At this time 75 years ago, the „Big Three” were meeting during the Potsdam conference. And it has so just happened that I had a chance to bring Churchill by Mark Herman again to the table recently. A coincidence but a neat one 🙂

I love The Great Statements series; I am big fan of Pericles and anxiously awaiting soon to arrive Versailles. Still, whenever possible, I am coming back to the first installment as I am big fan of WWII history.

As it happened, we had only limited amount of time, so we decided to play the short scenario, i.e. Turn 8, 9 and 10. While by many treated as a training-only play, I find that set-up interesting. Also, as Mark said: “Main factors contributing to whether game is played or not is theme and time investment needed”. Churchill easily fulfills both even if you are short on time😊

We played in the following set-up:

  • Maciej (Churchill)
  • Michal (me) (Roosvelt/Truman)
  • Marcin (Stalin)

Let us begin!

Turn 8

churchill1
After turn 8 (click to enlarge)

Main action of our initial turn:

  • The conference was won by Maciej/Churchill. Still, both UK and USSR had the same amount of issues won so it was my decision to break the tie
  • Both Eastern and Western Fronts progress steadily towards Berlin
  • Iwo Jima holds firmly, and US is not able to make a progress there
  • Atomic Bomb is being developed by US scientists and those secrets are immediately stolen by USSR
  • The biggest impact was done by Maciej/Churchill in Europe – he won two Pol-Mil issues as well as Global Issue which allowed him for placement of 6 clandestine markers and 4 governments; it will have long-lasting effects on our game.

Turn 9

churchill2
After turn 9 (click to enlarge)

What happened in our second Turn of the game:

  • This time US, which is led by me, wins; I again had to use a tie breaker to get victory
  • First things first – Berlin falls! Nazi Germans are crushed by combined Western and Easter fronts, so everybody scores the points!
  • Unbelievable – Iwo Jima again holds. Things are getting out of hand as Southern Pacific is at Kyushu already – which mean Inter Service Rivalry in place and minus 5 VPs for me at the end of the game 😦
  • Not everything goes wrong for US – they got the Atomic Bomb!
  • On political front, USSR enters the War with Japan and almost conquers Manchuria.

Turn 10

churchill3
After turn 10 (click to enlarge)

Key developments of the last turn:

  • Yet again, for the third time, the conference winner is decided by the tiebreaker. I choose Marcin (5 VPs for USSR)
  • Europe is peaceful, only UK forces enter Northern Italy
  • The really interesting things happen in Asia; Japan is being conquered by the combined US/UK attack although this is definitely not to my liking as I would prefer to win with Atomic bomb!

Then we have political phase and final scores:

  1. Maciej (Churchill) – 59
  2. Michał (Roosvelt/Truman) – 53
  3. Marcin (Stalin) – 44

The game again was pretty close. As both Axis countries surrendered (historical outcome) and the difference between first and last was smaller than 20 VPs we just look at the results. Congratulations to Maciej/UK who won – those governments from initial turn were key here!

As always, Churchill proved to be a fantastic game, providing a lot of fun and strategic decisions to ponder on!