Sometimes good, old fashioned hex and counter wargames are the best! You line up your counters in long continuous lines and attack, pushing the enemy back, having your own forces fall back after an attack, waiting for your opportunity to pounce. Once a line is broken, scrambling to bring up units in reserve to try and plug those holes. Maintaining supply and trying to cut the supply of your opponent. Good stuff! And these kind of games on the East Front are always interesting for various reasons. Earlier this year, we acquired a copy of a new game from VUCA Simulations called Traces of War which is a two-player game that simulates the intense fighting between Axis and Soviet forces just after the battle of Kursk during August 1943 to March 1944. A major Soviet offensive is launched against a German mobile defense. 

The game uses a modified version of the Victory Lost Series game system (sometimes referred to as the Red Box Series) but is now being called the Fierce Fight! Series designed by Tetsuya Nakamura. We played and gained some experience with the series last year with A Victory Awaits: Operation Barbarossa 1941 from Multi-Man Publishing and really liked what we saw. The system was very approachable and the rules were well written so we were able to get up and running very quickly. The system uses a chit-pull to activate different formations and plays very quickly with some hot and heavy action. I want to share my thoughts here about Traces of War in this First Impressions post.

Standard Wargame

One of the things that I like about the games in this series is that they are pretty standard fare, meaning movement, supply, combat, etc. are what we are used to from playing other hex and counter wargames. We played A Victory Awaits from Multi-Man Publishing and also designed by Tetsuya Nakamura in November last year and even though that was several months before we played Traces of War, the system came back to us with very little fuss and just a cursory review of the rules. Now, we had to focus on the differences here that have been added to make this one unique but it just felt comfortable. Like that favorite shirt, pair of jeans or your couch. With that being said, there was some uniqueness here with one major distinction. The rules work well together to create a lot of choices and opportunities for the players that typically are not found in other wargames. For example, the Zone of Control rules are quite unique and I found that it caused us to come with more out of the box thinking about how we would go about trying to execute movement. The rules state that to enter or leave any ZOC will cost the unit 2 additional movement points. Normally, ZOC’s are much more rigid or sticky and enforce no separation of units once engaged but I really liked this change here and it made for very enjoyable maneuver action.

We also really felt like this game, and in many regards all of the games in the system, can be used to introduce wargames to new gamers who might not be comfortable with the mechanics and concepts at play here. It is a game that can be taught fairly quickly in less than 30 minutes, with about 15 pages of rules and excellent player aids and notations on the board for setup, played quite easily and understood by anyone, be they newbie or old crusty grognard. It also felt very intuitive to me and will feel natural to players to allow them to play the game and not worry about gaming the rules and spending hours trying to understand complex and involved concepts.

Also, as an Operational Scale game, the tactics and strategy seemed to me to be very understandable and allowed me to work toward those goals without having to do something that was totally unexpected or out of the way. I was able to set my strategy and then follow through with it only having to adjust due to my opponent’s response and not due to my mistakes. A really well laid out game that was a blast to play!

Chit-Pull Activation

We really enjoy Chit-Pull Activation in wargames. It really creates a lot of chaos and tension as you just really cannot control what chits are drawn and when. You need to activate your Southwest Front 3rd Ukrainian Formation to hold off an attack there? Well, you just have to draw and may pull it out or you might not! Or do you desperately need to move up the 8th Army to bring in some muscle with the infantry to hold the line until you can again activate your 1st Panzer Army? Well, you cannot guarantee that will happen and might just be overrun there and lose several key units. The Chit-Pull Activation in Traces of War is really pretty standard stuff as some of the formations have multiple chits and can be activated several times per turn. This is especially important for the Germans who have to use their best Panzer units to punch a hole in the Soviet defensive lines and put pressure on them to give up ground or be surrounded and cut off.

The Chits that are drawn out of the cup are called HQ Command Chits and are tied to specific HQ’s located on the board. When these HQ Command Chits are drawn out of the cup, this allows the player who controls that formation to activate the units that are within Command Range of the HQ on the board. This aspect really enforces the concept of Command and Control and requires the players to be focused on locating their HQ’s within range of their units. Sometimes, a unit may need to be activated and go out of Command Range to fill a hole or attack a lone defending unit, and this is important to the overall game, but you must remember that once out of range of the HQ that unit will be unable to activate again until it is brought back within that range.

Aside from Command Chits, there are several Other Command Chits or special event chits which are also seeded into the chit cup. These are chits such as Supply, which will require the players to enforce supply rules at the time of the chit draw, Soviet Reinforcements, Soviet Airborne Chit, which allows for a the drop of a lone Soviet unit behind enemy lines to pick off a stray Supreme Command Order marker or to create some interesting situations with supply and attack and then there are the very powerful Soviet Stavka Chit and German OKH Chits. These special chits actually break the rules of the Chit-Pull Activation system to allow the player some choices about what formations they activate with the chit and make for a very interesting addition to the standard format. I also really liked the pacing of when the number of chits increases for the players. During Turn 1, the poor German player will only have access to 3 chits. This lack of chits really creates some very tense decision right from the start as the Soviets have more units and more chits to activate those units and if the German player is not smart about their use then right from the start they can be off balance and have to play a bit of catchup. And in later turns, the German Player will gain access to their very important and key OKH Chits which can be used to either interrupt the actions of the Soviet, giving them the ability to get a head start against that Soviet formation, or as an option to simply activate any of their formations where they are needed the most. I really liked this part of the design as it balanced things out for the two commanders as the Soviets seem to be able to do what they want, where they want and at anytime and the German player is somewhat more reactionary.

Supreme Command Orders

One thing that really surprised me and also was a very interesting addition to the game from the history of the East Front was this concept of the Supreme Command Order. These Supreme Command Orders were directives relayed from OKH Headquarters from the Führer to the command on the Eastern Front. These orders were typically a demand to hold a city or area at all costs and to not give up even an inch to the Soviets. The German plyer will have several of these Supreme Command Orders Chits and will have to place them into cities that are demanded. These chits gives the defenders extra benefits, so they are not totally worthless, but if the hex is ever taken and occupied by the Soviets, then the game will come to an ignominious end in a Soviet victory. The chits convert Retreat results from the CRT to one or 2 Step Losses and allow for the Germans to hold, kind of like a Desperate Defense in the vaunted ‘4X Series from GMT Games designed by Mark Simonitch. Then if the German player wants to move that Supreme Command Order they have to spend their precious Negotiation Points to remove these markers. What this ends of resulting in is a difficult time for the Germans as they will find that they have less ability to replace losses and bring on any reinforcements as the same points are used in that manner. I liked this concept but would like to play it a few more times to figure out how to do it well as I struggled with this.

Gorgeous Presentation and Components

VUCA Simulations has got it going on in the components and artwork departments! They just get how a real wargame should look and feel. Their choice of pre-rounded counters, über thick player aids (in fact, be careful and don’t hit yourself on the head with them because you might get a concussion) and beautiful color choices is just phenomenal. The maps are made from some really sturdy and elastic material that is not quite canvas but something better as it seems to lose its memory of their folds and just lays really flat.

My only real concern with the components was with the way the two maps fit together. There are two maps and there is a bit of a trick to having them meet up properly as there is a bit of an overlay of one over the other. We then applied a thick plexi to the top of the board and we through it would hold them together in the appropriate way. But, as we leaned over the board, and touched it to steady ourselves, invariably there would be a bit of slippage and the hexes along the joining area would shift ever so slightly but enough to bug me. I think that the solution to this problem would be some tacky puddy, like the type you use to hang a poster on the wall, or a clear plastic tape. I would be worried though that the puddy or tape would take some of the board with it when it was removed but other than that it was a gorgeous surface from which to play the game. The other thing that I did really like about the map was that it was laid out as if it was meant for two players as some of the reinforcement boxes are facing one side or the other and you would be able to see all of the counters very well from your seat. But, this would be a slight problem for the solo player but not anything that would stop them from enjoying the game. In the picture below, you can see the misalignment in hexes 3724 and 3524 located on the left.

Final Thoughts

I would love to write more but I am busy and have to move on but Traces of War is a damn solid wargame. Of all the games that I have played on the Eastern Front, and I admit that I have not played nearly all of them, this Fierce Fight! Series from designer Tetsuya Nakamura is just fantastic. Traces of War is extremely playable, enjoyable and really has some great chrome added in like the Supreme Order Commands and the OKH and Stavka Chits. This is a great implementation of the Chit-Pull mechanic and really creates a tough yet easy to grock system. I marvel at the ease at which the games creates some of the most trying decisions for players and the addition of the interesting non-sticky ZOC rules was a genius move as it just creates so many options.

Here is a link to our full unboxing video showing off the beautiful components:

Here also is a link to our full video review:

If you are interested in Traces of War, you can order a copy for $76.00 from the VUCA Simulations website at the following link: https://vucasims.com/products/traces-of-war

If you do order, please let them know you saw our reviews and that we sent you over.

-Grant