Triumph of Chaos, an AAR

[Razgovory]

I wonder who won the war.

[CountDeMoney]

Did turns 2 and 3 last night;  got a lot of typing to do.

[katmai]

Did turns 2 and 3 last night;  got a lot of typing to do.

Well hurry the fuck up, no lollygagging just cause it's MLK day tomorrow.

[Habbaku]

Did turns 2 and 3 last night;  got a lot of typing to do.

[Razgovory]

Did turns 2 and 3 last night;  got a lot of typing to do.

Yay!

[Jacob]

Ass.

[garbon]

What happened to all the typing?

[The Minsky Moment]

What happened to all the typing?

Burnt by Cossacks.

[frunk]

WIth a game title Triumph of Chaos and CdM at the helm I was kind of hoping that the AAR would consist of a photocopied handwritten note that trailed off into random invectives and illegible scratches.

[CountDeMoney]

OK, time to catch up...

Turn 2
As suspected, WHITE attempts to Rescue the Czar at this point.  He fails.  Not only do I execute the entire family, I rape the women.  Before and after.  And the boy too, just to see the look on his face.

Political Phase
The Factions don't see much movement, except that France moves to the WHITE camp, Turkistan and West Ukraine goes RED control, and WHITE can reassume control of the Czech Legion.

Action Phase
WHITE attempts to play Switch Sides on  the 11th Red Army stationed in Svyoti-Krest--and it works.  They now become the Gallician Army.  They'll rue the day they betrayed the revolution.
RED plays the action card "Reinforcements", placing the 13th army in Voronesh and the 16th and Checka 1st Corp in Saretov

WHITE uses an action card to generate 4 RSs.
RED uses a special action to activate 1 OP, moving the 12th Red Army from Kizlyer to Gershown, to stack with the 1st Red Corps, to help cockblock the approach to Tsaritsyn.

WHITE spends an AC for 4 movement points;  moving the 12th Siberian Army from Lyszva, the Siberian 3rd Corps to Buzularsk, the newly-switched Galacian Army to Tagovaya and the Volunteers 2nd Army and Russian Elite 2nd Corps from Petroskoya to Dzunoya.  It's apparent he wants to shore up the north and the Don, for future assaults on Saretov and Tsaritsyn, respectively.
RED plays the People's Army 1 event card, landing the 1st Peoples Army in Suratov and the 2nd in Voronesh. 

WHITE spends an AC for 5 RS points.  He's definitely building up for an offensive.
RED spends 1 OP to move the RedFinland Army from Kouvalo to Helskinki.  There's no way Finland ain't going to stay Red.

WHITE conducts a Special Action to move units out of Pyatigorsk, splitting the units of the Russian Corp 8 to Divnoye and the Vol 3rd Army to Velinkolniask to stack with Denikin.
RED  I pull both Trotsky and Stalin back from the immediacy of the Don front to some hexes behind in order to support more flexibly, leaving speed-bump corps in each town.

WHITE conducts a Propoganda action on my units in Garush, inflicting a NO ACT on the Red 1st Corp and 12th Red Army.  Lazy bastards.
RED drops the WHITE IN-FIGHTING event card, ensuring that things will be a little more interesting on the White side for a few turns.  In addition, RED activates the 16th Red Army and the Checka 1st Corps to reinforce Voroshilov at Tsaritysn.  If the monarchist bastards are going for it, they'll be impaling their bellies on my defenses.

Logistics Phase
The Central Powers don't withdraw.
WHITE uses his points to purchase that rat bastard Wrangel, who enters Rostov, and flips his 3 Armies that were reduced to full strength.  He rolls the dice to apply 4 RS points to the Faction Chart for IPs, and he gets them.
RED uses half and RS to flip one reduced corp to full strength, and I get to place 2 IPs on Finland, to assure they stay with the Revolution.

It's apparent that WHITE figured out that he really needs to get on the offensive macht schnell in the early game, but I think it's one turn too late;  he spent the 2nd turn posturing and preparing, and I was more than happy to let him.

[CountDeMoney]

WIth a game title Triumph of Chaos and CdM at the helm I was kind of hoping that the AAR would consist of a photocopied handwritten note that trailed off into random invectives and illegible scratches.

Funny, that's precisely what I'm working off of on this legal pad.

[Ed Anger]

White sounds like my playing style. Build everything until you have a sledgehammer. Swing hammer. It it doesn't work, get a bigger hammer.

If that doesn't work, complain that my SS panzer divisions are underpowered.

[ulmont]

White sounds like my playing style. Build everything until you have a sledgehammer. Swing hammer. It it doesn't work, get a bigger hammer.

Red sounds more like my playing style.  Hang back and be defensive until the opponent overextends, then punish them.

[CountDeMoney]

Turn 3. Fall 1918.

Political Phase
WHITE draws his in-fighting chit. 
Now, the White strategy starts to come to life;  he blows some major cards on influencing the draws...and he's making an obvious attempt to forget about foreign intervention for a more indigenous effort.  The USA falls out of White control, but White gains Khiva, I lose Turistan from RED control to WHITE influence, and he keeps an irod-clad grip on the Czech Legion, before they withdraw in the next few turns.
I dunno...for me, it seems the strategy of WHITE foregoing foreign intervention in this game is the equivalent of going heavy ARVN in Victory Games' Vietnam 1965-1975...IT JUST DONT ADD UP.  The way Joey sees it, he can't afford to play with foreign troops, as any losses they incur are a pretty strong Victory Point penalty.  I can appreciate that strategy, but I dunno...if you hit Red where they ain't, you don't lose armies.

Action Phase
WHITE drops Red In-Fighting in a tit-for-tat, so I've got to deal with that starting in Turn 4.  He moves Wrangel out of Rostov to support the northern Don front.
RED plays Barricades 2, so I get more cheap proles on the map.

WHITE plays an AC for 4 activations--he moves the Siberian leader Gadja into Samara to stack with a Siberian Army, and also reinforces Karzan.  He then attacks my Red bastion of Gashun with Wrangel and a shitload of White troops;  the 11th Red Army is eliminated, as is the 1st Red Corps, even though they bloody the Whites enough to flip two corps to reduced.  He advances Wrangel into Gorshun, pushing for Tsaritsyn.
RED plays Faction Passivity;  this will freeze the Faction Tracks next turn, so he can't get anymore factions into the mix.

WHITE plays the Don Cossacks Reinforcement, getting additional Cossack units in the south.
RED attempts to play a Green Uprising in the Northern Urals, to get some little bastards behind his units that he's reinforced up there to fuck with his supply trains;  no fucking effect.  Damn.

WHITE buys 4 RSs
RED plays 5 points on Strategic Movement;  I move 5 separate Corps from various areas in the rather quiet central to the front in the Northern Urals, anticipating his push there.

WHITE plays a special action, and activates the some of the newly arrived Cossacks reinforcements, the Don Cossacks Central Army, to move from Rostov to Skahty.
RED moves the 1st and 5th Red Army as well as the 2nd Red Army to surround the Czech Legion and the IGSR in Kazan.

WHITE plays a NO ACT on my 9th Red Corp in Syran;  it works.
RED plays the "Red Army Organizes";  while this bars me from using any RSs this turn, it also paves the way for the introduction of the very powerful Konarmiia units, who will be available in the 1919 card pile.

Logistics Phase
A major, major event that favors RED at the moment:  The Central Powers withdraw.  WOOT KRAUTS GO HOME
WHITE spends 1 RS to flip back his two reduced Corps from the earlier fighting.


We'll play Turn 4 today, during the football games.  WHITE will try to press his attacks in the Don, and possibly in the Northern Urals.  WHITE is totally and completely fed up with Denikin's negative die roll modifiers for his side in various actions, so he's planning on sending him on a really, really long range patrol into RED territory.  By himself.

No with the Central Powers vacated, I anticipate that the Ukraine, West Ukraine, and Makhno factions that are entrenched in the Red Control camp will be making an appearance for RED, totally assfucking the Don Cossacks and Whites from the west.

I anticipate that 1919 will be a Red year.  The only variable is Poland, who is completely and totally in the White camp.  What I do along their borders dictates how they will enter.  I'm not in the mood for a shitload of Martinuses limpwristing their way to Moscow.

[Caliga]

I got the vassal module for this the other day as well as the rulebook in PDF.  It looks: extremely complicated.