Note: This is the original, unedited version of a review that appeared
in BERG'S REVIEW OF GAMES (BROG).  If you're interested in seeing more
of Richard Berg's celebrated wit and insight in BROG, you can contact
him at BergBROG@aol.com.

WAR FOR THE MOTHERLAND

Ask me to name the three most popular game topics, and the first two are
easy-- Gettysburg and Waterloo.  Number three ?  Well, you could say
Afrika Korps or the Battle of the Bulge and not be far wrong, but I
would submit WWII Eastern Front.  A quick list of recently published
World War II titles shows a decided tilt towards the panzers on the
steppes-- GUDERIAN'S BLITZKRIEG, STALINGRAD POCKET, CAMPAIGN TO
STALINGRAD, ZITADELLE, ARCTIC STORM, and so on.  Are they enjoyable ?
Do they give you insight into the peculiar conditions of the war's
bloodiest theatre ?  Is the market becoming glutted ?  Yup.

Masahiro Yamazaki appeared on the scene last year with ZITADELLE and
STALINGRAD POCKET, the latter being named one of the best games of the
year by this distinguished journal.  WAR FOR THE MOTHERLAND, MOTHER for
short, is Mr. Yamazaki's third East Front effort, this one published by
Rampart Games (who managed to spell his name wrong in the credits, by
the way), a company with ties to the late, unlamented Fresno Games.  I
believe that our editor will now take the opportunity to expand upon
this relationship...

Each of Mr. Yamazaki's games has successively widened its scope, so that
ZITADELLE covered Kursk, STALINGRAD POCKET the German 1942 offensive,
and MOTHER tackles nothing less than the entire East Front campaign from
June,1941 to April, 1944.   Games on this subject run the gamut of
complexity from Avalon Hill's RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN to GDW's monstrosity,
DRANG NACH OSTEN.  MOTHER leans far towards RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN end of the
scale, offering a quick, relatively simple playing of this massive
campaign.

Units are corps, with Soviet armies and Axis divisions and battle groups
putting in appearances as the game progresses.  Turns range from a week
to a month, depending on the season, a clever method of getting through
those dreary Russian winters in a hurry.  Hexes are 40 kilometers, so
one full-size map serves as the foundation for the game, covering the
usual Poland-Leningrad-Moscow-Black Sea battleground that East Front
gamers know so well. Larger scenarios add folio maps for Finland and the
Caucasus.  A good test for the feasibility of playing a game is if it
fits on my card table; if not, I probably won't play it, mainly because
my girlfriend doesn't appreciate having a large-scale map of the Soviet
Union spread across the dining-room table for more than about two
minutes.  MOTHER passes the card-table test with room to spare, making
it a refreshingly accessible game on this subject.

As a second-cousin to Fresno, MOTHER is quite acceptable graphics-wise.
The maps are clean and easy to read, counters are quite colorful with
nice large type.  The rulebook is well-organized in the SPI case mode,
illustrated with copious combat photographs that SQUAD LEADER players
will quickly recognize from their scenario cards (I always wonder where
they find this stuff).  The box illustration doesn't exactly quicken the
heart--a juvenile rendering of toy tanks driving across a map of the
USSR, all on a lurid green background-- I think the cover designer could
have come up with something better given such a fertile subject.

As I said, this is a fairly simple game, although Mr. Yamazaki,who ranks
highly in the ingenuity department, has come up with a number of clever
new ideas to give MOTHER some character.  The Sequence of Play, for
example, is Igo/Hugo, with the exception that the order is Axis
Combat-Axis Movement-Soviet Movement-Soviet Combat-Axis Mechanized
Movement, allowing the Soviets to avoid Axis infantry attacks at the
risk of the panzers exploiting any resultant gaps in the line.  Very
interesting.

Strategic Movement allows units to take advantage of the rail network,
while infantry may use sea movement from port to port. Combat is of the
simple odds/ratio, six-sider variety, with dieroll modifiers for Axis
Air Support and Soviet Offensive Support Means, another nifty rule
simulating the effect of support units such as rocket launchers, ski,
and cavalry units. Results are exchanges and retreats, which may be
taken as step losses if a player prefers to stand and slug it out.  In
1942 the Soviets may convert their corps into more powerful Guard and
Shock Armies, whose strengths are not fixed but come from venerable
SPI-style strength chits, a nice updating of that old PANZERGRUPPE
GUDERIAN dilemma,  "which of my units can't fight their way out of a
paper bag?"

The kicker in most Eastern Front games is usually supply, and MOTHER is
no exception.  Units create supply chains using headquarters and
railroads, Axis may use airborne supply, Soviet get sea supply, with the
weather (mud and snow) and the ubiquitous Soviet Partisans drastically
cutting the allowed length of Axis supply lines. Out of supply units
have movement halved and can't conduct overruns; out of supply
headquarters and Offensive Support Means are destroyed(!). As always the
main effect is to put a tether on the panzers, keeping them from running
away with the game and limiting German operations during the wintertime.

For a Fresno stepchild, MOTHER shows a remarkable amount of creativity
and inventiveness, along with a dearth of cavernous holes in the rules,
although I suspect this is due more to Mr. Yamazaki's ability than to
any quantum improvements on Rampart's behalf.

Not to say that there aren't any cracks in MOTHER'S facade. There are
indeed, and some mighty big ones at that.  There are no set-up or
reinforcement lists in the rules, that information appearing solely on
the units, and if you lose a couple of counters, you're out of luck. The
terrain and combat tables aren't in the rulebook, either, being printed
only on the bottom of the map, causing much twisting and bending to read
during play.

A particularly huge mistake appears on the terrain chart, which lists
rivers as being impassible to regular movement.  This has to be wrong
because a) units can attack across rivers and b) if it's not wrong, it
effectively channels the Axis invasion into a three hex corridor in the
middle of the map, since all the Soviets have to do is leave a couple of
corps to block the railway bridges and, without having someone the
attack, the Axis can't cross the rivers.  At least I hope this is a
mistake, because I received the errata and there is nary a word about
river movement. The bad weather rolls in automatically, allowing
players to predict when the Axis supply lines are going to go down the
dumper; I would like to have seen some randomness involved here. I'm not
wild about the CRT either, which seems to be too hard on the defender.

But, once you make up a rule allowing units to cross the Grand
Canyon-like Russian waterways, MOTHER plays well.  Four scenarios are
provided: a three turn learning scenario covering the Soviet offensive
around Stalingrad, short and medium length scenarios of 12 and 24 turns
that end in 1942 and 1943, respectively, and the super deluxe campaign
scenario, 40 game turns, 1941-1944, all three maps and every counter for
a good 20 hours of panzer banging. Turns are quick, considering the
large number of units in play, and the innovative Sequence of Play
creates a very fluid situation with a number of difficult choices for
both players. The Germans need to decide early on whether to go for a
quick knockout punch by capturing Moscow (which gives a slim chance of
an immediate Soviet surrender) or a combination of body blows by driving
on the economic objectives (factories, coal, and oil) in the Caucasus.
The Soviet player has the usual problem of how to trade space versus
time, backpedaling like crazy while dropping off units as sacrificial
lambs to the German wolf until the weather comes to his rescue.

The problem with MOTHER is, what need does this game fill ?
Every Eastern Front campaign game, and there have been a lot of
them-- DNO, WAR IN THE EAST, RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, STALINGRAD POCKET,
etc, etc.-- plays the same way.  An aggressive German offensive
usually pockets huge numbers of Russian units, captures
Leningrad, and almost reaches Moscow before running out of gas,
hitting the brick wall of the Russian winter, and being rolled
back by the massive Red war machine.   Mr. Yamazaki has come up
with a number of innovative elements for MOTHER, but there just
isn't enough here to separate it from its legions of competitors.
I would like to see him turn his considerable talent to fresher
theatres of operations.

OVERALL COMMENTS:

PHYSICAL QUALITY:  High-quality.  Counters and maps are like a good
woman-- clean, attractive, and easy to get into.  Rule book is well
laid-out, but I would like to see the tables and set-up information
appear inside it or on player cards.  Disappointing cover art.

PLAYABILITY:  Good, simple stuff.  Clever sequence of play reflects the
situation nicely.  Reassuringly unstoppable panzers and Soviet mystery
strength chits give players just what they expect to see on the Eastern
Front.

HISTORICITY:  Just fine, but this isn't necessarily a good thing.
Follows history (and every other East Front game) pretty closely. So
closely, why would you play it more than once or twice ?

COMPARISONS:  Simpler than DNO or WAR IN THE EAST, a little meatier than
RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, on par with STALINGRAD POCKET. There are East Front
games for every desired level of complexity, and MOTHER is no better
(but certainly no worse) than any of the others.

OVERALL:  Not a bad game, but not sufficiently different from its East
Front cousins to make me rush out and buy it.  STALINGRAD POCKET and
GUDERIAN'S BLITZKRIEG were innovative enough, and entertaining enough,
to garner special notice.  Unfortunately, MOTHER is not.

David Fox        fragilfox@aol.com