Una Vittoria Impossibile: Le Barricate di Parma del 1922

Una Vittoria Impossibile: Le Barricate di Parma del 1922 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Introductory game and expert game
In the box
Setup
The game in brief
The turn
Performing an action
Making a movement
Drawing cards and ending the turn
Resolving a squadrist attack
Exhausted Squadristi reserve (Riserva degli squadristi esaurita)
End of the day (Termine della giornata)
Final squadrist assault (Ultimo assalto squadrista)
Victory and defeat (Vittoria e sconfitta)
Expert game (Partita per esperti)

Introductory game and expert game

The first time you play - or when you prefer a simpler game experience - you can follow the rules for the introductory game. They are very similar to the full rules, but leave out some elements that add complexity to the game.

In later games you may decide instead to use the expert rules explained in detail at the end of the rulebook, which introduce the characters' special abilities, the Assignment cards (carte Incarico) and the full rules for the last squadrist assault.

In the box

1 game board (plancia di gioco) showing the map of Parma, 1922
1 support board (plancia di supporto)
1 city Defence marker (indicatore della Difesa della città)
30 Action cards (carte Azione)
6 Character cards (carte Personaggio)
8 Assignment cards (carte Incarico)
7 Squadrist cards (carte Squadristi)
2 Summary cards (carte Riassunto)
1 Current Day card (carta Giornata corrente)
6 Character pawns (pedine Personaggio) (attach the stickers to the pawns of the matching colour)
12 Squadrist pawns (pedine Squadrista), black
8 Barricade tokens (segnalini Barricata), red
6 Vittles tokens (segnalini Vettovaglia), purple
6 Ammunition tokens (segnalini Munizione), brown
6 Citizen tokens (segnalini Cittadino), green
4 dice (dadi)
1 historical booklet (un opuscolo storico), "Le giornate dell'agosto 1922 a Parma"
this rulebook (regolamento)

Setup

Open the game board (A) in the centre of the table.
Place the support board (B) next to it.
Place the city Defence marker (C) on the leftmost space of the corresponding track.
Roll 2 dice and place two Vittles tokens (D) on the zones corresponding to the dice results. Place the four remaining Vittles tokens in the reserve on the game board (D).
Repeat this operation for the Ammunition tokens (E) and the Citizen tokens (F).
Roll 2 dice and place as many Squadrist tokens (G) in the outer spaces of the corresponding zones. Place the remaining Squadrist tokens in the reserve (H) on the support board.
Place the Barricade tokens (I) on the spaces indicated on the City Defence track on the support board.
Each player chooses - or draws at random - one of the 6 available characters and places the corresponding Character card (L) in front of them, showing the side without text of the special ability. Unused Character cards may be returned to the box.
Each player takes the corresponding character pawn (M), rolls a die and places the pawn in the corresponding zone. More than one character may be present in the same zone. Unused character pawns may be returned to the box.
Shuffle the Action deck and deal each player a number of face-up cards according to the number of players:
- 6 cards in a 1-player game;
- 5 cards in a 2-player game;
- 4 cards in a 3- or 4-player game;
- 3 cards in a 5-player game.
Each player keeps their cards in front of them (N), so that they are visible to all players.
Add 3 Squadrist cards to the rest of the deck, shuffle the deck again and place it face down beside the game board (O). The unused Squadrist cards (P) are also placed beside the board, to be used in the following days.

Note: in the introductory game, the Assignment cards are not used and may be left in the box.

The game in brief

"Una vittoria impossibile" is a cooperative game. This means that all players will try to reach victory together.

The aim of the game is to defend Parma for four days from the squadrist bands, preventing the city's Defence marker from advancing beyond the last free space of the corresponding track. If this happens, you lose the game.

During the game you will play your cards to build barricades, mobilise citizens, find the necessary vittles and ammunition, and drive out the squadrist bands.

Players present in the same zone may play cards to improve the chances of success of their actions. At the end of each turn - by drawing new cards from the deck - a squadrist attack may be triggered, which will plunder everything present in the zone and test the city's resistance. For this reason, it is important that players choose carefully the moment and the place for their actions!

The boards. The game board depicts the map of Parma in 1922. The map is divided into two districts (1), the Oltretorrente and the Naviglio. Each district is in turn divided into zones (2), numbered from 1 to 6. In these zones the players will move their pawns and place the Barricade and Vittles, Ammunition and Citizen tokens (3). On the outside of each zone there is a space (4) in which the Squadrist pawns will be placed during the game. Squadrist pawns are never placed or moved inside the zones of the two districts.

The support board serves to hold other game materials. In particular, the top part (1) holds the "Current Day" card to indicate the progress of the days of play (in the introductory game) or the Assignment cards that must be completed during the days (in the expert game). The central part (2) holds the Squadrist pawns, which will then be placed on the map during the game. The lower part (3) holds the "City Defence" track, partly occupied at the start of the game by the Barricade tokens. When the city suffers a squadrist incursion, the defence is put to the test and the marker advances along this track.

The turn

Players take their turns clockwise, starting from the first player.

On your turn:

perform one action;
before or after performing the action, if you wish, make one movement;
at the end of your turn draw cards until you have the number indicated, and resolve any squadrist attacks;
finally, pass the turn to the player on your left.

Performing an action

In the game there are five types of action:

Search for Vittles (Cercare Vettovaglie)
Search for Ammunition (Cercare Munizioni)
Mobilise the Citizens (Mobilitare i Cittadini)
Drive out the Squadristi (Scacciare gli Squadristi)
Erect a Barricade (Erigere una Barricata)

All actions are based on similar rules. To perform any kind of action on your turn, proceed as follows:

play at least one Action card of the type corresponding to the action you intend to perform;
ask the other players present in your zone whether they intend to play other cards of the same type, from those in their possession. The maximum number of cards that can be played in total to perform an action is 4;
roll one die for each card played, and sum the dice rolled;
then follow the subsequent steps indicated in the paragraph for the corresponding action.

Search for Vittles (Cercare Vettovaglie)

Vittles serve to improve the chances of success of the actions of the players in the zone (see the paragraph "Using Vittles").

After rolling the dice, divide the sum of the dice rolled by 5. The result is the number of Vittles tokens you may place in the zone where you are.

Example. Bianca and Enore are in the same zone. Bianca plays a "Search for Vittles" card from her hand, and Enore adds a card of the same type from his hand as well. Bianca rolls two dice (one for each card played) and gets 5+3=6. Dividing it by 5 gives 1 (the remainder is ignored), so Bianca places 1 Vittles token taken from the reserve in the zone where she is.

Search for Ammunition (Cercare Munizioni)

Ammunition is needed to remove the Squadristi from the map (see the paragraph "Driving out the Squadristi").

After rolling the dice, divide the sum of the dice rolled by 5. The result is the number of Ammunition tokens you may place in the zone where you are.

Example. Wilma plays 3 "Search for Ammunition" cards and therefore rolls 3 dice, getting 2+4+4=10. Dividing by 5 gives 2, so Wilma places 2 Ammunition tokens in her zone.

Mobilise the Citizens (Mobilitare i Cittadini)

Citizens represent the heart of the defence of the districts against the attacks of the squadrist bands. Recruiting them is easier than building barricades, but - unlike the latter - they will be removed from the board when they are used to repel the assaults (see the paragraph "Resolving a squadrist attack").

After rolling the dice, divide the sum of the dice rolled by 5. The result is the number of Citizen tokens you may place in the zone where you are.

Example. Padre Nino plays one card and rolls one die, getting a 4. The result divided by 5 is 0, so with his action he can place no Citizens.

Drive out the Squadristi (Scacciare gli Squadristi)

Removing all the squadristi from the city will be practically impossible, but performing this action is necessary in order to ease the pressure of the Fascists on the city, to avoid the most dangerous attacks.

Before performing this action, you must return to the reserve one Ammunition token from the zone where you are (if there is no Ammunition token, you cannot perform the action "Drive out the Squadristi").
After rolling the dice, divide the sum of the dice rolled by 5. The result is the number of Squadristi you may remove from the outer space of the zone where you are, moving them to their reserve on the support board.

Example. Cecilia is in a zone with Alcide, and there are 2 Squadristi in the zone. She plays a total of 2 "Drive out the Squadristi" cards. Before rolling the dice, she removes an Ammunition token. With the dice she gets a total of 2+5=7, and therefore removes 1 Squadrista token from her zone.

Erect a Barricade (Erigere una Barricata)

Barricades are an essential element for resisting: they remain on the board during the game and also allow the player to free new spaces on the City Defence track, giving the players more breathing room.

After rolling the dice, compare the total of the dice rolled with the value indicated on the space occupied by a Barricade furthest to the left on the City Defence track.
If the total of the dice is equal to or higher than the value indicated, take the Barricade token from that space (only one, even if the dice result would be sufficient for two or more barricades) and place it in the zone where you are, on one of the "Barricade" symbols present (if no "Barricade" symbol is free, it is not possible to build a new Barricade in the zone).

Building the subsequent barricades will become more and more difficult, as indicated by the increasing numbers on the track.

Example. Alcide, with the help of Bianca, plays 3 "Erect a Barricade" cards, rolls 3 dice and gets 1+2+6=9. The barricade to be built furthest to the right on the track requires a 7+ to be built, so Alcide takes it and places it in the zone where he is.

Using Vittles (Utilizzare le Vettovaglie)

After a dice roll made for any action, you may discard (returning them to the reserve) one or more Vittles tokens in the zone where you are, to add +3 to the total dice result for each Vittles token discarded.

Example. Padre Nino plays 2 cards and rolls 2 dice for "Search for Ammunition", getting 3+5=8. He decides to discard a Vittles token from his zone to bring the total to 8+3=11, and therefore places 2 tokens (11/5=2) of Ammunition in his zone.

Exhausted reserve (Riserva esaurita)

If the result of an action allows you to place in the zone more tokens (Vittles, Ammunition or Citizens) than are currently in the reserve, you may, if you wish, remove those missing from other zones of the board in order to place them in the zone where you are performing the action.

Not playing cards on your own turn (Non giocare carte nel proprio turno)

If on your turn you cannot or do not want to perform any action (for example because you have no cards in hand, or you only have "Drive out the Squadristi" cards and there is no usable ammunition, or for some other reason) you must discard at least one card (if you have one), in place of the action you do not perform this turn.

Example. Enore starts the turn with only one "Erect a Barricade" card, but the next Barricade requires an 8+, and no other player has cards to help him. For this reason he discards his card, instead of performing an action.

Making a movement

Before or after the action of your turn you may move your pawn on the board, from the zone where you are to any other zone (even a non-adjacent one).

If you move within the same district (that is, from one zone to another in the Oltretorrente, or from one zone to another in the Naviglio), you may take along with your pawn a single Vittles, Ammunition or Citizen token. If instead you move from one district to the other (from the Oltretorrente to the Naviglio, or vice versa), and therefore cross the Torrente Parma, you may not take any token with you.

There is no limit to the number of player pawns and tokens that may be present in a single zone.

Moving your pawn is not mandatory: it is possible to leave it in the zone where it was at the start of the turn.

Example. Wilma, after performing an action, moves from zone 3 to zone 4 of the Oltretorrente, taking with her a Citizen to help defend the zone.

Drawing cards and ending the turn

At the end of the turn, after performing an action and possibly making a movement (in any order), draw one card at a time from the deck until you have in front of you the number of cards set at the start of the game (6 if you are playing alone, 5 if you are two players, 4 if you are three or four players, 3 if you are five players).

If you draw a Squadristi card, immediately resolve its effect (see the paragraph "Resolving a squadrist attack"), then place it beside the game board (so that the number of Squadristi cards already drawn during the current day is always visible), and draw a new card from the deck (Squadristi cards are not counted among the players' cards).

After drawing the necessary cards, the turn passes to the player on your left.

Example. In a 3-player game, Cecilia ends her turn with 2 Action cards in front of her. She therefore draws 2 cards to get back to 4 cards. The second of these cards is a Squadristi card, so she resolves it immediately, sets it aside and then draws a new card.

Resolving a squadrist attack

When you draw a Squadristi card at the end of the turn, the Fascists reinforce themselves and try to attack the city.

To resolve the effect of the card, proceed as follows:

roll a die, and add a Squadrista token to the outer space of the zone corresponding to the result of the die (if this is not possible, you have lost the game! See the paragraph "Exhausted Squadristi reserve");
after adding the Squadrista, now resolve an attack in the same zone, checking whether there are Squadristi able to carry out a raid in the zone:
- each Barricade present in a zone stops one Squadrista. The Barricade is not removed;
- each Citizen stops one Squadrista. The Citizens used for this purpose are removed and returned to the reserve;
- if there are further Squadristi in the zone not stopped by Barricades or Citizens, they carry out a raid in the zone. If this happens:
  - remove all the Vittles and Ammunition tokens (but not the Barricades) present in the zone;
  - advance the City Defence marker one space on the City Defence track for each Squadrista not stopped by Barricades or Citizens.

Warning! When a squadrist attack is resolved, no Squadrista is in fact removed from the board (Barricades and Citizens serve to prevent a raid). Squadristi can be removed by the players only with the action "Drive out the Squadristi".

Example. Cecilia resolves the Squadristi card she drew. She rolls a die and gets a 3, so she places one Squadrista (1) in the outer space of zone 3. No other Squadristi were present in that space. The Squadrista just placed is stopped by the Barricade present (2), and therefore no raid takes place.

Example. Bianca has just placed a Squadrista in zone 4, where 2 other Squadristi were already present. One of the three Squadristi (1) is stopped by a Barricade (2), another (3) by the Citizen present (4) (which is returned to the reserve), but the last one (5) is not stopped, so it carries out a raid. The two Ammunition tokens present (6) are removed from the zone, and the City Defence marker advances one space (for the unstopped Squadrista).

Exhausted Squadristi reserve (Riserva degli squadristi esaurita)

If at any time in the game you are asked to add Squadristi to the game board, but this is not possible because the reserve is empty, the game is lost immediately! The Fascist forces have overwhelmed the players and the city yields to the siege.

End of the day (Termine della giornata)

If, when drawing cards at the end of a turn, the last card of the deck is drawn, the day ends. Proceed as follows:

If the day that has just ended is 5 August, your game is nearly over. You must however resolve a final squadrist assault: skip the subsequent steps of this paragraph and move on to the following paragraph ("Final squadrist assault").
If the day that has just ended is not 5 August, add a Squadristi card, together with those already present in the day just concluded, to the discard pile, and shuffle it to form a new draw deck, which you place face down in the appropriate space on the game board. Then move the "Current Day" card to the next space on the support board.
After creating the new draw deck, the player whose turn it is draws the other cards needed to reach the necessary number (see the paragraph "Drawing cards and ending the turn"), after which the turn passes to the player on your left.

Final squadrist assault (Ultimo assalto squadrista)

At the end of the day of 5 August, before the end of the game, you must resolve a final squadrist assault.

Roll two dice, add two Squadristi to the outer spaces of the zones indicated by the dice rolls, and resolve a squadrist attack in the two zones.

Victory and defeat (Vittoria e sconfitta)

If at any time during the game the City Defence marker must advance onto a space occupied by a Barricade, or onto the last space of the track (if all the barricades have been built), the city capitulates under the Fascist attacks, which set fire to and sack the districts that dared to resist. You have lost the game!

Example. As a result of a squadrist attack, a raid is carried out by 2 Squadristi not stopped by Barricades or Citizens. The City Defence marker must therefore advance 2 spaces, ending on the space occupied by a Barricade. The game is lost.

The game is also lost if, at any moment, a Squadrista must be placed but all the Squadristi are already placed on the board.

If instead, after resolving the final squadrist assault at the end of the fourth day, neither of these two conditions has occurred, you have won the game! The city has successfully resisted the Fascist assaults, and the squadristi go back where they came from with their tails between their legs.

On 6 August control of the city passes to the Prefect, and the celebrating population hands its weapons over to the Royal Army.

The dream of a city free from fascism would last only a few more months. In October of the same year the Fascists would organise the infamous March on Rome, which would begin twenty years of dictatorship. But the "Barricades of Parma" have by now entered history.

Note: the closing poem printed on the last page of the booklet (by Attilio Bertolucci) is flavour text and is not transcribed.

Expert game (Partita per esperti)

After the first games with the introductory mode, you may decide to play using the expert rules, that is the character abilities (abilità dei personaggi), the Assignment cards (carte Incarico) and the complete rules for the final squadrist assault (ultimo assalto).

Character abilities (Abilità dei personaggi)

The special abilities indicate some exceptions or additional rules to the normal rules, which will change the way each participant plays, making every game different from the previous one.

During the setup phase, when choosing the character with which to play, each player turns over the corresponding card to show the side displaying the text of their special ability, and reads it aloud.

Example card (Enore). "Every Vittles token used in the zone where you are present is worth 2 additional points."

Assignment cards (Carte Incarico)

The Assignment cards represent delicate and often complex tasks assigned to the players - under the guidance of the city's resistance leader Guido Picelli - which the players must try to complete during the current day.

During the setup phase, instead of placing the "Current Day" card (which is not used), shuffle the Assignment cards and place four of them, face down, on the spaces of the individual days.
At the start of each day, reveal the card on the corresponding space and read its text. This represents a particular assignment given to the players, which must be completed during the day itself, in order to obtain certain benefits, to avoid negative effects on the game, and to weaken the Fascists' final assault on the city.
At the end of the day (see the paragraph "End of the day"), before shuffling the cards and creating the new draw deck, check whether the assignment indicated on the card has been completed. If it has, resolve the effect indicated on the card itself under "Se riuscite" (If successful). If it has not, resolve the effect indicated under "Se fallite" (If failed), and then turn the card 180 degrees, so that the text "+1 all'ultimo assalto" (+1 to the final assault) is shown at the top.
Assignment cards whose text begins with "Rimuovete" (Remove) require the players, at the end of the day, to move the specified tokens from the indicated zone to their respective reserves. For Assignment cards that require a "presence" (presenza), no tokens need to be removed from the zone.

Example card. Requirement: "A Citizen present in each zone of the Oltretorrente." If successful: "In the next day, ignore one Squadristi card of your choice." If failed: "Return to the box one Barricade taken from a zone of your choice. Turn this card over."

Attention: during the last day of play, the text indicated under "Se riuscite" and "Se fallite" is ignored and replaced by the text indicated on the board.

New rules for the final assault (Nuove regole per l'ultimo assalto)

During the final squadrist assault phase, instead of rolling two dice to make an attack as indicated in the rules for the introductory game, roll one die and make a separate attack for each failed Assignment during the four days of play (as shown by the turned-over cards of the failed Assignments).

If therefore all four Assignments have been completed successfully, no squadrist attack will take place at the end of the last day.