Prepping NATO Division Commander

 

When I bought NATO Division Commander in March I had a HUGE box of counters to sort through. There were effectively two copies of the game, but luckily most of one set was unpunched, but I needed to a) find all the punched counters from set 1 and get the counters from set 2 sorted so I could start playing. Well that job is finally done! Set 1 can now be prepped for sale on eBay (and hopefully recoup some of the price I paid), and Set 2 is already being laid out ready for the first proper scenario. 

Note the large black box of counters I had to sort!

I played the introductory Attack on Fitzlar scenario but that was a bit toy. I've also produced a ~6 page QRS that has all the tables and rules on it. I'm certainly not playing CBRN, Commanders or Ammo in my first game, I might even miss out the CPs (but will do the CSPs), so we'll see how it goes. I'm also doing modern "1 page orders" schematic sheets for each side so as to try and play the game/tactics "properly". 

Just look at how all the "status" counters (grey and orange) outnumber all the combat counters!

A few things I really like about what I've seen far are:

• HQs have a real purpose, and vulnerability. There's even Tac, Alt and Main (where I spent my 20s!)
• CSPs nicely abstract Fires and Combat Support, and there are also specific EW rules
• Units have modes which reflect their combat stance
• Units have up to 6 levels of damage - a far cry from the old counter-flip
• It's a differential CRT, not a ratio one
• It actually has ISR - it can be played with two maps (hence two copies of EVERY counter!), but even with one map you are forced to gather intel in order to target units with fires.

If it works tolerably well I plan to update it to 2020+ and start to add in some of the more modern tech and see if I can change it into MDO Division Commander!