A Series of Catastrophes
From Georges Clemenceau: “War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.”
A Series of Catastrophes is my working title for a corps-level wargame set in Europe during World War One. As I do not have an extensive library of primary research material, I’m going to derive the game from other wargames on the subject, notably HMS/GRD’s The Great War, Clash of Arm’s Home Before the Leaves Fall, GMT’s Twilight in the East, Oregon Consim’s Battle for Galicia, 1914 and SPW’s Der Weltkrieg series.
The time scale will be two weeks per turn. Each turn will consist of multiple movement impulses. Corps and other smaller formations will have strict army assignments. Movement per impulse will consist of army movements alternating between players, with the initiative player moving first. Instead of a chit pull system where formations move chaotically, each player will have a deck of cards, with one card per army. Like Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering, players will be able to formulate their movement strategies by ordering their card decks. Depending on the tempo of operations, multiple armies may be “linked” to move together in a single impulse.
Units will have the typical attack-strength/defense-strength/movement point system. Units will also have a separate artillery strength for barrage attacks. Corps-sized units will take combat losses as cohesion hits, followed by a reduction to a cadre. Only non-cadred corp units will have ZOCs. As the Belgians will not have corps-sized units at start, only individual divisions, the initial Belgian army will not prove to be much of a speed bump if so employed. The best move for the Entente is to take advantage of their retreat before combat capability (pre-war planning special rule).
More to come…