Recon! Carrier Battlegroup Solitaire | Deluxe Edition | Cold War | WW3 | Unboxing

This is an unboxing and preview of the solo wargame Carrier Battle Group Solitaire. Designed by Joseph Miranda and published by Decision Games. This is the deluxe edition published in 2025. The original design was a magazine wargame published in Modern War magazine #14 in 2014.

You are in command of a US Navy carrier task force in the North Atlantic, operating against the Soviet fleet during the 1980s at the height of the Cold War. As the commander of a carrier task force, you must complete various objectives in the North Sea, facing Soviet naval and air opposition. As the Cold War goes hot, you may be called upon to secure the Denmark Strait, support a special operations force in the Arctic, attack a Soviet naval base in Murmansk, escort reinforcements to NATO’s northern flank in Norway, conduct a joint amphibious landing behind Warsaw Pact lines in the Baltic, provide air support over the Central Front in West Germany, even hunt for a rogue Soviet nuclear ballistic-missile submarine.

Carrier Battle Group deluxe edition is a solitaire game where the player contests against the game system, fulfilling scenario objectives, randomly generated by a Mission Orders chit pull. You must manage your US Navy Nimitz-class carrier, its air group, and your escorts, while encountering Soviet warships, aircraft, and missiles controlled by the game system. As the Carrier Group Commander, seeing the situation from the bridge of an aircraft carrier, you will be confronted with unexpected opportunities and challenges, represented by random Incident chits.

Carrier operations are shown in considerable detail, while other US Navy and opposing Soviet actions are more abstracted. An Alert Level, representing how much the Soviet Navy’s command is concentrating its resources against your task force, increases the possibility of running into enemy forces. Once contact is made with enemy forces, the game’s Tactical Routine is used to resolve combat. A scenario ends when you reach your Objective. Scenarios can be played individually or linked together to form a Campaign Game. Optional Rules allow for multiple players, having them each control various aspects of the US Navy force.

Carrier Battle Group deluxe edition updates the game first appearing in Modern War #14, offering new map and counter artwork, a mounted game board, updated rules, new player aid cards, and a campaign analysis article. Can you successfully command your carrier battlegroup against numerous threats in the North Atlantic, helping NATO to victory in the war that never was? There is one way to find out—play Carrier Battle Group.

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