In the last article, we examined Combat in the game. This time, we’ll discover why the game is titled Hammer and Sickle as we look at the economy.

By themselves, the soldiers stopped the [Great War], while the peasants took over the land and the workers the factories. Lenin had only to sanction the accomplished fact to make sure of the sympathies of the soldiers, the peasants, and the workers. – Pavel Milyukov

Hammers and Sickles

The two core resources in the game are Food and Firepower, and they are produced, respectively, in Sickle territories and Hammer territories. Sickle territories represent the rural, agricultural workers who are responsible for feeding the people and armies of the former Russian Empire. Hammer territories represent the urban, industrial workers who produce not only the weapons used by those armies to destroy one another, but also the metal, fuel, and transportation systems necessary for a twentieth century industrialized war machine to function.

The game is called Hammer and Sickle not to glorify the emblem of the Soviet Union, which claimed through its propaganda and flag to represent the toiling masses. Instead, the game pays tribute to those toiling workers themselves, as well as their immense sacrifices while suffering from war, state repression, and famine. It does this primarily through the scarcity of both Food and Firepower, as a result of how the Sickles and Hammers function.

The territories a faction controls on the map dictate how many Hammer tokens and Sickle tokens that faction has. When a territory changes hands, the faction which lost the territory must surrender any Sickles or Hammers corresponding with that territory to the faction which conquered it. Strategically, this makes an agricultural heartland like Kyiv, which has two Sickles, of keen interest to a faction like the Bolsheviks, which lacks Food production. Likewise, an industrial center like Petrograd, which has three Hammers, is a huge strategic target for any faction that struggles to produce enough Firepower to keep up with the Bolsheviks on the battlefield.

Each Hammer token you possess contains both a potency and a burden. During the Production phase at the end of each Season, if that Hammer token receives one Food, all is well. The Hammer (the factory workers) consumes the Food and converts it into one Firepower for you to use however you see fit (usually Combat or Subjugate actions). But if the Hammer does not receive Food, hunger begins, as does the risk of worker rebellion. Without Food, a Hammer does not produce Firepower; it instead produces Agitation, which must be placed in one of your Hammer territories. If a territory has two Agitation tokens, the workers are On Strike, meaning they will not Produce regardless – flip the Hammer/Sickle token over to the ‘On Strike’ side. However, you may want to give Food to striking Hammers anyway, because they still need to consume Food to avoid producing even more Agitation. And with three Agitation, a territory goes into Rebellion – forcing your troops to retreat to an adjacent territory and spawning one Anarchist troop out of the rebellious working class.

The Russian Winter

Sickles produce Food during the Production phase, but how much Food they produce depends on the Season. In Hammer and Sickle, each Season is either Summer or Winter. During a Summer Season, each Sickle produces one Food. So, controlling Kyiv (if it’s not On Strike) guarantees you two Food each Summer. Yet, the Russian winter is a beast. Each Winter Season, two Sickles are required to produce one Food. If you control five Sickles on the map, you will only produce two Food in the Winter.

Players experience this famine immediately at the end of Season 1, which is Winter. This is particularly a problem for the Bolsheviks, who begin the game with five Sickles (producing only two Food) and six Hammers. This food insecurity is undoubtedly the Bolshevik faction’s core weakness, making Sickle territories absolutely crucial for themselves as well as their enemies.

Negotiation and trade are open in this game. Players can freely trade Food and Firepower, and even make promises to help one another that they never intend to keep. As we saw in the previous article, negotiations can even extend to whether to Support another faction in Combat, or how many casualties you are willing to take. Typically, these negotiations happen between “allies” – either of the Revolutionary or Counter-Revolutionary variety. Thus it is common once Winter rolls around for the starving Bolsheviks to ask the poorly armed Anarchists if they want to make a Food-for-Firepower swap. Just keep in mind that in this game, betrayal is likely, and if you’re winning, betrayal is inevitable!

Next time, which will be the final installment, we’ll cover the Propaganda phase and tie up some loose ends as we conclude the series.

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Previous Articles:

The Four Factions of Hammer and Sickle

How to Win Hammer and Sickle

Events and Actions in Hammer and Sickle

Combat in Hammer and Sickle