Triumph of Chaos v2 Deluxe Edition

Similar to other card driven strategic games, players assume role of political and military commander of their respective (RED and WHITE) forces in this epic struggle of the Russian Civil War.

Like the original Triumph of Chaos published back in 2005, there are three phases in a turn: Political, Action and Logistics.

During the Political Phase, players try to gain control of the 18 factions (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, West Ukraine, Ukraine, Makhno, Transcaucasia, Asktrakhan, Khiva, Turkistan, Central Powers, Czech Legion, Britain, France, USA) using Political Cards. Players are forced to make difficult trade-offs between expending resources in the Political Phase vs the Action Phase and attempting to influence one faction at the expense of others. Players utilize a shared deck of 66 Political Cards.

During the Action Phase, players use Action Cards to conduct operations (activating a space for combat or movement), take replacements, place reinforcements, make strategic moves, seize initiative in combat, gain diplomatic traction with the factions or implement special operations. Leaders have these capabilities including exploitation, reinforcing battles, withdrawing, counter-attacking and conducting multi-space attacks. Players are forced to make difficult decisions thwarting threats and capitalizing on opportunities. Each player has their own deck of 55 Action Cards. Additionally, a deck of 44 Leader Cards (for a combined total of 220 ToC Cards) provide historical details regarding the various personalities in the game.

During the Logistics Phase, players rebuild/repair units, determine if various factions withdraw from the combat, check for the effect of In-Fighting within the RED and WHITE camps, check for attrition, purchase political influence, buy leaders and check for victory.

So, how does Triumph of Chaos v2 compare with v1 (which was published back in 2005 and then expanded in 2007 by the Comrades' Guide)? The categories of improvement:

* A richer game experience…

• More card angst/decision tension: Significant revisions to the Action Cards (the majority of them) to reflect learnings from new research and hopefully make the choices faced by each player more gut wrenching.

• Invited the Socialist Revolutionaries to the party: The SRs now occupy a “buffer position” between RED & WHITE in the east as the game begins; making for a nail-biting opening. The SRs may go either way as governed by a track and play of both Political and Action cards with significant ramifications for both players.

• Leader state: A few leaders now have an alternative “state” (ex: Kolchak: drug abuse, Mai-Mavesky: debauchery, etc), making them more unreliable than your usual wargame leader counter.

• Far east part of the story added: Japan, far-east warlords and red partisans are all now apart of play.

* A little less clunky game engine…

• A few tweaks to the basic game engine: artillery, tanks and air are now simply “assets” that modify combat die rolls. A Resource Center mechanic now controls where replacements may be spent (much more reflective of historic constraints).

• Infighting: Gameplay impacts the composition of each player’s in-fighting pool; changing the internal political dynamics that both players must manage.

• Better Faction rules: A streamlining of the Ukraine and Poland rules. Nips and tucks to Makhno, West Ukraine and Finland.

* ..and improved kit & bits (game look & feel)

• Doubled the map: Most of that is a result of simply “blowing up” the original map by 40% (for our tired/old eyes) and adding the Far East and Trans-Siberian railroad all the way to glorious Vladivostok.

• Bigger counters: Armies & leaders are now represented by ½ in x 1 in counters (basically double the size as before), while corps have 5/8 in counters and only informational markers get the wargame traditionally small ½ in counters.

• Bigger & better game aids: Faction Control Table larger and contains better information regarding the factions…force composition charts now provided…and more!