Cold War Gone Hot Game

My good friend, Scott, works shifts and a lot of overtime,  so we only manage to get together to play a couple of times a year.

Last night Scott was free and wanted to get out some of the 15mm Cold War Gone Hot kit he got last year with a game of Seven Days to the River Rhine. Available from Great Escape Games.

Had to take a classic REFORGER Ex pic; Canadian track in front of a gasthaus. "So like, we're having a brew eh, bud? It's beauty."

I laid out some rolling south German countryside and took the opportunity to get my Faller HO railroad buildings on the table. I've had them since the mid-80s too.

Also using the new grain fields I picked up at Hot Lead. 

Scott bought his WarPac and West German troops used on line, but built the Canadians to supplement NATO with Battlefront models. So last night was 4CMBG vs a Soviet Armoured Regiment

Canadian infantry hiding in a tree line

TOW track scans for Soviet armour

Leopard 1s wait

T64s

Soviet armour ready to advance 

First blood! Spectacular brew ups cause morale hits on nearby units.

Airstrike kills a Leopard 

This Hind was a nuisance. Killed a Leopard. Used a lot of command chits trying to shoot it down with Manpads 

Killing a lot of Soviet tanks though

Stalking one of the remaining Soviet tanks

Got a reinforcement Leopard which dodged the Hind to reinforce my burning left and stop the Soviet thrust up the road.

Seven Days delivers a fast moving, tense game which isn't bogged down by crunchy technical details. There are some cards that add some unknowns. I got a pregame barrage that put some morale hits on a bunch of Scott's units which added negative DRM to his activation rolls. I also got a Reinforcement card which gave me an extra Leopard which came in handy in the endgame. I used a Free Move card to help get it undercover before the Hind attacked it too. Scott's cards included the Airstrike on my left flank. They're fun, add some unpredictable elements but don't seem to unbalance things too much.

You'll notice chits near the units which are Command Activation chits and are the heart of the game as you manage these to activate units, react to enemy moves and maintain pressure without exhausting yourself and leaving yourself chitless to respond to enemy moves. Every chit adds a further negative DRM to a unit's activation roll, so you have to think about where you are pushing things too far and risk loosing the initiative.

Seven Days to the River Rhine is fun and fast (we were done in about two and a half hours), and I felt real tactics were being rewarded. The vehicle lists go back to the 50s with Centurions, T55s and T34s, so this could be a viable rule set for Arab-Israeli Wars or Mantovia vs Borduria.

This was my third game of the year, so that was rejuvenating on it's own, forcing me to clear off the table and have a chance to roll some dice.