Finally played the full scenario of Cataclysm! Enjoyed; we played 6 hours, it we only got until the ‘39-40 turn but we hit Total War in ‘38 - things escalated very quickly - so we saw a good chunk of the game. I have the following observations/tips: 1) definitely play the short scenarios several times before tackling the whole thing, including Days of Decision, Eagle and the Sun, and The Great Patriotic War; they’re short and you need to understand how the various elements of the game work. 2) We played with 5; the sweet spot is probably 4. With 5 the UK position may be a little thin. With 3 the Fascists have a lot to manage. 3) The Fascists have to be super-careful about provocations early; every flag the Democracies get, especially the US, can be a big deal. 4) The early game (‘33-‘37) can be *very* swingy. If the Democracies are lucky in their effectiveness checks and get the team together and US onboard quickly, Germany is in a world of hurt. See point 3) about flags. 5) the Soviet position is actually the hardest I think, and also the most likely to end up a bit hosed by circumstance to not have a lot to do. Don’t fear Political Purges or Collective Security too much. You can survive a Fascist onslaught in the wrong mode and with a hobbled military for a little bit, and Military Reforms really handicaps you for a lot of things you need to do early on. 6) Like Triumph & Tragedy, it’s going to be difficult for a balanced situation to develop out of the early years until you have some experience with the game; expect blowouts. 7) These counters are not going to survive very long being constantly mixed and fished out of cups. Anyway, bottom line, I gave this a 50-50 chance of being good. I’m not totally sure if it is yet. It’s a very interesting design, but it’s also a little long and maybe a little on the finicky side (both in terms of rules and tactics) given that some of the subsystems are *very* swingy. But given those concerns, I still quite enjoyed it and look forward to giving it another shot. #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #gmtgames #cataclysmasecondworldwar

Trying out the Eagle and Sun scenario of Cataclysm to see how the PTO plays. There are a couple finicky details, but generally it’s pretty cool how the consistently the game plays between the PTO and ETO. It seems like to win this one the US probably needs to drop the A-Bomb on Japan; otherwise getting them below 14 cubes seems pretty tough. I think there is a chart of odds somewhere; I probably should print that out so I can make sensible choices about risk - 3d6 vs 2d6-1 or 2d6+1 vs 3d6, or how much better 2d6+1 is vs 2d6+2 is just a bit too complicated to do accurately enough in my head. Anyway, still enjoying going through these small scenarios, even though the real game is obviously the “full” Cataclysm scenario. Kinda cool that you can play the entire PTO in a way that basically works in under 2hr! #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #gmtgames #cataclysmasecondworldwar