Brotherhood & Unity PBF: The War in Bosnia-Hercegovina 1992-1995

[Brooski]

Last year (2020), a guy named Tomislav Čipčić designed a game about the 1992-95 war in BiH called Brotherhood & Unity that – let’s just call things the way there are – is very freaking good. I played it face-to-face with two friends last summer and found it to be incredibly tense, snappy, and elucidative of the overall situation.

So we’re going to do a play-by-forum here. Right now, the lineup is:

@Navaronegun SERBS
@CF_Kane Bosniaks or Croats
@Brooski Croats or Bosniaks

If you use VASSAL, you can download a module at this link:

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Brotherhood_%26_Unity

We’ll post our moves here while simultaneously sending each other the VASSAL turn. I’d like to showcase how neat this game is.

[Brooski]

Reserved

[schurem]

[Petey]

Well I keep trying to get my wife to play board games and she never will BUT she was a sniper in this war way back when and so might be interested. Or it would bring up her PTSD and she won’t even look at it. Guess I will be very tactful bringing this up!

[Navaronegun]

@Brooski

We’ll post our moves here

Nobody told me there’d be homework!

[newbrof]

my parents emigrated in the 70s from the Balkans. I met people from all 3 factions in Germany, there was no hate within the emmigrated community. It was a pretty big shock to all of us what happened to “our” country in the 90s.

I might want to get a copy of the game, but wow, shipping from the US to Europe is doubling the total costs.

[CF_Kane]

For those who, like me, are not super familiar with the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992-1995, I offer the following summary, taken from the designer notes in the rules. To be clear, I am just summarizing the designer notes–I don’t know enough about the conflict to assess what is contested about the history below.

Historical Background

Bosnia and Herzegovina (“BiH”) was a border province of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. After the Ottoman’s defeat in the Russo-Turkish War, BiH was given over to the administration of Austria-Hungary, who annexed the territory in 1908. After Austria-Hungary was defeated in the First World War, BiH was made independent, but shortly thereafter, in order to ensure its security, merged with the Kingdom of Serbia, Slovenia, and Croatia to form Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was dominated by the Serbs, whose rule alienated many of the non-Serbs from the idea of Yugoslav unity.

During the Second World War, Yugoslavia was defeated and occupied by Germany and Italy. BiH was ceded to a fascist puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska or “NDH”). The Germans and Italians, along side NDH and Chetnik (Serbian Nationalist) forces fought against Josip Broz Tito and his multi-ethnic partisans. After the victory of Tito’s partisan army, a socialist Yugoslavia was created, of which BiH was one of the six constituent republics.

Josip Broz Tito

Map of Yugoslavia (including historical spoilers of its eventual fate)

BiH was peaceful for several decades in Tito’s Yugoslavia. Sarajevo, its capital, hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics. After Tito’s death in 1980, an increasing nationalistic climate began to take over. In November 1990, after 45 years of one-party communist rule, BiH held its first democratic elections. Three major parties formed along ethic lines: a Serbian party, a Croatian party, and a Bosniak party.

Map of ethnic populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Color code: Serbs in Red, Bosniaks in Green, Croats in Yellow).

The Serbian party had the declared policy of “All Serbs in one state.” That meant that if a Yugoslav republic wanted to leave the union, it would have to relinquish any Serbian populated territories.

The Croatian party wanted to create an independent (or substantially autonomous) Croatia. Croatia had a significant ethnic Serbian population, which wished to remain in Yugoslavia. BiH also had a substantial Croatian population, complicating matters further.

For the Bosniak party, BiH was a home country. The Bosniaks wanted to keep BiH intact and maintain the status quo for as long as possible.

The parties could not reach consensus, and their differences grew until war erupted in early spring of 1992.

[David_Yllanes]

I was initially sceptical about this game, but since I saw Tomislav Čipčić’s presentation on the history of this war at the Bellota Con last month I have grown very interested in it.

Just signed up to this forum to follow this PBF.

[newbrof]

I like this quote from Churchill, read it in a review of the game. “The Balkans produce more history, than they can consume”. Pretty clever, that Churchill guy.

[Brooski]

@David_Yllanes

I was initially sceptical about this game, but since I saw Tomislav Čipčić’s presentation on the history of this war at the Bellota Con last month I have grown very interested in it.

Just signed up to this forum to follow this PBF.

Welcome, David! This would be a good game for your projector ;)

[Brooski]

@Navaronegun

Nobody told me there’d be homework!

Well, @CF_Kane gets an A+ on his first assignment.

[David_Yllanes]

I see that my cunning secret identity has been penetrated.

[Brooski]

For those following along, this incredibly helpful player aid says it all:

That’s what we’re fighting over. Each faction has separate “key areas” it must control, or it loses VP. Some areas are “key” for more than one side (although never more than two sides).

Also, the game only has four turns, although it has multiple rounds per turn. The first turn sees the Serbs place ten (10!) reinforcements. They will not receive any more, although they can get “foreign help” in the form of Yugoslav (Serb) army units. They will move first, and draw seven cards, in the first two turns. But they will move LAST, and only draw five cards, on the last two turns, when the Bosniaks move first. In a sense, this game is a Serb-vs-Bosniak fight, with the Croats acting as opportunistic mediators.

[CraigM]

This is one of those conflicts that I have an elevated interest in for personal reasons. For a time, about a decade post war, I was dating someone who lived through it in Bosnia. I didn’t know much about the sources of the war at the time, but she had stories about growing up in a war zone.

I’m curious how this models the conflict. Particularly the strategy cards.

[Brooski]

Serbs have played their first card and are just finishing up their move. Once that’s done, I’ll post the reinforcement phase and that entire move so you can see how the game runs. I’ll do periodic mapboard updates. Players are encouraged to share their plans/perspectives as well (after the fact).

[Brooski]

[Brooski]

The game starts with everyone placing reinforcements. While this sounds quite egalitarian, the reality is very different: the Bosniaks get 2, the Croats get 5, and ten Serbs get 10. Ten! The Serbs place first, so that at least the others can react. Due to the limitations on placing reinforcements, the Serbs could not directly threaten Srebrenica or Gorazde with their placements, so Pat instead split his between the very far south, and the northeast corner. I reinforced Srebrenica and Gorazde because, as far as I’m concerned, losing those would be an existential blow. There isn’t much I can do to help the boys up in Posavina.

Next is cardplay. Pat plays this:

This will allow him to “soften up” the target of each of his attacks this turn, as well as get a +3 modifier in combat. It’s a “3” card, so he activates three spaces for attack, which just happen to be the three spaces in the northeast that he reinforced.

The Serbs’ first attack is against Brcko from Bijeljina (arrow #1). He rolls and successfully flips my single defending 3-6-2, which becomes a reduced 2-6-2.

I get to roll in combat as the defender, but my 2-6-2 has no chance of hurting his 4-6-4 units as I would need to inflict at least 6 points of “damage” and my combat factor is only 2, meaning I’d need a 3x modifier. The best I could do would be to roll a 9 and thus get a “critical” 2x modifier. But on the first turn, Bosniak unpreparedness gets them a -2 die roll modifier. So the best I could do would be a 9 -2 =7, which is just a 1x. Like I said, a lost cause.

Pat rolls a 4 which is modified to 7 (with his limited offensive drm) and thus his multiplier is 1x. He attacked with three 4-6-4 brigades, and thus 12 CF. I have to take a loss number of 12. Even if I hadn’t been reduced, this would have eliminated me, but now I have a single reduced unit with a loss factor of 6. It dies, and all three brigades advance into Brcko.

The Tuzla attack is against two 3-6-2 defenders, and into a city, but Pat again manages to reduce one of my units (rolls an 8) and thus I am left with a reduced 2-6-2 and a full-strength 3-6-2. I roll a 10, which is actually a 0 in this game, and thus do no damage again.

Pat rolls a 4 for his attack, +3 for his limited offensive, but -4 for the city. That comes out to a 3, which is still a 1x. He attacked with five 4-6-4 brigades so he had 20 CF. I flip my full-strength defender to satisfy 6 points, eliminate the new-reduced unit for another 6 points, and eliminate the previously reduced defender for 6 more points. That’s only 18. So the space is wiped out and three Serb brigades advance. That’s the end of the first Serb round, and it’s over to the Croats.

However …

[Brooski]

The price of aggression must be paid.

The Serbs destroyed three Bosniak units and captured two key spaces. Their Strategic Will thus shifts +9 to 39, and the Bosniak SW drops -9 to 21. Strategic Will is somewhat akin to victory points in the game.

But the aforementioned price is that for each key space captured, the Serbs lose 1 FA (Foreign Attitude). There are four levels of FA: 0, which is where we start; Level 1, in which sanctions are imposed (game effect is to reduce movement capability and advance after combat, due to lack of fuel); Level 2, in which NATO initiates airstrikes against your units; and Level 3, in which you immediately lose the game. To help the Serbs along that track, I play an interrupt card from my hand:

The Serbs took two Bosniak key spaces this round, so they lose an additional 2 FA, which pushes them down to Level 1. If they take another key space (anyone’s, not just mine) before doing some diplomatic repair work, they will start getting hit by NATO airstrikes.

I’m militarily down, but hopefully the world’s outrage will buy me some time.

[CF_Kane]

@Brooski

I’m militarily down, but hopefully the world’s outrage will buy me some time.

Not so much, unfortunately.

First, the Croats launch a successful attack on Travnik (setting up an assault on the key city of Zenica on the following turn).

The two stacks of Croat militia (HVO) attack Travnik; the stack to the south moves into Travnik to threaten Zenica

The Bosniaks elect to construct trenches in Zenica and Gorazde. Holding these key spaces will allow the Bosniaks to maintain control of Podrinje and deny control of Srednja Bosna to the Croats.

Usually entrenchments require you to spend two ops per space: one to begin the entrenchment and one to complete it on a subsequent turn.

*Entrenchments in Zenica and Gorazde.

The Serbs, recognizing the reality on the ground, play their Bosniak-Croat War card.

This represents the Bosniak-Croat war that was fought between October 1992 and February 1994, which was mainly contained in the Srednja Bosna and Zapadna Hercegovina regions. The agreement ending this war, signed in Washington in March 1994, led to teh establishment of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and created a new Bosniak-Croat alliance that brought the larger war to an end.

In game terms, Bruce and I both need to discard a card, and then the Serbs get to use two operations. Since we each only have 5 cards to @Navaronegun’s 7, the discard is unpleasant for us.

@Navaronegun moves some units around, grabbing up some spaces.

The Croats launch their Srednja Bosna offensive, hoping to take Zenica.

This gives the Croats a lot of power. First, the Croats get to treat Zenica is clear, which deprives Bruce of both the City bonus and the trench bonus. Second, the Croats get a chance to reduce one of the units defending Zenica (which proves successful). Third, the Croats get a +3 DRM on their effectiveness roll, which guarantees at least 12 hits. If one of the units in Zenica is reduced, a 4 or better on a d10 will have the Croats capture the city. The Croats also launch an attack on the Serbs in Juzna Krajina, to the west of Srednja Bosna. No modifiers on that attack though, since it is in a different region.

Four units attacking Zenica, three attacking Mrkonic Grad

The Croat attack on Zenica is successful, eliminating two Bosniak units, capturing the key city, and capturing the territory of Srednja Bosna, good for +12 SW.

The Croat attack on Mrkonic Grad reduces the Serb opposition, but is not strong enough to push them out of the space.

This puts the Croats at 43 SW, the Serbs at 39 SW, and the Bosniaks at 15 SW.

[tomchick]

Huge thanks to @Navaronegun, @CF_Kane, and @Brooski for this thread. I remember Bruce talking about this game, and he forwarded me this interview with the designer:

Designer Deep Dive #7 with Brotherhood & Unity Designer: Tomislav Čipčić.

I’m fascinated watching your game unfold, as well as a little mortified by the immediacy of it all. I certainly remember when all this was happening. And back when I was training for advanced and rescue diver certifications, my diving buddy was a Bosnian whose father had been killed by a sniper.

-Tom