Moscow Burning: The Next Russian Civil War

This is a 'what if' game simulating the first 30 days fighting that could occur in the Russian ethnic heartland if that nation's current experiment with capitalism and "democracy" fails. Though the game does allow for the accidental or terrorist detonation of individual nuclear weapons, it does not simulate the possiblity of a new Russian Civil War escalating into any kind of strategic nuclear exchange.

The game system contains no ZOC, replacement or supply rules. Hex control and unit loyalties are the primary components to winning. Militia, regular Russian army and Ministry of the Interior units start the game without having any particular identification, indicative of the confusion and fluidity inherent in the opening phases of the conflict, while the Elite units are more crucial to determining the course of any new civil war in Russia and bear the specific I.D.s of their real-world counterparts. A player can bid with VPs to change the loyalties of elite units. Militia is converted by occupation of a city through advance after combat.

There are 240 counters, most of which represent combat units of the Russian army and Ministry of the Interior heavy and airborne divisions, along with their elite air assault, special forces and naval infantry brigades, and ad hoc revolutionary militia formations. The map is scaled to 20 miles per hex side to side. Each game turn represents three days.

Published in Command magazine #40 - Nov 1996 (along with Battle of Buena Vista in the same issue)