Here’s another example of how determined ordinary Soviet infantrymen could be, especially in engagements with high symbolic value. In a book that he wrote, Marshal Chuikov describes an incident that allegedly occured during the Red Army’s assault on Berlin. A Soviet tank somehow got isolated during the street fighting for the city and was damaged by a German anti-tank round. All but one of its crew were killed. The surviving (though wounded) crewman kept working the main gun, loading and aiming and firing it by himself. When the main gun ran out of ammunition, or was wrecked by another enemy hit (I can’t remember which; I read the book a long time ago), the Russian soldier proceeded to fire the tank’s machine gun at the nearby Germans. When that ran out of ammunition, he started lobbing grenades out of the tank to drive off the Germans who were pounding on the hull and demanding that he surrender. A fresh Soviet unit finally arrived and forced the Germans to retreat. The Russian reinforcements got into the wrecked tank and found the last crewman inside. He was dying of his wounds, but he was holding a knife in his hand, ready to use it to make a final stand against any German soldier who had tried to enter the tank. After telling the other soldiers what had happened, his final words were supposedly, “Thank you, comrades, for not leaving my body in the hands of the Fascists.”
Russian Revolution Redux
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After our game this weekend not using the revolution rules, we wanted to come up with some ideas that might still make the Russian Revolution work that is fair, cannot be exploited, and removes problems with movement, and also has a historical precedent, so here is our Redux idea.
The events that trigger the Russian Revolution remain the same as in the rules.
The Russian Revolution has the following effect:
Russia will no longer have a turn, it out of the game.
Serbia and Romania will be treated as minor neutral powers for the remainder of the game.
All Russian units are immediately removed from the board. Russia removes all control markers from the board. If units belonging to other Allied powers are in these territories, control will be established using the rules for moving all units on one side out of a contested territory (see “Land Units”, page 15), otherwise these territories will be uncontrolled until another power moves into them and will not mobilize units when entered.
The treaty of Brest-Litovsk is now implemented.
Remove all Central Power control markers from Russian territories. Russia cedes the following territories to the Central Powers:
Poland, Livonia, and Belarus to Germany
Ukraine to Austria-Hungary
Sevastopol to the Ottoman EmpireThese territories are considered as “originally owed” territories of these powers for the rest of the game.
Any Allied or Central Powers units must now evacuate out of the remaining Russian territories. Units are evacuated as follows:
The Allied units must move first out of the remaining Russian territories (Moscow, Finland, Karelia, Tatarstan, and Kazakhstan) by moving from any territory they currently occupy to any other adjacent territory that, in priority order, is
- friendly 2) contested or 3) hostile. All units from a territory must move entirely to a single territory, you may not split up. If for any reason they cannot make such a move, then those units are removed from the game.
After the Allies evacuate, the Central powers will now do so in the exact same manner. Once both sides have done so there will be no units whatsoever remaining in the un-ceded Russian territories and these will be considered as out of play for the remainder of the game.
If any Allied units end up in an uncontested, hostile territory they will take control. The Central Powers will be considered to have captured Moscow for victory purposes.
Some Comments:
First we wanted to use the actual terms of the Brest-Litovisk treaty to not only have a historical result, but to provide a “clean” territorial division and a way to get the combatants out of Russian territory all at the end of Russia’s turn. From here on, the game can continue as normal.
Giving the Central Powers credit for capturing Moscow is a must so as to not allow the allies to falsely trigger a revolution to deny them the victory capital.
The trade off is that they can only deny them the IPCs from losing Moscow. If the Central Powers think they can seize Moscow, then they can control not starting a revolution by attacking on a narrow front. If not then, they can meet the terms in the rulebook.
Let us know what you think, we will give this option a try next game. If you see any abuse or imbalance we missed let me know.
Thanks guys
Kim
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Russian Revolution: When the Central Powers control 20 or more IPCs of original Russian areas, the potential for Revolution is activated. Each turn this is accomplished, the German player rolls a die. The first time the roll needs a 6 result to succeed. Each time a new roll occurs, this drops by one.
Effect: When the Russians revolution occurs, they are out of the game. Central power units occupy what they control and Russian units outside of original Russian borders remain as they are and can be attacked, but do not perform any movement/combat. They may defend however. Also, no allied units are allowed to enter in original Russian territories once the revolution begins.
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What happens to those already there?
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What happens to those already there?
Russian units outside of original Russian borders remain as they are and can be attacked, but do not perform any movement/combat.
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@Imperious:
Also, no allied units are allowed to enter in original Russian territories once the revolution begins.
These, here. Allied units already in Russia: is it the Siberian holiday camp for them?