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Spearhead: The Balloon Goes Up Volume I

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Spearhead: The Balloon Goes Up Volume I

Art. Nr.: GMT-SPH

GMT Games

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The Balloon Goes Up! is a series which simulates hypothetical or actual armored warfare in Western Europe, the Middle East, and Asia from the mid 1980s to the present day, all using a consistent core set of rules coupled with a situation-specific playbook that allows for a variety of situations to be portrayed. The first game in the series, Spearhead, represents a summer 1986 conflict between elements of the Soviet and East German armies and United States, West German, and French armies. The game emphasizes how long-range detection and firepower technologies dramatically increased the depth of the theater of operations in modern warfare. This “Deep Engagement” waged far behind the front lines can determine the outcome of a campaign even before the opposing ground forces truly come to grips. Players must learn how to fight and win the Deep Engagement to achieve overall victory, taking into account the different ways the forces of the two sides were prepared to fight.

Spearhead scenarios range from smaller battle scenarios that deal with specific situations, locations, and forces to larger campaign style scenarios that portray the wider battle between Warsaw Pact and NATO forces. Battle scenarios depict Warsaw Pact drives into the province of Hesse, with objectives of Kassel, the Fulda Gap, Frankfurt, and ultimately the Rhine River. Three different Campaign scenarios provide varied starting conditions for forces:

A sudden Warsaw Pact attack disguised as a training exercise, the largest one ever seen by NATO intelligence. As a precaution, reserves in West Germany are mobilized and many NATO brigades are ordered to move out of garrison in accordance with Operational Plans. Suddenly, major Pact formations strike west across the Inner German Border with little to no warning.
A coordinated all out “maximum effort” attack with three combined arms armies smashing through the Fulda Gap and driving to the Rhine River. NATO forces are caught with little or no warning, with only a few brigades moving out of barracks.
A Warsaw Pact attack after a prolonged buildup and weeks of increasingly escalated tensions. Pact rear-echelon armies begin to move towards the front, and NATO quietly mobilizes reserves and moves additional forces into place.

The game provides players with accurate orders of battle for the participants down to battalion level (based on 1986 force levels)—the US V Corps, West German III Korps, French 1st Army, Soviet 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies, and East German 3rd Army. Spearhead is based on Mark Herman’s Flashpoint: Golan system, which has been updated and refined. The game uses a chit-pull activation system, with divisions being the primary formations. Game scale is 4km per hex, turns are 1 day (12-hour activation impulses).

Spearhead turns begin with a Strategic Phase in which one of the two sides is determined to have initiative, based upon how well each side is performing on the battlefield and how much momentum they are building. The better the momentum, the more activations that side’s formation will get—but the other side can certainly derail that momentum and reverse the initiative. Air superiority levels are then determined, and the amount of air support is rolled for, although the exact nature of air support isn’t discovered until the call is made during combat resolution. Reinforcements slated to enter play arrive at the edge of the map, the general supply status is determined for all forces of both sides, and forces that spent the prior game turn reorganizing can then recover some losses and morale.

Next is the Spearhead Operations Phase, which is begun by the initiative player activating a selected formation (divisions, for the most part). The activation begins with the Movement Segment: first, the active formation’s units are checked, and if any are in an enemy Zone of Control when activated must choose to either stay and defend, disengage, or even attack those forces. Such attacks from static positions are termed “Set-Piece Engagements,” and an integrated combat system allows for artillery support, air support, attack helicopter strikes, and short-ranged ballistic missile strikes to be made. Combat results are highly dependent on comparative troop qualities and proficiencies, and losses are recorded by reducing current morale—usually it’s better to have a slightly demoralized but high-quality unit rather than the other way around. Once all Set-Piece Engagements for the current Movement Segment are resolved, the formation has its units expend Operations Points to move across the map and engage enemy forces in “Meeting Engagements.” Meeting Engagements are similar to Set-Pieces, but the number and types of supporting strikes and bombardments is a bit limited to reflect the more fluid nature of ad hoc battle plans.

After the Spearhead Movement Segment is completed, all activated units get another chance to conduct Set-Piece Engagements if in an enemy Zone of Control during their Exploitation Movement Segment or get another chance to move and conduct Meeting Engagements if free of such ZOCs. Ability to act in this segment does require earlier success on the battlefield in the form of Breakthrough markers, and the players must carefully plan who moves and when, who battles and when, and who advances and when. Once the active formation completes its Operations Phase, a new activation chit is pulled from the cup, and those units are activated.

Key to coordinating all of these activities in Spearhead is the all-important HQ unit, which represents not only the command and control elements of the formation, but also indirect combat support elements—combat engineers for minefields and entrenchments, bridging engineers, tank transporters for strategic movement, electronic warfare and jamming, ammo resupply, transport helicopters, air defense, and battlefield recovery. Also key are the artillery units that are plentiful in the game, particularly on the Pact side, and pre-game decisions in many scenarios can be made to customize the regimental, divisional, and army-level artillery groups for maximum breakthrough strength, or hard-hitting divisional fires, or long-range counterbattery fires. Special munitions can be allocated to most artillery fires to extend their ranges or increase their impact.

During movement (and some other activities) the non-initiative player gets chances to detect enemy units and, in many cases, attack those units with air strikes, artillery strikes (including long-range counterbattery fire), or missile strikes…which can then evoke a similar response from the other side. All the while, the doctrines of the two sides are reflected in movement restrictions and in how replacements flow to the line battalions and regiments. And while the game is quite interactive, solitaire play is still quite possible as there is virtually no secret information on one side or the other.

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