Meat Grinder Dice Wars!

Most war games focus on the front-line battle; this one focuses on the cost borne by those who survive. Your country's colony is under attack by a rival superpower, and you have fully mobilized. In the front lines you have defenders of varying degrees of combat experience, and you have your Boot Camp filled with recruits - and a pool of civilians ready to join if necessary. If you can hold out for 12 battles outside aid from the Mother Country is scheduled to arrive to end the conflict. Fail to have a full roster in the front lines before then and you'll be overrun and defeated. In this SOLO game, the successive "battles" are pure abstraction where the Dice Defenders come out of each battle in one of four categories: (1) dead; (2) recoverably wounded; (3) untouched & gaining more combat experience; or (4) totally burned out. Battle outcomes are measured using the roll of one RED (wounded) D6 die and one BLACK (killed) D6 die. The numbers rolled go against the Combat Experience values of the Dice Defenders. HOWEVER, once all eligible civilians are pulled into Boot Camp, morale at the colony plummets and the two D6 dice are replaced with D8 ones - potentially increasing the number wounded and killed in future battles! With each battle engagement, the survivors become more powerful and less likely to fall into categories 1 & 2. Push their luck too far and they'll fall into category 4. The only way to avoid category 4 is to remove them to Rest & Recreation Centers for a time - which means that while they're recovering, you have fewer experienced defenders on the field to take the brunt of future RED & BLACK dice rolls. As Commander, it's up to you to perform this balancing act of who stays in and who gets time off - at the cost of those under your command! Show too much compassion and you'll lose the war from having too few defenders on the field. Show too little compassion and you'll lose the war from losing too many defenders through their breakdown. Who stays in without recuperating and who has to come back early? All in the name of keeping the front lines fully occupied! Do you have what it takes to make the right call, following the credo - 'Mission first; Men second'?