Please note that this is a DTP (Desk Top Publishing) game designed on a desktop computer and all components, including the counters which will have to be cut and mounted, are printed on paper. These are designed by some very well-known designers and are a low cost alternative to today's professionally produced games. On rare occasions, some of these games are reproduced by other companies with higher quality components including die-cut counters but most of them are not. If you believe this game to have a professionally produced version, please contact us with your inquiry and we will help you to locate it if it does indeed exist.
The guns surrounding the beleaguered Anatolian Peninsula fell silent with the Mundros Truce Agreement on 30 October, 1918, and a rough sort of peace continued through 15 May, 1919. During this period, while the Turkish government began discharging soldiers and disbanding its army in agreement with the truce, the Allies took advantage of the situation with the French occupying the province of Adana, the British occupying Urfa, Marash, Merzifon, Samsun, and Antep, and the Italians occupying Antalya and Konya. In May, two things occurred that changed the course of history; the hated Greeks landed an Expeditionary Force at Izmir and Mustafa Kemal Pasha set foot in Turkey at Samsun.
The Greek invasion would spark a war that would create the Turkish legend of Ataturk as the Allies and the Bolshevik revolutionary forces attempted to conquer and divide Turkey between themselves. The war can be divided into three periods: (1) Turkish Nationalist uprising and rebellion, (2) the formation of regular formations, (3) the Turkish Nationalist victory and insurance of an independent Turkey. The three years of the war would see “ethnic cleansings,” internal rebellions, and bloody battles that tested both those who wished to conquer Turkey and the Turkish resolve. It was also a time of broken alliances and the destruction of three independent republics.
In the end, France settled for occupying Syria and the sub-district of Lebanon, England held on to Istanbul for two more years, Italy lost all claims to Turkish territory, Greece evacuated the peninsula ignomously defeated, and the Soviet Union settled for occupation of Georgia and Azerbaijan. The formerly independent republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia would disappear in the bloody holocaust, and thousands of civilians would be left dead or homeless. But the Young Turk Revolution would survive and the independent new nation of Turkey would emerge embodied in the person of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, ATATURK!
Khyber Pass Games is proud to announce the release of our sixth game: ATATURK!
ATATURK! is an operational wargame dealing with the Turkish War of Independence from 1919 to 1922. One player manages the Turkish forces and their allies while the second player handles the loose conglomeration of former World War One Allies, but only as time and circumstances advance will one side or another actually take control of their forces and cease reacting to events, but instead begin creating opportunities for themselves.
But even as players slowly grasp what is happening and try to take charge of the situation, random events, loose confederacies, sudden and unexpected appearances and swift changes in initiative will constantly disrupt plans and will turn seemingly irresistible offensives into overwhelming defeats. The strongest Army Corps will melt away while the smallest band of irregulars live to fight another day.
And the fun doesn’t stop there either. The Italian Army is attached to a political lightning rod in the form of its home government; they can be allied to Kemel Ataturk one month and the next they could be shipping a unit home, only to be followed thirty days later by once more joining with their ex-WWI allies in a half-hearted advance against the Turks.
But wait, there’s more! Greek advance into Turkish cities and supply centers will have a good chance of triggering an atrocity which, in turn, will steel Turkish resolve to fight on in the face of defeat and avenge the act. However, even this new-felt resolve can backfire since the Turks rarely control their few allies and can usually only call on them for indirect support and assistance on the field of battle. One failed attack can see an entire offensive crumble into the dust.
While based on a traditional Igo-Ugo set of game turns, there are two major twists that keep both players busy during almost every phase of the game. Initiative is random and can change every game turn. One player may have the chance to make the first move for several consecutive game turns or may have to watch as the initiative is stolen from him just as he’s on the verge of victory.
The second major innovation is that units that wish to fight may not move that game turn while moving units may not attack; nothing new or earth-shattering there, until you read the Counter-Attack rules. If you’ve managed to march a force onto the battlefield and you end up adjacent to attacking or advancing enemy units, your weary troops have an immediate choice and chance to counterattack against the enemy units that just participated in the battle. But the enemy also has a choice to withhold a unit or stack of units, that did not move, from the battle and even if your counterattack is successful, if you end up adjacent to any of these forces, they, in turn, can attack your units and send them screaming from the battlefield. In Ataturk!, a battlefield feint or the use of a cats paw can be more effective than a sledgehammer blow!
ATATURK! is a fun and fast-paced game. Units run the gamut from tanks, Greek Evzones, airplanes, guerillas and artillery to Irregular forces, a White Russian Army that appears out of no where and a Caliphal Army composed of both policemen and warlord bandits. ATATURK! will also be the first entire game to feature the tremendous artwork and talent of our Partner and Artist, Bruce Yearian.
ATATURK! consists of:
One Full-Color Cover
One Full-Color 11” x 17” map of Turkey (Anatolia) and surrounding countries
One Full-Color sheet of 256 Front sided counters
Twenty pages of rules
Four pages (two sheets) of Charts and Players Aids
Skip to main content
