“War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.” – G. Clemenceau
(statement to Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference, 12-Jan-1919)
While I wait for Michael Resch’s treatment of the Western Front of 1914 to be published, I decided, after spending a recent weekend playtesting a Napoleonic game and discussing aspects of game design with Michael Resch, Mark Hinkle and Milton Janosky at the latter’s house, to take the various components of several WWI games that I had and roll my own. This blog, over time, will describe that attempt.
Before I get started with this Frankengame, I should describe the goal. After reading Holger Herwig’s The Marne, 1914 recently, and having read Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August quite a few times in the past, I want to figure out a way to recreate the tensions and maneuvers of Aug-Nov 1914 (and beyond) in a way that is plausible. I do not want to straightjacket the opponents, but I do want the actual events of 1914 to be recreatable w/o resorting to “idiot rules”, at least my definition thereof. So far, none of the games in my possession do a good job of that, in my humble opinion. This is not meant to be a criticism of the games or their designers. For me, they just fell short in one way or another.
These are the Western Front WWI games that I will be borrowing ideas from:
- Home Before the Leaves Fall (HBtLF)
- Drive on Paris (DoP)
- Schlieffen Plan / Western Front (WF)
- March to Victory / Over There (MtV)
Additionally, I will be borrowing quite a few ideas from other games in my possession:
- Twilight in the East (TitE)
- Proud Monster Deluxe (PMD)
- June 6 (J6)
And, finally, I will be creating (or inadvertently borrowing) some ideas and rules of my own as I see fit. That said, the above games are not an exhaustive list of inspiration. I have many, many more games than that in my game closet and I’m sure that various ideas and constructs have burrowed their way into my consciousness.
Getting Started
For ASoC, I will be using the HBtLF map of the Western Front, which is quite nice and fits the level of granularity I’m looking for. For the Order of Battle, I’m going to use MtV’s orbat and counters. MtV’s orbat, with its Europa roots, has a very nice detail to it. In addition to the usual divisions and other suspects, it contains references to several artillery units which were probably factored into other games’ HQ units or barrage factors. Where the WWII Europa system sought to focus on combined arms / armor tactics by applying die roll mods to combats where armor was involved, the MtV/OT system focuses on WWI’s queen of the battlefield: artillery. As such, I’m going to use their artillery-heavy orbat with its individual artillery components.
Big Bertha: German 420mm howitzer
Right off the bat, I need to decide how the sequence of play is going to go. Mixing counters, with their explicit movement rates, onto a map not designed for such will create huge problems if not done properly.
Turns & Impulses
After playing a solitaire game of June 6 recently, I was struck by the effects of its chit-pull mechanism on the battlefield vs. the usual igo/ugo method. Each formation was an entity unto itself and one formation may move/fight twice in a turn before its immediately opposite enemy formation. The ability to steal a march or grab the initiative struck me as being a huge plus in that particular game, and it struck me that there were great similarities in how June 6 treated formation initiative and how the Western Front armies took advantage (or squandered) their situations as well.
With that in mind, armies in ASoC will move and fight individually, for the most part. There will be situations where adjacent armies can and will move and fight in a coordinated manner, but that capability is not automatic nor without risk.
An Aside: Competitive Probabilities
Many years ago, my brother and I designed a dice-based baseball game based on Hall of Fame players and their career statistics. After several tweaks, I switched from a single roll LUT (Look Up Table) method of generating game events to a competitive dice roll method. In the latter case, both players roll and the winner of the roll generates the event, mostly, but not always, in their favor.
For example, Team A’s pitcher goes against Team B’s batter. As both Team’s players are Hall of Fame players, the event generation data on their player cards will mostly benefit the owning Team. To determine which card will generate the event, both players roll 2d6 and the Team with the highest sum wins the roll and his/her player card will be used to determine the game event.
There are many interesting side effects with using competitive probabilities, which I won’t go into here immediately. Suffice it to say, that ASoC will be using competitive probabilities using d10 rolls (per player) to generate game events where both player’s units are involved, namely combat.
Setting Priorities
Whereas June 6’s chit-pull system is very random and completely outside the control of the players involved, aside from purchase/placement into the available pool, I wanted ASoC to give each player, in their role as C-in-C, the ability to influence which formations get selected if they get initiative (win the initiative rolls).
Foregoing, for now, the detail as to how formation chits are purchased each turn, a la June 6, each player will have the capability to purchase 2 chits for each offensive army HQ. (Army HQs can be either offensive-capable or merely logistical/organizational HQs. Consider the difference between French 5th Army and Groupe D’Amade.) These chits will be placed face down on a 9-space track numbered: “0/1” and 2 through 9. More than one chit may be placed on a track space, but not until all other spaces on the track have a chit placed there. More than two may be placed on a track space, but not until all other spaces have two chits placed there, and so on.
During the turn, formations are selected for movement/combat by having each player roll a d10 for initiative. (Some modifiers may apply: such as giving Moltke a negative modifier during late August / early September.) The winner of the roll gets initiative. The formation which gets to move is picked from the numbered space on the track which is equal to the winning player’s die roll. For example, if France won initiative with an 8 roll (vs. a 7 roll), the topmost chit on the space labelled 8 is activated for movement/combat.
Due to competitive probability odds, 9 will be the winning roll more often than 8, and so forth. Therefore, if a player wants a particular unit to (possibly) move first, they should place that formation’s chit in the 9 space. (There are lots of interesting ways to game this system, which I won’t go into detail with yet.)
If, as will happen later in the turn, the winning roll’s space on the track is empty, add 4 to the roll to determine the next space, wrapping numbers past 9 around to the 0/1 space, treating that latter space as one space. For example, if the winning roll was 8 and the 8 space was empty, the next space to check would be 3: 8 -> 9 -> 0/1 -> 2 -> 3, or 8 + 4 = 12 – 9 = 3 for you math wizards out there. The +4 mod simulates the activation of a secondary theater while the primary theater’s activity is ongoing.
Formation Coordination
When a formation is selected via a winning initiative roll, the player may activate (move/fight) that unit immediately or they may put it in reserve, hoping for another winning initiative roll and the selection of an adjacent formation. If an adjacent formation is selected, then the two armies may move/fight in the same impulse in a coordinated manner. If a non-adjacent formation is selected, the player may do one of the following:
activate the 1st reserved formation and place the 2nd selected formation chit in reserve
keep the 1st reserved formation in reserve and activate the 2nd selected formation
Before any initiative roll, a player with an army in reserve may announce that that army is coming out of reserve. Once announced, that army will become activated on the next winning initiative roll by that player.
Fog of War
Note that chits are placed on the track upside-down to hide their identities. When these chits are placed in reserve, they are kept upside down. Chits are only revealed when they become active.
Last Moves
When one player has no more offensive formations to move, the remaining player with formation chits on the initiative track moves the rest of their formations. However, they still roll to select these formations. In this case, 2xd10 are rolled with the highest number determining which formation is selected.
When no more offensive formations are left to move, another final initiative roll is rolled and each player takes turns moving their logistical formations with the winner of the initiative roll determining the order.
(to be cont’d…)
