Golden Journal Number 64
Russian Imperial Guard

Several times a year, when we feel like it, the Golden Journal brings Gold Club members some fun extras for their Avalanche Press games. Our new-model Golden Journal features a “real” booklet, just like a small magazine, and a small set of die-cut, silky-smooth playing pieces.

Peter the Great founded the precursor of the Russian Imperial Guard in 1682, a small group of young men who practiced Western-style military drill and tactics. By 1687 they had become formally organized into two infantry regiments, and when they marched to war against the Turks in 1695 they were stylized as the “Imperial Guard.”

From that time until the First World War, the Imperial Guard fought in all of Russia’s major wars, usually very well, sometimes not so well. While in other countries the Imperial or Royal Guard was usually noted for fanatical loyalty to the regime, in Russia this was not always true. Use of Guardsmen to stage palace coups no doubt undermined the relationship between throne and Guard, but the Guard recruited educated young men from the nobility and gentry. By the early 19th Century, many of these soldiers and junior officers came to hold liberal views at odds with the harsh conservatism of their masters. Guardsmen mutinied in 1820 over their demands for government liberalization, and in 1906 a Guard battalion once again mutinied for pretty much the same thing.

The Guard went to war in 1914 as a small army unto itself: three infantry divisions, a rifle brigade, two cavalry divisions, three artillery brigades and two battalions of Guard sailors trained as infantry. They saw a great deal of action, finally uniting (along with some line units) in a Guards Army. Back home in Petrograd, the depot battalions of the Guard regiments refused to fire on unarmed demonstrators in 1917, helping spark the February Revolution. By the spring of 1918, all of the Guards units had been disbanded.

Golden Journal No. 64: Russian Imperial Guard is an Infantry Attacks expansion based on the October 1914 Battle of Warsaw (also known as ther Battle of the Vistula), in which the Imperial Guard played a prominet role in this Russian victory.

We tell you all about the Guard and the battle, and give you eight historical scenarios from the campaign. Along with those eight new Infantry Attacks scenarios, you get 24 new die-cut and silky-smooth playing pieces showing the Guard in their own snazzy color scheme. You can also use these in August 1914 and Fall of Empires scenarios, just because. You’ll need August 1914 and Fall of Empires to play the scenarios.

How do you get it? Only by joining the Gold Club – join up and we’ll tell you how to get it.

Links:
• Publisher’s Preview
•

Stock Code: APL6060

Price: $14.99 (Gold Club exclusive)

Status: Coming Soon

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See your Gold Club Insider newsletter for ordering information.