Balkan Storm (Pacific Rim Publishing)
With the recent troubles in the Balkans Army Group Kitchen Table this time visits Pacific Rim’s Balkan Storm.
Balkan Storm is a consim about a major conflict in the early 21st century over Central and Eastern European territory. As one would guess from the name the map only covers the eastern half of Germany to the western edges of Russia (only major Russian cities are Smolensk, Kursk, Voronezh, and Rostov-na-Donu). In the north Lithuania is the northernmost territory, while in the south Constanta of Romania represents the southernmost city. Italy shows up as a few hexes (and has no military forces represented).
And oh, as you can tell by the photo, the map tends to be somewhat…hmm…garish. At least there’s never a question of where a border resides, though.
The game takes an interesting open ended approach to the conflict. One player plays the Aggressors kicking off the conflict, which can either be Germany or Russia, the other the forces of the US, UK, and whatever allies they pick up. Instead of a set scenario the game is driven entirely by the Aggressor force, and depending on how the players play, a session could play out entirely as a limited war or it could evolve into a major conflagration with nukes being thrown around left and right.
Balkan Storm begins by the Aggressor player setting up all German and Russian military units that begin the game on map. The Western player then sets up all the European units, which all begin neutral. Additionally, there are a couple of UN units that are deployed in Kalinigrad and Sarajevo. They won’t ally with anyone, and they can’t attack but only defend. So yeah, they’re as useless as the UN is in real life.
For the Western player he receives an initial starting force of one ground unit and a couple of air units. All other units will come on as reinforcements, with Marines and Airborne units appearing first followed by heavy units. British units arrive slightly faster due to their proximity to the continent. The heavier units are also dependent on sea control, which is simply a function of rolling randomly to see when that takes place.
Each turn represents one week, with a standard game potentially lasting sixteen turns. Units are mostly divisions, with a few battalions thrown into the mix. Air unit size is never specified.
As the game begins the Aggressor player doesn’t know yet who he will be playing! A die is rolled, determining if it will be Russia (1-5 on a d6) or Germany (6). While Germany seems an unlikey choice, during the nineties when the game was originally published (it is still in print) the idea of a resurgent unified Germany that would once again threaten Europe’s stability was a fun scenario to contemplate. Larry Bond’s novel Cauldron explored a Franco-German alliance, and Harold Coyle’s The Ten Thousand features a Germany, that while not expansionistic, does create much grief for the US as an American force sent to the Ukraine must then fight its way across Germany.
Whatever nation is not the chosen Aggressor than becomes yet another neutral, ripe for conquest. Play then begins with the Aggressor side as the first phasing player, then the Western player. The turn order is fairly straightforward, although reinforcements come in before movement and combat, which is slightly unusual.
The meat of the game should be familiar to anyone who has played a wargame before. Units exert ZOCs, advance after combat is possible along with armor exploitation as a second move, armor and infantry stacked together get a bonus for combined arms, supply lines must be maintained, and so on. Air units can either interdict hexes to slow advancing units, or provide air support on the battlefield by way of die roll modifiers.
Combat is an odds based CRT, and like many wargames focusing on modern conflicts units have a quality rating that will modify the die roll. Of the main combatants the US has the highest quality ratings, followed by the UK and Germany, and then Russia. Germany and Russia though have the most units (Russia has 24 total ground units to a total of 6 US ground units), so quantity can have a quality all of its own.
Where Balkan Storm shines is in the way it gives players a chance to create their own story. This is a game that can play differently every session, with plenty of options to explore, and never forces the players down a narrowly defined path that many strategy games sometimes fall into. This is achieved by the way alliances are handled, along with the optional (but personally recommended) political track.
Neutral nations can be swayed to one side or the other during the alliance phase of each turn. The phase occurs twice in a turn, once during the Aggressor’s phase and once during the Western phase.
To attempt to bring a nation into your fold you must first use an Alliance Bid marker. There are a total of fourteen and at the beginning of the game only the Western player controls them. The Aggressor player can only gain Alliance Bid markers by taking them from the Western player. This is done by earning victory points, and for each victory point gained the Western player must surrender on Alliance marker to the Aggressor.
To make an alliance the counter is expended and a die is rolled. Every country on the map has a listing for what the player making the alliance must roll equal to or below to bring that country into the war on their side. Some countries are so pro one side or the other that they will never allow themselves to be aligned with the opposing side. For example, Poland, Ukraine, and Belorus will never entertain an offer from the Aggressor side, while Slovakia and Serbia will never cooperate with the Western player.
If an Alliance Bid is successful that nation then belongs to whatever side made the bid. Its units are fully under control of that player, other friendly units can base there, and supply can be traced through the nation. If the bid fails then a marker is consumed but another try can be attempted in a subsequent turn.
Neutral nations that are attacked by a side are then played by the opponent of the attacker, and while he will control that nation’s military, it will still be considered a neutral nation for all other purposes. It will not go out of its borders, will not allow other units to base there, and supply cannot be traced through it. There is a bonus though to the Alliance Bid roll due to being attacked.
The optional political rules, if used, also occur during the Alliance phase. The way they work is quite simple. There is a political track that goes from zero to four. During the Alliance phase a player may select one political option to perform. Some options are open to both players, others are restricted to one side or the other. A sample option would be ‘Build A Coalition’, which possibly allows the advancement of the political track based on how many allies that player has.
Every time the political track hits four for a side that side earns a victory point, or in the case of the Western player, it subtracts one victory point from the Aggressor. The track is then reset to zero and the process begins anew.
Victory in Balkan Storm is based solely on victory points. Only the Aggressor side earns points, although the Western player can cause the Aggressor to lose points. If the Aggressor ever earns fifteen victory points the game is immediately over, with the Aggressor as the victor. If at any time the Aggressor is at zero victory points, the Western player immediately wins. If at the end of the game the Aggressor has any victory points at all, he wins.
Since the Aggressor player must always have a positive victory point total the player must truly be the aggressor. Right from the gate the Aggressor needs to secure victory points, otherwise it’s game over. He wins the points by controlling cities, and possibly through the political track. The Western player can reduce the Aggressor’s total by either the political track, or by destruction of Aggressor ground forces. For every two German or Russian units destroyed one victory point is lost. Obviously elimination of enemy units becomes quite important, but the danger of suffering losses to the few resources the Western player has is something that must be kept in mind.
It’s an interesting situation for both sides. The Aggressor player begins with a large number of forces and time on his side, since the strongest Western units will not arrive immediately after the balloon goes up. He must quickly secure victory points, which besides giving him breathing room to possibly lose some in the future, also grants him the ability to start trying to bring other nations into the war. Allies can then either create a sideshow someplace else, act as a buffer, or help with the dirty work.
The Western player faces an uphill battle. To truly secure victory alliances must be made, but they must be carefully chosen as to not waste a precious Alliance Bid. Neutral forces may be inferior to US and UK forces, but there are many more of them. At the worst the nation can act as a speedbump until US forces arrive in country, at the best they can become a thorn in the side of the Aggressor. After all, it doesn’t matter who eliminated Aggressor units when reducing victory points, just that they are eliminated.
Balkan Storm is a wonderful little title that manages to deliver an extremely interesting and challenging game in a small package. The rules are only twelve pages long, and the entire game can be had for less than the cost of a large pizza, but that doesn’t mean it’s not jam packed with value. By keeping the core rules tight and not bogging the system down with a lot of chrome, players can concentrate on what’s truly important: the grand strategy of the game.
Balkan Storm plays quick enough that you can play it in a single session, and provides enough possibilities to explore that players will want to keep coming back to try out new strategies. What if I had brought Hungary in earlier? Should the Marines have landed in the north or in the south? Is a Declaration of War by congress worth seeking out? Any game that keeps playing out in your mind long after the last die falls is a definite winner.
