Kutuzov 1812: Defending Russia From Napoleon is an interactive, play it complete in one-sitting card-driven game of sweeping manoeuvres, epic battles, storied sieges, lethal attrition and crucial-to-victory troop morale for one to four players from the designer of The Napoleonic Wars and Wellington.

In the spring of 1812 Emperor Napoleon of France gathered the regiments of 20 nations together into the largest military force yet raised in Europe. That June he led this Grand Army of over 600,000 men across the Nieman River to begin what he believed would be his greatest and perhaps final triumph: the invasion and subjugation of Russia. As the defending armies fell back before this prodigious onslaught, Tsar Alexander turned to a pugnacious and crafty old warrior to help save his country, his people and his Romanov Dynasty: Marshal Mikhail KUTUZOV.

Now designer Mark McLaughlin of the award-winning Napoleonic Wars, along with developer Fred Schachter, who together brought you GMT’s Wellington, have come together again to produce an energetically fast-paced, highly-interactive game of that 1812 epic. Using the same game system that won acclaim in their previous titles; in this rendition, Mark and Fred have crafted a game that retains the feel of campaigning in the deadly vastness of Russia, yet also plays fast, remains fun and whose outcome is often in doubt right down to last card played and the last die rolled.

Kutuzov 1812: Defending Russia From Napoleon, is designed for two, three or four players. One player or team takes the Imperials, whose Army of the North – with Leaders Napoleon, Ney, Davout and the Prussian Yorck and Army of the South—with Murat, Eugene, Poniatowski and the Austrian Schwarzenberg; must invade and either conquer Russia through occupation of its capitals and key cities, or through decisive battlefield victory break the Russian army’s “Will to Fight.”

One other player or team takes the Tsarist forces, whose First Army – with Leaders Barclay, Constantine, Wittgenstein and later Kutuzov himself and the Second Army – with Bagration, Tormassov, Platov and later that “Damned Sailor” Admiral Tchitagov; must not only defend Mother Russia but also later expel the hated invaders from her sacred soil. (No bias here, but after all, the game is called ‘Kutuzov,” not “Uncle Nappy Goes to Moscow”). In games with three or four players, victory goes not just to the winning team, but the player on that team who gains the most points, something that not only enhances competition but also helps recreate the many petty jealousies that plagued the combatants of both sides during this epic campaign.

The Campaign and the Scenarios:

“Invasion”: A Turn One game start should see the French and their Allies’ military juggernaut smash across the border and attempt to catch and annihilate the Russians before they can mass to defend their Motherland Can the players surpass their historical counterparts?

“On to Smolensk !”: This permits players to avoid the border battles and initial French advances to begin play at a watershed of the Campaign: The Grand Army confronting concentrated Russian forces defending Smolensk immediately before Kutuzov arrives to take command. Will the French advance on Moscow as they did historically or seek victory through an alternative offensive direction…north to St. Petersberg or south to seize the Ukraine and other southern victory points?

“Napoleon in Moscow”: In this version of Kutuzov the bloody Battle of Borodino has been fought. The Grand Army reposes in Moscow awaiting Russian surrender or at least agreement to terms. The first chill snow of Winter has fallen, harbinger what’s to come: should the French remain deep in Russia hoping to conquer the country or is it time to withdraw to better defences for the 1813 Campaign?

“Defend the Empire!”: The is a “what if” single turn scenario using the hypotheses that Napoleon wasn’t defeated during Kutuzov’s Turn Three situation depicted in the “Napoleon in Moscow” scenario, but that the French are still in Russia facing the wrath of the Tsarist might for a Winter Game Turn of early 1813.