Frank Chadwick's Campaigns in Russia

 From the publisher's website:

Frank Chadwick's Campaigns in Russia

The Arduous Beginning

When the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, their greatest concentration of troops was found in Army Group Center, tasked with driving eastward toward Moscow. The initial shock of the attack sent the Soviets reeling and Minsk quickly fell to the invaders. However, the Axis timetable demanded complete success during the initial months of the invasion, for only with the Red Army destroyed and Byelorussia occupied could the Soviet Union, fresh from Stalin’s purges, collapse; but anything less than total victory would mean a long and protracted war. The stakes could not be higher as the German panzers and infantry engaged Soviet armies and mechanized corps along Russia’s western frontier.

The Arduous Beginning is the first new historical board game in some 15 years from renowned game designerFrank Chadwick. It is a new iteration on his classic Battle for Moscow game system that combines ease of learning and design elegance with the kind of dramatic gameplay that Frank has long been famous for.

Objective: Kiev

When the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, they faced both their greatest expanse of territory to capture and the greatest concentration of Soviet armor south of the Pripet marsh in Ukraine. Army Group South launched its multi-national forces (including Rumanians, Hungarians and Italians) with their principal target defined – Objective: Kiev.

Facing them was the Red Army weakened from the recent purges of its officers by Stalin. Still, the Soviets put together a strong counter-attack early in the campaign, but their advantages in numbers of tanks committed could not overcome the German's superiority of skill when employing their veteran panzer units. The Axis forces advanced eastward to the Dnieper River and south toward Odessa, but as the front kept expanding, forces were spread thinner to cover the front line. 

Objective: Kiev is a new historical board game from renowned game designer Frank Chadwick, iterating the classic Battle for Moscow game system used in The Arduous Beginning, combining ease of learning and design elegance with the kind of dramatic gameplay that Frank has long been famous for. Featuring countless opportunities and variations, Objective: Kiev presents an endlessly fascinating series of puzzles and is a game that you're going to want to play again and again. 

Target: Leningrad

This “quiet northern flank” of Operation Barbarossa was anything but quiet. Army Group North, commanded by Field Marshal von Leeb, was given an important strategic goal –Target: Leningrad! To capture this second capital of Russia and the birthplace of Soviet communism would deal a severe psychological blow to the enemy, protect the northern flank of Army Group Center, and bring an overland route into Finland, Germany’s Axis ally in the north. Hitler would obsess on the capture of Leningrad.

Taking Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in their Baltic drive, as well as the north regions of Byelorussia, the Germans found themselves facing stubborn resistance from the Red Army and the Soviet Baltic Sea Fleet. Several Soviet counteroffensives were launched, but the Baltic States were soon overrun and operational objectives such as Talinin eventually fell to the German Blitzkrieg. The Soviets would improvise defensive barriers like the Luga Line, but Germans kept coming…

Target: Leningrad is a new game from legendary game designer Frank Chadwick, iterating the Campaigns in Russia game system used in Battle for Moscow, The Arduous Beginning and Objective: Kiev. Featuring countless opportunities and variations, Target: Leningrad presents an endlessly fascinating series of puzzles, filled with rich historical narrative in every move, as Leningrad becomes the focus of this great campaign.


Players: 2

Time: 45 minutes+ per game

Ages: 12+