The Tsaritsyn Campaign during the Russian Civil War, is little known outside of Russia, although the city would later be renamed Stalingrad, with obvious recognition by most gamers. Stalin's leadership and that of the other Soviet Commanders active around Tsaritsyn was pivotal in saving the Revolution from the Imperialist Forces.
The campaign was full of incident, with lots of victories and defeats on both sides and with much ebb and flow, making it a superb subject for an Operational Level war-game-board-game.
What sets the game apart, in terms of the operational art of war, is the truly effective use of Cavalry at a time when most of Western Europe had dismissed the concept of horsed soldiery as anachronistic. While Western European Armies thought there was nothing that could be done to improve on a boot to boot charge with drawn sabres, the Russians saw Cavalry as a technical arm, using their brightest and best commanders and incorporating firepower and many tactical innovations into formations, fighting mainly with pistols and massed tachanka, while adopting Cossack Lava tactics wholesale. In doing so they ultimately defined the war through aggressive use of a cavalry arm that was capable of fighting both mounted and on foot with a cross section of modern support weapons, all with devastating effect.
This game is designed to give a group of players (anywhere from 2-6) an enjoyable adult war themed game, along with some general historical insight into the operational level military events which took place from June 1918 -January 1920 around the Russian City of Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War. The military actions depicted by the game proved to be a major and important series of campaigns in the Russian Civil War, and helped give Stalin a degree of prominence and support, that he later exploited to his advantage.
What this game is not, is a detailed hyper realistic minute simulation of every aspect of the campaign and the military history surrounding it. It is a game designed with the goal of being elegant, simple, easily assimilated, and above all interesting and fun.
In this game much has been abstracted. Some aspects have been manipulated for play balance and others for simplicity. However, that being said, the game does a pretty good job of modeling, as far as a tabletop board game can, the type of military action at the operational level that was seen on the ground in Southern Russia during the Russian Civil War. It also includes many of the elements that made it unique to the era, location, and the mindset of participants. Armored Trains, Cavalry Raiding, Tank attacks, the Volga Gunboat Flotilla, Leaders, with a simple yet realistic modeling of logistics, supply and support, in an easy to learn, simple to play yet hard to master overall gameplay package.
Be advised, like real war, not everything is in your control. If you want certainty in your games, you might be better buying and playing something else. If the iron dice of war decide to give you a hard time, even the best strategy from the greatest mind might not be enough for victory. Sometimes "дерьмо" happens.
What I as the designer hope the game can promise you, is an enjoyable war-game-board-game experience, with enough simplicity to keep you wanting more, with enough flavor to immerse you in the era, and with enough challenge and tough choices to keep you engaged and thinking until the last dice is rolled.
"Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult. These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction, which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen war. Suppose now a traveller, who, towards evening, expects to accomplish the two stages at the end of his day's journey, four or five leagues, with post horses, on the high road—it is nothing. He arrives now at the last station but one, finds no horses, or very bad ones; then a hilly country, bad roads; it is a dark night, and he is glad when, after a great deal of trouble, he reaches the next station, and finds there some miserable accommodation. So in war, through the influence of an infinity of petty circumstances, which cannot properly be described on paper, things disappoint us, and we fall short of the mark."
Carl von Clausewitz
With that said, grab some pals, set up the game and.......
"Давайте начнем товарищи ....поехали!"
Above all have fun.
—description from the designer
Wargame · Dice Rolling
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