Red Flag Over Paris, designed by Frédéric Serval, is a new lunchtime CDG presenting the clash between the Paris Commune and the Versailles Government in the spring of 1871. The game takes place over three regular turns and a fourth “final crisis” turn, here representing the brutal suppression of the Commune during the “Bloody Week” of 21st-28th May 1871. Historically this resulted in the defeat of the Commune, but of course this time things might go differently! Today I will be playing as the Paris Commune against Fred’s Versailles Government and trying to avoid my historical fate.

Turn 1

I draw quite a bad starting hand, with two Versailles events, one neutral event, and only one Commune event. I decide to play it safe and go with “Rise of Republicanism” for my objective this turn, as seizing the Fort D’Issy seems like too ambitious a goal. I also take the initiative (Commune’s choice on the first turn), as it is important that I begin boosting my momentum before Fred can remove any of my cubes (Commune cubes, but not Versailles, have a limited ‘available’ pool determined by momentum, with any extra being removed from the game).

I begin by discarding Otto von Bismarck to boost my momentum, killing two birds with one stone: by removing the card from play, I avoid the risk of Fred playing the event on his turn, and it is quite a powerful one for Versailles. He plays a card for Military Ops and places cubes into Mont Valérien and Fort D’Issy, threatening to invade Paris and forcing me to respond by placing cubes into Butte Montmartre and Butte-Aux-Cailles to defend the Commune. I am reminded at this point that a major part of the game is controlling the tempo, and I may already have failed on that front…

Fred now switches to the Political dimensions, removing my starting cube from the Press and placing one of his own in the National Assembly. He now controls both pivotal spaces, which will allow him to further manipulate the cubes in each dimension before end of turn scoring. Here I make my first mistake: I play my second Versailles event for Political Ops, placing two cubes in Republicans to secure my objective, but forgetting that Fred will be able to replace one of these with a Versailles cube because he controls the pivotal National Assembly space. Fred is now also able to discard a 2-Op card to play the previous event himself, and Colonel De Lochner storms Butte Montmartre, removing my cube and placing two of his own to secure the pivotal Paris space.

Fred controls all four pivotal spaces at the end of the turn, allowing him to consolidate his Versailles position and almost wipe the Commune off the map. My only consolation is that in doing so he breaches Final Crisis, granting me a free Political VP as national opinion turns against the heavy-handed Versailles Government. He scores the Forts dimension and his objective card (Butte-Aux-Cailles), and I score nothing. The situation at the end of Turn 1 is looking pretty grim for the Commune, but I am actually only 1 point behind, and Fred has almost run out of cubes to place.

Turn 2

My hand for Turn 2 is looking much better: two Commune events, one neutral, and only one Versailles. I also have two nice objectives to choose from: the pivotal Paris space, Butte Montmartre, which I should be trying to recapture anyway; and the pivotal Public Opinion space, Press. Butte Montmartre would be a much safer option, but I decide to take a risk and pick Press while also trying to retake Paris. In hindsight this was my second big mistake: I only had the capacity to achieve one of these goals, so I should have picked one to focus on and selected my objective accordingly.

I am ahead on Political VP, but I decide to give the initiative to Fred, hoping to force him to commit his final cubes before I play any more of mine. He is too clever to fall for that though, and instead discards a card to increase his momentum (Prussian Collaboration). The rest of the turn focuses mostly on the struggle for control of Paris, and especially the pivotal space Butte Montmartre, leaving me with no opportunity to pursue my objective of controlling the Press (and bitterly regretting my choice of objective). At the end of the turn I am able to discard a card to play the event on Fred’s previous card, Paul Cluseret, and finally seize back Butte Montmartre.

This means I am able to use the pivotal space to replace Fred’s cube in Butte-Aux-Cailles, and secure the whole of Paris, but as he still controls the Forts encircling the city this results in no overall change on the Military dimensions. Fred also controls both Political dimensions and scores his objective (National Assembly), putting him ahead on both VP tracks. Despite this, things are looking a little better for the Commune at the end of Turn 2, with Paris secure and a foothold in the Public Opinion dimension.

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Next Time: Part 2 of Joe’s Red Flag Over Paris AAR with Designer Frédéric Serval