Strike for Berlin: new alt-hist scenario for Ostplan 1919

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Here is something new-old for you: an even-more-alt-hist scenario for my alternate-history game Strike For Berlin.

In December 1918, a general revolt across “Greater Poland” (mostly the territory known as the Grand Duchy of Posen to the Germans and the Voivodeship of Poznan to the Poles) led to confused fighting between German regular and paramilitary Freikorps units and Polish insurgents and portions of the Polish National Army. A ceasefire imposed by the Entente in mid-February 1919 confirmed the Polish occupation of most of the area and contributed to the decision to award this and other areas to Poland under the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919.

In history, the Germans were disadvantaged in the initial revolt because most of Germany was then in chaos and revolution, and trustworthy forces were needed to secure order and save the government in Berlin. But what if the November Revolution had been settled faster, or if the government was on a more secure footing generally, and decided to buck the Entente-imposed ceasefire and fight again for Greater Poland, while the Polish main effort was diverted to the east in Galicia?

This scenario uses the rules, counters and map for Strike for Berlin. The directions for this scenario are written as additions, changes or deletions to the original rules.

Wolfgang Hoepper helped immensely with OOB and other details for this scenario. Not least, he also wrote a comprehensive article on the German contemplation of carrying out just such a plan! (I have edited the article slightly for usage and vocabulary.)

We hope you try this out, and enjoy. 

Ostplan scen

Ostplan 1919 article BRT edits

 

Strike for Berlin, yong zhongwen

http://www.bananaboardgames.com/

I was informed yesterday that a Chinese-language version of my game Strike for Berlin will be published in folio format by Banana Board Games. I don’t know if they are based in Taiwan or on the mainland. They are offering a few products already, including Hostage Negotiator and Neanderthal, so we’ll see what develops. I’m not sure why they went for this particular title with the publisher.

Meanwhile, to any Chinese fans out there – enjoy!

Strike for Berlin has struck

Yesterday I got an entirely-too-large-for-the-purpose box from Coolstuff Inc., containing my designer copies of Strike for Berlin (along with a year’s worth of styrofoam packing peanuts – unfortunately not the edible kind).

Very nice physical presentation; quality map and counters by John Cooper; good diecutting and the maps match up if anyone wants to play the Link Game; even some interesting articles in the magazine. The rules are bound into the back section of the magazine and you cannot remove them; you should probably make copies of the more useful charts.

One thing they did not have room for was an expanded and annotated Sequence of Play that I have taken to writing for my games, as a way of ushering players through a turn until they get used to the sequence. So here it is:

S4B exp sequence

Thanks, hope you enjoy the game!

And if you haven’t had a chance yet, buy it here: https://flyingpiggames.com/products/yaah-magazine-issue-11

Brian

Strike For Berlin: interview at The Players Aid

Happy April!

Over at the Players Aid blog, Grant Klenheinz has an interview with me all about Strike for Berlin, the redesign of Freikorps that is appearing in issue #11 of Yaah! magazine… which is now at the printer’s, and will be out later this month.

https://theplayersaid.com/2018/04/03/interview-with-brian-train-designer-of-strike-for-berlin-appearing-in-yaah-magazine-issue-11-from-flying-pig-games/

Still available for pre-order at $35 for the physical product ($3 off the regular price), and $15 for the PnP version ($4 off the regular price)!

https://flyingpiggames.com/products/yaah-magazine-issue-11

Available for pre-order: Yaah! #11, with Strike For Berlin

Coming in April!

Strike For Berlin is a revised version of my earlier game Freikorps. It has had the same level of revision to it as Konarmiya got to become Red Horde 1920: that is, a new interleaved sequence of play, new map and terrain analysis, new order of battle research, loads of new and improved optional rules and variants.

Map and counter art by the very capable John Cooper, who also did Red Horde 1920 and Winter Thunder.

And yes, Strike for Berlin‘s map will join with Red Horde 1920‘s so that you can play one long hot summer of Central European war, from Kiev to Berlin. Essentially you start with a game of Red Horde 1920 and play until Warsaw falls, then you carry on with renewed proletarian vigour… to strike for Berlin!

Yaah! magazine #11 is now available for pre-order, at $35 ($3 off the normal price):

https://flyingpiggames.com/products/yaah-magazine-issue-11

Copies of Red Horde 1920 are also now on sale at $29 instead of $35, so you can buy a copy now and practice while waiting for the sequel game.

https://tinybattlepublishing.com/products/red-horde-1920

This is my second appearance in Yaah! magazine… my first was in issue #2, which had my games Army of Shadows and Uprising, as well as the rules for Guerrilla Checkers and a short article by me on the value of abstract games (From YAAH! #2: Thinking About and Through Abstract Games)

https://flyingpiggames.com/products/yaah-magazine-issue-2

By the way, if anyone is balking at the price of postage, downloadable copies of all the above are available through Wargame Vault, at usually less than half of the price of the physical product.

http://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/9307/Flying-Pig-Games

http://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/9069/Tiny-Battle-Publishing

Coming soon: Strike For Berlin!

Chunk of the playtest countersheet. Proper counters will be done by John Cooper, who also did Winter Thunder and Red Horde 1920.

Elongated blurry slice of the playtest map. Proper map will also be done by John Cooper.

Yaah! magazine #11, which I am told will probably ship in March 2018, will have my game Strike For Berlin in it. Opening blurb to the rules:

STRIKE FOR BERLIN is a simulation game of a hypothetical invasion of Germany by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic’s (RSFSR) armed forces in 1920.  The game is for two players, one representing the irresistible forces of proletarian revolution (called the Red Player), and the other the (hopefully) impervious alliance of anti-Bolshevist forces that would have been arrayed to oppose such an invasion (called the White Player).

The game begins just after the Red Player’s forces have won the Battle for Warsaw in mid-August 1920.  Sensing that “over the corpse of White Poland lies the road to worldwide conflagration” (Tukhachevsky, leader of the Red forces, in a communique), the leadership of the RSFSR has decided to go for broke and seize Berlin, capital of a Germany in political and economic disarray.  However, it is already late summer and they cannot sustain a military effort of this size past the onset of bad weather at the end of October. The Red Player has just ten weeks to change the course of world history.

This is a complete makeover of 1998’s Freikorps, just as Red Horde 1920 was a complete makeover of Konarmiya. 176 counters, 17×22″ hex map. Same updated and revised system, and like Red Horde this one has lots of optional rules to vary the game, including: armoured trains; the Trotsky Train (making a reappearance); the Red Baltic Fleet; Entente units and the Royal Navy;  different deployments and structures for the Reichswehr; Danzig – what of Danzig?; and Red conscription on the march.

And of course, just as with their predecessors the two games can link, so you can play one long game from May to October of 1920, on a combined map that stretches from Kiev to Berlin.

I just handed in the files for this game, so no better samples or even kooky cover art to show… but when it’s time, you can pre-order your copy here. Price will likely be $40 but there’s usually a 10% pre-order discount, and the PnP version is generally less than $20.

https://flyingpiggames.com/t/yaah-magazine