A Realistic Guide to Getting Into the Nature of Warfare Ww2 Series
GMT's Nature of Warfare series covers specific, focused theaters of World War 2. It is not a monolithic thing you buy one box for. The line includes We Stand Alone covering the Battle of Britain, We Do Not Fight Alone for the early Pacific War, and Not by the Sword for the Norwegian campaign. Each game uses a card-driven system with combat results modified by terrain and supply conditions. You pick up a single title and learn how that specific campaign works. Then you decide whether you want another one or you have had enough. The core mechanic is identical across all three games. Each side has a deck of order cards. At the start of a turn you draw a hand. Cards tell you what actions you can take: moving units, conducting combat, trading forces for Victory Points, or drawing extra cards. The trade option is where the tension lives. You play a high-value card like a General or Special Mission card to get points instead of using it for military actions. Victory is determined by accumulated points at the end of the game, not total annihilation of the enemy force. Combat uses a simple dice roll against a combat result table. Attackers roll dice based on their unit strength. The result is cross-referenced with the defender's strength and any terrain modifiers. Results range from Defender Lost to Defender Retreat to Attacker Loss. There is no stacking of enormous numbers. You resolve combat one unit at a time or in small groups depending on the situation.
Supply is tracked through basic routing. Units must trace a path back to their supply source on the map. If they cannot, they suffer penalties. In the Norwegian game supply lines are shorter and tighter because the theater is confined. In the Pacific game supply is less of a factor because naval dominance determines control of sea zones instead.
What Nobody Tells You Before You Buy
These are small box games but they are not quick games. A typical session of We Stand Alone takes about three hours for a first-time player. We Do Not Fight Alone runs longer, closer to four hours. The rules are dense even though the mechanics are straightforward. The rulebook runs about 24 pages and covers edge cases that do not come up until the fifth turn when someone finally gets confused about how a particular event card interacts with combat resolution. Here is the thing that matters most: these games reward understanding of the historical campaign. If you do not know roughly what happened during the Battle of Britain or the early Pacific campaigns, you will make historically stupid decisions and wonder why you keep losing. Play the scenarios in order. Start with the short ones. Learn the rhythm before attempting the full strategic game.
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Specific Problem I Hit Early On
During a playthrough of We Stand Alone I kept getting confused about how the Luftwaffe Event Cards interacted with the RAF Defense Value. Several event cards increase or decrease air defense strength, but the rulebook describes this in a way that made me think the modifier applied to the entire round instead of just the attacking combat roll. I wasted about twenty minutes arguing with my opponent over whether a particular card affected the defender's roll or the attacker's. The fix was to realize that event card modifiers apply only to the side that plays the card and only during the phase where that card is announced. I marked each card type on a small reference sheet I taped next to the board. It took me five minutes to make and saved me countless hours of re-reading the rules during actual games. Players new to the series tend to hoard their high-value cards. They hold onto General cards hoping to use them on a critical turn and then realize too late that they played their entire hand on weak moves while the opponent spent theirs effectively. The system is designed so that playing cards is better than saving them. Every card you do not play is a card your opponent might use against you. This feels counterintuitive if you are used to traditional hex-and-counter wargames where resource conservation is king. Another mistake is ignoring the point trade. Some players view trading Victory Point cards as surrendering. It is not. Trading a high-point card at the right moment can shift the balance enough to win a close game. The question is timing. Trade too early and you lose operational flexibility. Trade too late and your opponent has already built an insurmountable lead.
Which Title Should You Start With?
We Stand Alone is the most polished entry. The scenario lengths are manageable. The rules are clean. The card system feels intuitive after one play. It runs about 200 dollars new but you can find it used for less. We Do Not Fight Alone is deeper but the sea zone mechanics add a layer of complexity that can overwhelm a beginner. Not by the Sword is the smallest and fastest to learn but the Norwegian theater is less familiar to most players which makes historical intuition harder to apply. GMT also sells these occasionally at discounts. Check their website and look for boxed set promotions. Sometimes they bundle two titles together for less than buying separately.
Downsides You Should Know About
The games have replay value but not infinite replay value. Once you have played the main scenario a dozen times the novelty fades. The card systems are fixed. You will memorize which cards appear and when. The event deck is relatively small. This is a known limitation in the nature of warfare Ww2 design philosophy. GMT chose historical accuracy over endless variety. If you want deeper replayability you are better off looking at their Conflict of Heroes or Panzer Leader lines instead. Another issue is the component quality. The cards are nice but the counters are on thin stock. You will want to buy token sheets or acrylic stands if you plan to play these regularly. The maps are double-sided which is fine but the smaller theater maps can feel cramped during large-scale scenarios. I keep a lamp with a warm bulb over my playing surface. It makes reading the hex grid significantly easier during longer sessions. If you want something similar but with more mechanical depth consider GMT's Field of Thunder for the Eastern Front or their larger Operational Combat series. Those games cost more and take longer but they offer more systematic variety. The Nature of Warfare line is best viewed as an introduction to card-driven wargaming. It is not meant to be your final destination.
