In this InsideGMT article, I’ll walk you through a simple example of combat in Bear Trap. This should give you the flavor of the combat system in Bear Trap – as well as how it’s similar to, yet also quite different from, combat in Sekigahara. Because of the timescale over which Bear Trap is played, “battles” resolved by the players don’t represent singular quick events resolved in hours. Instead, they represent weeks-long campaigns over an area that could span more than 15,000 km². In this way, the scale of the game is quite different to Sekigahara.

Note: draft playtest art is use for the cards, blocks, and map here.

The Lay of the Land

It’s the Insurgents’ turn, midway through a game. They are deciding whether to make an attack in a southeastern area of Afghanistan, on the way to Kandahar from Kabul, near Terin. The following diagram shows each player’s blocks in the relevant areas of the map. Notice that the orientation of the blocks matters: all 3 Soviet units are Fortified, increasing their combat strength in defense, while the Insurgent Captured Artillery (in C) is ready to provide Fire Support in support of an attack, and their Sunni Mujahideen (in D) are positioned to Ambush the enemy.

The Insurgent player can only see that the Soviets have 4 blocks in A—the Insurgent player doesn’t know what they are, or what their orientation is. For the purposes of this walkthrough, however, we can see what blocks the Soviets have in A.

While the Insurgents threaten the Soviets from 3 sides, the Soviet blocks are grouped together—and, generally speaking, Soviet blocks are better than Insurgent blocks.

In addition to the board state, how many cards (and which cards) the players have in hand is also relevant. The Insurgents have the following 5 cards in hand:

While the Insurgent player would only know that the Soviets have 5 cards in hand, for the purposes of this walkthrough we can see what these cards are:

The Battle

Note: In the following description of the battle, red text is used to denote play by the Soviet player, while green text is used for the Insurgent player.

The Insurgents decide to move all 3 blocks from B to attack the Soviets in A.

The Soviet player declares, reveals, and removes their Rumours block in B – this happens automatically if a Rumours block is ever involved in a battle. The Soviets could, but choose not to, play Landmines from their hand (thinking it would be better kept for a battle in a more critical area).

As the attacker, the Insurgents must commit the first block. They play a Lashkar card to commit a Lashkar (Mobilized) in the battle area for 1 Impact—revealing 1 of their Lashkar in the battle area, exposing it so the Soviets can see what it is and what its current orientation is—the Insurgents then move their Impact token up the Impact track accordingly (to total Impact 1).

The Soviets now have the initiative, as they have less Impact (0 to 1) than the Insurgents. They play a DRAF card from hand to commit a DRAF (Fortified) in the battle area, revealing the block as well.

The Insurgent player announces that they’re playing a Defectors card in response, interrupting the usual battle sequence. The Soviets are able to reveal another DRAF card from hand, so the Defectors card resolves without further effect (the revealed DRAF card is not played and can be used later in the battle, but the Defectors card is discarded even though the attempt failed).

The Soviet player moves their Impact token up 3 spaces (to a total of 3), as the Impact value of the committed DRAF (Fortified) is 3. They are now winning the battle, with 3 Impact to the Insurgents’ 1.

Initiative returns to the Insurgents. They play a Shia Mujahideen card to commit their Shia Mujahideen (Mobilized) in the battle area for 2 Impact, revealing the block as well, and move their Impact token accordingly (to a total of 3).

As the Soviets win ties, the initiative remains with the Insurgents. They reveal and commit the Captured Artillery (Fire Support) in the adjacent space C—no card play is required to do so—which adds 2 to their Impact (for a total of 5).

Initiative passes to the Soviets (with 3 Impact to the Insurgents’ 5). The Soviets play a DRAF card from hand to reveal and commit another DRAF (Fortified) in the battle area.

Their opponent announces the play of another Defectors card in response.

The Soviet player has no other DRAF cards in hand to reveal, so the Defection is successful. The just declared DRAF block is eliminated and the Insurgents place a randomly selected Mujahideen block in the battle area—a Sunni Mujahideen is chosen (not pictured)—which is immediately committed to the battle (Disrupted, Impact of 1) to bring the Insurgent Impact total to 6.

Since the Soviets still have the initiative (because they only have 3 Impact to the Insurgents’ 6), they play a Soviet Armour card to reveal and commit the Soviet Armour (Fortified) in the battle area, adding 5 to their Impact (now a total of 8).

The initiative returns to the Insurgents. They play a Lashkar card, to reveal and commit a Lashkar (Mobilized) in the battle area for 1 more Impact, moving the Impact token up the Impact track accordingly (to total Impact 7).

The initiative remains with the Insurgents (with 7 Impact to the Soviets’ 8), but they have no other eligible blocks to commit—the adjacent Sunni Mujahideen (in D) is set to Ambush, and as a result it could only react if the Insurgents were attacked; it’s not able to join the offensive action here—so they must pass.

Since the player with the initiative has passed, the battle ends (the Soviet do not get an opportunity to commit additional bocks).

Outcome

To determine who wins the battle, we compare the total Impact of the Insurgents (7) and the Soviets (8). The Soviets have greater Impact than the Insurgents, so they win the battle (they would also have won if the Impact totals were tied).

The player who lost the battle (in this case the Insurgents) must take a number of casualties equal to the different in Impact. A block can absorb a number of casualties equal to its current strength. So the Insurgents must remove blocks with a total strength of at least 1, and choose to remove one of their committed Lashkar blocks (they could instead have removed either Mujahideen block in the space where the battle took place). The Insurgents also have to make all their surviving blocks in the battle area Disordered and retreat them to adjacent areas that are (i) free of Soviet blocks and (ii) do not have as yet unresolved battles. When retreating, at most 1 block may retreat over a mountain border, 2 over a local roads border, and 3 over a highway border—any that cannot retreat would be eliminated. The Captured Artillery remains where it is (in C) but must also be made Disordered, as it was committed to the battle.

In this case, the Insurgents retreat the 2 Mujahideen blocks to B and the 1 Lashkar block to D.

The Soviets then have to make all blocks they committed to the battle Mobilized (i.e. the 1 Armour and the 1 remaining DRAF), losing their Fortified bonus in any future battles until they take an action to reorientate those units.

Both players discard all played cards. The Insurgent may draw as many as 6 cards (5 cards played plus 1 card for the eliminated Lashkar block), but may opt to draw fewer, while the Soviets may draw as many as 4 cards (3 cards played, plus 1 for the eliminated DRAF block), but may also opt to draw fewer. (Players may decide to draw fewer cards to avoid hastening a reshuffle of their deck, if they do not want the steps that go along with the reshuffle process to occur soon.)

The Soviets now have 2 blocks in the battle area (A), and the Insurgents now have 2 blocks in area B, 1 block in C, and 1 in D. So while the Insurgents lost the battle, the Soviets are now in a bit more of a precarious position in this pocket of Afghanistan. That said, the Insurgents are worse for wear as well—1 block was eliminated, and 4 of their blocks in the vicinity are now Disordered, and that makes then especially vulnerable since the Soviets turn is next. Will the Soviets risk trying to press this weak point, and see if they can exploit the boldness of the Insurgent aggressive play?

Hopefully this quick, relatively straightforward, example gives you an idea of some key dynamics of combat in Bear Trap. To better understand why things played out in this way, consider reading the draft rulebook for the game (which can be found on the P500 page).

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