Drang Nach Osten: the Anti-Bolshevik Crusade


A World in Flames Scenario

Here is a big picture table of contents. There are a lot of smallish pages inside that you'll need to peruse.


This is a new, hypothetical scenario I've designed for World in Flames Super Deluxe. The basic premise is that the British and French backed down and did not support Poland in September, 1939. Thus the outbreak of war in Europe was delayed by over two years, during which time Germany rebuilt the Kriegsmarine, the French learned a little something about armored tactics, and the British decided that retaining their empire was more important than saving the world ... leading them onto some unexpected collision courses. The chief benefit to this scenario is that all major powers are involved on the first turn of the game, and all are in a relatively strong (or at least interesting!) situation. From a player's perspective, 2 of your group's players, the USA and USSR, usually have to wait several gaming sessions before getting into the thick of things. Now you don't -- everyone hits the ground running!

I've written an alternate history that accompanies this scenario. This fully details what happens from September 1939 until the outbreak of general war in Europe. This is pure fiction, but it is fiction based on a good understanding of the leaders and elements influencing world events at this period in time. These events are closely in line with how WiF operates, with only a handful of exceptions (such as the Yugoslavian coup), and those are still pretty good history. It's almost as if you are playing WIFD, and in SO '39 the British and French simply chose not to declare war on Germany.

All WIF rules are fully in force during this fictional period before the war really gets going with one addition: the USSR (and Communist China) are not "Allies" but rather constitute a third ideology (a la DOD). As such, they may fight the USA, Nationalist China, France, and/or the Commonwealth.

The question you should be asking right now is: has this scenario been playtested? The answer is a resounding No! I do hope to play out at least some of it solitaire this summer, but freely admit that I have no idea of what is supposed to happen at all. I find this quite enticing. After all, we all know what really happened in World War II. Playing a game based on that situation lends itself to a pretty clear vision on what the best couple of strategies to follow are (the historical ones that worked, the what-if ones that either could have worked or weren't tried, etc.) If you do venture into this scenario, you have none of the historical hindsight that all WIF players benefit from. The game should be much more like the real conflict: rife with uncertainty, stunning victories, and dramatic defeats.

As it happens, my friend Eric has just started a solitaire game of Drang Nach Osten! Read his reports:

Victory

I have no good suggestions for victory conditions, since I don't have any yardstick to know what will happen. I would recommend that you just sit down and play until one of the three ideologies has all of its major powers conquered, and have fun. If your group likes a fixed game length and bidding, then I might suggest that you plan to play 5 full years, from MJ '42 through MA '47, and bid for objectives controlled at the end of MA '47. What should that be? Your guess is as good as mine!

I encourage anyone who has any feedback on this at all to drop me a line and let me know what you think of it. Thanks!