La Bataille de Molodi, 1572 társasjáték

Angol leírás

Moscow, 1571. The city is ablaze. Only the Kremlin has been spared. 100,000 to 120,000 Muscovites perished in the flames. The Crimean Khan's Tatar army returns to its capital with over 100,000 captives, both men and women, destined for the slave markets of Constantinople or the Sultan's harem.

Ivan IV, Tsar of all the Russias, saw it as divine punishment. He abolished the Oprichnina and its reign of terror. He restored the boyar families to their privileges. He decided to open peace negotiations to end the Livonian Wars, which were draining his state's resources. He even went so far as to offer the Crimean Khan the return of Astrakhan, a gateway to the Caspian Sea. The Russian state was on the verge of collapse.

1572. The Crimean Khan, Devlet Ghirai, decides to raise an army to deliver the final blow to the moribund Russian state. The effort is immense: over 100,000 steppe cavalry, janissaries supplied by the Sublime Porte, and siege artillery. The ultimate goal is to restore the power of the Golden Horde over Russian lands.

Ivan IV the Terrible must face a war of conquest. But still entangled in the Livonian Wars, he can only muster 60,000 men. The heart of this army is the Streltsy, the professional arquebusiers who form the embryo of a standing army. The fate of Russia will be decided on the battlefield of Molodi, south of Moscow.
Will you be able to prevent the burning of Moscow in 1571?
Or will you restore the Golden Horde and bring about the end of the Russian state?

Two scenarios are offered, one in 1571, the other in 1572.
The rules are those of the Gold and Steel series.

After the final throes of the Hundred Years' War, the Italian Wars, the conquest of America, and the Ottoman Wars, this new game allows you to explore another arena of conflict: the Russian steppes.

Armies largely composed of cavalry and mounted archers dominate the battlefield. But the firepower lies with the Russians (Streltsy and Cossacks).
Special rules simulate certain aspects of warfare among the descendants of the Mongol conquerors (captive raids, pillaging, etc.).
Some events take into account the burning of Moscow, one of the very first "maskirovska" operations in Russian military history. The Russian army must crush the invaders, and the Crimean Khan must establish himself in Moscow to rule the Russian lands.

Published in Vae Victis 184

A game turn = a month
A counter = 250-500 infantry, 1500-2000 cavalry, 50 cannons

Complexity = 6/10
Solitaire game = 5/10
Duration of the game = 2-3 hours