Weird War III: The Long Road Review

By Mitch Reed

I am a huge fan of Mark Walker’s game company Flying Pig Games, they have turned out some amazing games over the years and few companies can match the production value of FPG. The game The Long Road (TLR) recently arrived at the bunker and I was lucky to get it to the table 48 hours after it arrived. NDNG has had Mark on our podcast and our HMGS roundtable and I usually back most of his projects on Kickstarter. I did not back TLR because playing a wargame with a paranormal twist was not my thing. If you know Mark, you know that besides being a game designer he also writes dark fiction, and TLR represents the merging of these two worlds. After speaking to Uwe, one of his playtesters, who told me that the weird twist is in about half the game’s scenarios. Based on that I backed the game as a late pledge.

Based off of Platoon Commander: Kursk, TLR uses the same basic game engine, however, the game moves from 1943 Russia to 1985 West Germany and focuses on the fighting around the Fulda Gap. However, Mark added a paranormal twist based on the storyline of his Dark War world. Besides the US, USSR, East Germany, and West Germany (if you have the Fatherland expansion) the game has Zombies, Vampires, and Lycans (werewolf; there wolf) along with some supernatural heroes that have some deadly superpowers.

The Platoon Commander (PC) game engine is yet another tactical level game from a company that almost specializes in making great platoon level games such as 65’ Squad Battles in Vietnam, Old School Tactical (OST), and the upcoming 85’ Graveyard of Empires based on the 65’ game engine which is about the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s.

The PC system uses a chaos initiative mechanic where each player takes turns in each of the phases alternating their actions. In PC you fire then move and if you are near an enemy unit you can close assault. The game does model how armor plays on the battlefield giving them the ability to move/fire in the fire phase which allows the player some great agency in how to conduct their moves.

The system also uses cards that add things like off-board artillery, air strikes, and other fog of war effects that keep the game fluid. The upgrades to the PC engine feature actions such as mines deployed by artillery, ATGMs, helicopters, and other capabilities unique to modern warfare.
I have had PC: Kursk in my collection for years and earlier this year I finally got it to the table. I thought the game engine was pretty good, it represented the fighting in WWII very well, however out of all the other tactical games I own, PC: Kursk did not give me the quick addictive reaction that games like 65’ and OST had on me. I felt the game was sound and fun but I knew it was not one I would end up playing all of the scenarios over time.

When it comes to Mark’s rule books, I love them (his commentary) and hate them at the same time. I found that during my first game I kept looking up the rules constantly and it took me a while to get in auto-pilot mode. With the changes in TLR I also found myself looking up rules as the game progressed. Some of the new rules are really well thought out, such as the opportunity fire for an ATGM attack and how overrun attacks are conducted, but I kept constantly looking them up in the first few game turns. TLR does (thankfully) have the rules broken down by phase in the back of the book, I recommend that players make a photocopy of it and have it handy as they play, it helps out a lot.

Another thing you may want to photocopy is the player aid card, the game only has one and it has some small print. I am sure some grog on Board Game Geek will magnify the charts and post on the game’s page.

The one factor that kept me away from backing TLR at first was the paranormal twist, playing sci-fi games is not really my thing, so my purchase was based upon the fact that the game had many scenarios without the paranormal forces.
Usually I never get a game to the table that fast, but our very own “Sky Galleons” commander, Doc wanted to check out the game because he liked the paranormal twist of the game. I also wanted to see how the updated game engine worked in the modern period and what effect these dark creatures had on the game.

We picked a scenario that featured zombies, which has bands of undead on the game map, and a creature called the Puker, which can damage your tanks with their acid regurgitation. I really liked how these creatures are played in the game. They are controlled by a simple set of rules that have them moving to contact after both sides have fired and moved. Each paranormal force has a small card deck that also controls the zombie hordes in the game. Also, when your troops are killed in combat, more zombies are randomly formed and look to attack both sides with equal vigor.

I have to admit; the inclusion of the weird war factions actually makes the game that much more enjoyable. The way the “bot” handles the role of the zombies in our case gave the game a problem that both Doc and I had to factor in. In fact, the random placement of the zombies in our particular game caused Doc to change the axis of his attack. While Doc was lukewarm on the game, and I really wanted to play with the other factions that are in the game, they seem interesting to play with and the backstory Mark provides for each scenario really brings them to life.

Other changes to the game also increased my enjoyment of it. TLR features refugees that can be inherent in the scenario or can be spawned by creating rubble in a city or by the play of a card. Refugees also act as NPCs in the game and move and can also turn into an armed mob which is yet another thing both players need to contend with.

Going back to the mechanics of the series there are a few things I just need to mention. The series features a mechanic described as a “commander’s focus”, where you can give a unit extra die rolls in combat or when rolling for initiative and extra rolls when recovering from disruption. The game also has heroes and champions that represent single leaders/characters in the game that can impact the game during various phases of a turn.

For anyone that owns a FPG game, you know that the production quality is superb. The maps are mounted on thick material and the counters are huge (1” squaree and 2mm thick).

Vehicle counters are represented by a picture and infantry has the picture and the APP-6 designation found in most wargames. Even my late pledge came with the expansion cards and the colorful TLR mousepad which is already on my desk at work.

From playing TLR I realized a few things; the first is that I like the game system more now than I did with PC:Kursk. While Doc did not grow the same appreciation for the game, he may come around as I did in the future. The second was that the weird war twist actually enhances the fun of the game, and I am shocked I just typed that. I feel the reason why this twist works in TLR is that it is so well done and has interesting lore written by Mark. Even if this is not your thing, you still have a very good modern tactical level game to play.

My impression of PC:Kursk was based on the fact that when it comes to WWII tactical level combat we have a lot of great games to choose from and PC:Kursk gets lost in the shuffle and even is bested by the OST series which is also produced by FPG.

The Long Road offers you a really good tactical-level view of modern warfare and does not have to be compared to many other games that cover WWIII. While it has detail in the right places, it is also simple to pick up in other areas. Once you get the rules down and master the game’s flow I feel you are into hours of enjoyable gaming, with the zombie hordes or not.