Objective Moscow

[1] Objective Moscow is a very large game, with four 22" x 34" hex grid maps covering most of the former Soviet Union as well as much of continental Europe and parts of China,[1] a 24-page rulebook, and 1200 die-cut counters.

[2] The game uses an alternating system of turns, where one player moves, attacks and then gets a second movement phase for mechanized units.

Only the campaign game, which also uses all four maps and combines several forces attacking from several fronts, is set twenty years in the future (in 1998).

Two years later, Joe Angiolillo and Phil Kosnett designed Objective Moscow, a sequel that flipped the roles of invader and defender.

In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicky Palmer was not impressed with either Operation Moscow or its predecessor Invasion America, calling them "more notable for size than subtlety."

He did note that "Both games gloss over the little matter of mutual nuclear annihilation, and are therefore (fortunately) pretty theoretical — but the maps and the units are interestingly varied.

"[5] Rick Mataka, writing in the June 1979 issue of Craft, Model, and Hobby Industry Magazine, called it "a large game that is not overly complex as the rules are kept fairly simple."

"[4] In the June 1981 issue of the Italian games magazine Pergioco, Marco Donadoni warned that players would experience "very high losses in combat, even higher than any other historical period, due to the potential of modern weapons (which, obviously, are expected to be even more deadly in the next twenty years)."

Donadoni also questioned the rules limiting nuclear weapons to a battlefield tactical uses, pointing out "But who can say what the Kremlin would really do in the face of such an influx of 'visitors' not regulated by the state tourism agency?