This article continues the account of how the German Communist Party (KPD) attempts to launch a revolution during the early years of the Weimar Republic. If you are interested in the background to the events described here, Part 1 can be found here.

Disclaimer: all game art, components, and descriptions of rules appearing in this article are taken from test sessions and are not necessarily representative of the final version of The Weimar Republic.

1920

Game State and Tactics:

With Momentum from the previous year, the KPD determines turn order: KPD-NSDAP-Radical Conservatives-Coalition.

The KPD hopes to overwhelm the Coalition with intervening actions by the Radical Conservatives and NSDAP, who, as they grow stronger, might force the Coalition to abandon its efforts to derail KPD revolutionary organizing in the north. The NSDAP has played the Gustav Noske card, an Event that Lingers, in hopes that the Coalition will “double” assault the KPD in Berlin where the NSDAP has just added its first influence cube, the last of the 6 possible for the city.

Soon, Germany will be ground to a standstill by a General Strike. The KPD finally plays Hamburger Aufstand, Communists take to arms; most importantly for its immediate placement of 2 Worker Militias and an Uprising (without having to place an intervening Strike) in Hamburg. Then, KPD dominance is realized in both western provinces of Rheinprovinz and Provinz Westphalen, now potential sites for a second and third Strike. Sachsen region, south of Berlin, should remain under control of the KPD and possible strike action as long as neither the Radical Conservatives nor NSADP remove or place their influence.

Tragically, by concentrating in the western provinces and the politically volatile cities of Berlin and Hamburg, the KPD has ostensibly abandoned Bayern and München to a NSDAP assassination unit and a Radical Conservatives Clique with Leverage. The KPD gambles that the Coalition will be compelled to head off this dramatic southern expansion by the NSDAP thereby stretching thin forces loyal to the Republic and rendering them incapable of suppressing four Strikes that could escalate into four Uprisings, the precondition to declaring a KPD Revolution.

In the Streets:

The city of Hamburg, like Berlin, seethes with unrest to become another stronghold of Bolshevik insurrection. Remnants of 1918’s Red Guards make heady claims for the Revolution over many a beer. Overnight, make shift barricades of rubble and broken furniture appear in working class neighbourhoods. Rumblings at local Party committee meetings dare question leadership for its lack of solidarity with those struggling to resurrect the Bavarian Soviet Republic of the south. Animated stories of an emboldened NSDAP tossing dead Comrades into alley ways barely drown out renewed reports of armoured cars and Freikorps in the north. Rumours fly. Rumours weighed. Which Free City will be targeted, next?

Game State and Tactics:

Momentum is seized from the KPD after the Coalition, Fürstenenteignung, Communists Petition for Expropriation gifts the Radical Conservatives with Momentum.

With Hamburg in the grips of an Uprising, the KPD braces for the inevitable attack by the Coalition’s newly mustered Reichswehr, the most powerful expression of military force in the game. With the Coalition’s Parliamentary Control of Hamburg combined with the the army, the survival of Hamburg’s Uprising is tenuous no matter if more Worker Militias be rallied. Instead, the KPD propagates more influence for dominance in Rheinprovinz and Provinz Westphalen to launch a wave of Strikes. Combined with the one Strike already in Berlin and one in Provinz Westphalen, the minimum of 3 Strikes/Uprisings heralds a General Strike coupled withthe elimination of Radical Conservative Leverage in Bayern region.

This wave of social Bolshevik inspired unrest culminating in a General Strike must be nurtured and survive as the KPD is fast running out of Event cards. Being a faction in the ascendancy in The Weimar Republic is not without its inherent dangers.

In the Streets:

Worker Militias and most militant of the workers including rag tag remnants of Hamburg’s “Red Guards” of the 1918 Revolution amass every weapon at hand; then take up positions in doorways and windows, as they brace for the arrival of the German Army, led by officers hungry for vengeance after defeat in the trenches of France.

Flashbacks to relentless bombardments and helplessness. Usually teeming streets of this northern port, now deserted, echo with sporadic gunfire, likely from callused hands shaking with the prospect of a desperate street battle. To the barricades, Comrades!

To be continued…

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Struggle for Power in The Weimar Republic: KPD Play by Play, 1919 to 1921 (Part 1)