Gaming World War III: The Future For NATO-WP Games Is Bright Part I

A couple of weeks back I made an observation on Twitter that 30 years from now wargame companies will likely still be churning out new games based on a NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict in Europe set in the 1980s. At present, we are a shade past 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. New …

Gaming World War III: Reboot Candidates

Reboots are in style again these days. Movies, TV shows, music and novels have all been bitten by the reboot bug to varying extents. The reboot craze can be partly attributed to a lack of creativity in the arts, so to speak. We seem to have reached a point where the majority of modern releases …

Gaming World War III: Building the Air War Part I

When I began laying the groundwork for the gaming phase of this WWIII project, I suspected modeling the air war in Central Europe would be a major league challenge. First and foremost because there was not a single tabletop game or computer game available that could accurately create an air war in the amount of …

Gaming World War III: Two Games I’m Dying to Review

In the next week I will be adding a pair of new titles to my World War III tabletop game collection. I hope to give the games an initial play-through by the end of October and write up individual reviews on them in early November. The theme of both titles is similar: a hypothetical NATO-Warsaw …

WW III Video Game Review: Conflict

The Nintendo Entertainment System owned the late 1980s hands down. From ’85 through to the end of 1990 the NES was king. If you were a kid during around this time you know what I’m talking about. Nintendo could do no wrong and kept belting out smash hits like Lawrence Taylor high on coke. They …

Gaming World War III: The War Comes Home Part II

Fortress America is not the only member of the Invasion USA game club. There are other games and they’re all pure wargames in the traditional sense. No corners cut in the game design. No over-simplification of the rules. No plastic, miniature figurines passed off as game pieces. The games I’ll talk about today are chock …

Gaming World War III: The War Comes Home Part I

The majority of wargames based on the premise of World War III are set in Cold War era Europe. This holds true for many of the games released between 1975 and 1991, as well as more contemporary examples. While there are certainly games that revolve around a US-Soviet or NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict set at another …

Gaming World War III: Tabletop Armageddon Part IV

1983 was one of the most dangerous years of the entire Cold War. As the year went on, events were taking place, and situations deteriorating on a number of fronts. Life went on as usual, however, it seemed as if the world was moving towards an imminent nuclear confrontation and there was nothing anyone could …

Gaming World War III: Tabletop Armageddon Part III

Ultimatum bills itself as “a game of nuclear confrontation.” While true, the game also includes other aspects beyond the nuclear battle that are important as well. Players choose to lead either the United States or Soviet Union and have to develop their economies in order to invest in, and produce nuclear and defensive weapons. Weapons …

Gaming World War III: Tabletop Armageddon Part II

Creating a realistic, and playable tabletop nuclear war game is no small endeavor. Mutually Assured Destruction, ICBMs, and fallout do not make the transition to a gameboard easily. The same holds true for the nature of strategic warfare in general, meaning there are dozens of variables that need to be considered, and factored into designing …