On the Way!: 86

On the Way! 86 is the second major expansion for the solitaire Cold War tactical combat RPG On the Way!, and REQUIRES OWNERSHIP OF THE ORIGINAL GAME, but does not require ownership of any other expansion. While the original game postulates the hypothetical outbreak of WWIII between NATO and the Warsaw Pact to occur in the winter of 1968-69, this expansion is set in the late winter and early spring of 1986, offering players the chance to command brand new era-appropriate tanks and operate sophisticated new weapons systems (i.e. laser rangefinders, thermal imagers, anti-tank guided missiles, tandem warheads, and explosive reactive armor). Additionally, like the first expansion, the scope of the game has been significantly expanded beyond the so-called “Fulda Gap”, and includes the entire East-West German and German-Czechoslovakian border, from the Northern German Plain, to the German Central Uplands, South Scarplands, and Alpine Forelands.

Inspired by the legendary Avalon Hill classic, Patton’s Best, the On the Way! 86 expansion for On the Way! intends to capture much of the outstanding realism, abstraction, and excellent campaign of Patton’s Best in its own unique way, making it a fresh and original game. A few select differences and additions from the original Patton’s Best system are: Rules for dawn, dusk, and night combat, as well as night vision devices (infrared, thermal, etc.) and other Cold War gadgets like advanced two-plane stabilizers and auxiliary driver and/or gunner controls; a comprehensive selection of period-appropriate ammunition, including APFSDS (Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot) and ATGM’s (Anti-Tank Guided Missiles); nineteen (vice the original 4 of the base game!) playable tanks representing the most common types that would be available to each respective nation and unit in early 1986 (the M60A3 TTS, M1 Abrams, and M1IP Abrams (US), Leopard 1A4 and Leopard 2A2 (West Germany), Leopard 1 (BE) (Belgium), Leopard 1V (Netherlands), AMX-30B2 (France), Chieftain Mk.9 and Challenger (Britain), T-55AM (East Germany and Poland), T-72 (East Germany), T-72M (Czechoslovakia), and T-62, T-64B, T-64BV, T-72A1, T-80B, and T-80BV (USSR)); a detailed tank damage system, accounting for non-KO penetrations, hits by kinetic energy and chemical energy projectiles, as well as detailed crew wounds and a brand new bail-out minigame to resolve the abandoning of your tank turn-by-turn; condensed and specific objectives with particular mission end conditions to specifically avoid mental fatigue and cut out tedium; and much, much more! Additionally, the game has been intentionally designed with modularity in mind in order to account for potential expansions set in later decades (such as this second expansion, On the Way! 86) with the introduction of advanced systems like thermal technology and explosive reactive armor (ERA), as well as support for WWII campaigns.