Learning GMT's Next War Series Part II - Sequence of Play (SOP)

The STANDARD sequence of play (SOP) can be found from the GMT's file location for the Next War series here. For reference shown here to the right. This sequence is the same for all the games in the series.

Some of this explanation is paraphrasing, sometimes I'll directly copy from the rules or the SOP sheet as it is just easier to clarify. 

FYI, die rolls are D10 based (0 = ZERO, not 10).

Game Turns (GT - I use GT when the rules use GT, otherwise, when I use "turn" I also mean GT). GTs are broken down into Phases (the red titles on the SOP). If one player "has initiative" all the phases are done. If initiative is contested then skip the "Initiative Turn Only" phase.

A lot of this is pretty much explained by the SOP card itself and I apologize if this explanation is a little boring or non-detailed, but again, this is an overview of the STANDARD game's turn.  

Weather Phase

Initiative player (defined by the scenario) decides (like a god) what the weather will be for the first GT. Thematically, since that player is starting the hostilities, it makes sense that they'd pick a time when the weather worked in their favor. After that, the dice gods decide what the weather will be each turn (ie roll to determine the weather for the next GT). Weather is one of:

• Clear: no impact to game state
• Overcast: reduced Airmobile Points (AP) and attack helicopters can only do 1 mission (explained later in this series during combat)
• Storm: limited movement options (some choices are now not available), if a side has Limited All Weather capabilities, APs are very reduced, otherwise, there will be no APs at all. ALL ground movement uses the "Storm" column of the Terrain Effects Chart (TEC), reinforcements can be effected, no helicopter missions, Advance After Combat is reduced, naval units have to go to port or friendly Sea Zone

Supply Phase (Optional Rule for STANDARD ruleset)

Out of Supply (OOS) markers are removed from units that are no longer OOS and markers added to those that are currently OOS. OOS units have halved attack and movement, reduced effectiveness rating (ER) and have reinforcement limits. One the one hand, this adds complexity when trying to learn the game. On the other hand, what is a war-game without supply? (OOS fully explained in a later part of this series)

Initiative / Air / Naval Phase

(a lot of the game's state information is tracked on the Game Information Display, shown here)

1. Determine Initiative (scenario rules dictate what determines who has the initiative for a scenario)
2. Determine Air Power - Each side refers to the current game turn column on the Standard Game Air Point Chart and rolls a die. Weather conditions, Airbase control, permanent losses, and the presence of carriers may modify the die roll. The side’s modified die roll indicates how many Air Points it receives that GT. Air Points are determined prior to modifying for weather. (so figure them out, then go back and reduce them based on the weather if needed)

Air Points are used for Combat Support (CS) missions and Escort Missions and can be affected by Air Defense Fire (ADF). Combat Support missions cannot be escorted. Unused APs do not carry over from turn to turn. Mark APs on the track for each side and reduce them as they get allocated. Air Points can be permanently destroyed for various reasons. This is also tracked and then subtracted when determining the turn's APs.

For the STANDARD game, Air Points are an abstraction of your air power since there are no actual planes and such. ADF happens each time you allocate APs for support missions and is covered in the third post of this series which covers combat. 

There is also an East Sea Naval Box on this map...

Air Superiority Level (ASL) for each GT is determined by which side received more points (if permanent loss of points reduces to zero, the side always counts 1 for ASL determination). Mark this in the box on the map.

AWACs is an ADVANCED rules thing and can be ignored for now

3. Determine Sea Control - Sea Zones generally contain two boxes, an At Sea and an In- shore Box. Where there is no At Sea Box, the Sea Zone itself serves as the At Sea Box. The status of each Box is determined separately and affects certain game actions and the capabilities of naval units.

Players roll the die on Clear and Overcast turns during the Initiative/Air/Naval Phase to determine who controls the respective At Sea and Inshore Boxes.

The Initiative/First Player determines control for each Inshore Box:

• If the At Sea Box is contested (not controlled by either player), do not roll for the Inshore Box.
• If a player controls the At Sea Box and also controls the Inshore Box, do not roll for the Inshore Box.
• If a player controls the At Sea Box and the Inshore Box is contested, roll for the Inshore Box.
• If a player controls the At Sea Box and the Inshore Box is controlled by the other player, roll for the Inshore Box.

Then, the first player rolls for control of certain At Sea Boxes as outlined in the Game Specific Rules (GSR). Using any applicable modifiers, cross- reference the results on the Sea Control Table.

Use the appropriate marker to denote control. The absence of a marker denotes a Contested area. Control of an Inshore Box also indicates control of All-Sea hexes associated with it. The presence of Naval Units can affect Sea Control

There are a whole ton of rules in the book about using APs, ADF, helicopters, navy stuff etc. To me, it makes more sense to talk about those things in the course of "doing stuff" rather than during this phase where you are really just determining where to put the markers that set the conditions for the round.  

4. Mine Clearing (this is not done on turn 1 and for clarity here - this is sea mines) - Enemy Mine markers may be cleared during the Mine Clearance Step of the Air/Naval Phase if the associated Inshore Box is friendly-controlled. Each player can attempt to clear up to two Mine markers during the Mine Clearance Step. Roll separately for each attempt. On a roll of 0-3, reduce the Mine marker Density by one; i.e., from two to one or remove a one; if removed, it is removed from the game. Modify the die roll by “–2” if a friendly Naval Unit is present in the Area of Effect.

I'm just going to summarize the SOP steps for the rest of the steps. Note, Movement and Combat is pretty much the bulk of the STANDARD game. Holding the initiative is pretty important. 

Design Note: This mechanism [initiative] portrays the ebb and flow of combat operations, as the side with the Initiative pushes, exploits, and presses the advantage of momentum until running out of steam. If constant momentum cannot be maintained, a short lull occurs as both sides rush to resupply, reinforce, and strike to gain the Initiative. Alternatively (and less often), the non-Initiative side might wrest the Initiative away by spectacular gains that radically reverse the momentum of battle.

Initiative Movement and Combat Phase (only if one side holds initiative)

1. Movement Segment for Init Player
2. Combat Segment for Init Player
3. Elite Reaction Movement Segment for non-Init Player (pretty limited)
4. Exploitation Movement Segment for Init Player
5. Exploitation Combat Segment for Init Player
6. Reactive Movement for non-Init Player
7. Reactive Combat Segment for non-Init Player

Basic Movement and Combat Phase

"First Player" here means first player if no Init Player, otherwise the actual Init Player is "first"

1. Movement Segment for first Player
2. Combat Segment for first Player
3. Reaction Movement Segment for second player
4. Reaction Combat Segment for second player

Reorganization Phase

1. Reset/Rotate helicopters and artillery (when used, these counters are rotated to show they were used, this resets them back to "no missions used" state)
2. Remove Air Points marker from display
3. Reset Airmobile Points
4. Remove Tunnel Markers
5. Conduct Clearing Operations
6. Determine hex control changes

Reinforcement and Replacement Phase

1. Both sides reinforce based on the scenario's specifics
2. Both sides may use replacement points to replace or reconstitute units (not those units in enemy Zone of Control (ZOC). 
3. Adjust Submarine Threat and ASW levels

Victory Determination Phase

1. Add each player's "VPs This Turn" to their total. (don't reset "VPs This Turn" yet)
2. Determine if either payer is allowed to check for Auto win. If last turn - determine winner.

Game Record Phase

Advance the turn marker and begin the next turn...

Summary:

So a basic summary of each turn is going to be: 

• Determine the state of things for the turn
• Do some amount of Move+Combat stuff either:
• With Initiative: IP M+C, non-IP limited move, IP M+C, non-IP M+C, IP M+C, non-IP M+C

OR

• Contested Initiative: IP M+C, non-IP M+C
• Cleanup some stuff 
• Reinforce stuff
• Winner?
• Repeat!

Describing the SOP doesn't really feel like I explained a thing - mostly because I didn't explain anything except the general flow of a turn. Movement and terrain information alone covers at least 6-7 pages of the STANDARD rules. Combat is also a large portion. As movement is the means to preparing for combat, the next part of this series will cover combat (even though combat is always done after movement in the SOP phases). 

Learning GMT's Next War Series Part I - Counter information

For no reason in particular, I've decided to jump into hex and counter wargames (ok, the reason is they seem a little interesting, particularly (for me) the conceptual "Next War"/modern scenario concept). Now, the closest I've come to this kind of game is Paths of Glory, which is not  a hex-and-counter game, nor really a full war-game by Grognard standards (it does have a few typical concepts baked in though).

So here we are, assuming no background in war games (again, which I don't really have) let's figure out GMT's Next War series. I'm starting from - Next War: Korea (2nd ed) from GMT. From the CORE rules (the core rules are the same for ALL the games in the Next War series - as far as I can tell the cover of the core rules is specific to the game, but otherwise, the CORE rulebook is the same content). The Core Rules are divided into Standard and Advanced rules - this series is initially going to just cover the STANDARD rules. 

Each Next War game then has ANOTHER rule book specific to the conflict and terrain etc. THAT rulebook is also broken into Standard and Advanced rules. Again, we are starting with the STANDARD rule set here and while I'm hoping that the basics should get anyone going with any of the games in the series, I'm also working from NW:K, so there may be notes specific to that version of the game.

Informative bits are highlighted like this block, but aren't always rules or "gameplay important" per se. Images are taken from the publicly available rules, charts etc and screen grabs from the Vassal module for Next War: Korea. If it seems like I skip a chart or other important piece of information, its because it doesn't appear to be publicly available (which I know GMT does purposefully, so I'm not going against that).

The Next War series are hex-and-counter games with a high complexity,  so there is lots of counter details. Being new to war games like this, the counters can be a little overwhelming (there are over 1000 counters in NW:K). As I understand it, the iconography is based on standards from -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Joint_Military_Symbology, and while not always an exact match for everything, a lot of it is standard and will be more or less familiar to other war games.

Here are the id charts and counter identification diagrams from the rule book:

Here is a real example of pieces on the map:

Upper-left counter (items in bold are important game-wise, there rest is largely flavor/descriptive):

• Upper left of the counter indicates its designation
• The color of the image in the middle designates counters that are part of the same parent formation
• A question mark indicates lack of real knowledge as to the unit's real designation within its parent formation, which is interesting, but not game important per se

So the upper left counter in the picture is part the 26th Brigade of the IV Division (the two counters on the left side are both part of the IV Division). 

• The upper right of the counter indicates the counter's starting location on the map for helping setup
• The label above the symbol in the middle indicates the unit size (see chart at the top describing unit sizes) - some games use dots, others tick marks, this game uses 'X's
• The image in the middle indicates what kind of unit it is (see chart at the top). The type a unit is does matter in game play (for example marine units can be transported by ship)

Again, for the upper left counter, this counter is an infantry unit - the 26th of the IV

• The number to the left of the symbol is the Stacking Points (size) - for stacking limits on a hex
• The number to the right of the symbol is the Efficiency Rating - used for various checks
• The bottom of the counter shows: Attack - Defense - Movement Rating

That covers pretty much all your ground units (except HQs, which are not used in the Standard rule set).

Air units (planes) are not used nor setup in the Standard game either, so we aren't explaining any of the chits with planes on them here. Helicopters are not "air" units but part of the ground forces.

Lastly, some of the chits have silhouettes on them above the type icon and will be explained as we go. They are not typical of the bulk of forces.  

For reference, here are all the Nationalities through the first 5 games (Korea, India-Pakistan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Poland). #6 is Next War: Iran, so they'll probably have to expand this since I see nothing in there for Iran.

The map scale is 7.5 miles (12 km) per hex. Unit scale is generally divisions and brigades, although battalions and regiments are used to represent some units. Each game turn represents roughly 3.5 days. 

Another game - France '40 for comparison, is about 1/2 this scale at 4 miles per hex. 

That should cover enough of the basics of the counters to get started with the standard game rules.