THE HANFORDIAN CANDIDATE

CRISIS KOREA, 1995, by GENE BILLINGSLEY

from GMT Games

Two 22" x 34" maps, 600 counters, one 32-page standard game rules book, one 32-page advanced rules book, numerous charts and displays; designer's notes; boxed. GMT Games, 310 W. Lacey, Hanford, CA 93230. $35.

Reviewed by Carl Gruber

Since the demise of the Soviet Union and the heyday of games like "Next War", "Red Star/White Star", "Air and Armor" and a host of others, cold warriors, both in the government and defense industries, as well as in our own beloved hobby have been looking around for some new target for our missiles, helos, F-18's, EW, ECM and tanks. Saddam Hussein made a comic if somewhat costly and short-lived effort to fill that bill and it didn't even get George Bush re-elected! As for me, I spent $30 on Phase Line Smash, wargaming's answer to necrophilia!

On the other end of the scale, in the Theater of the Absurd, we have XTR's Bergesquely titled, NATO, Nukes and Nazis, with the beloved Vaterland on the march again in yet another rehash of mid-1970's designs, liberally garnished, in somewhat tasteless fashion, with "Hermann Goering National Forests", "Valkyrie Missiles", "Totenkopf Commando Teams" and other such pseudo-Gothic drivel. One almost expects to find that the game is the sponser for HBO's recent documentary on Skinheads. A bleak landscape, indeed, for our hobby's "modernists". So just when we're all settling down to a decade or so of legions and tercios, North Korea starts backing out of reunification talks and nuke disarmament treaties, and faster than you can say "38th Parallel", we have not one, but two games on this potential war.

GMT's Crisis Korea 1995, subtitled "The Next War in Asia," is Gene Billingsley's lavish and complex simulation of this all-too-possible, but still hypothetical conflict. The game's subtitle is an apt one because in many respects, the design is reminiscent of SPI's "Next War", complete with helo's, an air superiority system, air strikes, SSM's, cruise missiles, special forces, and EW. This game is obviously a labor of love, and all the time Billingsley spent working and reworking the design shows in its extensive detail and conceptual solidity.

CK '95 is divided into a standard and advanced game. The former is not too hard to learn or play, and it further serves as a useful "tutorial" for those wishing to proceed to the advanced stage. The standard game does abstract much of the advanced game's systems but still manages to retain much of its flavor. The advanced game adds extensive air and air defense rules, special forces, and air and missile strikes. It is a true monster game and takes a great deal of time to play. Players who want to put on a pot of coffee, roll up their sleeves, and really immerse themselves into a modern war will love it. Gene has thrown in everything, and then added the kitchen sink!

Crisis Korea 1995 is a division/brigade level game with a map scale of 7.5 miles per hex and two game turns per week. The overall system, especially the sections dealing with special forces raids and air and missile strikes, is very interactive. Turn sequencing is reminiscent of Mark Herman's "Gulf Strike" with an initiative player and a reactive player. The initiative player gets to move and attack and then perform exploitation movement and attacks. The reaction player is limited to a reaction move by "elite" units and then a single movement and combat phase with no exploitation. If the initiative players first attacks are successful, his exploitation phase can widen and penetrate holes in the other player's line, create pockets and threaten rear-area installations and airfields. The movement, ZOC and combat rules are fairly standard (fixed movement point allowances, combat by attacker/defender ratios with column shifts and die roll modifiers for air, helo and artillery support, unit quality, etc.).

The CRT is subdivided by the types of terrain in which the defender is located. Unit strengths are modified by the defender's terrain (attacker halved attacking across rivers, armor doubled when attacking more "open" terrain). Attackers and defenders can bring in helos and fixed wing air assets as well as naval units to support combat. The air support can be detected and must then run a gauntlet of enemy air defense fire from SAM's and AAA before it reaches the target. Other combat modifiers are provided by tunnels for the North Koreans and "light" infantry units. Combat results themselves comes in flavors of step losses, retreats, or both with successful attackers advancing as far as the defender retreats. Oddly enough, I could not find any rules for chemical warfare which is surprising in a game as detailed as this. And, as you can see, there is lot's of detail. This is not for the faint-of-heart, nor is it something the Suds and Duds cardboard pushers will want to attempt.

For those who revel in this sort of detail, there is much meat on which to chew. The advanced game's special forces and air rules are a lot of fun. They can be used for diverse missions including raids on airfields, supply depots and enemy headquarters. Special forces can also be assigned to detect and target objectives for subsequent air and missile strikes. Of all the modern games I've seen, the special forces in "Crisis Korea" best portray how unconventional warfare works. If used intelligently, they are also a tremendous pain in the posterior for your opponent.

Fixed wing air assets are divided into squadrons by type (F-16's, MiG-23's, etc.) and are used to fight the air superiority battle, to escort one's own strikes, intercept enemy strikes or to bomb enemy targets. The Scout Koreans and US have "Wild Weasels" to attack enemy air detection capabilities or to help a friendly strike avoid detection. Air superiority is resolved early in the game turn with the opposing sides' units lining up to duke it out. F-16's and MiG-23's have stand-off weapons, allowing them to fire missiles and then close in to fight it out again in dogfights. Air superiority combat is thus resolved one (sometimes two) squadrons at a time, with the players then comparing the number of their surviving air units to determine the level of superiority achieved by the winner which ranges from "air advantage" through "air superiority" to "air supremacy". The level or air superiority later affects the respective players' abilities to detect enemy ground units for subsequent strikes. The units surviving the air superiority fight can also be used later in the turn to escort or intercept air sticks. Like commando raids, air strikes can also be assigned diverse targets such as enemy airfields, headquarters, depots and ground units. If used in the movement and combat phase, air units can "support" friendly attacks and defenses to produce combat die roll modifiers. Needless to say, the air system is very involved although I found it fun to play. Incidentally, the game does include a stand-alone air campaign.

Supply is handled by tracing a line of communications from a ground unit to its headquarters and from there to a supply source, either a depot, mobile supply unit or friendly urban hex. The length of that supply line depends on the type of supply source. Out of supply units are halved in movement and combat strength while HQ's cannot provide air defense modifiers or conduct strikes. Furthermore, isolated units (unable to trace a LOC to any headquarters or supply source) may be forced to surrender. This makes strikes and raids against the enemy supply network very important. Supply is therefore fully integrated into the rest of the game because the depots and mobile supply units are such excellent attack targets.

You can see that this is an involved and time-consuming game, but one that is rewarding to those with the stamina and interest to undertake it. A few additional caveats: in some places, the air rules are vaguely worded enough to cause some head-scratching before the designer's intentions are understood. Another problem is that the rule books do not include a table of contents, something which is hard to do without in a game of this complexity. A summary card would also be useful as most of the game's systems are subject to various die-roll modifiers. Better colors could have been chosen for the counter colors. Peach-colored North Koreans, gray ROKS and tan Americans can be hard to tell apart at times. Furthermore, as some of the terrain also uses these colors, units sometimes "disappear" into the terrain. The maps, by Mark Simonitch (this man must be the Vivaldi of wargame cartography!), are also less attractive than the GMT standard. They're not ugly or unusable, they're simply not the top-notch graphics I would expect from this company or from Mark Simonitch.

Crisis Korea 1995 is recommended to anyone interested in a serious and detailed simulation of modern war. Like most detailed games, CK '95 rewards players who can integrate their air and land games, anticipate enemy moves, and then counter them. Best of all, the air, ground and supply systems all overlap and interact so well that the game gives a great feel for what happens in modern, Air-Land warfare. It's definitely more of a simulation than a game, but, if that's your bowl of kim-chee, it's a lot of fun.

CAPSULE COMMENTS

Graphic Presentation: The map is functional, but not as nice as what I'd expect from GMT. Counters are excellent except for hard-to-distinguish colors.

Playability: The advanced game is quite complex; the standard game is much easier. Both are a lot of fun, even with the occasional, but irritating, vagaries. Solitaire is achievable.

Replayability: Various campaign scenarios offer "what if" options, including a "Red Phoenix" scenario straight out of Larry Bond's book. Some smaller scenarios for the advanced game would have been useful ,as the campaign games require a lot of space and time.

Historicity: Within the "what-if" parameters, it does provide a comprehensive image of the modern battlefield.

Creativity: Even with a quasi-Mark Herman feel, Billingsley has done some interesting work here.

Comparisons: Far more complex and detailed than Counterattack's Korea '95 (reviewed herein). Similar in many respects to SPI's Next War and Victory's Gulf Strike.

Overall: In spite of a few vague points and advanced complexity, this is a first-rate look at modern warfare and a potential tinder box.