Strategy & Tactics #263 Cold War Battles 2: Kabul ’79 & Pentomic Wurzburg

Cold War Battles 2: Pentomic Wurzburg & Kabul '79, (CWB2) presents a low-to-intermediate complexity operational simulation of campaigns that were fought – or that could have been fought – during that long period of military history, 1946-1989. The playing pieces represent the actual units that participated, or could have participated, in those fights. The maps represent the terrain over which those units fought or could have fought.

Two games are included: Kabul ’79 (K’79), covering the Soviet seizure of the Afghan capital in that year; and Wurzburg Pentomic (WP), the Soviets versus the US in Germany in the mid-to-late 1950s. There are two players in each game. In K’79 one player controls the Soviets and the other commands the Afghans plus optional ‘what-if’ US reinforcements. In WP one player controls the Soviets, the other runs US and West German forces. Both games use a main body of shared rules, and each also has its own special instructions. Designed by Joseph Miranda.

Maneuver units include: infantry, elite infantry, air assault, airmobile infantry, mechanized Infantry, armor, armored cavalry, recon, special operations, security, military police, engineers, guerillas and headquarters. Ranged artillery types include: field artillery, self-propelled artillery, assault guns, rocket artillery and air defense artillery.
Most units are battalions or regiments, but the entire counter-mix has units within it as large as divisions and as small as companies. Units are one-step, with their reverse sides used to show their “untried” status.

Rules cover: random events, reinforcements, bombardment, suppression, air power, air mobility, atomic weapons, paratroops, recon, screening, special forces, guerrillas, fire control and much more.

Cold War Battles 2: Pentomic Wurzburg & Kabul '79 was published in Strategy & Tactics magazine #263 Jul/Aug 2010.

Pentomic Wurzburg Game Scale:
Game Turn : 12 hours
Hex: 1 mile / 1.6 kilometers
Units: Company to Brigade

Kabul '79 Game Scale:
Game Turn: 1 day
Hex: 273 yards / 250 meters
Units: Company to Brigade

Game Inventory:
One 22 x 34" six color mapsheet
One dual-side printed countersheet (280 1/2" counters)
One 16-page Cold War Battles 2 rules booklet

Solitaire Playability: High
Complexity Level: Medium-Low
Players: 2 or more
Playing Time: 2-8