Nevsky is a board game designed by Volko Ruhnke and published by GMT Games. It is Volume I in the Levy & Campaign series of board games that explore operational aspects of medieval warfare. Nevsky explores the conflicts between the Teutons and Rus involving the game’s namesake Alexander Nevesky Nevsky whooped up on catholic crusaders in the 11th Century and became a Russian household name.
Napoleon said, “An army marches on its stomach.” A quote highlighting the often overlooked importance of getting necessary things to soldiers. Nevsky is a game that explores operational mechanics for medieval armies. In a game of Nevsky, you fail to pay, supply and support your troops at your peril. Nevsky also features opponents with differing capabilities. The Teutons and the Rus field very different armies. Learning how to best take advantage of the strengths of each army and manage their respective weaknesses is a big part of the game.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the physical copy of the game is super cool. Nevsky uses uniquely-shaped, painted, wooden pieces to represent different classes of soldiers. These pieces are satisfyingly tactile to manipulate and shuffle about. All of the components are well-made and thematic.
The game art is perfectly evocative of the period and serves to give the game a satisfying medieval vibe.
I find all of this to be super interesting and so I thought I would play a game and share it here in my blog. I will be using the excellent Vassal module to play. While I do own a copy of the game and generally prefer to play with the physical version, sharing it would involve photography. I am not much of a photographer and using Vassal makes getting media for the blog much easier.
The game involves cards and quite a bit of hidden knowledge. This makes playing solo challenging. I will do my best to divide my brain equally between Teutonic and Russian. It should work well enough for this playthrough. Just know that Nevsky is designed for two-players and is way more fun enjoyed with another human.
I will be playing the short introductory scenario called, “Pleskau-1240” that lasts 2 game turns. This write-up is not a tutorial. There are excellent tutorials available on YouTube should you need one. I just wanted to share some gameplay of a fun game that I like. I will try to explain some of what I am doing as I go.
Levy Summer 1240
The game starts with each side randomly drawing 2 cards from the Arts of War deck. The Teutons pull:
At the start you get to add capabilities found on the bottom half of the card. The top half of the cards are for later so you can disregard it for now.
The Teutons get to add a raiding capability to one of their lords. What lord does not want bonus raiders? The other card adds the commanderies for the Teutonic Lords. Normally a lord has just one commanderie located at their keep. The card Ordensburgen grants additional bases of operation for all Teutonic Lords. We will see the usefulness of this capability as we play. Note the black crossed shield herald, you will see it on the map soon. The shield will be found on these bonus bases.
Let’s see what the Russians get:
The Russians get Luchniki (massed archers) and Druzhina (Elite retinue) both sound like fun. Since the cards have the “This Lord” wording we will pick a lord whose heraldry is found on the card to enhance with the card.
Next each lord in play gets to muster. A lord may muster a number of times equal to their lordship score. A lords scores are found on their lord mat. Lord Hermann gets 3 cracks at mustering. The following muster actions are available:
- Roll to try and muster another lord
- Muster a vassal from their mat
- Muster a transport asset (boat, cart, sled, ship)
- Muster an arts of war capability (select a card)
I will muster for Lord Herman while humming Eye of the Tiger. Your gear up theme music may vary. Lord Herman will do the following 3 actions.
- Muster one of his own vassals
- Muster a boat
- Muster a boat
Hermann added a vassal giving him more wooden bits (troops) and added a “2 x Boat” marker to his transport capabilities. With more troops and pile of boats Lord Hermann is locked and loaded.
Once all of the Lords have mustered the game goes from the Levy phase to the Campaign Phase. I will muster the rest of the lords so they are ready to begin the next phase. We will discuss campaigning in the next post.
Strategic Buffoonery 