Last night Markus Stumptner and I did some playtesting for his Bay of
Bengal game. Afterwards, we decided to try Fire Next Time - The Coming
India-Pakistan War, one of the last Command Magazine issues. 

Having been looking forward to playing games and having been bitterly
disappointed afterwards, I set my expectations low. Happily, we were
both surprised - there's a lot of gaming in this little package. 

The Beth Queman map is one of her better efforts, though it is still not
(in my opinion) a thing of beauty. Markus had a higher opinion of it
than I though. The 5/8" counters were serviceable though unspectacular
(Pakistan units green, Pakistan Strike Corps units grey andIndian units
orange). 

Players dice to choose sides. The winner gets to choose their side, but
the other player then decides which side is the aggressor (in this case
Markus chose India, and I chose India as the aggressor). When India is
the aggressor they start with all of their units on the map, when
defending they start with only a portion of their army. Pakistan never
receives reinforcements. 

The Indian army is generally the better quality and (when the aggressor)
the larger. The Indian army also contains a number of engineer units
which give a column shift in the Indians favour on attack or defence
(though if a step loss is required, the 1-step enginner must be the
first step lost). The Indian player also get marines and the Indian
fleet may also put in an appearance. 

The Pakistanis get a number of units that compose the 1st and 2nd Strike
Corps. These units may move intheir own phase normally. In addition, the
Pakistani player may interrupt the Indian movement phase at any time and
place Strike markers (2 are available) on units of the Strike corps.
These units may then engage in normal movement and combat (after which
the Indian player's movement continues). These units are the only ones
in the game that may make concentric attacks (they must have units
attacking from opposite hexsides, and not during the Pakistan player's
turn), They may produce anything from no shift to a 3-column shift
(determined by rolling a die before combat resolution). 

The low unit density means that defence can be tricky (and there are no
ZOC's in this game). I decided to garrison my cities with 2-3 units
each, plus a couple of critical river crossings. The main Indian effort
was in the north, with a smaller push towards Karachi in the south.
Assaulting cities proved to be a difficult proposition (they provide a
3-column shift for the defence). However, by the end of turn 1 the
Indians had taken Hyderabad (in the south) and Lahore in the north, and
were pushing towards Multan and Guiranwala.The high-altitude hexes in
the north (2 column shifts for the defender) make attack a tough
proposition, as do the numerous rivers (attackers halved). 

The basic turn sequence is: 1) Indian player determines available air
units and may move the fleet) 2) movement, 3) combat. The Pakistan
player then performs movement and combat. Losses are given in steps
(there are no retreats), and even at 4-1 there is a 1/6 chance of a 1-1
standoff. 

After both sides have moved, both sides have the chance to fire tactical
nuclear missiles (the Indian player chooses first). You nominate a hex
and roll to see whether you hit (1-3 on a D6). A 4 or 5 misses the hex
(you then determine which adjacent hex is hit). A 6 means that the
firing was aborted. If a hex with units is hit, roll a D6 and lose that
many steps. There was a nervous moment when the Pakistan player fired a
missile at an inviting hex and missed, and Pakistani units were in 2 of
the adjacent hexes (fortunately some Indian units in another hex were
hit instead.. If a missile is fired and hits a hex, the opposing player
rolls a D6. If a 6 is rolled (or 5-6 if the hex attacked was a city) a
strategic nuclear exchange has taken place. The game ends and the player
who fired the offending missile loses. It seemed to us that the
aggressor is not going to fire missiles unless the attack has stalled
very badly because of the possibility of an instant win for the defender
(no Indian missiles were fired during our game). 

Victory is determined at the end of each turn by the aggressor. If the
aggressor has 6-11 VP's, a 1 on a D6 wins the game, 12-17: 1-2, 18-23:
1-3, 24-29: 1-4, 30-35: 1-5, 36+: auto win. The aggressor gains 6 VP's
for every enemy city that they control, and 1 VP for each hex that they
have supplied units adjacent to still enemy cities still controlled by
the enemy. At the end of turn 1 Markus had about 16 VP's (12 for Lahore
and Hyderabad, and 4 for units adjacent to Multan and Guiranwala). Of
course, he rolled a 1........... We did decide to do a couple of extra
turns to see how the game played out (India won again on turn 3 during
the victory check phase, with another couple of cities falling in the
meantime). 

Roads and rail lines facilitate movement and supply. (units can trace a
supply line up to 2 hexes from a rail or road hex, which can then trace
supply back to a supply source). Unsupplied units have their movement
and attack halved. Other bits of chrome include bridge demolition and a
Mohajir rebellion in Karachi (which takes place automatically once
Karachi is abandoned by the player that contols it if no rebellion has
previously taken place). They defend equally well against both Pakistan
and Indian units, so in the early game they can aid the Pakistan cause
by holding Karachi against the Indians, allowing Pakistani regulars to
travel to the front. However, Karachi is a supply source, so leaving the
city to the rebels could cause supply problems in the south. 

We concluded that the harder job lay with the Pakistani player. Despite
the terrain, the Indian player can attrition the Pakistanis with
superior numbers, and to win the defender has to hold out for 15 turns
(apart from nuclear weapons there is no sudden victory provisions for
the defender). In this game the Strike Corps were rather under-utilised.
I also forgot to demolish key bridges, but the Indian air force, though
rolled for did not put in an appearance on the battlefield (it was
rather late by this time, and our decision making was increasingly
dependent upon our caffeine intake). The Indian player will have the
same problem when defending, though at least the Indian player receives
reinforcements when on the defensive. Hawever, the Indian player also
has less room to retreat (the map only going back to Amritsar and
Ahmadabad). The only thing that we found strange that hexes struck by
tactical nuclear missiles don't impede movement or make the hex
dangerous to enter. The designer notes state that this is due to the
small nature of the weapons and the size of the hexes (35 miles across).
However, 1 missile struck a mountain pass through which went a road that
the Indian player had entered using road movement. Road in Pakistan are
evidently on the large side..... That apart, we had a great time. It
took less than 1/2 hour to read the rules, punch out the pices and set
up. It can easily be played more than once in a single session, and it's
damn fine fun. What more could you ask for? A Command Classic - well
worth picking up if you can. 

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