Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
"Red Flag Over Paris", the spiritual successor to Mark Herman's Fort Sumter, is a short, yet challenging, two-player card-driven wargame depicting the two months of intense confrontation between the Communards and the government in Versailles during the 1871 Paris Commune.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Area Majority
Compete to have the strongest presence in areas that award control or points.
Action/Event
Cards can provide player actions, trigger events, or force a choice between them.
Campaign Card Play
Play cards to command conflicts and carry consequences through a campaign.
Tug of War
Competing actions pull a shared marker or advantage back and forth.
Solo / Solitaire Game
Provide rules and objectives designed for a single player.
Read the full game description
"Red Flag Over Paris", the spiritual successor to Mark Herman's Fort Sumter, is a short, yet challenging, two-player card-driven wargame depicting the two months of intense confrontation between the Communards and the government in Versailles during the 1871 Paris Commune. You will play as one of these factions and fight for control over Paris. But, you will also need to win the hearts and minds of the French population, as the board is divided into two areas–military and political–themselves divided into several dimensions (Political Institutions, Public Opinion, Paris neighborhoods, and the forts on the outskirts of the city). The game forces players to make tough decisions like when to focus on political influence or military dominance and how to optimize limited resources. On top of controlling the military and political spaces and fulfilling your objectives to score Victory Points, you will have to manage your momentum. Versailles needs to collaborate with the Prussian invader to build up an army that will restore order in the Capital. On the other hand, the Commune needs to build a robust revolutionary momentum to ensure that the population stays mobilized after months of siege and food shortages. Each card represents either a critical personality or a significant event of the Paris commune. You may use a card for its event, for its operational value (which allows you to place or remove influence cubes in any given area), to buy an event discarded by your opponent, or build your momentum. After up to three rounds, Red Flag Over Paris culminates in a Final Crisis where each player will have to play all the cards they left aside earlier in the game as the last opportunity to place influence before determining the winner. —description from the publisher