Pursuit of Glory, for those unaware of the game, is a card-driven wargame that simulates World War I in the Near East; that is the conflict between the Ottoman Empire, the Russian and the Commonwealth forces. Although the basic mechanics of the game are straightforward, there are a wealth of exceptions and special cases that make learning the game quite challenging. I don't recommend this as your first wargame!
The game has been sitting on my table over the past two weeks, but it was finally on this weekend that I got down to a solid burst of playing it. Generally, it played fairly quickly, but then I'd run into an exception (mostly triggered by an event card play), and then it'd be back into the rulebook.
The rulebook is 48 pages. The organization does make a kind of sense, but some rules (like how irregular units differ from regular units) are scattered over several sections. I really wish it had an index. The table of contents is great, but there were times when I would have liked an index.
So, what happened in the game?
Africa
Africa begins with a weak group of Indian forces sitting on the west side of the Suez Canal with the Ottoman forces somewhat nearby.
To a large extent, the African campaign was something of a sideshow away from the main action up between Turkey and Russia. It became a lot more interesting during the winter months, when Russia was a real quaqmire to fight in and Turkey needed someone to attack.
The TU-A forces (Turkish/Arabian) moved up to the Canal and sat there for a few months, staring at the British on the other side. Finally, they made a push over the Suez and captured ground on the other side. The Indian and British forces were shocked into action and counterattacked, eventually pushing the Turkish forces back over the Suez.
Jihad forces (allied with the Central Powers) appeared in the Bahariya Oasis, but only caused the British to reinforce Mersa Matruh. More problematic was the Arab revolt against the Turks, which began in the Winter of 1916 and saw first Mecca and then Medina fall to the revolt forces, giving valuable VPs to the Allied Powers.
Persia and Mesopotamia
The game began with the British forces invading Fao, destroying the fort and driving the Turkish defenders back. Local tribes then allied with the Turks and kept the British from advancing too far. One enterprising troop managed to capture Shuster before retreating to Ahwaz to block Turkish movements.
As the game progressed, the British were reinforced by Indian forces (which captured the Southern Persia region), but Turkish forces flooded in from Baghdad and further north, violating Persian neutrality and capturing most of Neutral Persia. Russia got into the game late in the piece, capturing Central Persia for itself, but the Persian Uprising in support of the Turks prevented the Allies from gaining much more ground in Persia.
The Russian Front
This was the most hotly contested front of the war. The Turks began well, pushing back the Russian forces and getting an initial foothold. The Winter of 1915 delayed their push a little, allowing the Russians to regroup, but after that the Turks were good enough to capture Kars, Urmia and threaten Tabriz and the other Russian victory points.
However, the Russians were able to bring a lot of troops to bear and inflict casualties the Turks could ill-afford to lose. Kars was liberated, and the front settled down into an uneasy stalemate that was punctuated by various ill-fated offensives from one side or the other.
In the late Winter of 1916, the Russians repulsed a large Turkish attack that left the Turks reeling: 3 of their combat units had suffered from severe weather (a roll of 6 on the die, needing a 6 for the penalty!) and then had been punished even more by the Russian forces. With the Turks greatly reduced and the Armenian Uprising beginning, the Turks were unable to properly respond to a sudden fast dash by Russian forces through Azerbaijan to capture the south of Caucasia, the north of Mesopotamia and even Aleppo in Syria/Palestine!
This was a deadly move; the Turks had been caught entirely flat-footed without the troops to move; especially with the Armenian Uprising restricting their movements. Where the Turks had been winning a couple of turns ago, with a VP score of around 14 or 15 (with 20 giving them an automatic victory), the VP score dropped to 0 with the capture of these key points: as Spring 1916 came to an end, the Russians and Allied Powers had won the war!
Final Thoughts
The Balkans never entered the war, nor did Gallipoli come into effect. The Churchill Prevails event, which has a fleet of British warships bombarding the forts on the Gallipoli peninsula, was a complete failure: not even one fort was destroyed!
The end of the game was entirely surprising; the Russian push and the inability of the Turks to stop it was most unexpected. The game would have ended there anyway; it was looking more like a marginal Turkish win, but it actually was the "proper" end to the game. Not a "full" game of all the turns, but a legitimately concluded one.
Pursuit of Glory looks like it will be a fun game to play with Randy when we eventually tackle it; we've a bunch of others we'll try first though (including Paths of Glory). For myself, being an Australian, this theatre has a number of important operations that make it worth investigating. I'll daresay I'll bring it out again in future.
Posted Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:37 am
