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(from GMT's website:)
No Retreat: The Russian Front is a new deluxe edition of the two-player Victory Point Games 2008 CSR Award Nominee wargame that retells the story of the titanic struggle between the invading armies of Nazi Germany versus Communist Russia during WW2 at a player-friendly and manageable level of scope and difficulty. This edition combines both the original game and its two extensions (Na Berlin! and No Surrender!) using deluxe components of “Twilight Struggle Deluxe Edition” quality. With only 40 Army/Front sized counters for the Tournament game, and 70 for the whole campaign, and with very low stacking, it’s a quick-playing yet realistic affair that favours the strategic and offensive-minded player.
Each turn is alight with intriguing on-board challenges plus the surprise of card hand Events as players vie to win in one of three different ways.
In a skillfully blended collation of classic hex-based wargaming and modern card-driven simulations, No Retreat: The Russian Front stays truly story-centric, providing the proper feel of sweeping maneuvers, exploitation and encirclements across the vast steppes and forests of Russia. With a simple-yet-innovative economic model, players will also feel the growing might and sophistication of the Russian’s Red Army, and the degradation of the once-invincible German Wehrmacht, over the epic four year sweep of time that this merciless campaign was fought.
Neither side can afford the disgrace of yielding an inch of ground to their hated foe, so your orders are: “No Retreat!”
Components:
One Standard size mounted map
Two Counter Sheets
One deck of 55 Playing Cards
Rule booklet
Scenario booklet
Player Aid Cards
Two 6-sided dice (1 black and 1 white)
TIME SCALE: 2 months per turn
MAP SCALE: 100km / 60 miles per hex
UNIT SCALE: Armies and Fronts
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2
DESIGNER: Carl Paradis
DEVELOPER: Alan Emrich & Carl Paradis
COUNTER ART: Mark Simonitch & Carl Paradis
MAP ART: Mark Simonitch
- Large-scale operational feel
- Smooth combat and hand management
- Lots of event-driven depth and replayability
- Rule complexity for new players
- Text-heavy cards require careful study
- Big battles with card-driven events and strategic planning
- Eastern Front WWII, large-scale operational warfare
- Epic, sweeping conflict with historical feel
- Twilight Struggle
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Campaign — long-running, large-scale battles
- card-driven events — cards drive events and resources
- Events — special events triggered by cards
- multi-month campaign — long-running, large-scale battles
- opportunity fires — special events triggered by cards
- Resource management — spend resources and plan operations
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the cards can actually become the terrain, you're creating the battlefield as you play
- it's organic, not like rigid and sterile landscape
- Splendor starts with everyone just silent, then the game escalates into intense negotiation
- you can play cards to become the terrain so you're building the battlefield as you go
- you can kind of bluff and read each other with the command and colors system
- it's a pure and accessible civ-like experience that scales well with人数
- the negotiation and hotel-dynamics in Lords of Vegas create a very social table
- Age of Steam-level purity with Steam's maps adds a refreshing clarity