A brief introduction to... White Star Rising: Nations At War

A quick overview of L'n'L Publishing game White Star Rising: Nations At War, quite interesting system that offers quite a lot without being actually too overcomplexed. 

 There we go! Yet another series from Lock And Load Publishing. Based on popular World At War, White Star Rising for some reasons became even more interesting than its ‘ancestor’. But I am not about to focus on comparing those two, I’d just like to share some of my impressions about WSR itself.

I do not actually know a game that there will be no complaints about, and so is with White Star Rising. This one was actually made to be expanded but the designer didn’t actually think of it. Why? Do not ask me. Okay, I do like game boxes full of stuff and this one is actually fulfilled with all the goodies (yummie!), but check upon GMT’s CC series – you got a 3’’ tall box, half-filled, with a lot of space for ‘folio’ expansions. So you can easily put Normandy or Paratroopers in Europe box, Stalingrad in Mediterranean and once all the expansions came into those boxes and no other would fit in there, they have released... another expansion (Partizans), but with its own box – I guess it was because of the presence of cards, but still a nice idea of giving us boxes that are actually ready to fill ’em up and to store whole game system much easier.

Despite the fact, there was actually no hesitation in terms of buying this game. It is quite simple, very playable and pleasant to the eye. There are four gorgeous, very sturdy maps, athough I actually prefer other type of graphics (known from BoH or HotB), those on WSR boards are... well, kinda... I don’t know how to say this, but those field hexes remind me of a tetris game... Okay, maybe I just play Band of Heroes way too often to get used to other ‘styles’, and even if it is not so glamorous, it is definitely very aesthetic. Counters are very nice, keeping up the quality known from other games of Lock And Load Publishing, so no complaint about that. We also get some player aids and of course a rulebook and a scenario book in one piece. One of the most interesting thing is that scenarios are designed in ‘step-by-step’ pattern, so you can start with some easier ones, taking them as an introductory session, and then get to the others, more complexed.

But the game mechanic is the key. Two most important things are: - all informations are printed on counters, so there’s actually no Fire Table needed
- a very nice combat system, known from fe. Tide Of Iron, has been implemented to a hex n’ counter game

Let’s stop by this latter one for a while. I know that a FFG product is actually a war-theme game, but it still has one of the most interesting and easy-adjustable of all combat systems available, and so does White Star Rising.

Each unit’s attack value is determined by three numbers – let’s say 1-2-5, which you should read much like:
1 – range  
2 – number of dice you roll against a target
5 – minimum value on a d6 that allows you to score a hit

And you can even ‘swing’ between ranges, while attacking other units; fe. when a unit of 2-2-5 is attacking from an adjacent hex (so the range is 1), it scores a hit with the value of 4 and higher (so it is 5 minus 1), and when it is four hexes away from its target, it hits with the value of 6 only (5+1). So easy, so simple... and so fun!

One thing I’m not actually sure about is lacking of an action known as an Assault Move. You cannot move and shoot at the same impulse. Your ‘action allowance’ also depends on the chit you pull from the cup, to activate a group of units at the same time, but fortunately you can OpFire at any time with any unit, and once it is used, by pulling a chit of its formation it can be activated again.

Combat results are also very easy to implement. Each unit has three ‘levels’ – Good Order, Disrupted and Reduced. You just need to count your hits (and subtract the defensive ‘hits’, if any) and voila! Since there are only three ‘steps’, when rolling fe. four hits and your opponent has still one defensive roll, he dosn’t have to do that actually, just because he could subtract maximum of one, so it still would be at least three hits and his unit would be eliminated as well. Once again: so easy, so simple... and so fun! 

Of course, a Disrupted unit can be brought back to its Good Order status. Reduced is also Good Order, but with lower stats and it is closer to be eliminated, but still can perform different actions. That’s kinda obvious, I guess.

So now you can imagine the difference between WSR and L’n’L Series, when a single attack can last a little bit longer. Determine your firepower, determine defensive value, roll one d6 each, add it to your values, determine the difference, roll another d6 (defender), add the result to the difference, compare to unit’s morale, apply damages... It is of course pretty easy as well, but it definitely takes more time, not to mention vehicles attacks... 

But there is even more in WSR, an that is called Fate Points. Sometimes only one side has a bunch of those. You can spend it on different things, trying fe. to make your opponent re-roll one die (that costs you 1FP), or to take Ops Complete marker from one of your units (2FP) and so on. Very nice addition to the game, that doesn’t disturb the flow of it, and an the same time gives a lot of new interesting opportunities.

All in all, it’s a great game! If you do not play a wargame only because of its historical feeling and you just feel like you want to move and shoot (‘more game, less guff’ works here oh so well!) – this is something you might be interested in. Instead of huge box full of plastic toys to assemble, tons of counters and a lot of space... on the shelf and on the table, take a closer look at White Star Rising. Low complexity, although not waaaay below average, and at the same time a great way of spending free time not only for the newcomers. There are also some advanced rules, just couple of paragraphs actually, but all those Anti Aircraft, Artillery and And Air Support will definitely add more flavor to the game. So, what are you waiting for? Put your ToI on the bottom, and on top of that place your very own copy of WSR. We’ll see, which one you’ll be reaching for more often... :)