The second edition of Illusions of Glory: The Great War on the Eastern Front (“IoG”) is currently on the P-500 list. Links to prototype unit counters, player aid cards, mapboard, and playbook can be found on the IoG webpage.
Google’s AI says that IoG is a “heavyweight wargame with a great design”, that the game “has a fascinating and tense theme centered on World War One’s Eastern Front”, and that “players are advised to use the latest living rules and consider buying the upcoming second edition”.
IoG’s second edition comes with new features. Among them are these new Strategy Cards:
AP #44: The Brusilov Offensive
The Event on this card says:
For the rest of this Turn, any AP attack that includes an RU LCU receives +1 DRM. All RU units that win a Combat may advance. Trench effects are canceled for any defending space containing non-GE units.
The DRM is moderated from its earlier version because of combat fatigue affecting Russian troops by this time. However, Russian units in the attack still showed élan, expressed in advancing even damaged units after combat. The shakiness of Austro-Hungarian units undid the advantages of entrenchment, so trench effects are canceled when they occupy a space having a Trench marker.
AP #55: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
This card’s Event can now be played when the Victory Point marker reaches the “25” space on the General Records Track. The card also cancels RUSSIAN WAR WEARINESS, which moves the Armistice marker down 1 space on the General Records Track each Turn.
New Rule 28.1 is referenced in the card, which provides that: (a) RU units on the gameboard cannot attack any CP units, (b) AP and CP units cannot move or attack into Russian-controlled spaces and regions, (c) AP (but not CP) units can attack Russian uprising units and take control of spaces or regions that they occupy, and (d) no more Russian uprising units can be placed on the mapboard. This is a simplified and more historically representation of the treaty’s effects
CP #35: King Constantine
Greece enters the war as a CP ally if all Greek VP spaces are neutral, and the CP player receives +1 VP for each Greek VP space. This card simplifies the political situation where King Constantine, the Kaiser’s brother-in-law, suffers no resistance to his pro-German sympathies (represented as AP-controlled VP spaces in Greece).
There is also a new Combat Results Table:
The Heavy Fire Table has new columns for 6-7, 8-9, 10-12, and 13-15 Combat Factors that will expose German units to maximum damage more readily. This promotes play balance when German and Russian units fight.
Enjoy IoG’s second edition!
You can learn more or pre-order Illusions of Glory 2nd Edition here.
Author: Perry Silverman
