A game that has been on Elliott’s and my radar for quite some time is finally available from Lock ‘n Load Publishing. The game is Nuklear Winter ’68, designed by Petre Tutunea, and the title brings an alternate history setting with trappings of science fiction.
From Lock n’ Load:
Nuklear Winter is in our house and now shipping. Don’t miss your chance to get in on a unique platoon-level game, set in a unique alternate history. The former German territory, transformed into a wasteland by the war-ending nuclear holocaust of 1946, is the setting for this three-way battle for supremacy. Fight as the resurgent Drittes Reich with their powerful E-100 tanks and reworked Stukas. Assume command of NATO, with Patton M60s and Russian T-62s, or lead the mysterious Black Hand, mutant warriors who are masters of beast and machine alike.
The former German territory, transformed into a wasteland by the nuclear holocaust that ended the Second World War in 1946, is the hostile setting of a new conflict between old enemies clenched in a struggle for the future of mankind.
Surviving Nazi leaders and Wehrmacht forces resurface in 1968 from underground shelters to rebuild an empire from the ashes of the world. Oblivious of the climatic, technological and political changes inflicted by more than 20 years of nuclear winter, they are about to face the mysterious Black Hand – elusive, abhorrent masters of the wastes, and the combined might of the modern, highly mechanized and versatile NATO alliance.
Units represent platoons of vehicles like T64 or King Tiger tanks, infantry, or helicopters. The platoons are grouped into formations and lead by a commander. The formations are activated by chit draw, and better-trained, better-led units can activate more than once in a turn, moving, shooting, and fighting in each activation. On the flip side of a coin, there is no guarantee that a formation will activate even once.