We have not played all that many modern warfare games in our time as wargamers. But, in 2024, we played several including the likes of Next War: Poland from GMT Games, The Enemy is at the Gates from Compass Games and now the last of the year was Red Dragon/Green Crescent Deluxe Edition from Decision Games. These games all typically focus on warfare at all levels including the use of new technologies such as EMP’s, Cyber Warfare and Hacking as well as air, air/naval, ground combat and various commando style operations and missile strikes, including tactical nukes. But, typically these games are extremely detailed and complex and tend to lean toward the unplayable side of the ledger. But that was not what we found in the game as we very much enjoyed our experience with Red Dragon/Green Crescent Deluxe Edition and frankly were blown away with how good it was. I want to share my thoughts about this game and why we enjoyed it so much in this First Impressions style post.

First off, let’s take a look at what this game is and what its genesis was and where it stands today. Red Dragon/Green Crescent Deluxe Edition is a strategic-level simulation of a hypothetical future conflict in and around East Asia, including the Indian Ocean, South China Sea and the Middle East. The time frame covered by the game is the not-too-distant future between 2025 and 2035. The game system is based on the proven CSR Award Winning design Red Dragon Rising from Strategy & Tactics Magazine #250 and its sequel, Red Dragon Green Crescent from Modern War #1, as well as several other variants which were published in other editions and issues as the game grew in notoriety and people began to get the word around. As you all know, these futuristic Cold War Gone Hot type of games are very popular. Red Dragon/Green Crescent Deluxe Edition is somewhat of a combination of the 2 previous games and is a 2-player game which could very easily be adapted to multi-player and solitaire play as there is not a great deal of hidden information as all stacks are able to be inspected. The game contains 3 main scenarios allowing for play on either of the 2 large boards or a combined game across both that takes in the entire East Asian Theater of Operations. The game looks huge on the table, as it contains 2 huge 22×34-inch mounted game boards as well as 528 5/8-inch die-cut counters consisting of 3 full counter sheets, and I very much enjoyed the roomy playable areas and there was no crowding of units. I do think that they should have gone for larger counters but it all tied together nicely to give the game a very impressive table presence.

One of the points that was made by Decision Games as they began marketing this game was that they had taken in account the various new developments in the strategic situation covered since the original games were published. With the People’s Republic of China (PRC) expansion in recent years leading to the establishment of many bases throughout the Indian Ocean and Russia being engaged in a war in Ukraine as well as the 2021 Taliban victory in Afghanistan shifting the perception of the power of the United States and its Coalition partners. As already mentioned a bit, each of the Powers are also using online advanced weapons systems and new tactics and these advancements are modeled with 2 general time frames for the scenarios, one set in the 2020’s and the other in the 2030’s. I am not a modern warfare aficionado and frankly don’t have an in-depth knowledge of the makeup of the PRC or Russian armed forces but the general makeup and values assigned to the different units felt about right and seemed to take into account some of the newer technologies developed over the past 10 years. The Order of Battle appears to be almost entirely new or newly conceived and I would give them a big round of applause for making it seem appropriate and for the most part balanced.

The game is a strategic level conflict simulation that is focused on major military operations that entail everything from typical movement of troops and ships, including reinforcements and rebuilding damaged units, to missile strikes, both conventional and nuclear, political interventions with neutral partners and various logistical operations. In fact, there are 13 different Ground Operations, 6 different Joint Operations, 7 different Logistical Operations, 12 different Naval Operations, 7 different Air Operations, 6 different Intervention Operations and 7 Optional Operations. That is a total of 58 different choices for the players. That is staggering and at first was a bit daunting but once we picked up the players aids, which are very good and detailed, it was pretty evident how to take each of these Operations. At first though, I was somewhat like a kid in a candy store and just couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to accomplish each turn. But with some thought, as well as a good understanding of the tactics and capabilities that you have with your units, any wargamer can pick up this system. Repeated plays are going to be where you truly get the output you are looking for though as we had so many tactical blunders and misappropriation of assets so as to cause us to have a bit of a laugh at our ineptitude.

The game system is a modified I-Go-U-Go system where each player gets to take a total of 2 different operations per turn, with one being focused on the east board focused on the area around the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, Japan and Indonesia and one on the west board focused on the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Indian subcontinent and the Horn of Africa followed by the other player doing their 2 operations. These operations have to be from units that are based on one of those 2 boards or using units that have long range capabilities to strike from one board to the other such as strategic bombers. This means that each turn consists of 4 actions being taken by both players and the game really moves along at a pretty brisk pace. In about 3 hours, we were able to play a full 7 rounds and experience every major portion of the game, including a tactical nuclear strike on Taiwan.

The other really interesting part about the game is the random events that happen. These events are pretty interesting and really give you a feel for the various possible changes to the situation as things play out. The events assist in creating a very compelling and believable narrative as well as you go and we found that the events seemed to be really plausible. During the Chinese player’s turn and the U.S. player’s turn, you will roll 2d6 and consult the following table:

2-6:          Random Event on the Indian Ocean Map

 7:            No Random Event

8-12:        Random Event on the East Asia Map

If the 2d6 roll results in a Random Event, then the players will roll 2d6 again and consult the appropriate table. These events include things like mines detonating in the Persian Gulf, various numbered operations being unable to be taken that turn for one reason or another but more often than not things like supply issues, weather, internal fighting amongst commanders and branches, the presence of NATO forces. an ally changing their stance on their alliance and lots of other choices. Once these events occur, you typically make them off the list and they cannot occur again. None of the events are game breaking but they give the game just enough uncertainty to keep things very interesting.

Combat in the game is pretty straightforward and just works very well. Fire occurs when a player rolls a die and the result has to be less than or equal to the printed combat factor on the firing unit to hit the enemy. The attacker must call out the target of their attack as well and this can be pretty interesting as it can be death by a thousand cuts if your units target and fire at the best units even though your combat factors are low. Each of the units that are firing must choose their target before rolling though so you have to make some cagey decisions about who to assign what targets depending on your confidence in your dice rolling. There is nothing quite worse than not assigning that one additional unit to fire at a key target when your other units ultimately miss.

There are different types of fire though as would be excepted in a modern war game including air to ground, ground to air, surface to surface of naval units and anti-submarine. These values are generally pretty low and it can be very difficult to hit regularly except with your best units that are typical 3-4 combat factors. This fire in simultaneous and hitting and taking out a good unit does not prevent it from firing back. Most units were one step units and were eliminated upon being hit but some units were 2 steps and could be repaired in later turns utilizing one of the Logistic Operations.

There are a certain amount of protected units, such as Aircraft Carriers and Amphibious Landing Craft, that are effectively screened by all of the other ships in the taskforce. They can only be targeted once and if all other units have been hit and destroyed. This rule made a great deal of sense to us and we had no issue with its inclusion as it made for the realistic possibility of amphibious landings. And it also gave us the courage to throw caution to the wind and take some chances by moving in our big guns even though we might lose them. This made for a very chaotic and kinetic situation and we had a blast with the combat. I am not an expert on this geopolitical situation but my initial thought was that the PRC was a bit underpowered. They didn’t really have the number nor power that the United States and her allies did, which is probably fine but it struck me as a bit odd.

The game uses no combat odds or Combat Results Tables and this was a decidedly refreshing take on combat in the modern theaters of military operations. Combat moved quickly and was pretty interesting with lots of tactical decisions about how to assign and use your forces. It was not a slog and we were very pleased with the simple resolution system as it just seemed to fit with the intent of the design and make for a very playable simulation.

As for the experience of the game, this is a very approachable, very simple yet not simplistic system and anyone can pick this up. I think that we were initially worried about the rules, as they didn’t seem to be all that great when we started out, but once we got into them they just came into view and we understood what was being intended. We did have some issues with clarity though as several of the rules just were not fully fleshed out, either on the player aid or in the rulebook. This lead to us having to make a few judgement calls and it really wasn’t that big of a deal. There are a lot of optional rules that are more advanced that can be added and we would recommend their use as the extra overhead was not a problem and we did get some fun out of the ones added. This game is just a fun experience and we had a really great time with it. It is very much a beer and pretzel style wargame but there is nothing wrong with that. The rules were approachable and not overly complex and they worked together well.

I think that this is my main take away from the game…that it is very playable and that anyone can pick this up! I say that because some of the other modern warfare games we have tackled have been a bit too complex with lots of minute rules and exceptions. But this one just flowed together and we got out of it what was wanted…a look at modern warfare set in the near future in the east between the USA and PRC/Russia. And it was a blast! I would play this one again in a heartbeat and we are actually planning to set this one up at Buckeye Game Fest in late April to play during the day to show people the system and what it can do.

Thank you for reading my thoughts on this interesting little game. We had a fantastic time with the system and are very much looking forward to playing more but also to exploring some of the other near future modern warfare games that have languished on our shelves of shame!

-Grant