From GMT games - By August 1918 the Reds, controlling the heartland of Russia, were threatened by enemies to the east, north, and south. REDS! is a two-player wargame covering the dramatic events from August 1918 (when the Whites in Siberia served notice that the civil war was not an end) to the start of 1921, when the last organized opposition to Red rule outside the far east was destroyed. The single large-hex map stretches from Warsaw in the west to Omsk in the east, and from Murmansk in the north to Tashkent in the south, at a scale of 65 miles per hex. Turns represent one or two months each.
The OB is extremely colorful, representing various White factions, Cossacks, Anarchists, Nationalists, Allied Intervention Forces, the two divisions of the Czech Legion, and six Polish armies. Units range from armies to brigades. The Red OB is built around the 16 Red Armies organized by Leon Trotsky. There are also two powerful Red cavalry armies, and the elite Latvian Rifle division. The White OB includes everything from Cossack cavalry corps to Moslem partisans and a German Free Corps. Then there is the Anarchist Army of Nestor Makhno, which is controlled by whichever side has units farthest away. Each side also has support units: naval and river flotillas, air units, and of course the famous armored trains. Key leaders are also included, including Frunze, Tukhechevskii, Denikin, Wrangel and Trotsky and his famous Red Train (as well as a counter for the Imperial-or People's-Gold reserve).
Tactically the game emphasizes quality over quantity. Operationally, there are sweeping cavalry advances and slogging matches over major cities (such as Tsaritsyn-the future Stalingrad-known as the Red Verdun). Strategically the game is fought across the map, so that you must frequently juggle campaigns in Siberia, the Caucasus and the Ukraine all at the same time. REDS! is a game of moderate rules complexity; a true player's game that is also a realistic depiction of some of the most titanic and unusual campaigns of modern military history. It is designed by Ted S. Raicer and was published in 2002.
Complexity level = 5. Current Retail price (In Available status as of November 2003) is $45.00.
Here is the GMT web site. REDS is listed as one of the unique "non-serial" games.!
http://www.gmtgames.com/index.html
Below Notes by Eric Burgess
Since a lot of folks haven't heard of this game I thought I might summarize the contents of the game and point you to some web links that offer player's opinions of the game.
Out of the box you get a "humungous" map of Russia from Rumania/Poland to the middle of Siberia from the Black Sea to Murmansk. The map grid is hexes with terrain and rail systems (No roads). The map is nice and functional, but nothing amazing. The following nations have counters in the game: Red Army, Whites (Siberia, North, Northwestern, Southern, etc), Makhno's anarchists, Rumanians, Turks, Poles, French, British, US, Greeks, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Ukrainians, Czech Legion, and White Finns.
Shock units, Tanks, Armored Trains, Aircraft, partisan activities, and Naval support are all represented. Each hex is 25 miles (40 km) across. Each step on a unit is 500 to 1250 men. The counters represent Battlions, regiments, brigades or divisions. (There are over 1000 counters!). I think this game is best played with two Red players and three White players to get the lack of coordination problems both sides had.
Rossyia 1917 is made by Azure Wish Edition (AWE). Here is a review that Robert Markham wrote on the "Web-Grognards" site:
As of November 2003, this shows out of production on the
http://www.levalet.com/ENGCAT/errframes.php?listing=AZURE-A.HTM&menu=../CMENU.HTM&basket=../LOGO.HTM site which shows Azure Wish products. The stock number was AWE/0060 and the price listed as an "out of production" game is $102.95. No stock shown there, but possibly other retailers might have some. - Jay Stribling
Below Notes by Jack Radey
I can strongly reccomend Dave Williams great Red Star White Eagle game produced by GDW, lo these many years ago. Despite a certain amount of pretty fiddly political rules, the game is great.
I cannot reccomend SPIs Russian Civil War and similar games, which lack any clue as to why the Bolsheviks won, likewise a real rare game called Tachanka done by a Bay Area anarchist lawyer (one of my favorite oxymorons, right up there with Orthodox Jewish feminist) Jim something or other. He consulted only anarchist sources so the Makhno units are absolutely overpowering everything in sight, their only weakness being their small numbers, while the Red ants eventually are likely to win. The French and British come on the board turn one and go away on turn two never to return. Lot of cardboard that does nothing. Oh well.
Jack Radey
You can contact Jack about Russian Civil War boardgames (or anything else) at:
Below notes by Jay Stribling
This is an illustration of a new boardgame by PM Games called TANK ACTION IN THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR.
The advertising copy by the publishing company reads as follows: "The game is based on the actual operational tank reports from the British Military Mission. This BMM provided the Whites under General Denikin some 57 MkV and 17 Whippet tanks, and a British manned DH9A bomber squadron.
The game is very tactical with individual MkV, Whippet, Renault tanks, plus the Austin, Garford, Lanchester armor cars. DH9A aircraft,gunboats,weapons are also be depicted.
The game has have one 11x17 map, 200+ counters and nine scenarios.
Scenarios depict the Russian 1st Tank Division in May 1919 thru March 1920, in action. It was because of the tanks that the Whites had made such rapid advances. Then, the Battle for Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad) where British manned tanks and supported by DH9As captured the city in June.
You can reach the PM Games web site at: http://www.jps.net/perrya/
The White Player is in charge of Entente (British, French and American), German Freikorps (various private armies made up of demobilized Wehrmacht veterans, including the 10-division Reichswehr), and Polish National Army forces (led by Marshal Pilsudski, of course). If the Whites are on the ropes, some anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Legions from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Italy will also show up.
This is a DTP game, laser printed in full colour: 280 counters you have to mount yourself (divisions and brigades), 11x17" hex map of the area between Berlin and Warsaw at about 15 miles/hex, 8 pages of rules, the usual charts and tables. Lots of mayhem and chaos and chromy bits (armored trains, naval units, tactical doctrines, offensive surges, the Royal Tank Division, etc.). Available for US$9.00, including postage, from the Microgame Design Group ".
Brian Train is the designer and you can contact him at:
This is the original RCW boardgame published by SPI in 1973. Reviled as unplayable by many it seems to still have a cult following. Long out of print.
On the Russian Civil War discussion list, Richard Tyson had this to say about this game: "I haven't played..(Rossiya 1917)... but I do have the old SPI game on the Russian Civil War. I've only played it a couple of times as it requires a lot of players and time, both things I'm often short of these days.
It's very abstract, with area movement, and players can actually be controlling both Whites & Reds at the same time. It would be difficult to use it to generate miniatures games without considerable modification."
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