The Battle of Nomonhan
Game Design: Paul Rohrbaugh
RISING STAR, SETTING SUN
“In virtue of our treaty with Mongolia, we shall defend its frontiers as energetically as our own... patience has its limits.” Foreign Affairs Commissar, V.M. Molotov, May 31, 1939.
“The fatal problem concerned the vague meaning of the Nomonhan affair in general and of the operations in particular... I never found a compelling reason for fighting at Nomonhan.” Colonel Giichiro Mishima of the 1st Heavy Field Artillery Regiment, Sixth Army inquest testimony at Hailar, November 1939.
Zhukov's First Victory is an introductory level game of the battle between the Soviet Union and Japan's Kwantung Area Army in the summer of 1939. A series of border disputes between Japan's puppet state of Manchukuo and Soviet-controlled Mongolia since the spring escalated to an undeclared war. The Japanese sent the 23rd Infantry Division, reinforced with tanks, engineers, artillery and backed by much of their air force, to teach the Russian garrison a lesson. Unknown to the Japanese, the Soviets also sent reinforcements led by General Zhukov. In a series of battles the Japanese gained some success in July, but were crushingly defeated in August. The forces of the Rising Sun would never again strike north, and instead cast their eyes elsewhere for a path to world domination.
The 11 x 17" map covers the battlefield at one mile per hex. The 280 counters represent the Japanese and Soviet troops at a regimental/brigade level.
