Cauldrons of War: Barbarossa is a special beast, in more ways than one. At first glance, it is an Early Access indie wargame about Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany's ill-fated attempt to invade the Soviet Union in 1941. There are about a million and a half games covering the Eastern Front, and there's good reason for that, but it means that Cauldrons has to be doing something special to make it stand out. Luckily, standing out seems to have been a major design principle.
Cauldrons of War opts for a unique set of wargame mechanics. Gone are the hexes, map regions, and unit statistics that make up the majority of traditional wargames. Instead, the one-man team behind the game has created an abstract representation of the progress of military operations.
The only visual representation on the game map being sections of front line and great arrows denoting planned advances. Rather than commanding units across traditional battlefields or else dropping units on to enemies based on relative strengths, you are making a few key decisions for each army group each turn. This pulls double duty mechanically, forcing you to carefully plan out your actions while making games flow much faster than others that tackle this huge campaign.
RELATED LINKS:
The Wargamer's Guide to WW2's Eastern Front
Review: Kursk – Battle at Prokhorovka
Panzer Corps expansion Soviet Corps now available