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Reds!
RU L E B O O K
REDS!
© 2001 Rodger MacGowan
The Russian Civil War, 1918-1921
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.................................................2
2. Components.................................................2
3. Game Set-up................................................3
4. How to Win.................................................4
5. Sequence of Play.........................................4
6. Initiative and Random Events.....................5
7. Activation and the Action Phase.................5
8. Zones of Control.........................................6
9. Stacking.......................................................7
10. Movement...................................................8
11. Combat........................................................10
12 Supply and Rally.........................................12
13. City, Sea and Resource Control..................13
14. Reinforcements and Replacements.............14
15 Poland..........................................................14
16. The Makhno Partisans.................................15
17. Nationalist Garrisons...................................15
18. Allied Withdrawal........................................16
19. Winter..........................................................16
20. Special Units and Markers...........................16
Strategy Notes....................................................19
Design Notes......................................................20
Historical Overview...........................................21
Expanded Sequence of Play...............................24
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
1. Introduction
REDS! is a two-player game covering the Russian Civil War
during its crucial period from August 1918 to April 1921, as
well as the related war between Russia and Poland.
SCALE: About 65 miles per hex, 1-2 months per Operational
Turn.
2. Components
SAMPLE RIVER FLOTILLA
Front
Unit ID
Manpower
Value
Unlimited
Movement
Allowance
SAMPLE GARRISON
2.1 Inventory
• One game map
•1 full and 1 half countersheet
• Two player aid cards
• Two 6-sided dice (one red, one white)
• This rulebook.
SAMPLE LEADER
Name
2.2 The Game Map
The map represents the militarily significant terrain fought over
by the various factions during the Russian Civil War and the war
with Poland. The game map includes charts and tracks whose
use is explained in the appropriate rules sections below.
Cities. All cities on coastal hexes are ports. As per the Terrain
Key, some cities are “resource cities” (13.5), some are “Red cities” (13.1), and some are both. The “Red Terror” Random Event
can convert cities into Red cities for all purposes.
2.3 How to Read the Counters
SAMPLE COMBAT UNIT
Attack
Modifier
Front (Ordered)
Non-replaceable dot
Set up hex or Strategic
Turn of Entry
Defense
Modifier
Movement
Allowance
SAMPLE COSSACK UNIT
Front (Ordered) Eliminated if
Disordered
Defense
Modifier
REDS! includes the following:
Unit Size
Manpower Value
Unit Type
Unit ID
Back
Back (Disordered)
Movement Allowance in a
yellow box indicates movement restricted
to within 8 hexes of
home krug (10.12).
SAMPLE PARTISAN UNIT
Attack Modifier in a black
box indicates the unit may
not attack in conjunction
with other units (20.8).
Hexes with
Increased
Stacking (9.7)
SAMPLE ALLIED INTERVENTION FORCE (AIF) UNIT
2.4 Unit Types
Infantry
Cavalry
Partisan
Garrison
2.5 Unit Sizes
XXXX =
XXX =
XX =
X =
G =
Red box
indicates unit
may only
attack on
White event
#6
Tank
River Flotilla
Naval Flotilla
Armored Train
Aircraft
Army
Corps
Division
Brigade
Garrison
HISTORICAL NOTE: These terms applied only loosely during
this war.
2.6 Unit Colors
All Red (Bolshevik) units are white on red. Each neutral Nationalist Garrison has a color scheme unique to it. White (antiBolshevik) units include:
• Blue on White:
• Green on White:
• Light Blue on White:
• White on Blue:
• Black on Tan:
• Black on Lt. Gray:
• Brown on White:
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR)
Siberian Whites
Islamic Whites, North White Army
Poles
Allied Intervention Forces (AIF)
Generic White Forces
Northwest White Army, Estonian Army,
and von der Goltz Freikorps
Reds!
3. Game Set-up
2.7 Markers
Faction/Front
Activation
Chit
Freikorps
Event
Logistics
Chit
White
Corruption
Event
White
Amphibious
Invasion Event
Tsar
White
Cavalry
Raid Event
Sea
Control
AFSR
Commander
Turn
Gold
(Imperial or People’s)
Red
Terror
Red
Leader
Red
Verdun
Red
Train
Red
Resources
Allied
Withdrawal
White
Resources
AIF
Offensive
Event
Control
Semenov
Raid Event
Done
(Denikin or Wrangel)
(Minor or Major)
(Nicholas II or RIP)
(Red or White)
(for Red units
that cross a
Front border)
IMPORTANT: Except for “Control” and “Done” markers, the
number of counters provided is a limit on play.
2.8 Questions or Damaged/Missing Components?
Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to:
GMT Games, LLC
PO Box 1308
Hanford, CA 93232-1308 USA
Players choose sides and select which scenario, Reds vs White
1918-19 or The Russian Civil War 1918-21, to play. Both scenarios use the same set-up.
3.1 Unit Set-Up
COMBAT UNITS: Regular combat units are divided into those
that start on map, and those that arrive later as reinforcements.
At the start of the game place all units with a 4 digit setup code
in the appropriate hexes. Units that arrive later as reinforcements
have a letter code in place of the 4 digit setup code. Place them
on the appropriate strategic turn on the Turn Record Track.
NAVAL FLOTILLAS: Place the Allied White Sea
naval flotilla near the White Sea, available for
use.
(White or Red)
(Red or White
Initiative)
Or email the games designer at [email protected] or log
onto www.Consimworld.com, and ask the question in either
the GMT company support folder or the Reds! folder in the
WWI section.
SPECIAL UNITS: Place the Air units, Armored Trains, Garrisons, Partisans, River Flotillas and Tanks in the Special Units
Holding Boxes printed on the map. These units enter play
through Random Events.
3.2 Marker Set-Up
SPECIAL MARKERS: Place
the Red Train (20.10), Red
Verdun (20.11), and People’s
Gold (20.6) markers in the
hexes indicated on their counters.
LEADER MARKERS: Place the AFSR Commander, Denikin
side up, in the AFSR Command box. Place all Red leaders to
the side, they enter play through random events.
TRACK MARKERS: Place the Turn marker in the 1 box of
the Game Turn Record Track with the White Initiative side up.
Place the Red Resource marker on the Resource Track in the 5
box (for Moscow, Tula, Petrograd, Tsaritsyn, and the People’s
Gold). Place the White Resource marker on the 2 box (for
Izhevsk and Simbirsk).
SEA CONTROL MARKERS: Place the
four Sea Control markers, White side up,
in each Sea’s (Baltic, Black, Caspian and
White) Control Box.
CITY CONTROL MARKERS: Place White Control markers
on Kandalaksha (1403), Kem (1605),
Ekaterinodar (2924), Samara (3212), Ufa
(3408), Samarkand (5315), Merv (5320)
and 5421. Place Red Control markers on
all remaining, unoccupied, non-Red cities in Russia east of the
Occupation Line. Place the unused control markers to the side
of the map for future use.
PLAY NOTE: The entire map is Russia except for the Baltic
Republics and Poland on the western side of the map.
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
EVENT MARKERS: Place the AIF Offensive, Amphib. Inv,
Cavalry Raid, Minor Allied Withdrawal, Semenov Cossack
Raid, and White Corruption markers near the Game Turn Record
Track for future use.
4.3 White Automatic Victory
The White player wins if the Red player does not control Moscow and at least two other resource cities (the Gold does not
count as a resource city for this purpose).
4.4 Red vs. White 1918-19 Scenario Victory
Conditions
ACTIVATION CHITS: Both players take their Activation chits
and places them near them for use during the game. The White
player also takes the Logistics Activation chit which will be put
in the chit pool every turn.
PLAY NOTE: We have found it useful to place the Red Front
activation markers on the Front boxes of the High Command.
Then when a leader is placed, it displaces a Front marker reminding you that it is available at no cost.
OTHER MARKERS: Place the Red
Terror and Done markers near the map
for future use.
3.3 The Fate of the Tsar
Roll a die to determine the fate of the Tsar: On a 1,
White forces have rescued the Tsar. Place the Tsar
marker in the Tsar box, Nicholas II side up. He will
provide benefits for White rally (12.12). On a 2-6,
Red forces have executed the Tsar. Place the marker in the box
RIP side up.
3.4 Neutral Territory
Transcaucasus, Poland, Baltic Republics and the area west of
the Central Powers’ Occupation Line begin the game neutral and
“out of bounds” in all respects (movement, tracing supply [12.7]
and ZOCs [8.1]). No units may enter these areas until the Great
War has ended (Turn B). After turn B these areas may be entered
but Poland will remain neutral until it enters the war (15.2).
4. How to Win
4.1 The Victory Check Phase
During the Victory Check Phase of each Strategic Turn, the
players check to see if either side has won an automatic victory.
If neither side achieves an automatic victory before the end of
the final turn of the scenario, the scenario victory conditions
are checked.
4.2 Red Automatic Victory
The Red player wins if he has accomplished either of the following during a Victory Check Phase:
• Controls every city on the map outside Poland and the Baltic
Republics, or
• Controls every resource city on the map and has conquered
Poland (15.4).
PLAY NOTE: The Red player does not need to control the Gold
(20.6) to meet either of these conditions.
If neither player wins an automatic victory as described in 4.3,
the Red Player wins if he has forced a Major Allied Withdrawal
by the end of the scenario. Otherwise the White Player wins.
4.5 The Russian Civil War 1918-21 Scenario Victory
Conditions
If neither player has achieved an automatic victory before the
end of the 24th Operational game-turn, check for an automatic
Red victory. If the Red player has achieved either condition,
he wins. Otherwise, the White player wins. The White player
does not have to achieve his automatic victory condition after
Operation turn 24 to win.
5. Sequence of Play
The game is divided into numbered Operational Turns and lettered Strategic Turns. Each Turn is divided into phases carried
out in the sequence shown below.
PLAY NOTE: As shown on the Game Turn Record Track on the
map, there are three Operational Turns between Strategic Turns
except at the beginning and end of the game.
5.1 Operational Turn (number)
I. Initiative Determination Phase (6.1)
II. Random Events Phase (6.3)
A. Non-Initiative Player Random Event Step
(March-April: Redeploy River Flotillas 20.12)
B. Initiative Player Random Events Step
(March-April: Redeploy River Flotillas 20.12)
III. Makhno Allegiance Phase (16.1) (After Turn B)
IV. Strategic Movement Phase (10.2) (Skip during Turn 1)
A. Non-Initiative Player Step
B. Initiative Player Step
C. Red Train Step (20.10)
V. Action Phase
A. Command Segment
1. Command Step (7.4)
2. Chit Pool Step (7.8)
B. Initiative Activation Segment
1. Operational Movement Step (10.6)
(May place garrisons 20.5)
2. Combat Step (11.0)
C. Random Activation Segments
(Repeat until no chits remain, 7.9)
— If Front/Faction activation:
1. Operational Movement Step (10.5)
(May place garrisons 20.5)
2. Combat Step (11.0)
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
— If Logistics chit:
1. White Supply Step (12.2)
2. White Rally Step (12.12)
(May remove garrisons, 20.5)
3. Red Supply Step (12.2)
4. Red Rally Step (12.12)
(May remove garrisons, 20.5)
D. Remove “Done” Markers Segment
7.2 Red Activation Groups
I. Victory Check Phase
II. Allied Withdrawal Phase (Starting Turn C)
III. Reinforcement/Replacement Phase
A. White Reinforcement Step (14.1)
B. Red Reinforcement Step (14.1)
C. White Replacement Step (14.2)
D. Red Replacement Step (14.2)
7.3 White Activation Groups
The Red player’s units are grouped into six Front Commands—
Central Asia, East, North, South, Southwest and West. These
Front Commands are defined by the border hexsides printed
on the map (the White player may ignore these borders for all
purposes). Each Front has an Activation chit. In addition, the
Red player has a seventh Activation chit for his Field Staff (7.11)
which represents the Red Army’s senior headquarters.
5.2 Strategic Turn (letter)
6. Initiative and Random Events
6.1 Determining Initiative
In the Initiative Determination Phase at the start of each Operational Turn, each player rolls a die. If there is a Red leader
in the Field Staff box, the Red player adds one (+1) to his roll.
The high roller has the Initiative for that turn. If there is a tie,
re-roll the dice.
EXCEPTION: On the first turn (August 1918), the White player
automatically has the initiative.
6.2 Benefits of Initiative
The order in which the players conduct the Random Events Phase
and Strategic Movement phase depend on who has the initiative. In addition, the player with the initiative will get to select
one of his Activation chits to be played as the first Activation
during the Action Phase.
The White player’s units are grouped by which Faction the units
belonged to. There are six Activation chits for the White player:
one each for the Factions of the Armed Forces of South Russia
(AFSR), Siberian Whites, Poles, Allied Intervention Forces
(AIF), Northwest White Army (with the Estonian army and von
der Goltz) and one which activates both the Islamic Whites and
the North White Army.
7.4 The Command Step
Each turn during the Command Step, the players determine
which of their Activation chits are available to be used. The
White player’s Activation chits are available according to rule
7.5 while the Red player’s activation chits are selected per
7.7.
7.5 Availability of White Activation Chits
At the start of the game, the White player only has four Activation chits available: AFSR, AIF, Siberian and Islamic/North
(the North Army is not yet in play, but the Islamic Army is). On
Strategic Turn B, the Activation chits for the Northwest Army
and the Poles become available.
At start
6.3 Random Events
During the Random Events Phase, each player rolls two dice
and refers to their total on the appropriate Random Events
Table. The non-Initiative player will roll his dice and apply his
results first. In some cases, the results will be no event based
upon the circumstances. For instance, if the result calls for an
armored train to enter but there are none available, the event
does not occur.
7. Activation and the Action Phase
7.1 Purpose
All operational movement and combat occurs during the Activation Segments of the Action Phase. Units are activate in groups.
Thus, not all units move and attack during these segments, rather
only those that belong to the activated group. Groups are activated when the group’s Activation chit is randomly drawn from
the Chit Pool. Groups can also be activated during the Initiative
Activation Segment or when the Field Staff Chit is pulled.
Available Turn B
7.6 Removing White Activation Chits from Play
Only the AIF and Poles Activation chits may be removed.
Activation chits for the other Factions are never removed once
they become available (even if no units of that Faction remain
in play).
AIF: When the Major Allied Withdrawal (18.4) occurs, the
White player may no longer use the AIF Activation chit. Remove
it from play.
POLES: If Poland is conquered or reverts to neutrality after
going to war (15.4 and 15.5), the White player may no longer
use the Polish Activation chit. Remove it from play.
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
7.7 Selecting Red Activation Chits
The Activation chits for the Red player are not as set as for the
White Player. The Red Player must make choices of which Activation chits are available each turn. The Red player automatically receives the Field Staff Activation chit each turn plus the
Activation chit for any Fronts that have a Red leader in their Red
Army High Command box. In addition, the Red player gets to
select the Activation chit for any two Fronts that do not have a
Red leader in the High Command box. The selected chits must
be revealed to the White player.
PLAY NOTE: A leader in the Field Staff box has no effect on
activation because the Field Staff chit is always used.
7.8 Chit Pool Step
8. Zones of Control
8.1 Zones of Control in General
All infantry and cavalry units have a Zone of
Control (ZOC) projecting into the six adjacent
hexes. ZOCs do not extend across the following hexsides:
•
•
•
•
•
across unfrozen lake hexsides.
across all-sea hexsides.
across the border of neutral Poland (15.1).
across the Central Powers Occupation Line before Turn B.
The Estonian Army unit does not project a ZOC outside the
Baltic Republics.
In the Chit Pool Step, the Initiative player picks one of his
available Activation chits to be the first activation of the Action
Phase. This Activation chit is not placed in the chit pool. The
Initiative player places the remaining selected Activation chits
into a chit pool along with all the available Activation chits of
the non-initiative player. The players also add the Logistics chit
to the chit pool.
8.2 Units Without ZOCs
PLAY NOTE: It rarely makes sense for the Red player with
Initiative to select the Field Staff as his first activation.
• The Red 1st Konarmiia cavalry.
• Any raiding White cavalry (20.4).
• The Makhno unit—for ZOC within the Makhno District.
7.9 Activation Segments
The majority of the Action Phase consists of Activation Segments.
The first Activation Segment will use the Activation chit which
the Initiative player chose during the Chit Pool Step. The remaining Activations Segments will use a randomly drawn chit from the
chit pool. The random draw will either activate a Front/Faction
or initiate the Logistics Segment. The Activation Segments will
continue until there are no chits left in the chit pool.
7.10 Effects of Activation
Activation of a Front or Faction enables all Red units within that
Front area or all available White units belonging to that Faction, respectively, to carry out operational movement during the
Movement Step and then to attack in the Combat Step.
EXCEPTION: Units marked Done (10.12) at the start of an
Activation Segment may not conduct movement or combat.
PLAY NOTE: Some White special units (such as aircraft or
tanks) do not belong to any Faction—see rules section 20 for
activation of such units.
7.11 The Field Staff Chit
When the Field Staff chit is drawn, the Red player may activate
any Front that has not yet been activated that turn. If the Red
player selects a Front whose chit is in the cup, that Front is NOT
activated a second time when its chit is drawn; instead, set the
Front’s chit aside.
7.12 The Logistics Chit
Garrisons, partisans, raiding White cavalry (20.4), and special
units (20.0) do not have ZOC.
8.3 Units That Ignore ZOCs
The following units ignore enemy ZOC for all purposes (and
are marked with a “Z” symbol as a reminder):
8.4 Negating ZOCs
Friendly units negate enemy ZOCs for strategic movement,
retreat and supply, but not for operational movement.
8.5 ZOC Effects on Strategic Movement
• Units may begin and end strategic movement (10.2) in an
enemy zone of control.
• Units may not pass through an unnegated enemy ZOC during
strategic movement.
8.6 ZOC Effects on Operational Movement
• A unit conducting operational movement (10.6) must stop
upon entering an enemy ZOC.
• A unit may not move directly from one enemy ZOC to another.
NOTE: friendly units do not negate enemy ZOC for operational
movement.
8.7 ZOC Effects on Supply
Supply may not be traced through unnegated enemy ZOC (12.7).
Friendly units negate enemy ZOC for the purpose of tracing a
line of supply.
When the Logistics chit is drawn, the White player
followed by the Red player will conduct a Supply
Step and a Rally Step (See 12.0).
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
9. Stacking
10. Movement
9.1 Stacking Limits
The number of units in a hex is limited to six manpower points,
with the exception that Red Leaders allowing an increase in
stacking to nine manpower points (see 9.7). Stacking limits
apply at the end of each strategic movement step, each operational movement step, each combat step, and at the end of the
replacement/reinforcement phase.
9.2 Examination of Stacks
Players may freely examine one another’s stacks at all times.
10.1 Movement in General
Movement in Reds! is divided into two types, strategic and
operational. Each is carried out in its own phase. Strategic
movement allows Infantry and Cavalry units to ignore their
printed movement allowances and to move potentially long
distances. The number of units that can use strategic movement
is limited. Most movement will be operational movement. Here,
the distance a units may move is limited by their movement
allowances. Note: Armored Trains and River Flotilla units may
move an unlimited number of hexes in operational movement,
HISTORICAL NOTE: There was a great deal of spying, along
with soldiers deserting, and a general lack of proper secrecy in
the Russian Civil War.
9.3 Stacking of Special Units
B
The special units listed below do not count for stacking. However, only one unit of each type is allowed in a hex.
• Aircraft (20.1)
• Armored Train (20.3)
• Garrison (20.5)
• Naval Flotilla (20.7)
• River Flotilla (20.12)
• Tank (20.13)
• People’s or Imperial Gold (20.6)*
• The Red Train (20.10)*
*There is only one of each of these units.
9.4 Partisans and Stacking
Partisan units (20.8) may never stack.
9.5 Stacking Restriction of White Factions
Units belonging to different White Factions may not stack
together. Exception: AIF units may stack with units from any
White Faction.
9.6 Neutral Units and Stacking
Neither side may stack with or enter a
hex occupied by neutral Polish (15.0)
or Nationalist Garrison (17.0) units.
C
B
EXAMPLE OF ZOCs ON MOVEMENT: The Czech 1st Division
cannot move at all, even back into the 2nd Czech Divisions hex
because movement from one enemy ZOC to another is prohibited in operational movement. Remember, friendly units do not
negate ZOC for operational movement. The 2nd Czech Division
could only move into the two hexes marked B for its first movement point, before continuing to use its last 2 movement points
if desired. Note, the 1st Czech Division would still be able to
retreat and draw supply through the hex occupied by the 2nd
Czech Division. Also note, if the 1st Czech Division was instead
a raiding white cavalry unit (20.4), it could freely ignore ZOC
and could move where ever the white player desires.
EXCEPTION: White units may stack with or pass through the
Ukrainian Garrison (17.2).
9.7 Red Leader Effects on Stacking
Each Red leader in a Red Army High Command
box (not the Field Staff box) allows nine manpower
points to stack in a hex within the leader’s front.
The number of hexes with increased stacking is
limited to the number on the leader’s counter. The increased
limit applies at all times while the leader is in command. If the
leader is removed by random events, the next time that front
is activated, the Red player must bring any over-stacked hexes
into the normal stacking limits by the end of the operational
movement phase. Failure to do so causes any over stacked units
to be eliminated (white players choice).
EXAMPLE OF STACKING: The four White units stacked together have a total Manpower value of six. Note that the two
Red units each have a Manpower Value of 4 and so cannot stack
together unless a Red Leader is used.
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
but may not use strategic movement. Units may conduct both
strategic and operational movement in the same turn.
10.2 Strategic Movement In General
Only infantry and cavalry units and the Imperial/People’s Gold
(20.6) may use strategic movement. No special units­—including tanks, armored trains, river flotillas, partisans—may use
strategic movement.
RESTRICTIONS:
• A unit using strategic movement must begin and end movement in a friendly-controlled (not neutral) city (13.1).
• A unit may begin and end strategic movement in an enemy
ZOC (8.0), but may not otherwise enter an enemy ZOC unless
negated by a friendly unit.
• A unit may not use both rail/river strategic movement and sea
strategic movement in the same turn.
IMPORTANT: There is no strategic movement (including Red
Train, 20.10) on Turn 1. Strategic movement is the only way
the Gold may move.
10.3 Rail/River Strategic Movement Procedure
To conduct rail/river strategic movement, a unit moves an unlimited distance along either connected rail or river hexes within
the following restrictions:
• The unit may not enter enemy-controlled cities or enemy occupied hexes.
• The unit may not enter a Makhno District city unless it is
occupied by a friendly unit (Exception: the Red player may
enter a Makhno District city if is occupied by a Red Terror
marker).
STRATEGIC MOVEMENT EXAMPLE: The AFSR army uses Sea
Strategic Movement to move from Odessa to Novorossiisk. This
is possible because the Black Sea is under White control. The 1st
Don Cossack Army uses Rail Strategic Movement to also move
to Novorossiisk. Rail Strategic Movement is not possible through
• There is no river movement during Winter (19.0).
• Infantry and cavalry may not combine rail with river movement in one turn. The Gold may freely combine rail with river
movement.
• The unit may not enter neutral-occupied hexes (exception:
White units may pass through the Ukrainian Garrison), but
may pass through un-occupied neutral cities.
10.4 Rail/River Strategic Movement Limits
WHITE PLAYER: may move up to 2 manpower points of AFSR
Faction units, 2 manpower points of White Siberian Faction
units, and the Imperial Gold by rail/river strategic movement
each Strategic Movement Phase.
RED PLAYER: may move up to 9 manpower points of Red
units and the People’s Gold by rail/river strategic movement
each Strategic Movement Phase.
10.5 Sea Strategic Movement
To conduct sea strategic movement, a unit moves from one
friendly-controlled port to another friendly-controlled port within one sea. Units may not move from one sea to another. Both
sides may move up to 4 manpower points of units in each sea
they control (13.3) during each Strategic Movement Phase.
EXCEPTIONS:
• Sea movement is not allowed on the White and Baltic Seas
during Winter (19.0).
• The von der Goltz Freikorps may never use Sea Strategic
Movement.
Rostov since that is a Red City not under White control. Notice
that the Kappel Brigade is necessary to negate the enemy ZOC
on the rail line. Also note that all Strategic Movement started
and ended on friendly controlled cities.
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
10.6 Operational Movement Procedure
All operational movement takes place during the Movement Step
of an Activation Segment, and is completed before the Combat
Step begins. When activated, units may move from hex to hex,
paying terrain costs according to the Terrain Effects Chart, up
to their movement allowance. A unit may not enter a hex unless
it has sufficient movement points to pay the terrain cost of the
hex; if it doesn’t, it may not enter the hex. Units may not save
movement allowances from turn to turn, lend them from one
unit to another, or skip over hexes as they move. The movement
of each individual unit or stack must be completed before that
of another is begun.
10.7 Movement of Special Units
• Armored trains move an unlimited distance along connected
rail hexes (20.3)
• River flotillas move an unlimited distance along connected
river hexes (20.12).
• > Armored trains and river flotillas may not enter enemycontrolled cities unless moving with infantry or cavalry.
• Naval flotillas (20.7) and aircraft units (20.1) do not move in
the conventional sense. Rather they are placed in the same hex
with other combat units during the combat phase (11.3).
• Garrison units (20.5) never move.
10.8 Movement and Supply
An in supply unit may not end its movement in a hex which
would put it out of supply (12.4).
10.9 Done Markers
If a Red unit operationally moves, advances, or retreats from a
currently or previously activated Front into a Front that has yet
to be activated, place a “Done” marker on it. It may not move
A
or attack if that new Front is activated in a subsequent Activation Segment later that same Action Phase. Remove all “Done”
markers at the end of the Action Phase.
10.10 Movement Restrictions in Poland
• Red units may not enter Poland while it is neutral (15.1).
• Non-Polish White units may never enter Poland.
• Polish units while neutral (15.1) must remain within one hex
of Poland (i.e., adjacent to a Polish border hexside).
10.11 Movement Restrictions in the Baltic Republics
• AIF units may not enter the Baltic Republics.
• The von der Goltz Freikorps unit may not leave
the Baltic Republics until White rolls the “Freikorps” Random Event.
• The Estonian Army unit may not move or attack
outside the Baltic Republics, nor does its ZOC project across
a Baltic Republics border hexside.
• Northwest Army units that leave the Baltic Republics may
not re-enter.
PLAY NOTE: Northwest Army units that remain in the Baltics
will be eliminated after Major Allied Withdrawal (18.4).
10.12 Cossack Home Krugs
Cossack units must remain within 8 hexes of their home krug
hex (the path may not be traced across all-sea hexsides), and
may not attack a hex outside this range. Raiding Cossack units
(see 20.4) are affected by this rule. A unit’s home krug hex is
identified by a yellow triangle containing the first letter of the
Cossack unit’s name. Example: Omsk (4301) is the home krug
hex for the Siberian Cossacks and Novocherkassk (2921) is the
home krug hex for both 1 Don Cossack and 2 Don Cossack.
A
A
EXAMPLE OF OPERATIONAL MOVEMENT: If the Red East
Front is activated only the 16 Army could move. The 15 Army
has entered the East Front from a previous activation (hence
the Done marker). If the Siberian faction is activated all three
Siberian units could move plus the two special units stacked
with the 1st Czech Division. Note that the 1st Siberian Division
cannot capture Kazan since it can not move out of supply (one
hex off a rail or river line). It could move to the hexes marked A.
The Cossack unit is currently at the maximum distance from his
home krug and so cannot move any further west. If the 1st Czech
Division moves out of Ufa, then either another infantry/cavalry
unit would have to move into Ufa, or the armored train and river
flotilla would have to move to a new hex that contains an infantry/cavalry unit or else they would be eliminated.
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Reds!
10
10.13 Other Territorial Movement Restrictions
• Units may not enter the Transcaucasus or the area west of the
Occupation Line before Turn B.
• The Makhno unit (16.0) must remain within two hexes of the
Makhno District. The two hex distance may not trace over
all-sea hexsides.
11. Combat
11.1 General Rules
Active units (in or out of supply) may attack adjacent opposing
units during the Combat Step of an activation segment. Combat
is voluntary. Some units in a hex may attack while others do not.
Units in a hex may attack different hexes in separate combats.
Each attack is made against only one defending hex. All defending units in the attacked hex must participate.
EXCEPTION: Garrisons (20.5) may not attack and are ignored
in defense if stacked with other units.
11.2 Combat Restrictions
• No unit may attack more than once per combat step and no
hex may be attacked more than once per combat step.
• Partisan units (20.8) may not attack together with other units,
including other partisan units.
• Partisans (except Makhno partisans, 20.8) and Raiding cavalry
(20.4) may only attack lone garrisons or partisans.
• AIF units may attack only if White rolls Event #6 that turn.
Their attack modifier is enclosed in a red box to remind players of this.
11.3 Combat Procedure
The active player need not declare all attacks beforehand and
may resolve attacks in any order, as long as one combat is completed before the next is begun. Each combat is conducted by
using the following procedure:
A.Combat Designation
B.Attacker Air/Naval commitment
C.Defender Air/Naval commitment
D.Determine Combat Odds
E.Determine Combat Modifiers
F. Determine Combat Strengths
G.Determine Combat Differential
H.Determine Combat Results
I. Apply Combat Results
E) Each player totals the modifiers of his participating units. All
units have attack and defense modifiers except Garrisons which
only have a defense modifier since they may not attack (20.5).
The attacking units use their attack modifiers, and the defending
units use their defense modifiers.
F) Each player rolls one die, multiplies the die roll by the
number of his participating units and adds/subtracts his total
modifiers to the product to determine his combat strength. A
player’s combat strength can never be less than the number of
units involved on his side.
EXAMPLE 1: If four units with attack modifiers of +2, –1, +0
and –3 participate in a single combat, then the four attack modifiers totaled together would be –2. The attacker then rolls a die
and multiplies it by the number of attacking units (4) and adds
the attack modifier (–2). If the die roll was 3, the final attacking
strength would be (4x3)–2 = 10.
EXAMPLE 2: If three units with defense modifiers of 0, –1 and
–3 were defending (a total modifier of –4) and the die roll was
two, the calculation would be (3x2)–4 = 2. However, because
the minimum combat strength is always one per unit the final
defense strenght is 3.
G) After determining combat strengths, subtract the defender’s
from the attacker’s to find the combat differential. This may be
a negative number.
H) Determine the combat result by cross-referencing the combat
odds with the combat differential on the Combat Results Table,
shifting odds (cumulatively) for any terrain as specified on the
Terrain Effects Chart. Treat odds less than 1:3 or greater than
4:1 after column shifts as 1:3 or 4:1, respectively. So units attacked at 6-1 in a city would be shifted to 5-1, and resolved on
the 4-1 column of the CRT.
11.4 Rivers Effect on Combat
The attacker suffers a column shift left (1L ) if the defender is
on a river hex and none of the participating attacking units are
attacking from a hex along the same river.
C
A) The active player designates which units are attacking and
which hex is being attacked.
B) The attacker announces if he is committing any air units or
naval flotillas.
A
C) The defender announces if he is committing any air units or
naval flotillas.
D) Determine the combat odds by dividing the total manpower
value of the attacking units by that of defending units. Round
off in the defender’s favor, and then reduce it to a simple ratio.
For example: 7 attacking 4 would be a 1-1; and 2 attacking 3
would be a 1-2.
B
EXAMPLE OF RIVERS AND DEFENSE: To avoid suffering
the river combat shift (1L) the Red player would have to attack
with Red Unit B and C. Note that Kazan is a “Red City” so Red
units do not suffer a shift for the city.
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TWO RIVERS IN THE SAME HEX: The defender gets one
shift if the attacker is on neither river or attacking along only
one of the three river lines meeting in the defending hex.
11.5 Combat Results
Combat can result in either no units, one unit or all units on side
being disordered. In addition units may be forced to retreat
Disorder: To disorder a unit, flip a two step unit to its back side
(which has lower combat modifiers) or eliminate a previously
disordered unit or one-step unit.
HISTORICAL NOTE: When a unit is “eliminated” it doesn’t
mean every man in the unit has been killed; it means enough
casualties and equipment losses have been inflicted to render
the unit useless for further combat operations.
a,d: Single Attacker or defender Disorder: the largest non-garrison participating manpower-value unit is disordered. If there are
more than one unit with the same largest manpower, the affected
player may choose which of these units is disordered.
A,D: All attacking or defending units respectively become
disordered.
NOTE: If a disorder result causes all defending unit(s) to be
eliminated, eliminate any garrison units in the defender’s hex.
1
11
R: Retreat. For the side affected by the previous letter, retreat
all non-garrison units 2 hexes and eliminate garrisons.
NOTE: Garrison units alone in a hex may only be eliminated
by an R result.
11.6 Retreat Procedure and Restrictions
1) Units must end their retreat two hexes from the defending
hex and at least two hexes away from all enemy units involved
in the combat or be eliminated.
2) Units (except Raiding Cavalry and Partisans) must end their
retreat in supply if possible.
3) If two or more units are retreating, they may retreat into different hexes.
4) If units end their retreat in violation of stacking limits, the
owning player must eliminate excess units.
5) A stack of units may retreat through unnegated enemy ZOC at
a cost of one additional disorder result (regardless of the number
of retreating units involved) per ZOC hex.
6) A unit that is forced to end its retreat in an unnegated enemy
ZOC is eliminated.
7) Units may only retreat into hexes they may normally enter.
Units that cannot retreat are eliminated. To site a few examples:
Armored Trains must retreat through connected rail hexes, and
combat strength would have been (1x1)+2=3, giving a differential of only +4. Hint: rolling high numbers is important when
your attack or defense consist of two or more units.
2
Eliminated
in Retreat
Eliminated
EXAMPLE 1: The AFSR army attacks the disordered Red 1st
Army. Combat odds (manpower comparison) is 2 to 4 or 1-2.
Boths players roll a 3. This means the combat strength of the
AFSR unit is (3x1)+3=6 and the combat strength of the 1st Army
is (3x1)–1=2. Subtracting 2 from 6 results in a differential of
+4. On the 1-2 column this is an ad result.
EXAMPLE 2: The three AFSR units attack the 16th Army in
Moscow. Manpower comparison is 5 to 4 which means the odds
are 1-1 but the city shift makes it 1-2. Both sides roll a 6. The
combat strength of the AFSR units is 6x3=18 and then modified
by combat modifiers to 22 (18+2+3–1=22). The combat strength
of the Red unit is (6x1)+2=8. The differential is +14 giving an
aDR result. Note that had the dice rolls both been 1’s the AFSR
combat strength would have been (1x3)+2+3–1=7) and the Red
EXAMPLE 1 CONTINUED: The result was ad—both units become disordered. Since the Red 1 Army was already disordered
it is eliminated. The AFSR army becomes disordered and if it
would remain in supply may advance into the vacated hex.
EXAMPLE 2 CONTINUED: The result was an aDR. One attacking unit is disordered and all defending units are disordered
and must retreat. However, the retreat must enter an enemy
ZOC (the advance of the AFSR army on the left flank blocked
the last safe passage out of Moscow) and so the Red 16 Army
is disordered again which eliminates it. The 1st Don Cossack
Cavalry Army enters Moscow.
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River Flotillas must retreat through connected river hexes. The
Volga has no special effect on retreats.
8) Units which retreat into a hex which is attacked during the
same Combat Step (only) add nothing to the defense, and are
eliminated if the defender suffers any combat result.
11.7 Red Verdun and Retreats
Red units stacked with the Red Verdun marker do not retreat
unless attacked by tanks (20.13). A lone garrison is eliminated
by an R result even if stacked with the Red Verdun marker.
11.8 Advance After Combat
Attacking units may advance into the defending hex if combat
eliminates or retreats all defenders. Armored trains may advance
only along rail lines. River flotillas may advance only along
rivers. An enemy ZOC has no effect on advance after combat.
Units that are in supply may not advance after combat into a
hex which is out of supply.
12. Supply and Rally
12.1 Purpose
Units require supply to survive, rally, and perform strategic
movement. Rally (12.12) allows disordered units a chance to
flip back to their front side.
12.2 The Logistics Chit
When the Logistics chit is pulled from the chit pool, the White
player checks the supply status of his units and then attempts
A
to rally his supplied disordered units and may remove any of
his garrisons he wishes. After the White player has finished his
supply check and rally, the Red player conducts a supply check
and rally for his units and removes his garrisons.
12.3 Movement and Supply
No unit (including non-raiding cavalry) that is in supply may
operationally move or advance after combat so as to end out
of supply. A unit’s supply state for this rule is determined at the start of the Operational Movement
Step. Place an Out of Supply marker on all units
that are OOS. Remove all such markers at the end
of the Combat Step.
PLAY NOTE: In practice the formality of marking OOS will
often not be needed.
12.4 Tracing a Supply Line
To be in supply, a unit must be able to trace a supply line to an
appropriate supply source (12.8) or be on the coast of a friendlycontrolled sea. A supply line can be a maximum of one hex to
supply source or to a rail line or river hex which is connected
to a supply source.
12.5 Rail and Rivers as Supply Lines
A rail line or river hex is connected to a supply source if an
un-interrupted path of hexes can be traced from it to the supply
source. The path can consist of at most two segments. One segment must be all contiguous rail line hexes. The other segment
must be all contiguous river hexes. If both segments are used, the
B
D
C
E
EXAMPLE OF SUPPLY: All the white units are in supply or have
a line of supply. Unit A is on a rail line that leads to Sevastopol.
Unit B can trace one hex to a river, down the river to Ekaterinoslav and then along the rail line to Sevastopol (note that the ZOC
of the Red 16th Army blocks its use of the rail line in hex 2422).
Occupation of Ekaterinoslav by unit C is necessary because sup-
ply cannot be traced through unoccupied Makhno District cities.
Unit D cannot trace through Gulai Pole or Rostov (a Red city)
but can trace port to port to Sevastopol via Taganrog. Unit E is
a Siberian Faction unit and cannot use any of the supply sources
shown. However, it is on a coastal hex on a friendly controlled
sea so is automatically in supply.
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rail line and the river segments must meet in a common hex.
PLAY NOTE: Rivers MAY be used for supply in winter (17.0).
12.6 Ports and Coastal Hexes as Supply Lines
A supply line may trace from one port to another port on a
friendly-controlled sea as part of a river segment. Units on a
coastal hex of a friendly controlled sea are considered automatically in supply, even if there is no friendly controlled supply
source on that sea.
12.7 Blocking Supply Lines
A supply path is interrupted or blocked by the following:
• Enemy or neutral units.*
• Enemy or neutral ZOC which is not negated by friendly
units.
• Enemy-controlled cities.
• Unoccupied Makhno District cities.
• Before Turn B, the Occupation Line.
*EXCEPTION: The Ukrainian Garrison does not block White
supply when stacked with a White unit.
PLAY NOTE: Lake hexsides and Non-Makhno neutral cities do
not block supply. In addition, Makhno cities converted by Red
Terror do not block supply for Red units.
12.8 Supply Sources
Red supply sources are Moscow (2313) and Tashkent (5412).
White supply sources are specific to each faction and are indicated on the map.
WHITE SUPPLY SOURCES:
AFSR: Odessa (2124), Sevastopol (2525), Novorossiysk
(2825) or Batum (3326).
Siberian Whites: Omsk (4301).
North Army: Murmansk (1201) or Archangel (1904).
Northwest Army, the Estonian Army and von der Goltz:
Reval (1312).
Polish Army: Warsaw (1221).
Islamic Whites: Ashkabad (4922) and hex 5421.
AIF Units: Any White Supply Source outside Poland or
the Baltic republics.
PLAY NOTE: Supply sources that are ports remain supply
sources regardless of sea control (13.3).
12.9 Out of Supply (OOS) Effects
• OOS units may not use strategic movement.
• Units out of supply during the Logistics Segment (12.2) suffer
a disorder result.
• OOS units may not be rallied (12.12).
• Armored trains and river flotillas may not be initially placed
on an OOS unit.
• The White player may not place the Cavalry Raid marker on
an OOS unit.
13
12.10 Units Unaffected by Supply
Partisan, garrison and raiding cavalry units are not affected by
lack of supply. Cossacks in their home krug hex are always in
supply.
12.11 Supply and Major Allied Withdrawal
Major Allied Withdrawal affects supply for White units in the
Transcaucasus—see 18.4.
12.12 Rally
During their Rally Step of each Logistics Segment, the players roll a die for each of their supplied disordered units on the
map and checks the result against the type of unit on the Rally
Table to see if it rallies. If a unit rallies, it is flipped back to its
front side.
The Tsar. If Nicholas II is alive and Major Allied
Withdrawal (18.4) has not occurred, each Logistics
Phase, before rolling to rally his units, the White
player may choose one supplied AFSR or Siberian
infantry (only) unit to rally automatically.
Partisans: Partisans do not need supply to attempt rally.
Red Train: The placement of the Red Train (20.10) affects the
rally of Red units.
Wrangel and Denikin: Once Wrangel enters play (White Event
#12) all AFSR units modify their rally die roll by –1. Note that
Denikin has no effect in the game.
13. City, Sea and Resource
Control
13.1 Definition of Control
Cities (and the one non-city supply source, hex 5421) are controlled by the last side to have entered them.
EXCEPTIONS:
• “Red Cities” (including cities with Red Terror markers) revert
to Red control whenever free of White units.
• Makhno District cities—Ekaterinoslav (2423) and Gulai Pole
(2522)—are neutral unless occupied by non-Makhno units or
converted by Red Terror.
• Cities controlled by Polish units—even once Poland is at war
(15.2)—are neutral.
PLAY NOTE: Use White control markers to mark unoccupied
cities controlled by White and either Red control markers or,
if a Red city, the absence of a marker to mark control by the
Red player.
13.2 City Control and Turn B
At the start of play, cities are controlled per the set-up instructions of 3.2. On Turn B, the Red player gains control of all
unoccupied Red Cities west of the Occupation Line and the
Whites gain control of Reval (1312), Batum (3326) and Sevastopol (2525).
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Reds!
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13.3 Sea Control
At the start of play, the White player controls all
four seas: Black, Baltic, Caspian and White. At the
instant of, or any time after, a Major Allied Withdrawal (18.4) the Red player takes control of each
of the Baltic, Caspian and/or White Seas on which it controls
at least one port (flip the markers). Once the Red player gains
control of a Sea it never goes back to White control.
PLAY NOTE: The White player always controls the Black
Sea.
13.4 Effects of Sea Control
Sea control affects sea movement (10.5) and coastal and port-toport supply (12.6). It does not affect White supply sources.
EXAMPLE: The White North Army may still draw supply from
Murmansk even if the White Sea is Red controlled.
13.5 Resource Cities and the Resource Track
Resource Cities are important for determining Allied Withdrawal
(18.0) and Victory (4.0). As resource cities and the Gold marker
(20.6) change hands, adjust markers on the Resource Track
accordingly.
13.6 Neutrals and Resources
Resources controlled by neutral units (Polish [15.0], Makhno
[16.0], Nationalist Garrison [17.0], and the von der Goltz Freikorps before the “Freikorps” Random Event has occurred) count
toward neither side’s total.
14. Reinforcements and
Replacements
14.1 Reinforcements
During the Reinforcement Steps, the players place new units
scheduled to arrive during that Strategic Turn. Units may be
placed in an enemy ZOC but not in an enemy-controlled city
or an enemy occupied hex. Stacking restrictions apply (9.0). If
no appropriate hex is available, move the new units to the next
Strategic Turn on the Turn Record Track for entry then.
Place units as follows:
• Units with a hex listed on them in that hex.
• Red units in a Red-controlled city that can trace supply (12.4)
to Moscow.
• AFSR units in any White-controlled, non-Red, non-Red-Terror city that can trace supply to a Black Sea supply source (or
in such a source itself). Sevastopol may be chosen only if no
other city is available without violating stacking.
• North Army units in any White-controlled, non-Red, nonRed-Terror city that can trace supply to Murmansk (1201) or
Archangel (1904) (or in one of those cities).
• Siberian Faction units in any White-controlled, non-Red, nonRed-Terror city that can trace supply to Omsk (or in Omsk,
4301).
• Cossacks only in their home krug hex.
• Polish units at Warsaw (1221) or any city in Poland in supply
to Warsaw.
• Naval flotillas off map near the listed Sea.
PLAY NOTE: Odessa (2124) is a Red City and therefore ineligible for AFSR placement even though an AFSR supply source.
14.2 Replacements in General
During the Replacement Steps, players may return previously
eliminated infantry or cavalry units to play on their DISORDERED side. Place units as if they were Reinforcements, but
ignoring any hex number. Replacement allowances (14.3 and
14.4) do not accumulate from turn to turn, any replacements
that cannot be used immediately are forfeited.
NOTE: Units with a non-replaceable dot are ineligible to be
replaced. Once eliminated they may never return to play.
14.3 White Player Replacement Allowance
Each Strategic Turn, the White player may replace:
• One AFSR Faction unit until Major Allied Withdrawal (none
thereafter).
• One Siberian Faction unit until Major Allied Withdrawal (none
thereafter).
• One Polish unit.
• If the Ukrainian Nationalist Garrison has been eliminated and
Kiev is not Red-controlled, place the Ukrainian garrison in
Kiev (hex 1920).
14.4 Red Player Replacement Allowance
Each Strategic Turn, the Red player may replace:
• One unit for control of Moscow (2313)
• One unit for control of Petrograd (1611) if in supply to Moscow.
• One unit for control of Tula (2315), if in supply to Moscow.
• One unit for every THREE additional resources (including the
People’s Gold) controlled and in supply to Moscow. There is
no effect for having one or two additional resources; it must
be an even multiple of three.
14.5 Replacement of the Makhno Partisans
Once per game, the Red Player may replace the Makhno Partisan
unit, placing it (on its reduced side) into any unoccupied space
in or adjacent to the Makhno District.
PLAY NOTE: Per 16.1, the replaced Makhno unit in some cases
immediately would revert to White control.
15. Poland
15.1 Neutral Poland
Poland begins neutral. Neutral Polish units may only attack hexes
adjacent to Poland. Red units may not enter neutral Poland or
attack neutral Polish units. Non-Polish White units may never
enter Poland (neutral, at-war, or conquered). The White player
may move Polish units and attack with them, within one hex
of Poland. Neither side may stack with or enter a hex occupied
by Polish units (neutral, friendly or hostile). Polish units may
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receive and use special units (air, armored trains, river flotillas,
and tank units).
15.2 Polish Entry
Poland enters the war any time after Turn B when the Polish
Activation Chit is pulled and any of the following apply:
• At least 2 non-Partisan Red units are in the Baltic Republics.
• Red controls any city in the Baltic Republics.
• Fewer than four manpower points of supplied Red units are
within five hexes of Poland.
• Major Allied Withdrawal has occurred (18.4) and White has
Initiative (6.0).
PLAY NOTE: Even though the Poles are a White Faction, Polish
cities remain neutral when Poland enters the war and resources
controlled by Polish units do not count towards White’s total
(13.1).
15.3 The Russo-Polish War
Once at war Polish units may operate freely outside Poland.
Polish units at war rally on a die roll of 1 or 2. Exception: If
there are any Red units of any type inside Poland, Polish units
in or adjacent to Warsaw rally on a roll of 1, 2, or 3.
MIRACLE OF THE VISTULA: Once per game when Poland
is at war, and there are supplied Red units within 3 hexes (two
intervening hexes) of Warsaw, the White Player may declare
the Miracle of the Vistula during any Logistics Segment. ALL
Polish units in or adjacent to a Polish controlled Warsaw may
automatically rally. In addition, the White Player may immediately replace one eliminated Polish army (if available) in Warsaw
(within the stacking limit) at full strength (this is in addition to
the normal Polish replacement). Finally he may add one White
tank and armored train unit each (total, and if available) to any
normally eligible hex(es) in Poland.
15
• Red units may leave Poland but may not enter Poland or attack
within Poland.
• The Red player permanently removes from play one Red
infantry or cavalry army from the West or Southwest Fronts,
if available, or otherwise one such army from anywhere.
• Riga no longer counts as a Resource hex for any pupose.
HISTORICAL NOTE: The removed army is guarding the border
with Poland.
16. The Makhno Partisans
16.1 The Makhno Allegiance Phase
During each Makhno Allegiance Phase
after Turn B, determine which side will
control the Makhno (anarchist) partisan unit that Operational Turn. The
Makhno partisan unit joins the side opposing the unit which is
closest (i.e., if the Red player has the closest unit, the Makhno
partisan unit will become White). If Makhno switches sides,
replace the counter with the one from the opposing side. The
combat modifiers remain the same so be careful which side is
placed face-up.
16.2 Definition of Closest
Determine which player’s units are closest to the Makhno partisan unit in number of hexes, ignore ZOCs but do not count
across all-sea hexsides. If both player’s units are equal distance,
assume the White player is closer.
16.3 Activation of Makhno Partisans
When the Red player controls the Makhno unit, it activates
with the Front it is located in (South or Southwest). When the
White player controls the Makhno unit, it activates with the
AFSR Faction.
15.4 Conquering Poland
See 8.3, 10.3, 10.13, 12.7, 13.1 and 14.5 for other rules concerning the Makhno Partisans and the Makhno District.
15.5 Peace with Poland
17. Nationalist Garrisons
If the Red player controls Warsaw (1221) at the end of any Polish
activation phase, Poland is conquered. Permanently remove all
Polish units and the Polish activation chit from play. For the rest
of the game, the Red player must maintain at least 4 manpower
points of Red units in Poland or he automatically loses the game
(determined in the Victory Check Phase).
If, during any logistics segment following the turn Poland entered the war, there are no Red units in the Baltic Republics and
no supplied Polish units outside Poland or the Baltic Republics,
the Red player may attempt to conclude peace with Poland. Peace
with Poland may be attempted once per turn.
PROCEDURE: If the Red player wants to conclude peace with
Poland, he rolls one die. On a roll of 1-3, Poland becomes permanently neutral and the following happens:
• Permanently remove all Polish units and the Polish activation
chit from play.
17.1 Nationalist Garrisons.
Azerbaijan (hex 4124), Georgian (3625), Lithuanian (1218),
Latvian (1315), and the Ukrainian (1920) garrisons are non-Russian and neutral. Neither side may stack with or enter a hex with
a Nationalist Garrison (exception, 17.2). Only the Red player
may attack Nationalist Garrisons.
EXCEPTION: The von der Goltz unit may attack Nationalist
Garrisons in the Baltic Republics after the “Freikorps” event
occurs.
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Reds!
16
17.2 The Ukrainian Garrison
This is the only Nationalist garrison that may stack with White
units. White units may pass through the Ukrainian garrison
during strategic movement. If White units are stacked with the
Ukrainian garrison, the non-Ukrainian units determine control
of the hex per 13.1.
17.3 The Latvian Garrison and the Baltic Flotilla
If the Latvian garrison is attacked by the von der Goltz unit,
the Latvian garrison automatically gets support from the Baltic
Flotilla if available.
18. Allied Withdrawal
18.1 Determining Withdrawal
During each Allied Withdrawal Phase of a Strategic Turn, the
White player suffers an Allied Withdrawal if it controls fewer
resources than the Withdrawal Number for the current turn.
The first withdrawal is the “Minor Allied Withdrawal” and the
second is the “Major Allied Withdrawal,” after which no further
withdrawals occur.
REDUCED MORALE: White units now rally on a roll of 1
rather than 1-2.
REPLACEMENTS: AFSR and Siberian Factions no longer
receive replacements (14.3).
PLAY NOTE: In addition, Poland becomes more likely to enter
the war (15.2).
18.5 Major Withdrawal in the Red vs. White 1918-19
Scenario
If the Red vs. White 1918-19 Scenario is being played, the Red
player wins when the Allied Major Withdrawal occurs unless
it does not control Moscow and at least two other resource
cities.
19.0 Winter
19.1 Winter Turns
As marked on the Turn Record Track, November-December and
January-February are Winter turns.
19.2 Effects of Winter
SEA MOVEMENT: No sea movement, naval flotilla use, or
amphibious invasions allowed on the White or Baltic Seas.
18.2 Withdrawal Numbers
• Turn A: 0 (Withdrawal not possible)
• Turn B: 0 (Withdrawal not possible)
• Turn C: 3
• Turn D: 4
• Turn F: 6
• Turn E: 5
• Turn G: 7
LAKES: Lakes are frozen and have no effect. Treat as clear terrain during Winter turns. Units on all-lake hexes are immediately
eliminated when those hexes thaw (in March-April turns).
HISTORICAL NOTE: Historically, Minor Withdrawal occurred
Turn C, Major Withdrawal Turn E.
18.3 Effects of Minor Withdrawal
Upon the Minor Withdrawal, permanently remove the AIF
Odessa unit and both Siberian Czech divisions.
18.4 Effects of Major Withdrawal
RIVERS: Rivers are frozen and may not be used for strategic
movement. They may still be used for supply.
RIVER FLOTILLAS: River Flotillas on the map are placed in
the next March-April box on the Turn Record Track and the
River Flotilla random event is treated as no effect.
20. Special Units and Markers
20.1 Aircraft
Upon the Major Withdrawal:
AIF FORCES: Permanently remove all AIF units and naval
flotillas and the AIF activation chit from play.
SPECIAL UNITS: Permanently remove all White aircraft and
tank units from play.
SEA CONTROL: Switch control of Baltic, White and/or Caspian Seas to Red for each sea on which Red controls at least
one port (13.1).
NORTHWEST ARMY: During the first logistics segment
after Major Withdrawal, permanently remove all Northwest
Army (not Estonian or von der Goltz) units within the Baltic
Republics.
TRANSCAUCASUS: Batum is no longer a White supply
source. White units that must trace supply (12.4) are automatically out of supply while in the Transcaucasus (even on coasts
or in Batum)
THE TSAR: Nicholas II no longer aids White rally (12.12).
AVAILABILITY: Aircraft become available (i.e.
enter the game) for both sides via Random Events.
Once available, the aircraft units are held off map
and are only placed on the map during Combat
Steps.
EFFECTS: An aircraft unit may be placed on any attacking
or defending, supplied, non-partisan, non-raiding Red, AFSR,
Northwest, Polish or AIF unit when a combat involving that
unit is declared. One aircraft unit may participate per side per
battle.
REMOVAL: An aircraft unit can only participate in one combat
per turn. Following combat, surviving aircraft are placed on the
Turn Record Track for the following turn, when they become
available again.
ELIMINATION: Aircraft units are eliminated by a disorder result
but ignore retreat results. White aircraft counters are removed
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from the game (may not be placed via random event) when
eliminated and bear a “no replace” dot as a reminder. Eliminated
Red aircraft counters may re-enter via random event.
ALLIED WITHDRAWAL: All White aircraft are eliminated
upon the Major Allied Withdrawal (18.4).
20.2 Amphibious Marker
AVAILABILITY: The White player may obtain
the Amphibious Invasion marker via a Random
Event.
EFFECTS: During any Activation Segment, the White player
may place the Amphib marker to enable an activated force of
up to three manpower points of infantry or two of cavalry (no
mixed forces) to move from a port to any vacant coastal hex
on a friendly-controlled sea except the Baltic or White Seas
during Winter. These units may not move after landing but
may attack.
REMOVAL: Once used, the marker is removed until obtained
again by subsequent random event.
20.3 Armored Trains
ARRIVAL: Armored Trains become available
(i.e. enter the game) for both sides via Random
Events.
PLACEMENT: White armored trains are initially placed in any
rail hex containing a supplied, non-raiding AFSR, Siberian,
Polish, or AIF infantry or cavalry unit. Red armored trains are
initially placed in any rail hex containing a supplied Red infantry
or cavalry unit.
MOVEMENT: Armored Trains may only move, attack or retreat
along contiguous rail hexes and must be placed and end their
movement, advance or retreat stacked with a cavalry or infantry
unit or be eliminated. Armored Trains may not enter an enemy
controlled city unless stacked with an infantry or cavalry unit.
Each White armored train activates (once per turn) with the Faction of any one unit it is stacked with. Red armored trains activate
according to the Front they occupy like any other Red unit.
ELIMINATION: White armored train counters are removed
from the game (may not be placed via random event) once eliminated and bear a “no replace” dot as a reminder. Eliminated Red
armored train counters may re-enter via random event.
HISTORICAL NOTE: There were scores of armored trains in the
Russian Civil War. The units in the game represent particularly
effective uses of this weapon.
20.4 Cavalry Raid Marker
ARRIVAL: The White player may obtain the
Cavalry Raid marker via random event.
PLACEMENT: During any Activation Segment, White may
place the marker on any one activated, supplied cavalry unit.
EFFECTS: The raiding cavalry unit loses its ZOC, is always in
supply, and ignores enemy ZOC. It may not rally and may only
attack garrisons or partisans.
17
REMOVAL: The White player may remove the marker at the
start of any logistics segment that the unit is in normal supply.
Once removed, the marker is unavailable until obtained again
by subsequent random event.
20.5 Garrisons
Garrison units represent small detachments or
local militias defending a city.
CHARACTERISTICS: Garrisons may not move or attack,
they may only defend. Garrisons do not participate in combat
if stacked with other units.
CREATING: Any active infantry or cavalry unit (including raiding cavalry [20.4]) during operational movement may create a
garrison in each city it begins in or enters. A garrison counter
for the creating unit’s side and Faction, if White, and without
a “no replace” dot must be available. Disordered and/or out of
supply units MAY create garrisons. Any Red or White garrison
unit without a non-replaceable dot not currently on the map is
available for placement under 20.5, regardless of whether it was
removed by the owning player, eliminated in combat, or never
previously on the map.
REMOVAL: During the Logistic Segment of the Action Phase,
players may remove any garrisons for reuse in a subsequent
activation segment. Garrisons with “no replace” dots may be
removed, but it seldom is advantageous to do so, as they may
not be reused.
20.6 Imperial/People’s Gold Marker
CONTROL: The Gold marker is controlled by
whichever side’s units last stacked with the marker.
If the Gold is captured, flip it to indicate the new
side’s control.
MOVEMENT AND RETREAT: The Gold marker may move
only by strategic movement. The Gold marker may not retreat;
therefore, it must be left behind if units stacked with it retreat.
RESOURCE VALUE: The People’s/Imperial Gold marker
counts as one resource for the controlling side. Adjust a player’s
Resource Track total when they gain or lose control of the
Gold.
20.7 Naval Flotillas
AVAILABILITY: The White player begins with
one naval flotilla available. The other three arrive
as reinforcements during Strategic Turn B. The
Red player has no naval flotilla.
EFFECTS: Naval flotillas are held off-map and placed when
combat is declared involving any White (including AIF) unit
defending in or attacking into a coastal hex of that flotilla’s sea,
indicated on the counter. If defending, the White player may see
if the attacker is committing an aircraft unit before he commits
a naval flotilla (11.3).
IMMUNITY: Naval flotillas never suffer combat results and may
not be selected for disorder under an “a” or “d” result.
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ONE COMBAT PER TURN: Following combat, place them on
the Turn Record Track for the following turn, when they become
available again. A naval flotilla unit can only participate in one
combat per turn.
ALLIED WITHDRAWAL: All naval flotilla units are eliminated
upon the Major Allied Withdrawal.
20.8 Partisans
AVAILABILITY: Partisans enter the game for
both sides via Random Events. The White player
can only select a partisan unit to be placed on the
map if an infantry or cavalry unit of the same faction remains on the map. In the case of the Basmachi partisan,
this unit needs an Islamic unit on the map.
PLACEMENT OF WHITE PARTISANS: When a White partisans unit enters the game, it is placed in a vacant hex which
meets the following:
• At least 4 hexes from any White unit.
• May not be a Red City (including Red Terror), a supply source
(friendly or enemy) or in a Red ZOC.
• The Siberian partisans must be placed in the East Front.
• The South Russia partisans must be placed in the South
Front.
• The Basmachi partisans must be placed in the Central Asian
Front.
PLACEMENT OF RED PARTISANS: When a Red partisan unit
enters the game, it is placed in any unoccupied, White-controlled
(not neutral) city. The city may not be a krug, a supply source
(enemy or friendly) or in a White ZOC.
STACKING: Partisan units may never stack with any other unit,
including other Partisan units.
COMBAT: Partisan units may attack only other partisans or lone
garrisons (exception: the Makhno partisan can attack anyone).
Partisan units may never participate in combat with any other
unit, including other partisans. The black box around their attack
modifier serves to remind players of this rule.
20.9 Red Leaders
AVAILABILITY: Red Leaders enter and exit play
via Random Events.
PLACEMENT: Red Leaders are placed in the Field
Staff command box printed on the map or randomly assigned
a Front command box. They never move (including between
command boxes).
REMOVAL: Red Leaders are never eliminated. They are only
removed from the map (their command box) when replaced.
They are then put back in the leader pool to be selected again
by a random event.
EFFECTS: Red Leaders allow the free selection of the Activation chit for their Front during the Command Step (in addition to
the two that can be selected without leaders). Red Leaders also
allow a higher stacking limit (9 manpower points) in a number
of hexes within their front equal to the number printed on their
counter. A Red Leader in the Field Staff box provides a +1 drm
to the Red player’s initiative determination roll.
EXAMPLE: Frunze would allow two hexes in his front to have
up to 9 manpower points stacked in a hex.
20.10 Red Train Marker
HISTORICAL NOTE: The counter represents both
the presence of Leon Trotsky and the logistical
support of his famed “Red Train.”
AT START: The Red Train marker starts the game in hex
2813.
RED TRAIN STEP: Each turn during the Red Train Step the
Red player may reposition the Red Train marker (Strategic
Movement rules are not used) to any rail hex free of enemy units
and unnegated enemy ZOCs. The rail hex must be connected to
Moscow by a continuous line of rail hexes free of enemy units
or their ZOC (unless negated by friendly units).
EFFECTS: The Red Train allows the automatic rally of all Red
units in or adjacent to its hex. The Red Train is a marker and
does not negate EZOCs or supply lines.
RUSSO-POLISH WAR: When Poland is at war, the Red Train
may not be used to rally any Red units within 6 hexes (5 intervening hexes) of a Polish controlled Warsaw. Trotsky did not
take part in the Russo-Polish War.
REMOVAL: If an enemy unit enters the Red Train’s hex, place
the counter on the Turn Record Track on the following Operational Turn, when it can again be placed on the map.
20.11 Red Verdun Marker
AT START: The Red Verdun marker is placed in
Tsaritsyn (3119) at the start of the game and may
never move.
EFFECTS: Red units stacked with the Red Verdun marker do
not retreat during combat unless attacked by tanks. The Red
Verdun marker has no effect on a Red garrison defending the
hex alone.
REMOVAL: If White units ever occupy the Red Verdun
hex, Tsaritsyn (3119), permanently remove the Red Verdun
marker.
20.12 River Flotillas
AVAILABILITY: River Flotillas enter the game for
both sides via Random Events. River flotilla Random Events are ignored during Winter Turns.
PLACEMENT: A river flotilla must be placed with a supplied,
non-raiding infantry or cavalry unit on a river (including Volga)
upon entry. Exception: the Red player may not place river flotillas on the Vistula. If no such hex is available, the flotilla is
forfeited.
MOVEMENT: River flotillas may only move, attack or retreat
along contiguous river (including Volga) hexes. River flotillas
may not enter an enemy controlled city unless stacked with an
infantry or cavalry unit. River flotillas must end their move-
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Reds!
ment or retreat stacked with a cavalry or infantry unit or be
eliminated.
ACTIVATION: Each White river flotilla activates (once per
turn) with the Faction of any one unit it is stacked with. Red
river flotillas activate according to Front they occupy like any
other Red unit.
WINTER REMOVAL: During Winter (19.0), river flotillas
on the map are placed on the Turn Record Track on the next
non-Winter Operational Turn, when they are automatically redeployed during the Random Events Phase.
20.13 Tanks
AVAILABILITY: White tank units become available (i.e. enter the game) via Random Events.
There are no Red tank units.
19
ALLIED WITHDRAWAL: All tanks are permanently eliminated
upon Major Allied Withdrawal (18.4).
20.14 Special Units and Done Markers
The White player may find it convenient to use Done Markers
for his Tanks, River Flotillas and armored trains that end their
move with a different White faction.
21.0 Optional Rules
The following changes are official but optional (though
21.1-21.3 if used, should be used as a set). These are play
balance rules (though historically justifiable ones); the first
three help the Whites; the last helps the Reds.
21.1 The three AFSR infantry divisions in hex set up Rallied.
PLACEMENT: See Random Event Table.
MOVEMENT: Tank units may not move or attack into swamp
or forest. Tank units must end movement, advance or retreat
stacked with an infantry or cavalry unit or be eliminated.
ACTIVATION: Each tank unit activates with the White Faction
it is stacked with. It may only activate once a turn.
EFFECTS: Besides their combat modifiers, an attacking tank
unit cancels the effects of Red Verdun (20.11).
21.2 The Whites get the first two action phases on turn 1.
21.3 There are no replacements on Turn A.
21.4 Allow the Red Player to treat any Random Event he
could not otherwise implement as a Red Leader event. For
example, a Political Intrigue roll on turn 1, a River Flotilla
roll during Winter, or a Partisan, Aircraft, Armored Train, or
River Flotilla roll when the unit in question is not available,
would all be treated as a Red Leader event.
STRATEGY NOTES
Reds! is a game of shifting priorities among many fronts. For the
Reds, that means making the maximum use of interior lines; for the
Whites, it means holding out against the Reds’ main effort while
attacking where possible in quiet sectors. Throughout, it means
sensing when to push hard and when to drop back and rebuild battered forces—with a sharp eye on resource cities held and Allied
withdrawal levels.
There are several phases to the war, from the usually desperate fight
for survival of the Siberians in the early months, through the maximum White effort during 1919, to the typical end-phase of Allied
withdrawal, mopping up, and Polish campaign. Most importantly,
be ready for the end of the Great War on Turn B. During late 1918,
fight for position and get set up to rush into the empty Ukraine—it
is here that the length of Allied commitment to the Whites will
often be determined.
Supply considerations dominate maneuver in Reds!. Watch your
opponent’s supply lines closely and remember that he will not be
able to move out of supply when he sets up attacks or attempts to
take ground.
Partisans and raiders, when you can get them, can turn a campaign
in any given sector around if placed and maneuvered judiciously.
Remember though that they are likely to be isolated and easily
defeated if caught. The trick is to place them where they can affect
the enemy but far enough from idle enemy forces to stay alive.
But the lowly garrisons are among your most important units, critical to slowing an advancing enemy or guarding your supply line.
Each Logistics segment, check to see if you can afford to disband
any garrisons because you’ll be sure to want to place more in coming segments.
High attack modifiers and the absence of a requirement to engage
all adjacent units favor the attacker. But large battles are very uncertain, so be careful. Keep in mind that an offensive can go badly
wrong and that reversals of fortune will be frequent.
Disordered units are particularly fragile. Look for exposed enemy
disordered units: killing them will be easier and have more longlasting effects that disordering fresh units. And a pile of eliminated
units that outstrips replacement rates will lead to collapse. By the
same token, don’t be afraid to adjust your time table, pull back and
regroup if you need to, rather than feeding inadequate forces into
the fight to be chewed piecemeal.
White
You have the first move and should use it to grab and hold Kazan,
so that you can ship the Imperial Gold to the safety of Omsk.
During 1918, either the AFSR or the Siberians probably should
be attacking, while the other are on the defensive. Watch where
the elite Latvians go for early warning of where the Reds will put
their main effort.
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Reds!
The AIF may seem no more than a nuisance to your enemies, but
have them in position, ready to make something of their offensives
when they come up. In 1919 the AIF become more dangerous
coupled with the North Army, which has the potential to defeat a
garrison. If you are able to breach a Red defense at Petrozavodsk, it
may be time for Northwest Army to move—they will get one shot
at Petrograd and then likely be crushed by a major Red reaction.
Remember that, in conjunction with such a push on Petrograd, Allied Intervention Forces can help isolate Petrograd even without
attacking.
Central Asia is a side show, but will make a difference if the Reds
go for victory without conquest of Poland. Depending on how the
Siberians are doing, try blocking the line to Tashkent as long as
possible with raiders or partisans. Also, it’s best to use the Islamic
White garrison to ward off Red Partisans in Merv.
Once Major Withdrawal occurs, you’ll get Poles, but you’ll have
to watch your attrition more closely than ever. Play conservatively
with the Whites and charge in aggressively with the Poles if Red
defenses are thin either north or south of the Pripyet.
In general, don’t get discouraged: Red must eventually win everywhere. So play for time, give ground and wait for a big Red attack
to fail. Then strike back with concentrated forces—you can stack
much more effectively than the Reds—and knock out those vulnerable disordered Red armies.
Red
Your challenge is to concentrate to knock out one White Faction at
a time, without being overwhelmed by any of the others. Better to
eliminate two Siberians or two South Russians in a turn than one
of each. And the Whites’ many non-replaceable units mean that a
Faction that gets mauled will never recover completely.
Your greatest weapons are your rail lines—and your most critical decisions each turn will be where to move units strategically
and where to place the Red Train. You must think a turn ahead:
Remember that you will not be able to react to White threats with
strategic movement at the beginning of the next turn if you don’t
have a reserve of available Red armies on city hexes, or if all the
cities in the area to be reinforced are already stacked full.
You have tremendous abilities to recover. But if too many armies
are dead you will become vulnerable everywhere and may not
catch up with your continuing casualties. Pull back if you have to
and use the Strategic Turn to build a new group of armies in the
rear—such as near Moscow—to be rallied by the Red Train before
they are sent into combat.
You can’t ignore the AIF completely, but mere garrisons can hold
them off until they get an offensive, and even then their advance
probably will not be sustained. Don’t over commit to defend against
them: You have bigger fish to fry.
If Petrograd does become threatened, however—and especially if
the Northwest Army crosses into Russia—you must react in force.
Plan ahead: it is difficult to reinforce Petrograd by rail because there
are no nearby rail centers and it is readily isolated by White thrusts
from the west and north.
Your task may seem immense—you must conquer almost the whole
map. But you have enough time, as long as you don’t lose the battle
of attrition. Push back the Siberians and seize the Ukraine and
the Allies will withdraw their support. Then, as long as you have
enough Red armies in the field to block or even invade Poland, the
counter-revolutionaries will wither away in time to enable you to
turn Russia Red from corner to corner.
DESIGN NOTES
Reds! The Russian Civil War was designed around my belief that
the Whites, due to their inability to provide a progressive political
agenda, were virtually doomed to lose the Russian Civil War. Victory would therefore have to be defined in terms of player skill rather
than historical outcome. To win, the Bolshevik player has to equal
the accomplishments of his historical counterparts. The object of the
White player is to delay the inevitable long enough to “win.”
That far, there’s nothing out of the ordinary. Player victory, as
opposed to historical victory, is a standard wargame concept. The
problem comes from the fact the Whites historically thought they
could win, and therefore launched major (and briefly successful)
offensives to achieve such an end. The question thus became how to
prevent the White player from simply holing up in defensive positions on the far corners of the map, there to run out the clock?
The answer came in the form of another historical element the game
needed to simulate: Allied intervention. Though the actual Allied
forces sent to Russia played only a small part in the Civil War, the
supplies they also sent were vital to the survival of the White armies.
And the Allies were only willing to provide such supplies while it
seemed the Whites had a chance of winning, meaning the Whites
had to demonstrate offensive success to maintain Allied support. In
game terms, that played out in the Allied withdrawal rules, which
force the White player to undertake a historical level of offensive
action or forfeit the supplies he needs to survive. A White player
who adopts a purely defensive strategy will now run out of troops
before the Red player runs out of time.
The Russian Civil War was an epic of chaos, and in turning a manysided struggle into a two-player contest I’ve had to make a number
of simplifications, particularly in the number of White factions. But
in effective military terms the many White forces did boil down to
the factions presented in the game.
Finally, the game presents the Red player with a choice of victory
conditions: clear Russia (outside the far east) of organized White
armies by the historic date; or take control of the main cities in
Russia while taking Poland and the Baltic. The latter gives the
Red player the chance to spread the revolution to Germany that
was lost at the gates of Warsaw in 1920. It is harder to achieve,
but a Red player who pulls it off has altered rather than merely
duplicated history.
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21
REDS!: THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR
In the spring of 1917 the Tsarist autocracy of Nicholas II collapsed under the strains of World War I. In the fall of that year,
Lenin’s Bolsheviks toppled the shaky Russian Provisional
Government. White (anti-Bolshevik) forces were quickly routed,
and Lenin soon declared resistance to the new regime at an end.
He was mistaken.
The Whites soon began to gather new armies in the Caucasus,
in Siberia, and in the far north to oppose the Reds. The new
government also faced opposition from ethnic minorities who
wished to break loose from the Russian Empire: Estonia, the
Baltic Republics, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan
declared their independence. Finland won a brief civil war
which ended in victory for the White nationalists under General
Mannerheim.
The Reds were also threatened by other left-wing parties, most
importantly the Social Revolutionaries (SRs), as well as groups
of well-armed Anarchists. By mid-1918, the Reds, controlling
the heartland of Russia, were threatened by enemies to the east,
north, and south (while the Central Powers, under the terms of
the imposed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, occupied the west).
Peace with Germany also led to intervention by the Western Allies (principally Britain, France, the United States, and Japan).
They viewed Brest-Litovsk as a betrayal of their wartime alliance
with Russia. In March 1918 Allied troops landed at Murmansk.
Later Allied troops would land at Archangel, Vladivostok,
Odessa, and in the Caucasus, though political constraints kept
them from playing a major role in the fighting.
WAR IN THE EAST
In the spring of 1918, Bolshevik control over the vast region
of Siberia was everywhere under threat. At Vladivostok the
local Soviet operated uneasily under the guns of a mixed British, Japanese, and American naval force. In the Trans-Baikal
region the Cossack bandit Gregori Semenov was carving out a
private empire. Along the Middle Volga Tartar nationalists and
Social Revolutionaries opposed the Bolsheviks. And spread out
across nearly 6000 miles of Siberia were the 35,000 soldiers of
the Czech Legion.
The Legion was originally recruited from Austrian POWs for use
against the Central Powers. By the spring of 1918, the Czechs
were stranded inside a nation now at peace with the hated Austrians. The Bolsheviks, anxious to be rid of the Czechs, agreed to
move them by rail to Vladivostok to be evacuated from Russia.
Transported piecemeal, in May 1918 the Legion was stretched
across the length of the Trans-Siberian railway.
Mutual suspicion between the Reds and the Czechs soon erupted
into full-scale warfare. In early June the Czechs were approached
by the SR underground from the ancient city of Samara. Calling
themselves the “Committee Of Members of the Constituent Assembly” or Komuch, the SR leaders wanted the Legion’s help
in establishing a new Russian government. They convinced the
Czechs to intervene.
On 8 June the Czechs took Samara. By 6 July the Czech/Komuch forces, aided by the Ural Cossacks, had taken Ufa. While
the 8200 Legion troops at Chelyabinsk attacked the Reds at
Ekaterinburg (where the Reds murdered the Tsar and his family before retreating), the People’s Army turned west towards
the Volga. Simbirsk fell on 22 July to a mixed Czech/Komuch
brigade commanded by the daring Russian Colonel V.O. Kappel. On 5 August, Kappel captured Kazan, along with the Tsarist
gold reserves.
Outside Russia, political pressure to “save the Czechs” had been
building. By late August, American, British and Japanese troops
had landed at Vladivostok, the Japanese, (motivated by territorial
ambitions in Eastern Siberia) advancing as far as Irkutsk, opening up the Trans-Siberian to the Czech forces farther west.
In another blow to the Reds, within days of their defeat at Kazan,
an anti-Bolshevik revolt occurred 150 miles to the northeast
in the industrial town of Izhevsk. Izhevsk held out against the
Reds until 7 November.
The capture of Kazan marked the high tide of the Komuch government. After the loss of Simbirsk, Lenin sent Leon Trotsky to
restore order to the crumbling Red Eastern Army Group. Trotsky
arrived at the front on 7 August (on his soon to be famous Red
Train, a fully equipped armored train, complete with a printing
press to spread Red propaganda). With ruthless determination
he soon restored discipline and morale.
In the summer of 1918, Trotsky established the basic structure of
the Red Army. 16 armies were formed, which could be shifted as
needed between the various geographic army groups. (Initially
there were four such army groups-or Fronts- Eastern, Western,
Northern, and Southern.) A general headquarters (the Field Staff)
was created, with the Latvian General Vatsetis as the Red Army’s
first commander-in-chief.
At the start of September the Eastern Army Group began a general offensive. Badly outnumbered, the People’s Army and the
Czech Legion were driven back on all fronts. In September the
Komuch government merged with the right-wing Provisional
All-Russian Government of Siberia at Omsk. On 17 November,
Admiral Alexander Kolchak took control of the Omsk government in a coup.
The Czech Legion, already demoralized by their recent defeats
and the political intrigues preceding Kolchak’s coup, renewed
their demands that the Allies evacuate them from Russia. Though
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22
much of the Legion would remain stranded in Russia until 1920,
after 1918 they adopted a position of armed neutrality.
screening the Ukraine and in two months advanced 250 miles
into the northern Don Region.
The Red victories in the east in late 1918 created an atmosphere
of overconfidence in Moscow. Even as the Eastern Army Group
was being stripped of men and supplies for Red armies on other
fronts, it was ordered to advance across the Urals. At the same
time two of its armies were to attack southeast into Turkestan,
where the Reds at Tashkent had been holding out against Islamic
nationalist forces.
Defeat forced the Cossacks to turn to Denikin’s Whites for help.
On 8 January the Don Army joined with Denikin’s Volunteer
Army to form the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR). Officially, though often not in practice, the Don Cossacks were
now subordinate to Denikin’s orders.
The Eastern Army Group, its forces both weakened and scattered, was thus ill-prepared to meet Kolchak’s spring offensive.
In March 1919 the Supreme Ruler ordered his armies into battle.
Perhaps to everyone’s surprise, the White attack was immediately successful. Ufa was retaken on 13 March. Kolchak’s Western Armies continued to advance until mid-April, marching to
within 75 miles of the Volga. Farther north, Kolchak’s Siberian
Armies advanced midway between Perm and Viatka.
In response the Reds moved in reinforcements. On 28 April the
Reds struck back, and by the end of May the Western Armies had
been forced back 200 miles. With the Western Armies in retreat,
the Siberian Armies were forced to withdraw as well.
At the end of June, General Tukhachevsky, commanding the Red
5th Army, broke through to the eastern side of the Urals. Harried
everywhere by Red partisan uprisings, Kolchak’s armies began
to disintegrate. In October the front collapsed. On 12 November
Kolchak left Omsk on a train carrying the Imperial gold. In early
1920 he was betrayed into the hands of the Reds, who executed
him on 7 February.
Remnants of the White forces would remain huddled at Vladivostok for two more years under the protection of the Japanese
Army. In the end American pressure forced the Japanese to leave
Russia. The Reds would spend years putting down partisans, but
the death of Siberia’s Supreme Ruler marked the end of White
opposition in the east.
THE ARMED FORCES OF SOUTH RUSSIA
In the summer of 1918, with Moscow’s attention focused on
the eastern front, the White and Cossack forces in the Kuban
region, under the overall command of General Denikin, succeeded in establishing a secure White base for future offensive
action. Denikin was heavily outnumbered, but the Red forces
in the northern Caucasus were poorly trained and demoralized.
In a campaign lasting into early 1919, the Reds suffered the annihilation of an entire army group, while the White Volunteer
Army grew to a strength of 40,000 men.
While Denikin cleared the north Caucasus, between June 1918
and February 1919 the Don Cossacks launched three failed offensives against the city of Tsaritsyn (later Stalingrad), which
occupied a key strategic position on the Volga. The failure of
their attacks on the “Red Verdun,” brought the Cossack armies
to the brink of ruin. The end of the world war and the withdrawal
of the Germans from the Ukraine now exposed them to attack
from the northwest. The Reds brushed aside the Cossack units
Denikin recognized the collapse of the Don Army endangered
his own base in the Kuban, above all the Black Sea port of
Novorossiisk, through which the British had agreed to supply
his troops. In February, Denikin reluctantly halted his offensive
along the Caspian and turned his forces to the northwest.
The Reds in the Don outnumbered the AFSR 80,000 to 50,000
but they proved no match for Denikin’s more experienced
troops. Now organized into the Volunteer Army under General
Mai-Maevsky, the Caucasus Army under Baron Wrangel, and
the Cossack Don Army, the AFSR soon went over to the offensive.
While the Volunteer Army defended Rostov, the Don Army, its
morale revived, pushed northward into the Don Bend. In late
May, Wrangel’s army sent the Red 10th Army reeling back
towards Tsaritsyn. On June 30, supported by British tanks, the
Whites finally took the city.
Mai-Maevsky meanwhile drove a wedge between the Red Southern and Ukrainian Army Groups. Pushing aside the Anarchist
Army of Nestor Makhno, the Volunteer Army drove northwest
along the Donetz River, capturing Kharkov on 25 June.
The White armies had grown as they advanced, and Denikin’s
effective strength was now over 100,000. But with his frontline
now reaching from Tsaritsyn to Ekaterinoslav - where the Volunteer Army had gained a bridgehead over the Dnepr River- even
these numbers were stretched very thin.
On 3 July 1919 Denikin directed the Volunteer, Don, and Caucasus Armies to launch converging thrusts aimed at Moscow.
(In the event 15,000 White troops would be diverted into overrunning the Ukraine.)
On 10 August the Don Cossack General Mamontov led his 9000
man cavalry corps on a raid behind the Red armies in Tambov
Province before rejoining the Don Army in mid-September.
Ultimately the raid proved counterproductive: a month of looting, rape, and plunder destroyed the White cavalry’s discipline,
just as the Reds finally began to form an effective mounted arm
of their own.
Shattering an attempted Red counteroffensive, the Volunteer
Army captured Kursk on 20 September. On the right flank of
the Volunteer Army, the Don Army captured Voronezh. On 14
October the Whites took Orel. Moscow was little more than
200 miles away.
The collapse of Denikin’s Moscow offensive was as sudden
and decisive as the end of Kolchack’s earlier drive in the east.
On 14 October the AFSR front line ran from northwest of Kiev
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
to Tsaritsyn on the Volga. But with less than 100,000 men facing six Red armies with a total strength of over 200,000 the
Whites were now hopelessly overextended. On 20 October the
Reds retook Orel. Four days later the 1st Red Cavalry Army
recaptured Voronezh, splitting the AFSR front between the
Don and Volunteer Armies. With another Red attack driving on
Kursk from the northwest, Denikin had no choice but to order
a general retreat. The White reserves that might have halted the
Red attack were hundreds of miles to the rear fighting Makhno’s
anarchist partisans.
In January 1920 the Red cavalry entered Rostov. What was left
of the AFSR was soon defending a shrinking perimeter around
the port of Novorossiisk. The British helped to evacuate 50,000
Whites to the Crimea on 27 March. On 3 April, Denikin’s remaining generals forced him to resign and appointed Wrangel
in his place.
Wrangel had few illusions. “The situation really was hopeless,”
he said later. A last White offensive was made possible by the
outbreak of the Russo-Polish War in late April, but the end of
the war with Poland was the death warrant for the Whites in the
Crimea. Between 14 and 16 November, Wrangel’s army evacuated the Crimea, escaping to Turkey.
23
days later they took Kiev.
Leaving minimal forces to guard Wrangel’s Crimean fortress,
the Reds concentrated two army groups, separated by the vast
Pripet Marshes, against the Poles. The Red 1st Cavalry Army
quickly forced the Poles to abandon the Ukraine. In July, the
northern Red front, under, Tukhachevsky took Minsk and
Vilna. By August his armies were threatening Warsaw. But
there was no coordination between two Red army groups,
and the Poles routed the Reds in the Battle of Warsaw. On 12
October, 1920, Poland signed an armistice with Soviet Russia.
In the summer of 1920 the Reds defeated the Islamic
nationalist forces in Tashkent. In a winter campaign
from December 1920 to April 1921 the Reds overran the
TransCaucasus, putting an end to the independence of
Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Though they would face
years of partisan warfare and local peasant uprisings, by 1921
the Russian Civil War was at an end. The new Soviet Union
would survive another seven, often bloody, decades.
—Ted Raicer
OTHER FRONTS
For most of 1918-19, the Red Army, fighting the Whites in the
east and southeast, had only limited forces available for use
in the west and north. Red attempts to retake the Baltic states
were foiled by local nationalist armies, German “free corps,”
Polish intervention, and British naval support. And inside
Estonia, Tsarist General Yudenich labored to build a small
White Northwestern Army.
In May 1919, Yudenich, advanced from Estonia and captured
Pskov. The Allied forces at Murmansk, which had remained
on the defensive for months, went over to the attack,
capturing the northern end of Lake Onega.
To the Bolsheviks this appeared to be a joint White/Allied
offensive to take Petrograd. In fact the Allied advance
was intended only to mask preparations for a total Allied
withdrawal from North Russia. By 12 October the Allied
forces had been evacuated, leaving behind a White Northern
Army that was quickly dispatched by the Reds in early 1920.
In early October, Yudenich decided to gamble on a quick
strike towards Petrograd. The Northwestern Army had only
18,000 men. Nevertheless he broke through the Red front line
and in ten days advanced to the outskirts of the city. But the
Whites had neglected to cut the rail line to Moscow. Heavily
reinforced, and under Trotsky’s personal direction, the 7th
Red Army counterattacked. After three days of fighting
the Whites collapsed. In mid-November the remains of
Yudenich’s command were interned by the Estonians.
In the fall of 1919, Poland’s Marshal Pilsudski had declined
to go the aid of the Whites. But he was soon having second
thoughts. Even a Red Russia was bound to be “terribly
imperialistic.” On 25 April 1920 the Poles attacked. Twelve
CREDITS
Game Design: Ted Raicer
Game Development: Volko Ruhnke and Andy Lewis
Art Director, Cover Art and Package Design: Rodger
B. MacGowan
Game Map & Counters: Mark Simonitch
Original Map Design: Ted Raicer and Steve Kosakowski
Playtesters: Volko Ruhnke, John Vasilakos, Ty Bomba
and members of the “33rd Street Irregulars”
Production Coordination: Tony Curtis
Producer: Gene Billingsley
Proofreading Volunteers: Michael Hende, Mario Vallee, Doug DeMoss, Steve Kosakowski, Chris Nelson,
Z. Johnson, and Jörg Pietruszka
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC
Reds!
24
Expanded Sequence of Play
Operational Turn (number)
I. Initiative Determination Phase: Roll to determine who has the Initiative (6.1)
II. Random Events Phase (6.3)
A. NON-INITIATIVE PLAYER RANDOM EVENT STEP: Roll on Random Events Table
During March-April redeploy River Flotillas (20.12)
B. INITIATIVE PLAYER RANDOM EVENT STEP: Roll on Random Events Table
III. During March-April redeploy River Flotillas (20.12)
Makhno Allegiance Phase: Determine who controls the Makhno Partisans (16.1). This phase is
skipped until Turn B.
IV. Strategic Movement Phase (Skip during Turn 1)
A. NON-INITIATIVE PLAYER STEP: Conduct Strategic Movement (10.2)
B. INITIATIVE PLAYER STEP: Conduct Strategic Movement (10.2)
C. RED TRAIN STEP: Reposition the Red Train (20.10)
V. Action Phase
A. Command Segment
1. COMMAND STEP: Determine which Activation Chits are available (7.2)
2. CHIT POOL STEP: Inititiative Player picks one chit, the rest are put in a pool (7.3)
B. Initiative Activation Segment: The chit picked above is used for the first Activation
1. OPERATIONAL MOVEMENT STEP: Active units may move and create garrisons (20.5)
2. COMBAT STEP: Active units may attack (11.0)
C. Random Activation Segments: One chit from the Chit Pool is drawn.
This segment is repeated until no chits remain (7.4)
— IF Front/Faction:
— IF Logistics:
1. OPERATIONAL MOVEMENT STEP: Active units may move and create garrisons (20.5)
2. COMBAT STEP Active units may attack (11.0)
1. WHITE SUPPLY STEP: Check supply for all friendly units (12.2)
2. WHITE RALLY STEP: Attempt to rally disordered units (12.12), may remove garrisons (20.5)
3. RED SUPPLY STEP: Check supply for all friendly units (12.2)
4. RED RALLY STEP: Attempt to rally disordered units (12.12), may remove garrisons (20.5)
D. Remove “Done” Markers Segment
Strategic Turn (letter)
I. Victory Check Phase: Determine if an Automatic Victory has occured or
(if its the end of the game) who has won (4.0)
Allied Withdrawal Phase: Starting Turn C determine if an Allied Withdrawal occurs (18.0)
II.
III. Reinforcement/Replacement Phase
A. White Reinforcement Step (14.1)
B. Red Reinforcement Step (14.1)
C. White Replacement Step (14.2)
D. Red Replacement Step (14.2)
GMT Games, LLC • P.O. Box 1308, Hanford, CA 93232-1308 • www.GMTGames.com
© 2001 & 2012 GMT Games, LLC

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