World At War 85: Starter Kit

Learn the System Once

Every box in the World At War 85 series runs on the same Core Rules. Learn them here and you can sit down to any volume in the series without starting over.

The Starter Kit puts you in command of a platoon-scale force in a Third World War that begins in 1985.

Formations activate by card draw rather than by taking turns. Each Formation card wakes one formation, which then moves, fires, assaults and calls artillery until its impulse ends. The deck also carries close air support, electronic warfare, battlefield events and friction, and an End Operations card that finishes the phase whenever it happens to turn up. You never know when your formation is coming, or when your opponent's is.

What You Are Actually Commanding

Infantry platoons of forty to sixty men. Tank platoons of three to five vehicles. Artillery batteries, helicopter sections and close air support flights. A hex is about a hundred and fifty metres and a turn is five to fifteen minutes, so you are directing formations across objectives rather than nursing one squad.

Command Is Not Automatic

Formations work under a headquarters with a command range, and units outside it lose effectiveness. Leaders help. Morale and training values decide what a unit will actually do once it is being shot at, which is not always what you told it to do.

The World At War 85 Starter Kit is the way into the World At War 85 series, and it runs on the same Core Rules v2.2 as every volume in it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This Starter Kit DOES NOT include a printed game manual. There is no difference between the Starter Kit provided as a free download and the Printed Edition of the Starter Kit, except that in the Printed Edition, we ship you pre-printed counters and game maps.