BAOR

About this board game

BAOR – British Army of the Rhine is a two-player 1981 wargame of the early days of World War III in West Germany, with an approximate playing time of 900 minutes.

Published by SPI in the September/October 1981 issue of Strategy & Tactics magazine #88, BAOR is part of the Central Front Series. It depicts combat in the British Army of the Rhine sector, with a map scale of 4 kilometers per hex and a map covering the major West German cities of Hannover and Kassel.

Units operate at the company, battalion, and regiment levels, creating a detailed view of modern battlefield operations. The game uses several mechanics to represent the uncertainty and demands of contemporary warfare, including Operations Points, Friction Points, variable-length game turns, and Zones of Control.

• Airpower and airmobile operations
• Nuclear and chemical warfare
• Operations Points and Friction Points
• Variable-length turns and Zones of Control

BAOR includes two scenarios that focus on different operational situations. “The Thin Red Line” is the campaign scenario, covering the first five days of the war in the BAOR sector.

“The Race to the Weser” covers the first 60 hours of combat in the region between Hannover and Kassel. Together, these scenarios offer contrasting ways to explore the opening phase of a fictional World War III in West Germany, from a five-day campaign to a concentrated struggle for the Weser.