BAOR - More Central Front Series

In my recent obsession with the old SPI Central Front Series, I dug out BAOR, the third installment of the series. Unfortuantely, after some 25 years of contant moving around, I discovered that my copy was missing so I had to go to my friend Mr. Ebay to find a copy. $40 later, here it is.

I Finally set up BAOR last night and played the Soviet first phase last night. There's some very interesting changes in the basic Central Front series rules, most notably that different sized units have different friction point levels. Regiments, artillery and helicopter units still have 5 friction points, batallions have 4 friction points, and companies have 3 friction points. This isn't good for NATO- it makes their units more fragile.

Also, overrun has been transformed into "mobile combat". Now you can't use it in any terrain other than flat or broken BUT you force the defender to use their mobile factor- this greatly helps the Soviets since their mobile combat factor is larger than the regular attack factor (they use their defense factor) and the mobile factor for NATO is substantially lower than their defense factor, on the average. The only saving grace is that units hit with mobile combat don't have to remain in place and absorb the entire friction point loss- they can retreat.

Also, and this is a bit gamey, if done right the NATO defender can withdraw in directions that place the Soviet advancing forces at a disadvantage, especially since they have to follow up with at least on unit per the Soviet doctrine rules.

It will be interesting to apply the revised general rules to 5th Corps and Hof Gap. In the meantime, it's going to be a real interesting battle for the thin Red line. I landed the Soviet 76th Airborne in the NATO rear east of Hanover in an attempt to seize a number of bridges before NATO can blow them- sort of a Market Garden in reverse. We'll see how it owrks out.

More later!