1812 The Retreat From Moscow

1812: The Retreat from Moscow is a cooperative and solo narrative skirmish wargame. Unlike traditional grand-tactical Napoleonic games that focus on massive armies and flawless maneuvers, this rulebook focuses entirely on survival, desperation, and resource management at an individual scale. This cooperative tabletop experience puts players in control of a small band of French survivors while Russian forces are driven by an intuitive automated system. The enemy advances relentlessly. The winter shows no mercy.

Game Overview and Core Mechanics

The wargame plays like a hybrid between traditional tabletop miniature gaming and a role-playing survival campaign.

The Scale: Each miniature represents one individual soldier—a cold, wounded, and exhausted French straggler separated from Napoleon’s main army. It is designed for 28mm miniatures but easily adapts to other scales.
The Enemy: The game is played cooperatively (or entirely solo) against an automated, intuitive AI system that controls the pursuing Russian forces.
The Gameplay: Core mechanics are straightforward, utilizing a 2D6 system where rolling a 9+ is required to succeed on basic actions like moving, shooting, and fighting. The mechanical simplicity is intended to let players focus on the narrative and atmospheric tension.