Warsaw Pact (wargame)
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 Cover of JagdPanther #14 | |
| Designers | Stephen V. Cole |
|---|---|
| Publishers | JagdPanther Publications |
| Publication | 1976 |
| Genres | Cold War |
Warsaw Pact is a board wargame published by JagdPanther Publications in 1976 that simulates hypothetical World War III battles between Warsaw Pact and NATO forces in Europe.
Components
Warsaw Pact is a 2-player board wargame in which one side controls NATO forces, and the other side controls Warsaw Pact forces.
The game includes a map of Europe from Norway to Turkiye (with 1976 states and boundaries) scaled at 25 mi (40 km) per hex. The game also includes 162 double-sided die-cut counters that represent armies from the Warsaw Pact (Russia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary), NATO (United States, Greece, West Germany, Turkiye, U.K., Canada, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Austria) and neutral Yugoslavia, Albania and Switzerland.[1]
Gameplay
The game system uses an alternating system of double impulse movement, with "sticky" zones of control. (Units that enter an enemy zone of control must stop and fight until one or the other is destroyed or forced to retreat.)[1] Each turn represents 10 days of game time, and each game lasts ten turns.[2]
Supply
As critic Charles Vasey noted, "The nub of the game is Russian supply." All Warsaw Pact units are required to be kept at full supply or they deplete as if they had taken combat casualties. Supply is also needed to rebuild, and also represents munitions, reflected in combat strength.
Scenarios
The game comes with three scenarios representing hypothetical wars:
- 1967: Invasion of Czechoslovakia following Prague Spring
- 1973: US/Soviet relations break down following Yom Kippur War
- 1980s: 5–10 years in the future
Publication history
Stephen V. Cole designed Warsaw Pact, which was released as a free pull-out game in Issue 14 of JagdPanther. The game was released as a boxed set by Task Force Games in 1980, and republished as a PDF by Amarillo Design Bureau in 2015.