Red Desert: Nomonhan, 1939

In the late spring of 1939, Japanese and Soviet armies skirmished over an insignificant piece of ground along the Khalkin-Gol River, on the border between the Soviet client state of Mongolia and Japan's puppet empire of Manchuria. Both sides threw in more and more troops until by late August, each had committed entire armies. By the time a cease-fire took effect in mid-September, the Soviets had lost over 17,000 men and the Japanese a staggering 45,000, over half of those committed.

Red Desert portrays these battles at a scale of two kilometers per hex. Units are mostly battalions, with some companies and small regiments. Units are rated for attack, defense, movement, morale and armor strength; artillery units can provide offensive or defensive support.

Red Desert is part of our Command&Control game series, and uses the game game engine as Winter Fury. This is a “variable impulse” game system that models the two armies’ very different capabilities. Each turn, each player puts a number of markers into a common container. These are then drawn one by one, the number drawn varying with the current weather condition. Soviet firepower is somewhat mitigated by Japanese tactical flexibility. But even the Emperor’s crack infantry is going to be hard-pressed by the waves of Soviet tanks.

Components

• 420 1/2-inch playing pieces
• One map

Links

Retail Price: $49.99

Stock Code: APL0611

Status: Coming Soon!