The Long Road Base Game

This is 1985. This is World War III. But this is not your typical World War III.

There are many accurate-to-the-underwear-brand World War III games to choose from, and the ones that have been played are quite good. This, however, is not one of them. Although The Long Road flirts with reality, it's not ready to move in and live with it. This game has a twist. From the moment Flying Pig Games designed World at War: Eisenbach Gap, the vision was of a war that was something else - a war predicated by something other than oil, warm-water ports, or ill-defined land grabs. A war instigated by powers without geographical affiliation, powers unknown to us.

The agents of those powers might be nothing more than a special ops team of mysterious origin sent to assassinate a world leader, nothing more than a militia ambushing foreigners ravaging their mother country; nothing other than normal. Then again, they might be other than normal or by definition, paranormal.

So that is the twist - a wargame with paranormal elements. Make no mistake, Flying Pig Games has strived to make this an accessible yet accurate wargame. Included is everything from advanced sights, multi-spectral smoke, artillery-delivered minefields, and electronic countermeasures to anti-tank guided missiles, attack helicopters, and the man-portable air defense systems required to bring them down. You’ll command the weapons of the time: Abrams tanks, T-80 tanks, M60A3, T-64B, and Sheridan tanks. Bradleys, M-113s, BMPs, infantry, spetsnaz, and more.

But of course, war isn’t won by equipment; war is won by soldiers. In The Long Road, soldiers’ training and morale are integral to the game vital to combat resolution. But even more important than the rank-and-file grunts are the heroes - the men and women who can turn the tide of battle. Flying Pig Games has included them too: people like Mike Hudson, Colonel Adrik Aleksandrov Shabalin, tank commander Sergeant Matt Dahl, and Commissar Colonel Elena Petrova. Heroic humans, but humans nonetheless.

But there is something more. Somethings that are not “humans nonetheless.” Demons that summon electrical storms, rendering advanced weaponry nearly useless. Lycan clans that fight with assault rifles, RPDs, and RPGs - as well as the fang and claw of their elders. A witch with an agenda, plus the powerful spells to make it happen. And of course, Katarina Ubirek - an amoral Romanian vampire worth dozens of inexperienced soldiers in combat. You know those things you’ve read about, watched in movies, or heard about on horror podcasts? Well, in The Long Road, they are real.

But not every scenario contains nightmares. Sometimes you’ll fight with, against, or in spite of these paranormal beings - yet often your battle will be about nothing more than depleted uranium rounds, reactive armor, maneuver, and massed fires. In fact, Flying Pig Games includes a separate scenario book titled Long Road Tactics, which features nothing but historical (for lack of a better word) scenarios.

So that is The Long Road part military horror, part authentic recreation of World War III, but all fun. Flying Pig Games hopes you enjoy it.