"GDW Third WW series re-release" Topic

I know it's not minis, but Compass Games has released an updated and upgraded version of GDW's four game "Third World War" series from the mid-1980s:

link

I'm waiting on my copy, but a glance at it tells me it's pretty faithful to the originals, which I have always regretted disposing of after the Wall came down. I suppose there is an interesting discussion of be had as to whether Frank Chadwick's interpretation of the correlation of forces was better or worse than the CIA/JCS/Viktor Suvorov/Soviet General Staff interpretations that informed it.

The game combines four separate theaters that were originally sold as separate games, and appears to have some interesting extras, including greatly expanded map areas.

Taking the Soviet point of view, the "7 Days to the Rhine" plan was a drug-induced fantasy.

I have both.

The new one is VERY nice. New maps, counters and LOTS of player aid charts, all in full color. Haven't laid it all out, yet.

The new one is a major, major upgrade to the system and they re-oriented the maps, as well as added a map of Eastern Europe. They're working on more maps for the Middle East and Asia, plus updated orders of battle.

As a devotee of the original, I look forward to seeing the new version. There are some photos available of an experiment that they are working on under the working title of "Manchuria Front," covering China and the Koreas, presumably a Sino-Soviet war.

I look forward to seeing what they come up with. If you can avoid nuclear escalation, rules for an extended war scenario would be interesting, particularly if it involves additional formations such as the US National Guard divisions and the Soviet Mobilization Only formations.

I tend to agree that the idea of a Soviet success was unlikely by the end of the 1980s, but I do think we undercounted the sheer amount of old equipment they had on hand, and the seriousness of their plans to just keep generating new divisions. I don't know that the economy could've supported such complete mobilization, but it would be interesting to test it in a two front war.

One thing that I have always found to be interesting is the degree to which Chadwick was influenced by Suvorov. He plainly said as much in the notes to "Combined Arms," and the distribution of armies and divisions in "TWW" (e.g, 102nd MRD and 28th Army) reflects assertions Suvorov made in "Inside the Soviet Army."

There was a lot that western sources didn't know in those days, and some Soviet organizational changes that weren't publicized (e.g., the independent corps) weren't captured in the OOB.

I have the new combined 4-game version, plus the original Battle for Germany. The new one is gorgeous, but you're going to need a REALLY big table to play them all!

Back in the day I had The Next War by SPI. I was at Origins '78 when it was released. Fast forward to a few years ago and I was thinking of finding it again. I guy who had played it and TTWW said TTWW was a better game. So this comes as a good time as I haven't bought either, yet. Thank you very much for the heads up.

Sure, there's an advertiser selling it for about $40 USD off MSRP on BoardGameGeek, that's where I got mine.

They are planning on doing some expansions/alternative OOBs. They one I want is Twilight War. That is one royal Cluster F**k of a war.

The account of the "Twilight War" in TW2K always read to me as if they games out the scenario using the TWW series with some house rules. In particular, the description of the way nuclear weapons got used sounds right- after the last thirty years, it's much more plausible to me that two nuclear powers would fight a war without going straight to pushing the button than it would have been at the time. The original TWW nuclear rules had a similar dynamic.

I think there is a lot of scope for expansion OOBs, particularly for reserve formations.

Also, I forgot to add- nothing makes a world war scenario more plausible than Italy ending the war in a different alliance than the one they started with- which Chadwick found a way to do in the "Twilight War."