SGS NATO's Nightmare

NATO's Nightmare is an incredibly addictive and exciting strategy game that takes players back to a time that could have changed the course of history. Inspired by the 1983 NATO military exercise Able Archer, this game was developed by Strategy Game Studio and published by Avalon Digital and makes an excellent addition to their collection of beautifully designed strategy games on Steam.

The attention to detail in NATO's Nightmare is truly remarkable, and the game does an excellent job of recreating a scenario that could have escalated into full-blown nuclear war. The game's backstory, explained through newspaper articles, provides an incredible level of depth, making for an immersive and thought-provoking gaming experience.

At the beginning of the game, players are given the option to choose whether they want to fight for NATO or the Warsaw Pact, and each side has its unique advantages that players can use to be successful in the game. However, the battles in the game are not easy and players must develop a solid strategy to end the war before it escalates into nuclear war. As Einstein once said when asked what weapons would be used in World War III, "I don't know what weapons we will use in World War III, but I do know that we will fight with sticks and stones in World War IV." That Game is challenging and players must try their best to succeed.

The in-game sound design is top-notch and incredibly immersive and immersive. However, it would have been nice to have some quieter moments in the game to add a touch of variety and thought provoking to the overall experience.

One of the most impressive things about NATO's Nightmare is that it's virtually flawless, which is a rare achievement in the gaming world. Overall, NATO's Nightmare is an exceptional game that will help players understand the devastating effects of war and the grave consequences of our actions. As someone who values peace, I am grateful that our leaders found a way to avoid such a situation. Kudos to the developers for creating such an immersive and thought-provoking game that will keep players engaged.

I would be happy if you follow our AWG Curator

SGS Lands Another Hit!

I have slowly been getting into SGS games lately because they often look at "forgotten wars" or smaller conflicts and they really do a good job of representing the time period and sparks my interest to read further into these histories. SGS Nato's Nightmare is a Cold War gone hot game and focuses on a what-if scenario in which the Warsaw Pact invades NATO territory in Germany/Northern Europe.

First, and most importantly, this is a BIG game. The "advanced" scenario includes hundreds of counters and you will be moving units on a small scale (think individual ATGM units). This can be overwhelming for some players but if you are into the idea of complete control of NATO or Warsaw Pact forces during this war then it will definitely appeal to you (think War in the East level complexity). Thankfully they have a basic campaign as well which has less counters and operates on a mostly division level scale. I found the basic play to be my favorite as it is less of a time and brain power commitment but it is still fun and you don't lose any of the "big war" feel by doing it this way.

My favorite part of the game is its faithfulness to actual unit types and capabilities as well as the absolutely BEAUTIFUL map and unit cards. The person who does the art work for SGS games nails it every time it seems, and this game is no exception.

Another great thing that I always look for in war games is the inclusion of events or historical pop-ups that add a bit of life to the war you are fighting and this game has a TON of it. I think it's pretty awesome and informational, and there are things going on all over the world that affect the war you are fighting. The game does a great job of relaying these to the player.

There are only a few cons I'd like to mention about this game but none of them are game breaking:
-Slowdown during certain portions of the game such as during the card draw phase. This isn't a big deal but more of a pain in the rear just because you are trying to choose cards from your "hand" and the slowdown impedes that. Probably a limitation of the engine, but I think the devs are working on it.
-Popups appear for both the player and the AI and are the same (I think?) every turn. That means that the flavor text, tips, and rules popups are seen twice by the player every turn. I'd much rather have this seen only once but it isn't a big deal, you just click through them.

Other than that I'd say this is an AWESOME war game set during the Cold War and the developers' passion and technical prowess shines through every minute that you play it. Games like this are the reason I am a "war gamer", it's awesome to see developers work to their strengths and be passionate about their product and you can see it when you play.

Ending pro-tip: If you are new to SGS games and want to get into it but find something like this a bit too daunting then try another one of their games but in a smaller and older setting. My suggestion is SGS Halls of Montezuma, which allows you to fight the Mexican-American War. The games all have the same mechanics but learning the game with only the use of muskets, cavalry, artillery, and limited navy will teach you how to play. Then you can work your way up to satellites, supersonic aircraft, and nuclear weapons!

Well can't say we can give SGS NATO'S Nightmare a thumbs up at this point.
Been playing computer wargames since the 80s and this one is failing to deliver on a variety of fronts.


As a veteran gamer I expect 1) game documentation which explains the basic gaming systems for starters and none exists, which makes it very difficult to get going and enjoy. I understand the designers are keeping components in the abstract, but with no understanding of how supply works in the game, what units can be applied in tandem for combined arms or technologies, what the difference is between having units stacked or not stacked in same region, etc is both annoying and frustrating and takes the fun out of playing a game with this level of unit complexity. It's like playing chess with only your knowledge of checkers to play the game with; 2) no ability to watch a replay of opposing turn via PBEM and only a "live action' ability to review any action when playing vs AI or PBEM which makes it very difficult to follow in a small game and I have no idea how a large scenario would be trying to observe the action a single time (movement and combat need REPLAY capability to understand what is going on and why), 3) Upon completion of the final turn there is no FINAL RESULTS phase whereby you can send the completed game results to your pbem opponent nor any Final Results information to review beyond the final score. By contrast, Flashpoint Campaigns has a granular information Final Results review phase which is amazing. With this game u can't even click a Complete Final Turn button it just sits in your final turn leaving you to try and figure out what happened.

Tons of typos/misspellings in the game texts.

Further, their website has information for their previous games, but fails to be updated to include the corresponding info for this game which says to me they rushed it to market and it is NOT a finished product which should be purchased at this point.

I am posting this review here for developers, but probably won't be playing it again unless a wide number of playability issues are addressed.

Disappointed as we were looking for a strategic ww3 game to play but 👎 on this one 😟at this point.