Now that they’ve fixed the Russian Revolution rules, I think the only house rule I would impose would be as follows:
Tanks cost 5 instead of 6, and you can start purchasing them on Turn 3 instead of Turn 4.
I still have a conceptual problem with Russia being the only country with a revolution, but from a “game play” perspective, the way the game is set up it makes sense.
Uh, Hello…we had two players. I don’t know who among you guys can find six or seven people to play, but we had one player for the Allies and one for the Central Powers. Neither of us thought it was wrong to do it, and the point of this post wasn’t to solicit opinions about game etiquette. The question was about the rules. Apparently, they have already modified the extremely poorly written rules in the book. Thanks to wove100 for the on-point response.
I know that people have talked about this as being unlikely, but in our second game Russia voluntarily didn’t attack a German force in Belarus in order to trigger the revolution at the end of its turn on Turn 5. Belarus, Livonia and Tatarstan were occupied (the first two by Germans, the last by a massive Ottoman force). Ukraine was contested but Russia would win, sooner or later. Germany also held Poland outright. However, the Ottoman force had come up through Romania (Ottomans controlled that and Sevastopol), and the Russians had sent a force into Mesopotamia (Russian-controlled), Syrian Desert (Russian-controlled) and Ankara (contested).
At the end of the Russian turn, the criteria were met: 3 territories adjacent to Moscow were CP-controlled (Livonia, Belarus, Tatarstan), Moscow was in Russian hands and 1 other province (2, actually) were controlled by the CPs (Sevastopol and Poland). Ukraine was contested, Ankara was contested.
So what happens? The way I read the rules, this is what happens:
1. Moscow, Kazakhstan, Karelia and Finland become impassable for the rest of the game (goodbye British land route from India through conquered Afghanistan)
2. Mesopotamia and Syrian Desert are also impassable because they were Russian-controlled
3. The forces in Ankara are removed from the game.
4. The forces in Ukraine remain and essentially, CP forces can move through but cannot get money from Ukraine or fight Ukraine (though they could fight Allied Powers in Ukraine).
However, for some reason one infantry needs to remain in Ukraine from the CPs (what happens if Allied units want to attack it?)
5. Because Moscow is in revolution the CPs will not be able to count it toward their victory conditions
Is this right? If it is, then the CPs were right to essentially assume that they were finished (Austria had nothing left and Italy was going to probably take Vienna that same turn, Germany had troops but the British and French were in Alsace and Belgium and about to invade the Ruhr, and a massive American force was making its way across the Atlantic; the Ottomans had sent so many troops up into Russia that the British were in Smyrna and, with Italian help, were probably going to take Constantinople).
You want to use Mosin-Nagant infantry from A&A miniatures for the Red Army - they actually look similar to Civil War-era Reds because the uniform hadn’t changed much in the interim.
Also, if you can spend 5 IPCs to destabilize another country, you’ve just essentially added a game mechanic for letting the Germans send Lenin back to Russia…
To address each of your points:
1. My thinking was that infantry losses reflected a loss of large numbers of people, as opposed to losing a tank, where you’re talking effectively about losing 10-20 vehicles, or a plane, where you’re losing a few vehicles at most. It was the horrific human cost of the war that led to revolution, mutiny and disorder. That’s why I thought the infantry should be the standard.
2. As for “buying your way out”, it’s still a difficult prospect, because if you divert 5-10 IPCs every turn to staving off revolution (which could be done, of course - improving the lives of civilians would divert them from the war, but only by diverting needed supplies at the front) you’re neglecting your military goals. It’s a balancing act - spend just enough to stay out of revolution without depleting the Front completely.
3. Regarding Russia being particularly at risk, I think that the “occupation of home territories” component of political instability is something that will hit Russia disproportionately hard, based on what we know about the game setup and the fact that Russia is sort of cut off from the other Allies.
4. The Russian Civil War really started to take contours in 1919, so I think that it would generally be outside the scope of the game. There was no strategic advantage gained by the Allies in their limited intervention in the Civil War, which is why it ended. For purposes of the larger war, the idea is that any nation that drops out is just out of the war. That’s not to say I wouldn’t start looking at creating a fun mini-game using the pieces from this one (but you’d have to add in cavalry).
Hi, I typically participate at the Forumini boards, but I decided to register here because I am very excited about the expansion of Axis & Allies into World War I territory.
To my mind, the biggest flaws that I can see with the game as written right now are the way that the US enters (it seems far too soon and far too arbitrary, and for those who talk about playing the game with seven people, hats off to you - I think the most people I’ve ever gathered for a strategy game has been 4, and that’s rare) and the so-called “Russian Revolution” rules.
The first flaw (US entry) could be tied to the damage done to England (as Tuchman pointed out in The Proud Tower, everyone referred to the country as England before the war) by German submarines. Essentially, let the Germans declare Unrestricted Submarine Warfare whenever they want to without the US entering (which is historically accurate), but be prepared that once a certain level of damage is reached the US enters. If that doesn’t happen, have the US come in on Turn 6. (I am thinking of each turn as half a year, so Turn 1 - 1914, Turns 2 and 3 - 1915, Turns 4 and 5 - 1916, Turns 6-7 - 1917, etc.). What the IPC damage should be is hard to say.
The Russian Revolution rules should be completely and totally scrapped, however. They are FUBAR. The Russian Revolution didn’t take Russia out of the war. It continued to fight until after the Bolshevik coup (later re-named the “Great October Socialist Revolution” in 1928, even the Bolsheviks didn’t call it a revolution for ten years). However, Russia wasn’t the only country that worried about a revolution. England saw the Easter Uprising in Ireland and was nervous about a Labour uprising closer to home. There was a widescale mutiny in the French army (the French Mutiny), and the Austrians were hanging on by their fingernails after 1916. The Germans were close to revolution when they surrendered.
As a result, the way to incorporate the massive unrest caused by sustained war would be to implement a system that substitutes the Russian Revolution rules with universal rules applicable to everyone. Mark Stability Points (SP) at 20 for each country at the start of the game. Then add a new step at the beginning of every turn. First roll two dice. If the result is less than the current SP of the nation, continue to the turn as normal. If you roll the SP of the country by exact count, the country loses a turn due to political instability (February Revolution, French Mutiny, or similar event). If you roll greater than the current SP of the nation, the country is out of the game (use the existing Russian Revolution rules for how to deal with the effect of this). Then reduce the nation’s SP by one if it is at war (i.e., the US doesn’t lose SP each turn while it is neutral). The SP can never be higher than 20 minus the number of turns the nation has been at war.
Then, on the purchase units step, you add two options: 1 - add 1 SP for 5 IPCs (to the maximum SP), 2 - spend 5 IPCs to reduce another nation’s SP by 1 (only one enemy reduction is allowed per country per full round of play, so each Central Power can’t spend to destabilize Russia, but Germany could destabilize Russia, Austria could destabilize Italy and the Ottoman Empire could destabilize England).
Then, when combat results are tallied, for each 5 infantry lost, the country losing the troops suffers a loss of 1 SP. Fractions are rounded down and do not carry over from turn to turn.
Finally, at the end of the turn, for each two territories of your original territory that are occupied at the end of your turn, lose 1 SP (fractions rounded down).