sporadic. The Germans were just the opposite. Moving rapidly accross the table, concentrating quickly, and able to produce a prodigious volume of fire when needed, they dominated the battle. Russians fell in swaths, while their tormentors laughed gleefully. So Terry and I began to consider alternative card deck compositions. At the time of Ulanov, each side had its own deck made up of six cards, each labeled with a "1", "2", or "3", denoting the number of Increments or actions for their side, for that turn. The important difference in decks was that the Germans had three "3" cards, while the Russians had only one "3" card. A "3" ard has the potential of being devasting, permitting the side that draws it to move and/or fire three times. Thus the Germans had three killer cards to the Russians one; a decided advantage. First we considered giving the Russians a second "3" card, but that had the effect of making them a little too powerful, or the equal of a better army, such as the Belgian army. On second thought, we came to the conclusion that we could allocate another "3" card if we balanced it out by also adding another "1" card. Thus we increased the standard deck size from six to eight cards, giving the Russians a little more punch and the Germans more to worry about. To the Germans we gave two "2" cards, which keeps them at the same level they were before, and a deck of eight. The game seems to be balanced now, and at the time of this writing, a verbal agreement has been struck between Terry, myself, and the Armory (a Baltimore based hobby distributor), to publish Great War. Hopefully it will be in publication by the end of the year. I can see my name in lights already. Back to PW Review July 1987 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1987 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com