A few years ago, after playing all of the games in the Great Statesmen Series, we heard of a new game in the series from a designer not named Mark Herman and I was immediately interested and intrigued as we have had so much fun with Churchill, Pericles and Versailles 1919. Congress of Vienna from GMT Games is a diplomatic card driven wargame based on Churchill and is the 4th game in the Great Statesmen Series. The game is set during the years of 1813-1814 and sees players take on the role of the main characters of the struggle between the Napoleonic Empire and the coalition of Russia, Austria, and Great Britain with their Prussian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish allies. We played the game recently while attending Buckeye Game Fest and then played a full campaign again while attending the World Boardgaming Championships and absolutely were amazed at the changes and innovations to the system introduced by the designer Frank Esparrago.
With this My Favorite Wargame Cards Series, I hope to take a look at a specific card from the various wargames that I have played and share how it is used in the game. I am not a strategist and frankly I am not that good at games but I do understand how things should work and be used in games. With that being said, here is the next entry in this series.
#65: Georgi Zhukov from Churchill: Big 3 Struggle for Peace from GMT Games
The players in Churchill: Big Three Struggle for Peace take on the roles of Churchill, Roosevelt, or Stalin during World War II as they maneuver against each other over the course of 10 Conferences that determine who will lead the Allied forces, where those military forces will be deployed, and how the Axis will be defeated. The player whose forces collectively have greater control over the surrendered Axis powers will win the peace and the game.
Churchill is not necessarily a wargame, but more of a political conflict of cooperation and competition. Over the course of the 10 historical conferences from 1943 till the end of the war this mechanic and much of the design should not be taken literally. Before and after each conference small groups of advisors and senior officials moved between the Allied capitals making the deals that drove the post war peace. These advisors and senior officials are represented by cards with an assigned numeric value that represents an amount of influence. Each conference sees one of a group of issues nominated for inclusion in the conference for debating and discussion. The issues categories include: Theater leadership changes, directed offensives, production priorities, clandestine operations, political activity, and strategic warfare (A-bomb). Each of the historical conference cards independently puts some number of issues, such as directed offensives or production priorities, metaphorically on the table, while the players nominate an additional 7 issues. The best part of the design is the conference table and stress and tension that comes from fighting over each and every issue. No one issue is a game breaker and no one issue will outright win the peace for you. But, each issue is key to the game as they unfold and change the landscape across which you are battling. Not landscape of terrain and defenses, but pit falls, traps and dead ends.
As I have mentioned, the Staff Cards are the engine for the game and the players must utilize their asymmetric abilities to the best of their ability in order to come out on top of the heap at the end of the game. These Staff Cards represent real period personalities of advisors, political officers and generals, who had the ear of the leaders and could go about working behind the scenes to move an issue into the limelight. Each player will utilize these cards to win those issues and each card provides either a bonus for a specific attribute or, in rare occasions, a negative modifier.
Today, we will take a look at one of my favorite type of cards from the game in the Chief of Staff Cards and specifically look at the Soviet Chief of Staff Georgi Zhukov who was the Deputy Supreme Commander in Chief of the Red Army. Each of the Chief of Staff Cards have a random numeric value in addition to a bonus for a certain attribute. The random numeric value is determined from rolling a 6 sided die and then using that number as the card’s base value. In Zhukov’s case, he is good with Production Issues and will grant a +1 strength toward moving these issues on the conference table. I like to think that this random determination of the Chief of Staff Card’s strength represents the internal power struggle with each of the nations leaders and those closest to them. In the case of Soviet Premier Stalin and his relationship with Zhukov they maintained a tense, professional, and ultimately strained relationship defined by mutual need during World War II, followed by postwar jealousy and suspicion. While Stalin relied on Zhukov as his top military commander to secure victory on the battlefield, he grew paranoid of the Marshal’s immense popularity and influence, leading to his ultimate demotion. And this random nature of the card’s strength reflects this well as sometimes they would agree and they could make great progress while other times they did not and there was tension and difficulty in their cooperation.
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was born on December 1, 1896 and was a Soviet military leader who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Zhukov served as deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces under leader Joseph Stalin, and oversaw some of the Red Army’s most decisive victories. He also served at various points as Chief of the General Staff, Minister of Defence and a member of the Presidium of the Communist Party (Politburo).
Born to a poor peasant family near Moscow, Zhukov was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and fought in World War I. He served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, after which he quickly rose through the ranks. In summer 1939, Zhukov commanded a Soviet army group to a decisive victory over Japanese forces at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, for which he won the first of his four Hero of the Soviet Union awards, and in 1940 he commanded the Soviet invasion of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in Romania. In February 1941, Stalin appointed Zhukov as chief of the General Staff of the Red Army.
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Zhukov lost his post as chief of staff after disagreeing with Stalin over the defense of Kiev. Zhukov, often in collaboration with Aleksandr Vasilevsky, was subsequently involved in the Soviet actions at Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk. He held the title of deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces from August 1942, and was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in January 1943. He participated in the planning of Operation Bagration in 1944, and in 1945 commanded the 1st Belorussian Front as it led the Vistula–Oder Offensive into Germany, where he oversaw the Soviet victory at the Battle of Berlin. In recognition of Zhukov’s key role in the war, he was chosen to accept the German Instrument of Surrender and to inspect the 1945 Moscow Victory Parade. He also served as the first military governor of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany from 1945 to 1946.
After the war, Zhukov’s popularity caused Stalin to see him as a potential threat. Stalin stripped him of his positions and relegated him to military commands of little strategic significance. After Stalin’s death in 1953, Zhukov supported Nikita Khrushchev’s bid for leadership, and in 1955, he was appointed Defense Minister and made a member of the Presidium. In 1957, Zhukov lost favor again and was forced to retire. He never returned to a top post, and died in 1974. Zhukov is remembered as one of the greatest Russian and Soviet military leaders of all time.
We picked up Churchill back in 2014 when it first was printed. From what I could tell at the time was that it wasn’t getting a lot of buzz amongst board gamers on BGG and there were only 2 YouTube videos about the game where we could learn a little more (one from Mark Herman and his wife, the other from Stuka Joe). I realize now that I was wrong to a large extent about the presumptive popularity of the game. First, we had bought it while it was brand new so the buzz was just getting started in a major way. Secondly, Churchill is viewed by many as a wargame and as such many euro gamers are hesitant to give it the try it so rightly deserves. But the game system and what it is trying to do is just fantastic with its debating over issues, seeing those issues translate to action on the board in the further prosecution of the war and then the way that people work to coordinate their actions. Just a really solid system.
A few years ago, after playing all of the games in the Great Statesmen Series, we heard of a new game in the series from a designer not named Mark Herman and I was immediately interested and intrigued as we have had so much fun with Churchill, Pericles and Versailles 1919. Congress of Vienna from GMT Games is a diplomatic card driven wargame based on Churchill and is the 4th game in the Great Statesmen Series. The game is set during the years of 1813-1814 and sees players take on the role of the main characters of the struggle between the Napoleonic Empire and the coalition of Russia, Austria, and Great Britain with their Prussian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish allies. We played the game recently while attending Buckeye Game Fest and then played a full campaign again while attending the World Boardgaming Championships and absolutely were amazed at the changes and innovations to the system introduced by the designer Frank Esparrago.
With this My Favorite Wargame Cards Series, I hope to take a look at a specific card from the various wargames that I have played and share how it is used in the game. I am not a strategist and frankly I am not that good at games but I do understand how things should work and be used in games. With that being said, here is the next entry in this series.
Card #60: French Leader Napoleon from Congress of Vienna from GMT Games
Congress of Vienna from GMT Games is a diplomatic card driven wargame based on Churchill and is the 4th game in the Great Statesmen Series. The game is set during the years of 1813-1814 and sees players take on the role of the main characters of the struggle between the Napoleonic Empire and the coalition of Russia, Austria, and Great Britain with their Prussian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swedish allies. Congress of Vienna has two different but related phases including the conference table where players first debate over the control of issues germane to the factions and the period of the war and second these issues are then used on the battlefield to recruit units, attack and take overall command of battles. The players will be playing cards from their hands to “debate” over the various issues that were placed on the table, which include all types of things such as Military Operations, Recruitment, who will lead the combined Coalition forces (Generalissimo), Future of French Government, British Financial Aid, Liberalism vs. Absolutism, Austrian Neutrality and several other issues, and then later the players will use their accumulated Resources gained from the issues to enact action on the Military Map and do things like mobilize troops, place Military Support Markers and the ultimately to conduct warfare.
The game relies on cards and cards can be used to negotiate, i.e. move an issue to your National Track. Cards can provide a particular issue with positive and negative DRM’s depending on which nation plays them and can also be traded with another player during the Diplomacy Phase. Certain cards are better than others for debating an issue moved by another player; and finally, if they are saved for the War Phase, staff cards can be used to modify dice rolling in battles. These are very versatile cards and the players will have to learn them and their benefits in order to be effective at the game.
In this entry, we are going to take a look at the French Leader Napoleon card, which is one of the more powerful cards in the game. There is actually quite a bit of information found on the card but it all has a purpose and clearly explains when it provides bonuses when used on the various issues such as Minor Country Issues, French Recruitment as well as its various Dice Roll Modifiers during combat. This card is very powerful and must be used at the appropriate times for what the player is trying to do. Early in the game, the card can be used for its French Recruitment ability to gain new troops, the French will then gain 2 additional Units to use. When used during the Diplomacy Phase to effect the location of issues at the conference table, if used to move any issue it will provide a free French Military Operations Marker to be used on the battlefield to cause units to attack. The uses of Napoleon are many and players will need time to best understand when and where to use his abilities. But, his most impactful use is on the battlefield where he will grant various DRM’s depending on what French army he is commanding. If used with the Grande Armée, he will grant a massive +6 DRM while when being used for the Army of the Elbe he will only grant a +3 DRM. As the games wears on, and the Allies are at the gates of Paris, if used in defense he will grant a -3 DRM to the Allies attacking. These choices are very important and the correct choices will need to be made at the right time to be successful.
After playing now a few times, I am here to say that Congress of Vienna is probably my favorite game in the Great Statesmen Series. I believe that this game has matured the system and made it something that is more than where it started. Congress of Vienna is very much more like a true wargame and was extremely interesting. We are still learning and need to keep playing this one but I did enjoy what it was that we were doing.
Jacques-Louis David – The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to power during the French Revolution (1789-1799), became Emperor of the French (1804-1814/1815), and conquered much of Europe through brilliant, though costly, military campaigns, leaving a lasting legacy as one of history’s most famous and controversial figures, known for his strategic genius and ambition. He implemented significant legal reforms like the Napoleonic Code but ultimately faced defeat and exile, cementing his image as a complex figure of power and downfall.
Born on the island of Corsica to a family of Italian origin, Napoleon moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned as an officer in the French Royal Army in 1785. He supported the French Revolution in 1789 and promoted its cause in Corsica. He rose rapidly through the ranks after winning the siege of Toulon in 1793 and defeating royalist insurgents in Paris on 13 Vendémiaire in 1795. In 1796, he commanded a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies in the War of the First Coalition, scoring decisive victories and becoming a national hero. He led an invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798, which served as a springboard to political power. In November 1799, Napoleon engineered the Coup of 18 Brumaire against the French Directory and became First Consul of the Republic. He won the Battle of Marengo in 1800, which secured France’s victory in the War of the Second Coalition, and in 1803, he sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. In December 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, further expanding his power.
We have done 2 videos on this game including the following RAW Video after out 1st play at Buckeye Game Fest in May 2025:
We then did the following full Review Video after our 2nd play at WBC last July:
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