In this InsideGMT article, we’ll play through a few turns of Bear Trap.

The following playthrough is designed to demonstrate a few different aspects of the game, and to give you a basic sense of what it’s like to play—it’s not meant to be a demonstration of good play by the players.

In what follows, I won’t explain the game rules in detail. Instead, I’ll focus on describing what the players are doing. Insurgent play will be in green text, while Soviet play will be in red text, but I’ll also offer some commentary in italics. In all images here, all blocks are face up only for illustrative purposes; in an actual game, you would only be able to see the sticked side of your own blocks (until enemy blocks are committed in combat).

If you’re unfamiliar with the mechanics of how the game works, check out this prior InsideGMT article which provides an overview of gameplay, or take a look at the draft rulebook and player-aid (both on GMT’s product page for the game). Finally, note that the graphic design and artwork used here are for playtest purposes only and isn’t indicative of what the final artwork and layout will be like for the game when published. (What we have works fine for playtest purposes, but the GMT art department will eventually do a great job of creating something beautiful with a natural look that supports the gameplay.)

For this example of play, we’ll tune in about halfway through the game. The players have so far undergone 3 reshuffles and the Soviet player is getting close to their next reshuffle. A game of Bear Trap lasts up to 7 reshuffles, but can end earlier if a player satisfies their victory condition.

The Soviet player has 5 cards left in their draw deck, meanwhile the Insurgent player has 25 cards in their draw deck.

The Soviet player has not yet made any progress towards their victory condition, meanwhile the Insurgent player has progressed towards their victory conditioned by accumulating 3 Soviet fatigue (of the 9 they need to win).

The Soviet player has the following 4 cards in hand:

And the Insurgent player has the following 7 cards in hand:

It is now the Insurgent player’s turn.

The Insurgent player elects to take a major activation turn, discarding 2 cards (both Sunni Mujahideen cards), to activate up to 6 areas (and now has 5 cards in hand). The Insurgent player activates the highlighted areas to move 4 blocks—see images below—to adjacent areas. The Insurgent player also changes the orientation of 2 blocks from Mobilized to Ambush (they may do this with any activated block that doesn’t move). Having activated all areas that the Insurgent player wishes to, play then passes to the Soviet player since there is no combat to resolve.

With their reshuffle drawing near, the Soviet player decides to try and clear the Insurgent blocks holding the main highway route between Herat and Kandahar.

The Soviet player discards 1 card (1 Soviet Armor card) to perform an essential activation turn (and now has 3 cards in hand). They activate only one area (Kandahar). Of the Soviet blocks in Kandahar, the Soviet player forms a group of 3 blocks –3 Soviet Armor—and moves them along the highway west from Kandahar (see image below). The group overruns the Lashkar in the area adjacent to Kandahar (removing it without combat), and stops in the next area (and become mobilized). Before the Soviet players turn finishes the turn, combat must be resolved.

As the attacker, the Soviets play 1 Armor card to commit 1 of the Armor blocks (Soviet impact now 3). Initiative passes to the Insurgents. The Insurgent player commits the Lashkar (Ambush) from the area to the South-west (Insurgent impact now 1), and then commits the Lashkar (Ambush) from the area to the east (Insurgent impact now 3)—neither of these commitments require a card play. Because Soviets win ties, the initiative rests with the Insurgents. The Insurgent player decides to pass, and combat ends.

Because both players finished with the same total impact, the Insurgents suffer no casualties even though they lose this instance of combat. Nevertheless, all the blocks they committed, and all their blocks in the combat area, become disordered. And, they must retreat from the combat area. The Soviet Player draws 1 card (hand size now 3), and the Insurgent player draws no cards (as they did not play any or lose any blocks). With the combat resolved, play passes to the Insurgent player.

This case highlights one of the ways in which Bear Trap captures the nuances of insurgency warfare—while the Soviets came in fast and hard with what looked like overwhelming strength, the Insurgents were able to negate that advantage, refuse to engage in earnest, and give ground to ‘melt away’ into the countryside. (Of course, while the Insurgent player lost no blocks here, it is the case that there would be some losses in a skirmish like this. It’s just that at the scale at which the game occurs, the number of losses that would have happened here are not represented in game pieces.)

The Insurgent player decides to perform an urgent activation turn, discarding no cards (hand size remains 5). From the area between Herat and the group of Armor, they move the Lashkar block eastwards to the adjacent area. With no combat to resolve, play passes back to the Soviets.

The Soviet player takes a strategy turn, and plays Soviet Air Strikes (hand size now 2)—targeting the area with 5 Insurgent blocks. All those blocks are eliminated (in reality this represents the dispersal of those units, not necessarily the total elimination of all personnel). With no combat to resolve, play passes to the Insurgent player.

During the war, the Soviets used their air power harshly against both rebels and civilians, destroying villages as a means to deny safe haven to the enemy fighters. This fueled the refugee crisis that emerged during the war and motivated many to join the cause. Left unchecked, these Soviet Air Strikes can prevent the Insurgent player from being able to effectively coordinate their forces against the Soviets. But, the Insurgents can lean on CIA Intervention to counter Soviet air superiority.

The Insurgent player decides to take a Resupply turn. They discard half their cards (2 Shi’a Mujahideen and 1 Lashkar cards) taking their hand size from 5 to 2. Then, the 2 Disordered Lashkar on the board become Mobilized and they choose to draw 5 cards (hand size now 7). Finally, they discard 1 card to add 2 Rumor blocks and 5 Lashkar to the board (hand size now 6). The portion of the map we’re focusing on here now looks like this:

The relative ease with which the Insurgents can bring Lashkar (local untrained fighters) into play captures another way in which Bear Trap simulates the nature of insurgency warfare. While the impact of the Soviet Air Strikes was high, because of its play the Insurgent player was able to bring more blocks into play and present the Soviets with more areas requiring attention—including the now Insurgent-occupied highway area to the east of Kandahar. So while the air power of the Soviets managed to inflict non-trivial casualties, we might say that the brutality of the Soviet aggression here spurred other Afghans to join the cause and fight the invaders.

It’s now the Soviet player’s turn. They decide to take a resupply turn. They discard half their cards (from 2 to 1). And they choose to draw 5 cards—however, because they only have 4 cards in their draw deck, the Soviet player must immediately complete the reshuffle process before continuing any further. (Note: If they had opted to draw 4 or fewer cards, the reshuffle process wouldn’t have been triggered.)

As part of the reshuffle process, we first check if the Soviets progress towards their victory condition—if an uninterrupted route can be traced from each Afghan city to the USSR, along only highway areas without Insurgent control. Unfortunately for the Soviets, this is not the case—Kandahar is isolated: the Lashkar in Qalat-e-Gilzay and the Rumor block south of Herat cut the highway on both sides. Next the Insurgents gain +1 Soviet Fatigue (their victory points) for each Insurgent-controlled Afghan city and USSR area (zero, as far as we can see here). Next, the Reshuffle token is advanced to the next space (from 3 to 4). Because this is a Soviet reshuffle, the Soviets must move 1 Soviet Infantry or Armor from each city to the Turkestan Military HQ area in the USSR. However, we can see that they have no such blocks in Herat or Kandahar, so the DRAF block in Herat becomes Disordered, reflecting the impact on morale from the lack of Soviet presence (and the DRAF block in Kandahar is already Disordered). Finally, the Soviet player chooses 2 of their strategy cards to draft into their deck before shuffling it and continuing their resupply turn where they left off (bringing their hand size to 6, and then continuing with the remainder of the resupply turn steps).

And there you have it. Things are not going well here for the Soviets, but as mentioned at the outset, the Soviet “player” here wasn’t making optimal decisions. If you want a bit more of a deep dive on how combat is resolved, and how loyalty challenges works, check out this other InsideGMT article which looks specific at resolving combat. I hope you found this extended example of play interesting and helpful—please consider pre-ordering the game!

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Previous Articles: 

Resolving Combat in Bear Trap

Gameplay Overview—How to Play Bear Trap

Cards in Bear Trap (Part I of II): Card Types, Force Pools, & Deck Composition

Cards in Bear Trap (Part II of II): Historical Notes on the Strategy Cards