Last year, we were contacted by our good friend Randy Lein from Legion Wargames about a new project called Werwolf: Insurgency in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948, which is a COIN Series inspired multi-faction game taking a look at a what if situation at the end of World War II with various possible insurgencies. He asked if we would be interested in doing some coverage through an interview and possibly some other mediums, such as our Event Card Spoilers format that we have used in other games, and we were immediately intrigued by the concept and the fact that the game uses some of the elements of one of our favorite series. I have been in communication with one of the designers Clint Warren-Davey since that time and he has shared lots of information with me, including the rules and some of their background work on this one, and I wanted to make sure we gave it some light to give you a chance to understand what the game is so that you can make an informed decision about whether you plan to order this one or not. Clint has been great to work with and has agreed to write a series of short articles on the Event Cards and their basis in history as well as how they are used in the game.
If you are interested in ordering Werwolf: Insurgency in Occupied Germany, 1945-1948, you can pre-order a copy for $72.00 from the Legion Wargames website at the following link: https://www.legionwargames.com/legion_WER.html
#52 War in the East
The war against Japan had already consumed millions of lives (mostly Chinese) before the Allied powers had gotten close enough to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If it were not for the bombs, nicknamed “Little Boy” and “Fat Man,” the final campaign to defeat Japan would have been “Operation Downfall”. This was envisaged as a massive amphibious invasion that would have cost around a million American lives, plus millions more Japanese lives as resistance was expected to be fanatical. Huge piles of Purple Heart medals were minted in anticipation of this bloodbath, many of which were still being given out to U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan 70 years later.
The Soviets were also preparing an invasion of Japan in late 1945, which put pressure on the Allies to finish the fight soon and not allow Stalin to take any of the Japanese home islands first. It is still debated to this day whether an invasion would have been necessary without nuclear weapons, or if the Soviet threat alone would have been enough to convince the Japanese regime to surrender. In the game’s timeline, the atomic bomb is not yet complete by August 1945, and the Allies are desperate to secure German scientific knowledge to aid the Manhattan Project. This card presents the possibility that the atomic bomb is not ready and the Allies commit to Operation Downfall, requiring the transfer of forces from the insurgency in Germany and potentially a huge blow to Allied Morale. If the nukes are ready, represented by play of the Allied Key Event Card Manhattan Project, then this card provides a tremendous boost to Allied prospects. Morale will go up as the war in the Pacific is finally over, and additional resources are provided to the Allied player as they are no longer needed against Japan. If this card comes up, both the Allies and their enemies will be extremely eager to play it if their own conditions apply.
Indeed, because this card is potentially so powerful, there is an optional rule to remove it from the deck if playing the short scenario. This is because there are no Key Event Cards in the short scenario, so the Allies will be unable to play the top event while their enemies can still play the bottom event. Note that the Allies could just cancel the event with Espionage, but experienced players might find this overly harsh on the Allies relative to the other factions.
If you missed the previous entries in the series, you can catch up on the posts to date by following the below links:
Even though the pre-order numbers are increasing and nearing their ultimate goal of 250, we are still hosting these card spoilers to share more about the game and its alternate history. In the meantime, if you are interested we posted an interview with the designers and you can read that at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2022/06/27/interview-with-clint-warren-davey-and-ben-fiene-designers-of-werwolf-insurgency-in-occupied-germany-1945-1948-from-legion-wargames/
-Grant
The Players' Aid 