Bill Lenoir  - May 3, 2007 10:29 am (#18291 Total: 18328)  
The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional 
rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.
 	 
The Mystery of the Ring of Fire

I was not an East Front man until I played A Victory Lost (AVL). That
game piqued my interest in the subject. Going through my collection, I
realized I had Ring of Fire (RoF) by Moments in History, which I bought
when it first came out in the mid-1990s because of great word of mouth.
This game covers the first Soviet post-Kursk offensive aimed at Kharkov
in August of 1943. 

If AVL is all about manuever, RoF is about attrition. This may sound
boring, but the situation is such that the Germans cannot afford to
maintain a static defensive line. They need to fall back, albeit slowly,
all the while trying to conserve forces to concentrate for timely
counter-attacks. The Soviet player cannot attack everywhere, but neither
should he focus on a single axis since that would allow the Germans to
concentrate. I enjoyed this game, particularly these features: 

* ZoC Bonds: A zone of control exists only between two units spaced one
hex apart. It sounded weird when I read the rules, but works nicely in
the game. You have to pay attention to where you place your units. A
line can be blown wide open with the elimination of a single unit. 

* CRT: Combat results are only in steps lost, there are no retreats. You
can affect the outcome with air power, barrages and a choice to go to
maximum effort (double casualties for both sides). It can really suck
for the Soviets to have a single defending step survive an attack. 

* Tanks: Tank combat is handled in a seperate phase and can have a large
effect on the following combat phase. 

There are some very tough decisions to make in this game: 

* Germans: Do you stand this turn or fall back to the next fortified
line. Whatever happens, do not defend in a non-fortified hex if you can
afford not to. Not only do fortified hexes shift the odds one in favor
of the defender, but they also increase attacker steps losses by 1 and
decrease the defender's by 1. This makes it likely that attacks at
anything less that 4:1 will result in no loss to the defender. 

* Soviets: When do you use your barrages? You only get 10 or so for the
whole game. They shift the odds 3 in your favor and negate the fortified
hex benefit. Be miserly, wait for a tempting target and then crush it. 

* Soviets: When do I use maximum effort? A die roll of 1 on the top odds
column results in only a single step loss for the defender. It would
suck to use a barrage and then roll a one. Maximum effort would ensure
that German infantry battalion vaporizes, but at a cost of a step loss
for yourself. It's an even tougher decision at lower odds. Say your
attacking a fortified hex and the results is A1/D1. Maximum effort
doubles the casualties to A2/D2, but the fortified hex modifies it to
A3/D1. It does result in hurt for the defender, but geez. 

I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game and this is where the mystery
comes in: Given the huge press it received when released, why do I hear
so little about RoF these days? Well, I dug around on the internet and
found out why. Once you've figured out the perfect Soviet strategy, that
player will always win: 

* Avoid tank combat in the beginning of the game. This will prevent the
very powerful German Panzers from inflicting an extra round of hurt on
you. 

* Concentrate on the German infantry. The more you kill, the thinner the
line gets. Then, SNAP. This is when you commit your armor. 

* Always use maximum effort. I guess I was being too timid before, but,
while this hurts the Soviets, it kills the Germans at a greater rate. 

Given the history, this sounds like a perfectly plausible strategy
(caveat: I'm not an expert on the strategy). 

What could have been done to improve this game? I think a sliding
scale/sudden death VPs would have imparted a sense of urgency that's
missing on the Soviets. I also would have liked to have seen some
command and control to prevent the free-for-all nature of the game.
Ultimately, though, I've come to the conclusion that Igo/Hugo is just
not my cup of tea anymore. It imparts too much certainty about the
situation.