The ship has arrived in Oakland and WBC is just around the corner, so 1200+ Churchill games will soon be arriving at front doors around the world. I just completed my next Clio’s corner #6 for c3i magazine that covers many aspects of design theory through the lens of Churchill. Unfortunately, the magazine will not hit the market until after your games have arrived, so I thought it would be useful to write a short strategy primer to improve everyone’s first experience with the game.

First here are a few important tactical tips. If someone appears to have come up with an unstoppable strategy, take a deep breath and consider the following:

1. Take their stuff away: Each player has a limited amount of production, and each player has a Directed offensive issue plus in the case of the US and UK production issues. For example, if the UK were to have the other two players control their Directed offensive and production issue, the British would have one production marker out of four that they could control. The same is true for the other two sides. So, if any player seems to be driving the game and looks unstoppable, the other two players need to get these issues on the table and neuter whatever the third player is doing by taking their stuff.

2. Playing order matters: Each side has a national characteristic. The British capability is the Imperial Staff that adds one to the value of its staff card played during the Agenda segment. This means that if Churchill always plays a five card they will go last in the conference. This will seem to be an overpowered capability unless you know how to deal with it.

a. First, every time the British win the agenda segment, the Soviets, using what I informally call the ‘Fuchs’ factor, should put the A-bomb research issue on the table and through Stalin’s special ability capture the issue without debate (3 VPs). So, unless the British are into feeding the Soviets points, they need to modulate this ability. Note that this does not occur when Stalin is not present at the conference, which is the case 30% of the conferences.

b. Each player has four 5 value cards, so the British will in most likelihood be using the only one they drew to ensure winning the agenda segment, diminishing their strength later in the conference. Also, on occasion the British will not draw a 5 value card and then if either player has played a strong card, they will win the agenda segment, using their leader to break ties in their favor if necessary. Then there are the Chief of Staff cards (Marshall, Zhukov, and Brook) that based on a die roll will on occasion be valued as a 6 and win outright.

c. No dumping: if your tactic is to just dump a low value card because you believe the British will win the agenda segment anyway, this is a mistake. You do not want to give the British their agenda segment issue with a large differential. Keep the first issue picked on the one space if possible, which means that both players need to pay attention, because the differential is based on the lowest card played.

d. D-Day/ USSR Declares War on Japan affects, read down.

3. Debate: The Soviets have a national characteristic (Nyet) that gives them a +1 value on their cards when they debate versus advancing an issue. If the Soviets are getting too strong, then the other players need to double-team an issue as you only get one pass. Unless the Soviets want to lose on card count, they cannot debate twice in a row. Also, you can double-team an issue with Churchill debating a US play to block the Soviets from doing so.

4. Neutralize the going last advantage: Whoever goes last has the ability to grab the last issue, but it is also the mechanism whereby the design enables the last player to have the last say on the two conditional issues. The important tactic is to put more than one issue in play that the person going last feels is important, and make them choose. So, if the British do not want to allow D-Day to enable a Mediterranean strategy, then ensure that the British have to choose between D-Day, UK Directed Offensive, UK Production, and the Global issue, etc. You can’t pick them all.

5. Zero sum scoring: Churchill does not use cumulative scoring. This means that it is the differential scored in the various dimensions of the game that matter. So for example there are 22 countries/colonies on the map. If you have your political alignment marker on a country/colony you score 3 points. Yet, if the countries were to be divided amongst the three players 8, 7, 7, then the player with 8 political alignment markers would have gained a differential of 3 points. You need to look at the military side through the same lens. So, losing the race for Berlin is a big deal, but not so bad if you do not lose by much, so pay attention to the differentials and less about the total score.

6. Second place is good: In Churchill if you run up the score you will lose. Unlike other multiplayer games running up the score by more than 15 points is a recipe to lose and give the game to the player in second place. There are a host of strategies where you help the person in first place hang themselves with points. This will take some getting used to, but most games are close so coming from last to win is very possible if you time it right.

Churchill was designed to reflect the big picture strategy issues that drove the conferences. Consequently there are a score of dynamic tensions that I built into the game that if not correctly reacted to will give advantage. Obviously in your early plays the person who figures out one of these before the others realize what is going on is likely to win. This is as it should be, play better next time. Really strong strategy in Churchill activates several of these per conference so that you gain advantage despite what your alliance partners do.

Churchill
I predict that the initial impression will be that the British are overpowered because of their Imperial Staff characteristic. Churchill’s power in this game resides in his political acumen and ability to drive the discussion, my personal view of the man. The British advantage is they can usually go last in a conference and, if taken to an extreme with consistent plays of a 5 value card, can potentially win every agenda segment for a particular game. This means that the Prime minister gets the last word in every conference.

One feature of the current game market is many people play a game once and if something occurs that they did not foresee, they share on social media their ire. I look at these situations as fascinating strategic puzzles to be solved, but that’s me. So, if Churchill decides to block D-Day by using the last card play to win the issue every conference, which is possible, the British should lose the game, but only if the other two players respond correctly. If they do so, the behavior is neutered, Churchill behaves and it stops or that player loses the game. I am not a fan of special rules to resolve poor player execution. In my designs you need to play well. If you are not a fan of playing well, then please do not play my games.

Besides the 12 VPs that the British will be giving to the Soviets for A-bomb espionage, the no D-Day strategy (see no USSR declares war on Japan later on) requires the British to gain their points politically and in the Pacific. If you read the tactics section above, if you steal British production then there is no advance in the Pacific, so beyond political points the British and the US (the Western front scores the same for both) will not score many points in Europe giving the game to the Soviets. This assumes that Stalin becomes the sole occupier of Germany (see Stalin comments). The US can score points in the Pacific that the British do not share, so in the end, the British no D-Day strategy fails every time. If you react like a deer in the headlights, you have been warned. There are far more strategies available to the British, but I want to leave folks some room for personal creativity.

Stalin
The first rule of being a Soviet is: Do not trust the west. You will not win many conferences, but when you do you score more points. Your main main source of victory points is through the barrel of a gun. You need to build a position that does not require voluntary Anglo-Allied support. You should invest in the Arctic to increase your production through regular convoy delivery. You should always ensure that Directed offensive and production issues are in play each conference. The Soviets needs to generate at least 5 offensive support markers for the East front each conference if possible and your goal should be ten. The way this is accomplished is:

1. base of 3
2. add one for the Arctic convoys
3. your staff cards played on the right issues will give 2-3 bonus offensive support markers
4. occasional Murmansk convoy
5. any combination of a Directed offensive, production, European leadership will generate 3-4.

Obviously circumstances will drive this number up and down a little, but if you generate ten versus the likely reaction of 5 German reserves your East front has 100% chance of advancing with a 10-20% chance of advancing two spaces on a breakthrough. Dial this down one or two and your chances for advancing are strong, but remember the dice love no one. Once you get your juggernaut moving forward, a Churchill no D-Day tactic just makes you stronger. If the US does not want you in the Pacific by preventing Stalin from declaring war on Japan, no problem. The US/UK ability to score points without Japanese surrender cannot match the 15 VPs that the Soviets gain militarily as the sole occupiers of Germany. Again, do not trust the west and get your army moving. Also, if you get a chance, remember that you have an alternate path to points in the Pacific by advancing to Korea. As the Soviet you can delay your political game until later in the war because when your tanks have rolled through Eastern Europe the NKVD will clean up some of the western clandestine networks making it easier to dominate the east bloc. Remember, first the tanks, then the talking.

Roosevelt
As the Arsenal of Democracy the US wins ties, so you can play more efficiently and you have the most stuff (production). The US is strong in the political realm with strong military leaders who can keep the Soviets and British from controlling US directed offensives. On top of this there is the A-bomb that needs to be built, but opens you up to Soviet espionage. Try to keep the British from setting up Stalin each turn, but if they do, consider a Pacific first strategy to get the British in line. The more Churchill tries to use the D-Day timing to push you around, take his stuff and advance on the Japanese. Of all the actors in this drama, the US is best positioned to win if alliance bickering prevents the Axis surrender. I could write more, but I personally like playing the Americans and I want to have some advantages when I play.

Well, I hope that this wets your appetite for Churchill and gives you some early strategies and tactics for dealing with the inevitable learning curve. As I said, the game does not have special rules and it is the player who can channel the game to his asymmetric strengths with judicious timing that usually comes out on top.

Have fun,

Mark

Articles in this Series: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

Author: Mark Herman