Couple of questions

[fsp1978]

I am on the fence for this one, have been for quite a while, the sale now might be pushing me over it.

This game seems pretty scenario oriented, is that right? I usually don't like to play scenarios which are not interlinked with each other, so I am more of a campaign/grand strategy guys. All my questions refer to the players' edition.

Here are a couple of concerns I have:

a) There are four campaigns. What are they? How many scenarios do each of those encompass? Do you carry over losses to the next scenario? Can you play each campaign as every side? Do the campaigns branch?

b) I am afraid it might be too small scale for me. How big is your average map? Unit scale? How many counters on average for a single side?

c) Do I have any influence on what units I take out to battle in a campaign or am I provided with the OOB every time?

d) How do nuke strikes work? Does only NATO get tactical nukes? Is it not overpowered? Will things escalate to a strategic level then?

[Stimpak]

a) Campaigns tie together a series of scenarios with a "Core Campaign Force", which is one that remains consistent across all scenarios. If you have a battalion and lose a company in the first scenario, then the next scenario that company you lost will not spawn, unless you used time or VPs to repair/replace your force.
I am not aware of any branching.
Campaign sides are set, but you can use the campaign editor to switch sides - this may however cause issues.

The American Campaign Hell on Wheels has you use 3rd Brigade, 2nd Armor Division to fight a retreat against the northern elements of the Soviet 3rd Combined Arms Army. You're horrifically outnumbered in each scenario and will need to use tactics to inflict as much damage as you can against the Soviet juggernaut. 5 Scenarios.
The Soviet Campaign Red Hammer has you advance towards the Rhine river against scattered NATO remains in hilly terrain. 5 Scenarios.
The first West German Campaign School Teacher has you fight a variety of scenarios against Soviets. 7 Scenarios.
The second West German Campaign Wolves has you engage in combat against Soviet forces behind-enemy-lines. 7 Scenarios.


b) The Average map is 20 kilometres (46 hexes) east-west and 15 kilometres (30 hexes) north-south, for a total of 300 square kilometres. The Biggest official map, Eiterfeld, was added in the new Germany Reforged Expansion. It is roughly 46 kilometres (93 hexes) east-west and 30 kilometres (60 hexes) north-south, for a total of ~1400 square kilometres.

The baseline units are platoons for NATO and Companies for Warsaw Pact. Specialized units may be smaller or larger in size. Most games are scaled from Battalion to Brigade, but can go as high as Division.

c) The OOB you are provided with depends on which scenario you are playing. If you want your own custom OOB, then you can edit or make a new scenario with that OOB in place.

d) Nuke strikes are within the 10-15 kiloton range and cost you 5000 victory points per use. They deal damage up to 2.5km (5 hexes in every direction), dealing more as you get closer to ground zero (Nothing survives at ground zero). They also leave permanent radiation markers in a 1.5km (3 hex) radius that units will automatically avoid, but otherwise become "Contaminated" and begin suffering losses until they exit the marker and resupply.
Nuclear escalation is only a thing to worry about if both sides are provided with them, and you are in a PBEM or H2H game against another human. The AI will never use WMDs.

[Mad Russian]

More campaigns are planned. The British and Soviets both need a couple of Campaigns to get them caught up.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Stimpak]

Tazak has a great custom British campaign already. My East German campaign is a work in progress [;)]

[Tazak]

And I'm working on a soviet one using Harry's Amsterdam maps, custom OOB and including several features/tweaks I've been playing around with