NATO, WAPA and the indefensibility of LandJut in NGP and D85

[Elxaime]

Did HPS or any of you have any experience with the old SPI monster board game "Next War" which postulated a Pact-NATO conflict in the late 1970's? Here is a link showing a copy:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/8719

The reason I ask is that I once had one and, in the course of an unusual opportunity to set it up at home (parents gone on foreign vacation for two months), I was able to play it solo for a number of turns.

Now, at this time in the US there was a lot of talk about the Soviet menace, the need for a defense build-up, NATO was weak, etc. Perhaps some of this was justified perhaps some of it was military establishments always wanting more money regardless.

But what I found when I played ther Tension variant (war coming after a period of tension and limited mobilization) for Next War was this:

- Pact forces had an initial burst across the frontier BUT

- after a day or so the Pact got enmeshed in NATO forces in-depth and the advance slowed to a crawl with increasing Pact losses

- NATO could really slow the Pact down and take a toll on the Pact in the numerous built-up areas even with small forces

By the third day of the attack, the Pact was basically out of momentum and depleted without having made a very deep penetration into the FRG. This very much surprised me since I was expecting a Red March to the Rhine.

Does anyone else have experience with Next War? Did the SPI game prove useful to HPS in research for D85?