Berlin '85

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Berlin '85
Game data
author Jim Dunnigan
graphic Redmond A. Simonsen
publishing company Simulation Publications
Publishing year 1980
Art Board game
Teammates 2
Duration 180 minutes
Age from 12 years

Berlin '85 (full title Berlin '85: The Enemy at the Gates [English]; translated Berlin '85: The enemy at the gates ) is a tactical board game published in 1980 by Jim Dunnigan . It is a conflict simulation game in which a fictional conquest of West Berlin by the Warsaw Pact states with conventional weapons is simulated.

description

The game was only released in 1980 in the USA and is designed for two players. The official age recommendation is 12 years, but the BoardGameGeek website recommends 16 years. The game box contained a 56 by 81 cm game board, which shows a map of Berlin and the surrounding area divided by 1560 hexagons, 200 cardboard tokens, 2 dice and the instructions. All military aspects and objects of West Berlin, including water, gas and electricity plants as well as underground lines, television towers, highways, police and military barracks and even the Schöneberg Town Hall and the Reichstag are shown in detail on the game board. The cardboard tokens not only represent military units, but also military successes such as destroyed units and structures. Three different scenarios are described in the instructions:

  • In Operation Unity, the Warsaw Pact states overrun West Germany and at the same time 60,000 Soviet soldiers attacked West Berlin under the leadership of the 20th Guard Army .
  • In the Operation Werewolf scenario , the Soviet Union supports an OPEC oil boycott , whereupon there are hectic preparations on the western side for a military operation with arms deliveries and the transfer of the 10th Bundeswehr Jäger Battalion to West Berlin, in anticipation of an attack by the Warsaw Pact.
  • In Operation Medicine Wheel , it is “played” that on the second day of the third World War, which has already started, Berlin is surrounded by Warsaw Pact units and that the troops stationed there are trying to break out, starting with a relief attack on East Berlin.

One difference between the two players is that only whoever plays the Warsaw Pact can use poison gas . The game is played in rounds according to the rule that the Warsaw Pact would attack the NATO troops stationed in West Berlin five years after the game was released. The combat mechanisms are relatively simple.

In 1980 it was nominated for the Charles S. Roberts Award in the “Best Twentieth Century Game” category.

reception

Kristan J. Wheaton reviewed Berlin '85 in The Space Gamer (USA). In his opinion, Berlin '85 is a game with many problems, but ultimately worth buying. An experienced player will recognize the mistakes in the game mechanics and make them a more balanced and exciting game by changing the game behavior. It is not a game for beginners, as they cannot adapt to the rough and unbalanced system. It is also obvious that in Berlin '85 the attack on Berlin was the topic and not the game as such.

The Soviet military magazine Krasnaya Zvezda used the game in 1986 as an example to denounce the politics of NATO countries.

In 1985, Der Spiegel described the game quite extensively. Starting with the fact that, according to the game description, Berlin was attacked in a few days at the time the article was published and destroyed three days later. From the “poor” description of the game it can be seen that “there is also a local population there and at least 50,000 civilians can be expected to die. If the defense attorney is doing well, and that would mean five days at best, then there are 15,000 dead soldiers and West Berlin police officers on his side, and another 30,000 war deaths on the opponent's side. "

Attention is drawn to the relatively high level of difficulty of the game, which is 6.7 (on a scale from 1 to 10) compared to 2.34 for Monopoly . Game experts would disagree on how to rate such games. Bernward Thole from the German Games Archive did not see a large target group for such games in Germany. The few seemed "dangerous enough" to him. In contrast, Walter Luc Haas (Swiss, historian and also a reviewer at Spielbox ) tried to make conflict simulations such as Berlin '85 better known. He saw in them an intellectual challenge for the demanding, without seeing any danger in the games. For reasons of the German mentality, however, he saw there at best a market for fewer than 1,000 players. This is what distinguishes Germany from the USA. There you would play the destruction of your own homeland with devotion.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Berlin '85 at BoardGameGeek (accessed on September 22, 2018)
  2. ↑ a b c d Der Spiegel: Auf Pappe , edition 31/1985, p. 66 (online as pdf, accessed on September 22, 2018)
  3. ↑ a b James F. Dunnigan: The Complete Wargames Handbook , 2005, p. 274 (online as pdf, accessed on September 22, 2018)
  4. ↑ Nominations at BoardGameGeek (accessed on September 22, 2018)
  5. ↑ Kristan J. Wheaton: Review in The Space Gamer , Issue 30 August 1980, p. 24