AGEod announces a new historical wargame about the first World War

[murat]

I would like to know the game level.
If we will command the divisions and units brigats like AGEOD ACW or NCP, or if we will command the corps like Guns of august.
I should prefer the game level on AGEOD ACW model, with a detalied historic description of ordre of battle like ACW.tank

[Palpat]

Trench in the Andes! Would be great!

[murat]

I would like to know the game level.
If we will command the divisions and units brigats like AGEOD ACW or NCP, or if we will command the corps like Guns of august.
I should prefer the game level on AGEOD ACW model, with a detalied historic description of ordre of battle like ACW.
Thank You in advance

[Bevington]

Fantastic! I can't wait for the release. My grandfather served in the King's Liverpool Regiment during The Great War. I especially like the idea of the smaller scenarios in addition to the grand campaign option. I own most of the other AGEOD games and I expect we can look forward to more of the same high quality. Congrats to the AGEOD team. Now, if I can only get a copy of the original board game at a reasonable price... I can start reviewing the potential game concepts...
- Bevington

[arsan]

How long of in-game time will each turn consume? Will that be 2 weeks per turn as in AACW?

Hi!
My french is not too good, but on the Cyberstratege interview P.Thibaut states that there will be around 12 turns a year.
But it seem the length won't be fixed.
Turns will be shroter on the first part of the war (pre-trenches) and during offensives, and longer on the winter months, when weather does not allow much activity.
Cheers

[Teddy Bär]

I hope that the turns are not 1 month as I found this time was too long in BoA II.

Issues such as the way units joined, for example, if I wanted my army to board ships to travel up river, if they were one day away I had to wait an entire month as I could not create a movement string.

Where as in the Napolian game the 1 week is great and a delay of 6 days is easily accepted.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Pocus]

I believe the basic unit is the corps, but you'll have to ask either Calvinus (the developer) or PhilThib (the designer) to be sure.

[Rafiki]

I hope that the turns are not 1 month as I found this time was too long in BoA II.

Issues such as the way units joined, for example, if I wanted my army to board ships to travel up river, if they were one day away I had to wait an entire month as I could not create a movement string.

Where as in the Napolian game the 1 week is great and a delay of 6 days is easily accepted.

There's some ongoing experiments with providing some different time frame turns for the various games, but it has been delayed somewhat because of AGEod vacation season and other higher priorities. Rest assured, there are quite a few of us interested in this type of modification, not only for new games, but for the older games as well.

Keep in mind that this is a wholly different game engine than what WIA/AACW/NCP uses. The game mechanics differ quite a lot in various areas

[Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk]

The second screenshot says "Serbia scenario" - does that mean that Serbia will be playable in that scenario/mode? Or just that you can be A-H and wage war against Serbia?

[Rafiki]

You can play as Serbia in that scenario

[Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk]

Neat!
Now, except for page #1, and the screenshots on the french site somebody linked, is there any other place to find more info about the game?

[Korrigan]

Yes: same place, next week.

[Rafiki]

Well, perhaps not exactly the same place....

[runyan99]

What's the idea of orienting the map this way? I can see the little globes on the right are oriented traditionally, with north being up, but not the main map. I keep wanting to turn my head. It's disorienting.

Also, PBEM is not mentioned. Seems like too big a game to play in one session over TCP/IP.

[W.Barksdale]

I am definately not a fan of the sideways map.

[Adlertag]

What's the idea of orienting the map this way? I can see the little globes on the right are oriented traditionally, with north being up, but not the main map. I keep wanting to turn my head. It's disorienting.

I agree also with your statement.

[Rafiki]

This is how the map was oriented in the boardgame. You get used to it pretty fast

[Zmaj Ognjeni Vuk]

I keep wanting to turn my head. It's disorienting

Ah, good to know I'm not the only one.

[lodilefty]

This is how the map was oriented in the boardgame. You get used to it pretty fast

And it's probably "set", with Nov 11 publication date

Besides, I'd like to hear confirmation from any Aussies out there:
who says that North has to be "up"?

I really belive that if the game is good [did I say "if"? ], we'll all get used to the boardgamer's orientation...

[Nikel]

The map, though strange looks wonderful, congratulations to the artist


I have been browsing a WWI atlas and I have noticed that for example an english attack to Mesopotamia came from the persian gulf, that is included, very nice.

Perhaps some more desert in near east, so the arabs and Lawrence can move freely.

The caspian sea is missing, there was a turkish attack on Baku, but perhaps it is in one of the boxes

Apparently there was some U-boat action in the sea around Scotland and nearby islands, but Scotland is missed. Ireland too, so german troops will not disembarck there to help the irish and create problems to the british on their rearguard? IS the box Scapa flow?

Corsica and Sardinia were already parts of France and Italia, so should they not be included within the playable area, as Sicilia,...?


Regards

[Palpat]

Libya should be, too. A Triple Alliance Italy (I hope such what if will be possible) would have to fight there brits and French, sort of prequel of Libyan campaigns of WW2.

As for the unit scale (Corps) that's for me the best choice for this war. I hope counters and pics will be acurate in terms of uniforms changes during the war, etc.

[bloodybisounours]

Great news ! I played this game in boardgame version. It was a really good and great game !

Wonderful !

[soundoff]

This one has me drooling. With no disrespect intended towards my american cousins at last a game that the Europeans can immediately identify with, particularly if there is recruitment and diplomacy included the the gameplay.

Like a shot I'd have brought NCP if it had included a true campaign element (and I accept that this was perhaps impossible to achieve). I do wonder though how many Europeans gave it a miss, like myself, because there was no overarching campaign.

So to AGEod well done even if its at Corp level (I'd have preferred it one level down)......and can I place an order now

[soundoff]

Libya should be, too. A Triple Alliance Italy (I hope such what if will be possible) would have to fight there brits and French, sort of prequel of Libyan campaigns of WW2.

I do so hope not. I'd totally agree with 'what ifs' but Libya entering WWW1 was as practical as men from mars landing. So I do hope that 'what ifs' are limited to historical what ifs. All in MHO

[Bertram]

And in 1940.... In fact you could argue it worked more often then not .

[Cosimus]

For all who want to know, what is included and how the game works should look at this:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/5410

http://www.grognard.com/titleg.html#g875

[Offworlder]

Wow! Can I pre book this game?

How will the neutral nations get involved in the war? Will there be set events of say, Roumania entering the war? Or will it be an option or variable? Most of the Balkan states entered the war through war diplomacy rather than pre-war alliances.

Will there be upgrades to the units during the war? This would mimick the changes brought about by experience of the war (ex the shift from 2 brigade, 2 regiment divisions to the triangular divisions, additional MGs and artillery etc).

BTW will we play an alliance (Central Powers or Allies) or a single nation? How will we integrate allied strategies and forces?

Tnx for the info

[Clovis]

For those asking for details about the game, here a review of the boardgame::


This review to “ La Grande Guerre “ by Azure Wish would be a little contribution to the knowledge of a military simulation worthy of the greatest attention.

About an argument as important as the First World War there are, beyond hundreds of simulations regarding individual war facts, some “ monster games “ of the whole conflict. No one of them examines all the aspects of a so complex war fact, which has determined the end of the 19th century and the start of the Contemporary Age. La Grande Guerre has the merit to neglect nothing of that historical moment and to simulate the reality in so perfect way that the players are put in front of choices, decisions, unforeseen events that the historical counterpart had to confront. Of course the difficulty level, not only for the amplitude of the rules but also for the task necessary to govern the countries in the war, is at the top ( we could say over the top ! ); this is a reason that suggest a careful reflection to whom want to play this simulation before to play the game. La Grande Guerre gives many satisfactions, but at the same time, it demands the greatest care.
After the preface, we can exam this “ monster game “, which is not only a game of pure amusement.

The great innovations of the designers Ph. Thibaut and B. de Scorraille consist in the vision of the First World War as of the first total war on planetary scale and in the project of a simulation which discredits the commonplaces, frequent among the gamers, of a “ static “ war and therefore boring to play. The designers, honouring their intent, have crated a perfect historical reconstruction, where the players are really “ in command “ and not only the destiny of whole armies, but also that one of whole countries is due to them. About our opinion another of their great innovations is to conceive of the victory not only in military terms, they have put the armies and their victories or their defeats at the service of the “ Final Victory “ which is always a political victory. Analysing the historical reality of the First World War, we can see that the Central Powers were the real winners by a military point of view ( defeat and destruction of the secular Russian Empire, a great part of Belgium under their control at the time of the armistice ). However, the political victory, the only one that is important, was of the Allied: and here we want to mention the famous sentence of von Clausewitz “ The war is nothing else than the prosecution of the politics using other means “. In this simulation those thing are true and it puts to the players dilemmas which only the political man can resolve; here we like to mention a sentence of Clémenceau , often used by Churchill, “ The war is a too serious thing to leave the generals to do it! “.
Another great innovation is to have considered not only the foreign policy but also the home one of the major powers. The designers have created two tracks to measure the mood of a nation: the Parliament’s cohesion and the national will. The first one allows the players, who are the government, to understand if the Parliament supports or not their actions. The second one ( the real heart of the whole simulation ) states the will to fight “ Pour La Victoire “ which a people has; a people who, with its firm faith, pushes its armies to the success, or on the contrary with its defeatism makes every military effort vain and pushes the whole nation into the abyss of the defeat.

After this short introduction, we can have a comprehensive view of the game. First of all the quality of the material: it is really of the first choice not only for the counters and the maps, but also for the richness of tables, short summaries of rules which can always be useful and for the whole of the playing aid charts together with the very clear rule-books. Then getting to the heart of the simulation, all the main theatre of operations ( Europe, Mediterranean Sea, and Middle East ) is represented by a hexagonal map. For the rest of the world, the designers have created some “ boxes “ linked each other and with the hexagonal map, so that it is possible to include in a manageable space, a table of medium dimension, the whole World. This system allows the players to expand the conflict to the African colonies, to the Far East and to the immense Asiatic territories of the Russian Empire. The whole then is divided in two fronts: on one side, the western front ( divided in two sectors the French and the Italian ), on the other side the eastern front ( divided in four sectors, Russian, Balcanic, Armenian, Middle East ) in which there are also all the boxes.

The simulation develops at corps level. The designers have divided the warfare in two great categories: during the ’14, there is the movement warfare with its specific features; gradually from the end of the ’14 and then during the whole war there is the trench warfare. This difference allows to comprehend in the best way the starting phase in which there were great subversions of the fronts with deep advances and then, step by step, the passage to the immobility of the trench warfare. La Grande Guerre starts from the ultimatum to Serbia. The ultimatum pushes in to the conflict Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and France with, and here there is an interesting subtlety too often forgotten, the uncertainty of the English position the immediately entry of which in the war is much due to the German decision of the war plan, as we could see after.
The simulation starts from August ’14 and goes on until August ’19 for a total of five years. Every year is divided in nine turns, which represent a month of the real live, except for January-February, March-April and November-December: every three turns, at the end of May, August, November-December there is an interphase that is a “ sequel “ of the previous turn. During the turns the whole military activity takes place and the diplomatic pressures upon the countries not yet at war are resolved. In the interphases all the activities of purchasing new ground units, ships, ammunition, takes place and the players decides in what countries they want to place the new embassies and all the political actions which a country want to do to support its war effort and its “ home front “ are decided. In the interphases is concentrated the more strictly political activity, which will reflect on the militaries activities during the subsequent turns.
Now we enter in the heart of the simulation making an analysis of its components and its mechanisms.


ULTIMATUM TO SERBIA AND THE START OF THE HOSTILITIES

At the start of the hostilities the players must select the starting war plan, among some plans historically designed by the HQs, for each of the four powers ( France, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary ) that are at war from the beginning and then they must choice some military and political options with which the countries will face the conflict at its start. The choices can be even very different from the historical and in this way the players can start La Grande Guerre so as the future could be very different from that of their historical counterpart. After this phase in which only the nose and the instinct of the players are important, there is a sequence of diplomatic actions to sound all the European country not yet at war, England included, out. At the end of the pre-war phase, to which a completely little book of fifteen pages is devoted, the game starts with the first military actions.


MOVEMENT WARFARE AND TRENCH WARFARE

An important innovation is the distinction between the first phases of the war, from August ‘14 to October ’14, and from the end of ’14 for the whole war. The first part has its own rules that allow very well to relive the excited and grand clash with which the hostilities started: the armies face each other without parsimony of forces and the movement warfare allows great advances and makes retreats of enormous size.
We are still in the phase of the movement warfare, the trenches are remote, and Paris and the decisive victory are within reach. The CRTs favours the attacker and the possibility to make an unlimited number of attacks pushes the players not to save their armies: of course, the losses are very great, but the countries allow replacing the losses and the national will supports the war effort with favour. With the turns of the end ’14, the situation starts to change and the new trench warfare replaces the old one. Now the CRT favours decidedly the defender and many of the rules of the game changes so that the second Rulebook is entirely devoted to this new kind of warfare. The essential differences are:
a ) The possibility of only one major battle ( the great offensive ), to which the designers have devoted some rules very detailed that fill some pages. The great offensive can go on one year to the utmost, it must be planned at the end of a year for the next one and the players must plan the exact turn of its start and its objective. The great offensive can take place only on the two sectors of the western front and on the Russian sector of the eastern one and it is possible only one great offensive per sector, where it is allowed, for the whole of the countries of an alliance. For example, on the Russian sector the great offensive can be made by both Germany and Austria-Hungary or by one of the two powers; what is impossible are two different great offensives, during the same year of course;
b ) in addition of the great offensive, on every sector of front, also on those sectors where the players cannot make the major battle, it is possible to carry out some minor battles; two minor battles per turn applying a very simplified system;
c ) The possibility to discover new tactics of combat ( gas, stosstruppen etc. ) that allow to overwhelm the trenches of the enemy and make own attack devastating.


THE OPERATIONAL TURNS

Every turn is divided in seven phases; in all the phases, except for the military phase, the players make their actions at the same time.
1 ) The First Phase: THE PHASE OF THE EVENTS.
The players random pick one or more chits which are given to some power ( for the Allied Russia, France, England; for the Central Powers Germany and Austria-Hungary ) under a fixed order. Every one of the chits represents a fact really happened during the war and which had an effect on the game: the chits can be secret ( to be played at the most suitable moment ) or public ( to be played immediately ). This system puts the players in front of some unforeseen events, which can try their ability; then it is impossible to predict if and when they will happen because they are historical but casual. The abundance of the random events is another aspect of the accurate historical research of La Grande Guerre; even a profound expert of those events could find some things he does not know. We can mention some random events among the over one hundred of them. There are facts and figures well known as “ The Tsar in command “,” Rasputin “, “ The Spanish Flu “, “ Lawrence of Arabia “. And there are names and events fallen into oblivion as “ Bolo Pacha “, “ Wassmuss “, “ Bruechmueller “, “ The Senussi’s Revolt “. This phase, that could be seemed of secondary importance a little for its simply course, a little for its shortness, is in reality fundamental and very often the chance makes an event be picked up when it could be fatal, in a certain situation, for an already hardy exhausted country at war or, on the contrary, it could shake who thinks all is lost out of his torpor.
2 ) Second Phase: PHASE OF THE DIPLOMACY AND OF THE TECHNOLOGY.
In addition, this phase has a simply course, but it does not deceive. The diplomacy is the only way to persuade a major power ( with the exception of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, France and sometime England ) to enter in the war on one side or on the other and the same thing is valid for the minor powers, which often have a fundamental role. Every major power has a number of “ embassy points “ due to its political importance and the military situation: then there is the possibility to purchase some extra embassy points. The embassies are represented by counters that show an anonymous face ( we apologize with the historical figure selected by the designers ), but their real value remains unknown to the opposite player. During the interphases the players can purchase the embassies and can allocate them to the countries not yet at war ( as we could see better then ). But it is during the diplomatic phase of every turn that an alliance can “ call out “ a country and confronting own embassy points with those of the opposite side can roll two dice on a table and can see the result of own pressures. There are also embassies of zero value the only purpose of which is to confuse the opponent. As it is easy to understand a victorious diplomatic struggle is often more important than a success on the battlefield. Everyone who would play this simulation, if he will be at the head of the Allied, will soon understand that a neutral Italy allows the Austria-Hungary to make its plains quietly and to give a decisive aid to the Germany in destroying the Tsarist Empire.
The part of this phase devoted to the technology research is very simply to play, but the simplicity does not deceive. This second part of the second phase has a very simple development. Every alliance has its own cup of chits every one of which represents a technology. A player random picks two chits per turn and selects one of them putting back the other one in the cup, then he rolls two dice to try to achieve that technology or another one picked before and no yet achieved. All seams easy. In reality, the technological improvements are a lot and in the most varied fields. Due to those things if a player does not have a clear strategic project of research in his mind he would research what he then will not know how to use. Then the random system of research often does not allow getting what would be useful and, on the other hand, a players gets research projects not suitable at the moment. A player must have the necessary flexibility not to waste the labour of his scientists. Someone could say that this random pick is too random. In reality this have been a definite choice of the designers to avoid that who lives after the historical events and knows their developments could get him strong of the knowledge of the past. In this way, on the contrary, the players must confront the unforeseen event such as they write the book of the History in their own hand.
3 ) Third Phase: REINFORCEMENT PHASE.
The players, at the same time, receive the ground, naval, air units purchased during the interphases and place them on the map. Then each player receives the ammunitions to fire with the artillery units, the quantity of the ammunitions depends from how many each player have purchased during the preceding interphase, and a quantity of replacement points that is different for each country. The RPs ( replacement points ) represent the manpower necessary to strengthen the ground units, which have had losses in the combats of the previous turns. We want here to anticipate one of the most interesting aspects of this simulation: the introduction of the Replacement Points. Too many times, it seams that it is sufficient to have a great number of resource points to take disastrous losses and then to purchase all again as nothing was happened. Those losses are not only material, but also human. A country could have “ unlimited “ material resources, but the human resources are always limited, as great a nation could be. Finally, this thing counts and so every player must use carefully his army before the losses will be so numerous that as many rifles could be made there will be no sufficient arms to bring them! Interesting is, in the naval field, the fact that the counters represent specific units ( for example the Queen Elisabeth ) which if they are sunk cannot fished up and repaired. The unique possibility to replace the losses is to construct new naval units, but also in this case the units are historical, at least in the project, and their number is limited: another good reason to avoid battle conducted by waster players!
4 ) Fourth Phase: THE INITIATIVE AND WEATHER PHASE.
The most aleatory and less demanding phase. Each player rolls two dice, one for the western front and one for the eastern one, modified by the initiative value of an OC on a front, the highest wins. Who has the initiative decides who of the players will go first in the military phase: if there are two players, who has the initiative on the western front decides which of the two fronts is played first, if there are four players the two fronts are played simultaneously. Then the weather. The whole map is divided in five climatic zones: Cold, Continental, Temperate, Mediterranean and Sub-Desert. Depending on the season and the dice roll the weather can be Dry, Rain, Snow ( except during the summer when it is dry everywhere and in the sub-desert zone where it is always dry ). The weather conditions have an impact on the mobility of the ground units, on the combats, on the air and naval actions.
5 ) Fifth Phase: NAVAL PHASE.
As the designers rightly note the simulations of the First World War very often neglect the naval warfare as of secondary importance on the conduct of the war. In reality the choking of the Central Powers, with the Continental blockade, and their surrender is due to the English control of the seas. In La Grande Guerre, the naval phase is described very minutely with rules that cover some pages and allow conducting all the naval activities like Patrolling, Escort, and Transport etc. without forgetting the naval activities in the extra-European seas with the famous German raider. Here we cannot spend too many words to analyze rule by rule; we think it is sufficient to give comprehensive view of the matter. The ships of a class are represented by one counter that is named by the most famous ship of that class ( each ship-counter shows the values of attack, defence, speed and the range of the guns that can be long, medium, short ). The ship-counters are grouped in fleets that have their own counters showing the greatest number of ship-counters, which a fleet can have; the other face of fleet-counters is anonymous. This system creates that great uncertainty that is the glamour of every naval battle until the end of the Second World War. The most important part of the naval activity takes place in the seas around the Europe. All the seas are under the control of the Allied, the exceptions are the Baltic Sea, under the control of the Germany, the Adriatic that is contested ( this means it is not completely under the control of one of the two side ), the Northern Sea and the Black Sea that are contested. Only across controlled seas the transport missions can take place without an escorting fleet, the ports that are on them can be supplied, and then the ports can supply the ground units. Those activities are impossible across the enemy controlled seas ( a particular case are the contested seas where the supplies can go through, but the transport missions must have an escorting fleet ). From those things, it is easy to comprehend how the control of the seas is fundamental to have the possibility, for example, to land behind the enemy front and to destabilize it. The naval phase is divided in two sub-phases: in the first the movements in the seas under control are made, they are gratis and at no risk. Then each player announces the possible sorties in the enemy seas that have a great cost due to elevated consumption of coal; it is from those sorties that sometimes can be born great naval battles. Every naval battle is divided in steps that start with the initial determination of the size of the battle and end with the losses’ calculation, all those things across some battle rounds. The designers have created a detailed and accurate rule system that perfectly recreate the uncertainty of a naval battle during the First World War when the “ instinct “ of the admirals had to make up for the absence of radars and satellites. The players have not great occasions to fought great naval battle, at least for the risks and the costs of a defeat. Besides the disparity of forces dissuades even the most adventurist players to cast the Kriegmarine into the harms of the mighty English Great Fleet: above those considerations, it is important to add that the Central Powers war efforts are directed to ground warfare. Then a problem that is often present during the naval phase is the little knowledge of the rules. Due to the rarity of the great naval battles, the players often forget some rules so that it is possible that in an accidental naval battle, the players would be in embarrassment and they would make not repairable mistakes. Our advice, because of the effects of a naval battle, is to reread very carefully the rules and to follow step by step the very good sequence of play of a naval battle stopping every time something is not clear. Perhaps it would be a long system, but it is completely rewarded by the emotion, which a titanic struggle like the Jutland can create. In the end, we would like to quote a phrase of Churchill with which he referred to the admiral Beatty: “ He is the only man who can win or lose the war in an afternoon “.
6 ) Sixth Phase: MILITARY PHASE.
This only one phase is played before by one player then by the other one. Because it is the hearth of the whole simulation, its sequence is very detailed and divided in some sub-phases. We have already written about the difference between movement warfare and trench warfare, we will repeat it every time it will be necessary. During the military phase, also the air warfare takes place: it is divided between battles of fighters and air missions like Reconnaissance, Tactical Air Support, and Bombardment etc. The possibilities offered by the game are a lot and a there are all the possible operations made during the Great War. It would be too long to write of every aspect of the air warfare. We want only to remember to the readers that the Air Army, even if it is almost inexistent in the ’14, becomes more important during the course of the war often being decisive; this is a good reason to increase own air power that, passing the time, will reward our efforts and our confidence. Returning to the ground warfare, first of all, we must write that in La Grande Guerre the combat units ( infantry or cavalry corps and the support units like artillery, tanks etc. ) are grouped in armies, the real keystone of the game, with a HQ and commanders. The armies are activated one by one in sequence and every one of them must end its activities before it is possible to activate another one. This system makes the game more fluent avoiding that a great number of counters is moved and involved in combats at the same time and allows the players to avoid errors caused by the great number of counters. The activation of an army is divided in six steps. 1) The player checks if all the units of an army are supplied or not. 2) The player decides which units are under command of the activated HQ. 3) The player can put some units in reserve that is to put in the second line some units for future use. 4) The player moves all the units of the activated army he want and then resolve all the battles he want to fight moving the units in the hex where the battle takes places; with the trench warfare all the battles can be preceded by an artillery bombardment made by the attacker. 5) If the attacking player looses the battle, then he makes the retreats, that is the attacker’s units returns in the hex from which they have arrived. 6) If the attacking player wins, then he gains the control of the hex where the battle was fought and if he wants he can pursuit the enemy units. As it is possible to see the sequence of activation is the same either in the movement warfare or in the trench warfare, the only difference is the bombardment before the battle that is often necessary before the assaulting the enemy trench. After a player has finished all of his activations, it is the turn of his opponent. The combats are always voluntary and they are very different between movement and trench warfare. In the first case, the battles are divided in two sub-battles that take place contemporary, if there are at least four corps defending and attacking; then there is the possibility of counterattacks, retreating the units’ one additional hex to reduce the losses. In the second the trench warfare is more static so that it is impossible to make counterattacks and the battles are divided in two sub-battles if the attacker has at least four corpses ( the number of the defending corpses is irrelevant ). We want to add that in the trench warfare it is extremely important to make a heavy bombardment before the assault to cause the defender losses and to reduce the level of the trenches. It is interesting the system to engage in the combat one corps per round among the corpses present at the start of the battle and then among the reinforcements arrived during the battle. This system creates a well-balanced CRT that is based upon the differential of strength ( attacking strength – defending strength ). Then this system recreates very well the reality of the assaults during the First World War when fresh corpses replaced the exhausted corpses until a part prevailed. It would be unthinkable that six corpses ( the maximum stacking ) with some support units attack together in a space ( a hex is about fifty kilometres ) that is not sufficient for over one hundred thousands of men moving and attacking. The CRT, then, based upon the differential of strength eliminates those irritating fractions that are too often rounded down in the defender’s favour! We want, now, to underline the great importance of exploitation phase that allows the attackers to advance deeply behind the enemy lines changing a defeat in a rout. In this way, a simulation about the First World War becomes less static and less bore to play. Finishing our analysis, we want to underline a very important aspect of the simulation: the suspense of a battle. There are some cases in which the battles are very long, above all in the trench warfare, but the uncertainty are always present until the end of a battle and it rewards the time spent to resolve a battle. There would be many things to write, but, in a review, we think it is sufficient to give a general view of the simulation.
7 ) Seventh Phase: FINAL PHASE.
Before all we must spend some words to describe the first part of this phase: the sieges. On the map, there are a great number of fortresses, some small some great, and there are two ways to conquer and to destroy them. The first way is the assault, which takes place in the military phase after the attacker has wined a battle in “ rase campagne “. The second one is the siege, which can last many turns until the surrender of the fortress or until the release of the besieged. The first system is faster but it could cost dear, the second is slow but the player has not any loss. Every player has his own preferences and he is free to choice what seems better! The second part of this phase is very simple in its development, but in this second part, a player harvests the fruits of his labour made during the turn. Now it is the moment to verify the national will of every major power involved in the war. A marker, for each major power, with its flag, goes up and down along the track of the national will; the national marker can go from +40, the best situation, to -7, the worst one. When the marker riches +20 then the national will is in the “ unstable zone “ in which strikes, mutinies of national army, revolts, revolutions and, in the end, the Capitulation are possible. At the end of every turn the modification, up or down, of the national will is influenced by many causes such as the losses, human and territorial, and by the conquests and military successes. The basic concept is that the impact of the war upon the population if of the greatest importance: a country with a high national will can face the difficulties of the war and it can permit a great war effort. The nations under your command can sustain great human losses if the losses allow conquering important objectives, but if you think to send whole corpses’ death to conquer an inhospitable swamp or desert hex, you can be sure to go very fast to the capitulation. The national will is the most important marker of the situation in the game; it can give some very important information about the conduct of the war. The peoples whom you lead to the Victory watch you and evaluate your action, on their trust in the final Victory depends your personal Victory!


THE SEASONAL INTERPHASES

At the end of the operational turns of May, August, December there are the three interphases of Spring-Summer, Autumn, Winter, the interphases are played like a sequel of the turns. The interphases have their sequence:

1. Testing the mood of the parliament ( the best mood is Holy Union, the worst is Defeatism ).
2. Verifying the effects of the strategic warfare, practically verifying the losses of RPs and of the national will due to the Continental Block for the Central Powers and due to the submarine warfare for the England.
3. Computing the shifting of the national will in the same manner like at the end of an operational turn and then computing a second time the national will using other factors, specify for the interphases, ( such as the mood of the parliament, the overall military situation, etc. ).
4. Making the home politics actions: the player can do many actions from the increasing of the war production to putting a new general in command of an army, passing across all the aspects that allow the player to optimize the home life of the major powers for the war effort. Every political action ( either succeeded or not ) has some consequences on the national will.
5. Starting with the year 1915, because of the fatigue due to the war, the too much high national wills are lowered.
6. If a power is in the unstable zone ( starting from +20 ) must do a test of instability and, if it is negative, the national will goes down. Then there are some checks to determine if serious social troubles arose and if it is necessary, a player can make a new government to bring the national will out of the unstable zone with the risk of a negative reaction of the parliament.
7. At this point, the player calculates the national military production and then he can use the budget of a nation to purchase new corps, ships, airplanes, embassy points and much more things.
8. At the end of an interphase, the player can move every general he wants from an HQ to another.

As it is easy to guess, the interphases not only influence the subsequent turns but, passing the time, the whole actions of a nation assumes a specific form, which influences the strategic priorities of a player. To control the nations under own command in the best mode and to use their potentialities to the utmost, without destroying them, is the best way to the success. La Grande Guerre gives the players the opportunity to confront with the historical reality like if they would live in it without sure formulas but where the intuition and the fortune are fundamental things in the same manner as the personal ability to govern. It is easy to be on the way up again making a new government and throwing onto the old one fault, which are of the player only, but the parliament not always bends docile to those intrigue. The designers have created, with the interphases, an important moment of reflection on the situation of each nation, which is often forgotten during the agitated military phases.


FINAL OPINION

La Grande Guerre is surely a point of swing for the military simulation on the First World War. Beyond a thorough historical and military research, we can find some new items very important for the mechanics of the play. The designers have created a really complete simulation, a simulation that is a “ game “ that recreates all the aspects of a great war using a coherent whole of rules which are, in front of their complexity, flowing. The game offers a set of counters admirable for their graphics aspect and completely plasticized, two great maps of easy readability where every kind of terrain is clearly recognizable, an extraordinary number of tables, rulebooks, playing aid charts, which are of great aim for the players and permit a considerable saving of time. The rulebooks have a clear description and they are rich of examples for every rule and situation, then the designers have enhanced the rulebooks with some humorous phrases that make the learning a pleasure.
It is obvious that a simulation of such a level involves long times to play a campaign scenario, but every hour spent in gaming is source of great cultural enrichment due to the remarkable quantity of information, often new, which a player learns. Our advice is to learn the rules step by step playing one of the numerous shorter scenarios, which allow learning the mechanics of the game in such a way to make them natural and to concentrate on the global strategy. Do not be frightened by the length of a campaign scenario: when you are sure with the rules the sense of deep gratification, which gives you to play a whole campaign, is the just achievement of the preceding efforts. We can add the advice to play it in four; not only the time of play is halved and the control of the Allied is easier, but also the two front are played at the same time with the uncertainty not to know the situation of the other front.
Although it is not easy to give marks, however we give them to synthesize the whole:
COMPLEXITY 10+,
OVERALL LEVEL 10+.

[Clovis]

and here a replay of the boardgame:

This is the report, like a war report, of the campaign scenario of “ La Grande Guerre “ played by two intrepid players with great participation and great expense of energy.
The whole game will be told impersonally and with the greatest impartiality.

Preliminaries
Alea iacta est! The ultimatum to Serbia, already arrived at Belgrade, triggers the reactions of the main European chancelleries. From long time, the Europe was living in an electric atmosphere, in the expectation that the purulent cancer of the European rivalries should explode. Nothing could make to predict the catastrophe, which the ultimatum would have made.
In succession, Russia mobilizes and declares war on Austria-Hungary, then Germany on Russia and France on Germany and Austria-Hungary. England remains out of the war even if pro Allied and its diplomatic level disappoints the Allied player due to his starting misfortune.

The war plans are chosen: France decides an attack in Alsace-Lorena, an attack not immediate but made after some preparations, Russia a plan of aid to Serbia that plans a great attack in Galicia to take the forces of the Double Monarchy away from their main object. Austria-Hungary, with much shrewdness, chooses the “ Free Plan “ that allows it to have immediately one more army and to draw up freely its whole land army on the map. In conclusion, Germany chooses the “ Plan von Moltke “ that plans the transfer of three armies from the western front to the eastern one ( the first, the second and the third armies ) to attack at once and in strength the Tsarist troops along the boundary of the Eastern Prussia. The great movement of troops from west to east does not go unnoticed to the secret services of the Allied, however the Allied player does not change the initial war plans of Russia and France, as the rules allow.

Arrives the moment to verify the impact of the outbreak of the hostilities on the other European countries: everyone of them changes its political lines sometimes in favour of the Allied, sometimes in favour of the Central Powers, but no one of them enters in to the war. The most wanted are England and Italy. The first, which answers for the independence of Belgium, because of Germany have been careful from to attack little and defenceless peaceful countries, is a spectator. This is a bold stroke for the Allied that cannot use the legendary BEF and cannot have the support of the Ruler of the seas: a great relief for the Central Powers, which can still have the free trade. The German plan aimed to hold out the vast English Empire as long as possible, without deceiving to be able to do it forever. Italy has a little oscillation pro-Allied that practically does not help much and it is a presage of a diplomatic struggle not less fierce than that is on the point of beginning on the battlefields. Now starts to begin a game of uncertain result and full of uncertainties where both players will have moments of excited trust followed by abysses of despair. A sense of “ to make “ the history is in the air on the game-field as if the players go back in the time to write again the History. They look at the map and the counters, which offer a spectacular, view, with the awareness that they represent real men, real sorrows and real wounds, which the time would never to delete from the memory.

Strategies
For the Allied player the whole game will be to know how to exploit at the best the potentialities of every country in the alliance, every country will have to agree with the others like a great orchestra. He must have the consciousness that none country alone can stand comparison with the German Reich and that to conduct a war on two fronts, without great possibilities of links, is a difficult enterprise. At the same time, it is difficult to govern countries like France or England, which being owners of the two greatest colonial empires must always have to reckon with the possibility of heavy internal troubles. The game of the Allied must be wide-ranging; the land forces must interact with the naval and not every aspect of the military situation can be underestimated. Then a difficult task, made even heavier by the initial neutrality of England.
The Central Powers have an easier running since their fleets and their colonies have no a strategic importance and they are a luxury, which is given up. However, after a surely exciting start, the constant strain of the war on two fronts makes its effects; this is the reason because the Central Powers, without holding the decisive victory, start to have more and more problems, passing the time.

1914
The start of the game is over the rosiest previsions and the non-belligerence of the England is surely a great success and, at the same time, it is the proof that to be a little less German and a little more diplomatic is not bad.
The first fights along the boundaries start. On west all is silence, France applies itself to program well its attacks in Alsace-Lorena and Germany has no interest to have losses on a front that is, for the moment, secondary; on the east, on the contrary, the guns thunder from the Baltic Sea to the Serbian Mountains. On one side the Austrians, engaged against the tough Serbians and against an hostile territory, have heavy losses for insignificant advances and the six Russian armies, deployed in Galicia, batter those Austrian, which are compelled to retreat even if the only booty of the Russians are clear hexes. However, the German comrades make every Russian effort vain, their four dreadful armies, among which there is the First one, the main army, with the Austrian super-heavy artillery battery and under the command of the Field-Marshal von Kluck, sweep away the two Russian armies, unable to oppose a plausible resistance. The German troops, like a river in flood, are widespread from the Eastern Prussia conquering and destroying one after the other all the pathetic fortresses erected by the Russians along the boundary. The front line is fearfully shaky and the Russian losses are enormous for a so great empire. Only the logistic problems, due to the great cost of the conversion of the Russian narrow-gauge railways, do not allow advancing as far as the boundary between Latvia and Estonia. The armies of the Tsar are compelled to retreat along the whole front line not to be surrounded and they must to renounce, in September, all the progresses made in Galicia in August. For Austria, there is the opportunity to retake, without firing a shot, all the eastern Galicia and some hexes in Ukraine. Now, they can concentrate in Serbia, where it is already clear that the struggle will not end within the ’14. On the western front, the so expected French attack ended in a massacre, the German troops, favoured by the rough terrain of the region and by the mighty fortress of Metz, have easily rejected every attempt of breakthrough. It is clear to everybody that every solution on the French front, unless to invade the Belgium, will be so bloody to become often a Pyrrhic victory. The other European countries remain calm, with oscillations that bring the Italy forward near to the Allied and the Ottoman Empire near to the Central Powers. The England slowly goes to the war as Germany has expected and the little Belgium looks with terror at the mighty armies, which face each other near its boundaries. Perhaps, it fears more the France, which, after England have entered in to the war, could invade it, without heavy diplomatic consequences, to threaten the German plain leaved much undefended. Germany plays the surprise event Mata Hari who, unfortunately, is at once revealed and executed due to the secret event “ Double Spy “ played by the Allied.

In October, the military operations undergo an unavoidable braking. On one side due to the start of the bad season, which arrives particularly early on the eastern front, on the other side due to the gradual passage to the trench warfare that brings a little security to the Allied hardly exhausted, above all on the east, by the mighty German armies. On the west, all is silent: France, without the help of England, prefers to abandon every mere wish of conquest and for Germany, the most important thing is to destroy the Russian Empire as soon as possible before to march on Paris. On the east, the struggle does not stop, on the Russian front the German armies go on with their advances and the Great Duke Nicole, from the GHQ, prefers to retreat inside the territory of the Empire. The real strength of the Russia is to allow itself to loose even eight hexes of map, from Baltic Sea to Black Sea, from the boundary with Germany and Austria-Hungary, without, in reality, loosing only one hex of Russian national territory. It leaves in the enemy hands only its Polish possessions, the Baltic States and the Ukraine suffering moderate losses of national will and of economic resources. The terrible climate of those zones, the shortage of railroads brakes inevitably the German and the Austrian armies, which exploit the general Russian retreat, waiting that the lines of supplies, allow advancing again. This tactic, without great losses, allows Russia, heavy weakened by the battles of August and September, to avoid the destruction of other corpses, which should be sacrificed without any hope to stop the German sea. Only in Serbia there are hard struggles, the two Austrian armies, paying a very high price, succeed to advance, but the Serbian land army, although defeated, will not give in until the end: for the Habsburg Empire this will be the only real war of conquest and blood.

The end of the ’14 gets near and the military situation does not change from the preceding turns. The only one shake is created by the diplomacy: the Ottoman Empire enters the war with the Central Powers and Italy, in consequence, goes so near to the Allied party that many people thinks it will join the Allied side at the beginning of the ’15. At this point, it is clear that the principal front is the eastern one and that, passed the winter, or the Allied will devise something on the western front or there will be no way out for the Tsarist armies, which cannot retreat without an end. It is interesting to notice how the war is beginning to be very different from how one could image it. The Allied, short of arguments to use for their propaganda against the German “ cruelty “, must take note that, in those situations, it is impossible to defeat the Germany; if they cannot stop the Imperial armies with the benefits of the defence, it is clear that is a nonsense every hope of great offensives. However, the Central Powers, although closing the year with a striking series of military and diplomatic victories ( it is sufficient to take off England from the war during the whole ’14 ), start to understand that to capitalize these successes in political victories will be a hard work. The interphase of winter ’14 is spent to improve the war production and to strengthen to the maximum the land armies to the detriment of new air army and to the navy. In this way, starts a course that will be clearer during the course of the game and that will cause armies at the top of their power, but poor of technological innovation and of the air support.

Winter 1915
In January ’15, England finally acts and goes to the war. The legendary BEF, at this point disbanded, have created the First and the Second army, the Royal Navy proudly takes the control of the seas and the continental blockade is in effect; for the moment, it is limited to the commercial traffic of the Central Powers, but it raises the spectre of starvation. The indignation and the anger spread among the German people, to starve women and children is an action only worthy of the English, but the revenge will not wait!; the shipyards start to construct a great number of u-boots and when the moment will finally arrive, England will not have sufficient eyes to weep its losses. Now the danger most immediate is the eventual entry into the war of Italy, fascinated by the deceitful sirens of the Allied. With Austria hardly engaged in Serbia and with the difficult along the whole Russian front due to the terrible winter, the opening of a third front against the already weak Double Monarchy would have heavy effects on the management of the war, compelling the German to give aid to the allied. There is a great ardour in the chancelleries of the great powers, it is clear to be at a crucial point of the game and Italy, with its considerable land army and its powerful navy, can make the difference. The fate wants that the Central Powers could name first Italy and the fate continues to be benevolent. D’Annunzio pleads their cause and the embassies go well ( the diplomatic level of Italy goes from -2 to +4, at the level of -5 Italy enters the war with the Allied ), for the moment the danger is avoided and it is possible to heave a sigh of relief.
During the hard winter of the ’15, the military actions are scarce and the German armies on the Russian front are employed to convert the Russian railways as fast as possible. These actions are necessary to be ready for the great offensive that the GHQ has decided shall start in May ’15 having Brest-Litovsk as objective; this is the latest Polish major city in Russian hands. In the extra-European seas, the German raiders make things very hard for the Royal navy that does not succeed to intercept them: in the isolated German colonies, the common life goes on normally, without the smallest sign of an attack from the English and even now, the question about a so much inaction remains. It is impossible to say that the military situation goes well for the French and the Russian. The first, although having a well equipped land army, know that every attack in Alsace-Lorena would cost a lot, perhaps too much. The invasion of the Bulge would be a good alternative but to jeopardize a little the relations with Italy and, above all, with the United States, which could be a precious allied if the war would be of long duration. In the uncertainty, France opts for a great offensive, in June, having like objective the town of Morhange, exactly the hex south of Metz, with the aid of the English. The Great-Duke Nicholas, in full concord with the French, decides to start at the same time his great offensive against the Austrian, which the Allied hope will be still engaged on the Serbian front. In the meantime, the technological researches advance, even if slowly: the air army is the most outdated; in both the two fields, there is the possibility to conduct only air-observations, without the possibility of air-to-air combats.

Summer 1915
Finished the winter, the turn of May starts with the entry into the war of Greece ( with its little land army ) with the Allied and the entry into the war of Bulgaria with the Central Powers; this is good news. The Bulgarian land army, with its weight and its value, is immediately used to aid the Austrian against the Serbia. The raiders make their dirty duty tricking the fleets of Her Majesty, but this one seams to be a turn of absolute calm on the French front and on the Russian one with the exception of the usual minor battles, which continue to weaken the army of the Tsar. However, unforeseen and violent, starts the German great offensive towards Brest-Litovsk taking advantage of one anticipated month of good weather. The first and the eighth army trigger a fire’s heal on the Russian trenches using the new tactic of the massive bombardment and having great reserves of ammunitions. The impact is devastating, the Russian defences crumble even before the assault and when the German troops start the hand-to-hand fighting, the Tsarist GHQ sends all the available reinforcements. However, it is too late, every attempt of resistance is swept away and only the Imperial Guard stands, but the heroic courage of the defenders of the Romanov cannot do much against the violence of the attack. The losses are enormous, in a turn Russia burns all the available reinforcements and the great part of the ammunitions; in the heroic attempt to defend the ground of the Empire an HQ of an army is taken prisoner. The way to Brest-Litovsk is open and even if the offensive has not yet achieved its objective, it is clear that nothing will can stop it: the euphoria invades the German GHQ and the disconcertment mixed with gloomy omens overwhelms the Allied High Commands. No one expected an offensive so early on the Russian front, which inevitably upsets all the plans and does a question: how much the immense Russian land army is of value?, and how long the country, backward and governed by a regime already out of the history, will can and will want to sustain a cost so elevated?

While the chancelleries debate, the hot summer of the ’15 arrives with a striking series of military and political trouble. On the diplomatic front, Italy is always the focus of great pressures that go to nothing because of the nation remains strictly neutral: on the contrary, Rumania acts and enters into the war with the Allied. It becomes an irritating wedge behind the back of the Austrian armies on the Russian front and the Bulgarian army is hurriedly recalled from the Serbia to confront the Rumanian one before that it makes troubles behind the lines of the Double-Monarchy. In the North Sea, happens a fortuitous engage between the English Scouting Fleet and the German Erleuchtung Flotte, which, before the arrive of the Home Fleet, breaks the contact after a short but intense battle in which the just blasting Queen Elisabeth is damaged and a German AC is sunk. The England have at least had a little revenge after the heavy losses inflicted by the u-boots and takes every fancy of sea supremacy from the Germany.

Other good news come from the Middle-East where the sixth English army, under the command of the general Townsend, is remounting the path of Tigris and of Euphrates pointing firm to Baghdad and the fifth army starts to move from the Egypt to the Palestine. In front of them, there are three rickety Turkish armies, true mirror of an empire at the end. In Berlin, it starts to be asked if it was a good matter to want at all costs that Turkey entered in the war, but now it is too late end the most catastrophic previsions already make to fear that the Ottoman Empire will not stand a long without a substantial German aid. The bad and the good news alternate on both fronts and for both the alliances. After a heroic resistance, the Serbian land army, besieged in Belgrade, surrenders with its great commander Putnik, who is the first high commander to be taken prisoner. The Austrian land army, not surely covered with glory, after a year of hard battles, finally conquers the little country that has defended its honour beyond every duty. The army under the command of Boroevitch, the conqueror of Belgrade, is hurriedly moved to the Italian front, even if the situation is calm, but it is known, with the flirts of Italy, you can never be too prudent.

In Russia, the tragedy of its land army ruins itself that, unable to stop the advance of the German armies, must abandon Brest-Litovsk and now the whole Poland can be made an independent kingdom, obviously under the strict German control. Unexpected, but welcome, arrives to the Allied the notice that Germany, satisfied with its victorious great offensive, prefers to stop it and in this manner Germany discards the possibility to penetrate deeply into the Russian territory and to destroy what remains of the Russian land army. This decision is due to the inexperience of the trench warfare and it foments bitter disputes in the GHQ. In the Middle-East sector the English advance goes on slowly but inexorable and, like consequence, there is the revolt of the Arab that, badly armed and even worst equipped, can, on the other hand, give some troubles to Turkish lines of communication. The fate wants that the English proverbial haughtiness does not allow them to understand the potentialities of those ragged persons and that the secret event “ Lawrence “ is jealously kept by the Austrian.

Now the moment arrives for the French offensive on the western front, with the aid of the English: offensive that starts already limping, without the Russian one on the east; because of the German victorious great offensive, the Russian must stop their one. The hex objective is south of Metz and the French troops after a good bombardment, which is in part frustrated by the German strong trenches ( the Central Powers have already trenches of the second level, the maximum is the third, while the Allied are still at level zero ), starts a titanic struggle to conquer the first border of German territory. The military operations are under the command of the general Sarrail and all the best troops, with at the head the Foreign Legion, are employed. The English prefer to wait and to attack violently the hex of Metz in case of German defeat, so that to obtain the maximum disruptive effect on the German lines, exploiting their weakness after the French attack. The battle goes on for ten rounds and every French assault is repulsed with heavy losses: the French, not discouraged by the first failures, continue their great offensive in the subsequent turn, hoping in the first signals of collapse of the Germans and in the aid of the English, which, however, does not arrive. The English troops remain in place even if their equipment of artillery is good, the ammunitions do not lack and the attack value of the English corps is very good. Perhaps the fear of heavy losses, not easy to replace for a country in which there is still the enlistment, or the attention against the Turkish pushes the English GHQ to a vain waiting, which will be heavy paid in the future. In the meantime, the power of the French attack decreases and after another turn of vain attempts, the French stop their great offensive.

It is the time to make the calculations for both the opponents. On one side, the French have the confirmation that through the Alsace-Lorena it is unthinkable to obtain even the most little success ( as if it has already happened in the summer of the ’14 ). On the other side the Germans learn that if in defensive position the front line on the French sector is impenetrable, the situation should be more different in offensive operations. The number of losses is horrible for both: the German land army has lost in two turns more than it has lost in all the turns of winter and summer ’15 on the Russian front. At this point, in Berlin it is clear that a war of attrition, made by the Allied on both fronts, will be with no way out for Germany and if Italy should go to the war with the Allied, the same thing should happen for the Austrian too, but with effects even worse. In this end of summer, after a year of war, the Central Powers, even if victorious on every front and deeply penetrated in the Russian territory, start to suffer the first effects from a war on two fronts, which is for Austria, due to a lot of fortune, only a war on one front. For those reasons, the GHQ of Germany and Austria start to feel the necessity to win in short time, in one year, at least one year and half, after it will be probably too late. The Allied have their troubles too, first, how to aid the Russian allied the land army of which is crumbling in face of the German troops already at the gate of Riga and with the clear intention to point to San Petersburg. Moreover, the absence of Italy and the already ended Serbian campaign allow the Habsburg Empire to concentrate all of its forces against the Russian to support the German attacks. Without Italy, the Allied could prevail very difficultly and the Italian land army, valid and finally not underestimated, gives an indispensable aid to the Allied. Closed the short parenthesis, we can retake our narration.

In this year of game we have never written about the USA, like they do not exist, in reality they have passed from their initial isolationism to a clear support for the Allied with aids that are, for the moment, confined to economics aids and military supplies. However, their importance becomes more and more clear. And once at war, even if their land army is not particularly numerous ( only twenty one corps in front of, for example, sixty six of France ) the United States, with their powerful corps in attack and in defence, their great navy, their enormous psychological support and their very great resources have a significant impact on the Central Powers. From the ’17, when the human resources will be scarcer and the exhaustion due to the war will be an important factor, the United Stated should be the decisive country.

Autumn 1915
The autumn turns take place of the summer turns and in the interphase, which divides them, Germany decides the submarine warfare without restrictions, the only possible answer to the continental block imposed by the England, block that is still without heavy effects but that becomes, day after day, heavier strangling the commerce of the Central Powers. On the other side, the u-boots make their duty and England starts to understand that the new submarine warfare not only causes heavy losses, but also it is very difficult to fight effectively and only one of the German u-boots is sunk. All the countries at war increase their war production, the land armies of all the countries are better equipped, and the artillery support and the stocks of ammunitions are in the first place in the efforts of every contending.

In September restarts the diplomatic struggle; as if it is easy to image, Italy is in the centre of intrigues of every kind. This time, the Allied prevail and the diplomatic level of the Italy is now -2: in reality nothing changes, everything is delayed to the next call, in January ’16. However, for Austria there is the awareness that in that date if the whole fortune will be not with it, the south front will be open with disastrous consequences for the Imperial-Royal land army. An overall view is necessary for the technological research of both camps. The Central Powers finally discover the chlorine gas and a little late the mustard gas, their trenches reaches the maximum level ( three on the western front, one and two levels lower on the Russian and on the other sectors of the eastern front respectively ). The research in the air warfare languishes, at the end of ’15 it is still impossible to product a decent fighter; and even the famous Stosstruppen are only in project; on the contrary, the technology “ u-boot “ gives more effectiveness to the submarine warfare and in this moment it is considered the decisive warfare to destroy the English economy. The Allied have not yet decent trenches and this thing will be decisive for the outcome of the war, on the contrary, the gas research is good and there are great improvements in the air warfare, for the reconnaissance and for the speed of the airplanes, but also for the Allied the real effectiveness of the fighters is ridiculous. In general, there is a backwardness of both camps because the strengthening and the enlargement of the land armies absorb all the war efforts, more than by their technological improvement.

At the end of the ’15, the German raiders make their last actions and they, hunted by the powerful English fleets, prefer to refuge in the ports of Cameroon and of the Eastern German Africa, their sacrifice being vain. Fortunately, the English inaction does not endanger the German colonies even if the entry into the war of Japan, with the Allied, means the end of the German presence in Asia. One after another surrender the little and undefended colonies of Qin-Tao and of the Bismarck Archipelago, a symbolic victory for the Allied, which will must win the real war in Europe. In addition, just in the Old Continent the end of the ’15 reserves some very important facts, which now we will see in details.

Under the pressure of the skilful Bulgarian land army and of the fifth Austrian army, the Rumanian land army is compelled to leave entirely the home ground and Rumania is the second minor power that surrenders to the Central Powers. With wise decision, the Allied prefer to save the Rumanian land army in the Russian territory where it takes position to defend the city of Odessa and of some near hexes, in this way the Russian land army can shorten the front to be more effective against the next Austrian-German attacks, which promise to be violent. In the north, the Kaiser’s troops conquer Riga and foresee the possibility to conquer San Petersburg in the ’16. In the south, two Austrian armies, coordinated by the very good Conrad von Hoetzendorff, commander of the K.u.K., with the support of a powerful siege battery ( the same lent to the Germans in the ’14 ) break through the Russian front toward Kiew and inflict heavy losses to the Russians. The error, made by the Germans not to have wanted to continue the great offensive, restricts the activity on the Russian front to only two minor battles, which are sufficient, however, to destroy two Russian armies and the numerous corpses arrived like reinforcements: all this with respect of light losses for the Central Powers. At this point, the Tsarist Empire is running out of men and it is unable to replace the losses. The national will crushes; there is the first strike in San Petersburg and the Russian land army mutinies en masse. The charisma of the Great Duke Nicola counts nothing; he is removed and replaced by the brilliant Broussilov, until now distinguished more for his defence capacities than for those in attack, except during the first fortunate attacks against the Austrians in Galicia in the summer ’14. The mutiny has like consequence the defection of a lot of corps ( about a third of the force ) and the offensive inability for three turns. The discouragement and the disconcertment reign sovereign among the Allied that see the Russian land army to disintegrate after a little more than a year of war. Naturally, the attacks of the Central Powers against the Russians continue until the end of the ’15 without to give respite to the already exhausted Tsarist armies. The front is broken through in several points so that Broussilov is forced to retreat again the whole front line, but now there is not space to retreat a lot, like in the ’14. The first German army is at only five hexes from San Petersburg and the Bulgarian land army, with fearless bravery, conquers with reiterated and ferocious assaults the fortress of Odessa making vain every defence made by the Rumanian land army. Every end of turn is a torture for the Russia. It sees to crash down its national will in the unstable zone and only the heroic resistance of the Russian people and the total devotion to the cause and to the royal family prevent that revolts break out or even worse the Revolution with the following dissolution of the Russian Empire.

On the Middle-East sector of the front the English, bold and arrogant as usual, advance either into Sinai either towards Baghdad where the sixty army, under the command of the general Townsend, thinks, although being at low ranks ( it has only three corpses and no one artillery battery ), to be able to face up to two Turkish armies. They pay dearly for their insolence. The army of Townsend is surrounded and destroyed, the whole HQ is taken prisoner and the general Townsend becomes respected guest of the Sultan. He is the first general of a major power to be captured and he will be the only one too: the English land army will never can get off this shame. However, what more disconcerts the observers is the total absence of every activity on the French front and if it is understandable, that is not German interest to attack the French before to have defeated the Russian it is impossible to understand the total inactivity of the French and of the two British armies. The men are not short. The units are of value. The artillery support and the reserves of ammunitions are very good. However the Allied look at the collapse of the Russian Empire without to give it an aid. Surely, a constant and strong pressure on the western front should compel Germany to loosen the grip on the east allowing the Russians to reorganize the ranks and to have a pause in a so difficult moment. We could not say the real motivation of such behaviour, perhaps there is a psychological collapse of the Allied as a whole, which prepares them to the defeat with pessimistic resignation. We, on the other hand, think that the initial German supremacy forces to wait and to clench the teeth until the middle of the ’16, even until the start of the ’17. Then due to the attrition of a war on two fronts, the enter in to the war of the USA, the deep weakness of the Ottoman Empire the Allied could take their first satisfactions and start to plan a war of attrition, which surely favours them.


Winter 1916
Arrived at the interphase of the winter ’15, the Central Power try to make a separate peace with Russia that however declines the offer and decides to remain stoically at war. Every country at war squeezes more and more its economy for the war effort and the land armies become more and greater with the exception of the English and of the Russian. England pays a very expensive cost to the submarine warfare without restrictions that causes so many losses that the economy of the British Empire is crippled and Russia, even having the double of men, could not replace the losses inflicted by the hard German attacks and by the recent revolt of the land army. All the HQs examine the plans for the great offensives of the ’16. The Allied decide to retake, with little modifications, the plan of the ’15; in the west a French great offensive, objective Metz, with the aid of the English. In the east, Russia, being passed the recent shock due to the land army’s revolt, decides to sacrifice itself again and to start at the same time with the western Allied a great offensive in the Austrian sector of the front. For the ’16, the date of the start of the attacks is anticipated to the turn of May, when, even on the Russian front, it is very probably that the weather should be good. The Allied count a lot on the entry into the war of Italy in January ’16, which, in this way, could start a great offensive against the Austrians, while the Germans are engaged on the French front, to allow the Russians to break through the Austrian lines in Ukraine so that to compel the Germans to aid their allied. Nothing is decided for the Middle-East: after the defeat in Iraq, the English must still to lick their wounds, more moral than material, but perhaps even for this reason they burn more. On the other side the German GHQ have in store a lethal surprise. The German government gives its support and the Kaiser seals the preparation of the decisive battles with some important advises. It is decided a double great offensive. On the western front, the initial objective is the hex east of Verdun; the final one is Verdun itself, with the major battle two minor battles to disintegrate the French defences from Switzerland to Belgium. On the eastern front the great offensive, made as usual by the Germans, has like objective San Petersburg and at the same time the Austrian, with the minor battles, have like objective to conquer Kiew and to break the Russian army into two parts with the south one inevitably doomed to the surrounding and to the surrender. In addition, Turkey, emboldened by the recent success on the English, proposes to give an important support to the victory with a decisive attack against the army at the command of Youdenitch that defends the important city of Kars, set rout to penetrate into the Caucasian possessions of the Russian Empire. The boldness and the determination of the German commands is such that to face even the rigors of the terrible Russian winter, and the month established for the start of all the great offensives is January so that to take the Allied unprepared. New years are called up and the Central Powers decide to use every their resource: now the advantage is all for them, more the time goes on, with the uncertainty of Italy and the increased American hostility, more the possibilities of victory go away. For those reasons, Germany decides to risk everything, even if this should mean the material and human collapse of the German Empire.

The diplomatic phase of the first turn of the ’16 is waited with particular anxiety by both the sides: the Austrians have reinforced the boundary with the eighth army and now three imperial armies prepare to face up to imminent declaration of war of Italy and its predictable offensive in the Gorizia’s sector. The fate decides that it is the Allied “ to call “ the Italy, both sides have the same number of embassy points, the appeal to D’Annunzio is all at the vantage of the Allied. However, the bad fate is present, the Poet does not answer to “ the cry of pain “ and he does not fire the Italian parliament with his oratory, which on the contrary is for the Central Power. The Italy remains immobile in its neutrality and the Allied, with the death in their soul, are sure to have failed the last possibility to open the Italian front. In Vienna, the relief is enormous and it is possible to watch at the future with hope. The worse for the Allied, however, is still to come and when the military phase starts the Central Powers reveal their plans; a shudder of fear goes along the back of the French and the Russians and the unavoidability of the final result envelops like heavy shadow the Allied high commands. There is not even the time to understand the situation that the powerful German armies, a short time ago brought to the fullness of the corpses, which Germany can deploy, furnished by all the available artillery batteries ( among which two siege batteries ) and by an endless reserve of ammunitions launch their devastating attacks. It is started on the eastern front where after a bombardment of unheard violence the Russians are unable, still using all the available reserves and the better corpses, to stop the enemy: numerous hexes are conquered and now the German troops are at only two hexes from San Petersburg. In the south, the Austrian armies break through the front in two points causing heavy losses and in addition, the Turkish, after furious and bloody fights, defeat the army of Youdenitch, with only one corps reduced, and enter in triumph in Kars, the doors of the whole Caucasian area are open. The Russian commands are unable to react and the sinister shadow of Rasputin makes its entry in the Imperial Court. The national will crushes down, the umpteenth strike breaks up, but this time the morale of the army stands even if in only one turn the Russian Empire have had over sixty losses, the equivalent of over thirty corpses! Because of the deep wedge of the German troops in the northern sector, towards the Capital, and the Austrian penetration in the south, Brousislov must again retreat the front line. Now the front line, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, takes a line that in the north is two hexes in the west from San Petersburg, then it makes a hump of about three hexes towards west, it continues for about five hexes towards south and then it goes back for about two hexes towards east. In this way, it creates a salient of difficult defence, but which requires a great number of copses to defend it, in the middle of the Pripiat swamps; then the front line goes down toward the Black Sea with some humps, one hex in front of Kiew and one behind Odessa. The Turkish army under the command of Enver Pacha prepares itself to the conquest of Tiflis and now, with the army of Youdenitch reduced to the only HQ, all the ways are open to penetrate in the hart of Russia and to threaten the Russian zones behind the line.

On the French front two powerful armies under the command of the Kronprinz, after a heavy bombardment, assaults the French trenches, the struggle is very violent, the losses are enormous for both, the battle continues until the limit of the ten rounds at the end of which the French, even if exhausted, still keep their positions. The two minor battles are more lucky and the French, who are not still able to absorb the losses, must surrender the first two hexes of the French territory, one near the boundary with Belgium, the other one north of the fortress of Epinal. The German GHQ, even if impressed by the high number of losses and by a consumption of ammunitions that even the German powerful war industry cannot sustain, decides to continue the great offensive, counting that in the next turn, that one of March-April, France will pay for the enormous losses suffered in the first turn of the ‘16.

The German plans are clear and the Allied ones have been completely upset badly by the two German offensives, unexpected during the winter and for their violence. The subsequent turn of the ’16 sees the unstoppable German march towards San Petersburg, which now has the Germans at the gates, the easy Austrian victories and the bold advance of the Turkish who now point to the region of the Azerbaijan. As a result, of the continuous military defeats, the Russian land army revolts a second time and Broussilov is replaced by the general Alexeiev. From some turns, the are new governs in an attempt to save the situation; but the Russian land army is reduced at one third of its force, unable to defend effectively. Despite the situation, the immense Empire does not surrender and it continues to support the Tsar, with great annoyance of the Germans who would like to settle in short time the argument Eastern Front to deal then the decisive blow to France.

On the French front, the Germans continue their attacks and finally the great offensive succeeds, Verdun is within reach and the decision to continue the great offensive, the objective of which is now the powerful fortress of Verdun, seems obvious, although the losses are enormous and the ammunitions’ consumption is staggering. The Allied are compelled by the victorious German offensive to abort their one on the French front and every ambition of “ revance “ must be abandoned. With fatalistic resignation by the Allied, the turn of May starts, the Allied know well that the good faith, which have protected Russia until now, cannot be forever and they hope that the motor of the German war machine, pushed flat out, burn out sooner or later.

Summer 1916
Because of the Italian obstinate neutrality, the diplomatic phase is played upon minor powers in order that they should be pro-Allied or pro-Central Powers and they should give some commercial advantages: while the technologies evolve always very slowly, Germany develops the tactics of combat that allow it to use the gases ( for the moment the chlorine gas only ). Finally, the weather is dry on all the fronts and the invincible armies of the Kaiser can show all their strength. On the Russian front, for the first time the gas is employed, in massive manner, during the bombardment and during the battle to conquer San Petersburg; the Russian armies are completely annihilated by the new weapon already during the bombardment and the battle is a little work for the Germans. At the head of his victorious troops the field marshal von Block enters in the capital of the Tsars and the trembling crowd bows in front of his horse to beg for mercy. By explicit order of the Kaiser, the city and its population are treated with the greatest respect and the German make everything possible to reduce the weight of the military occupation. In the rest of the world, the conquest of San Petersburg is seen like the knell for the Tsarist Empire and the execration for the massive employment of the gas in a battle around a city makes even the less warmonger hearts throb. The United States will probably enter into the war before the end of the ’16. This fact worries little Berlin, which is sure that Russia should be at its end and that within the autumn the France will surrender too. In spite of the amazing success, the German GHQ decides to continue the great offensive with a new objective: Moscow. The Austrian, with their two minor battles, crumble the south front and now they surround the city of Kiew; the Turkish advance, without resistance by the Russians, into the heart of the trans-Caucasian possessions of the Russian Empire.

Now it is the turn of the French, after a tremendous bombardment and the use of the gas a hard battle for Verdun starts. The French troops hold out with great tenacity in front of the German attacks, the losses are disastrous for both, but at the end, the fortress of Verdun surrenders and a breach is opened in the French defensive line. The German success is crowned by the conquest of two other hexes of French territory, in one of which, there is the fortress of Epinal that is demolished by the Teutonic siege batteries. The Allied are incapable to create whatever offensive opportunity and with the aid of the English, the French try to rearrange the front line. The great offensive on the French front continued for three turns with the minor battles have been so bloody that the French land army is seriously weakened, but also in Berlin, the numbers are red with great attention. The western front have caused, in the first three turns of the ’16, more losses than the Russian and the French fronts together from the august ’14 to December ’15: Behind these things, the consumption of artillery grenades has been so high to reduce to zero the reserves of ammunitions of the German land army. These things suggests not to continue the great offensive on the French front and for the moment to occupy the positions obtained to allow Germany to recover in human and in material terms.

The war facts have some great consequences on the national will. Russia collapses, another strike begins, the third revolt of the land army, a violent insurrection in Moscow, but against every prevision the Nation is not ruined by a revolution and it does not capitulate, in spite of the German certainties. It is impossible not to note that its army, now under the command of Kornilov, is reduced at less than one quarter of its forces and the HQs, placed on the map, are more useful to cover empty hexes than to command corpses at this point dissolved to nothing. The French land army revolts too, the revolt weakens a lot its war effectiveness and France loses every attack capacity until the autumn, the old Joffre is replaced by Nivelle. The interphase of Spring-Summer ’16 does not see great things, the only important facts are that the English economy is reduced to zero by the u-boots and that England is unable to have sufficient economics resources even to produce the ammunitions necessary for its artillery.

With the turn of June ’16, there is again a great expectation on the Italian decisions. The Central Powers make their choice first and to forestall the Allied they call the Great Absent; but this time the Poet does not give his opinion and so Italy remains strictly neutral. In this way, there is not any possibility that Italy enters the war with the Allied and Austria-Hungary is sure not to have any danger on its western flank.
During the three summer turns of the ’16, the things are the same that in the past turns. On the Russian front the armies of the Tsar break up more due to the continue revolts than due to the losses in the battles. Despite a disastrous situation, the loss of the whole Finland, of the Ukraine, of part of Siberia and the already certain conquest of Moscow and despite the fact that the Russian land army is minor than the Bulgarian one, the national will, even if constantly in the unstable zone, hold up. There is not any revolutionary fancy and the capitulation is not considered. The German plans are for a total conquest of the Russian Empire, the only way to compel Russia to capitulate without a test.

On the French front the situation is more calm and the fifth army, the conquer of Verdun, under the order of the Kronprinz, retreats one hex towards the German line, in a position less exposed to a possible English attempt to surround it. You never know.

At the end of the summer, even if Russia still stands and the entry into the war of the Americans is near, the Allied Powers know that in four-five turns, the Russian Empire will be in German hands and then all the power of the German war machine will be available to attack France. The Americans should not change the situation, at the best drop it, the Allied decide to capitulate after two years of hard battles and of moments of great emotion.

Conclusions
At the end of this report, we would like to notice some things that have been very important in the game.

The first, and we think the most important, is that the Allied Powers, one by one, cannot hope to defeat Germany. They must work in team and they must be working well together, even if the lack of a land connection between the western Allied and Russia compels this last one to count only on its forces. The Allied can win, but there are two main conditions. The first is that the Russian Empire holds until the entry into the war of the Americans. The second is that Austria-Hungary and Turkey, the two weak allied of Germany, are put under strain by Italy. If Italy enters into the war during the first turns of the ’15, it forces the Austrian Empire to fight on two fronts, or three fronts, if we count Serbia too. This fact restricts the offensive capacity against the Russians and forces the Germans to aid their allied, which have not a powerful land army. Without Italy, the Allied lose a great part of their war power and the USA, which enters into the war late, cannot give substantial aids until the end of the ’16 or the start of the ’17.

Another thing to notice is the importance and, at the same time, the difficult, to conduct the total naval supremacy. The Allied can make what they want in all the seas around the world and they can become very dangerous if they land troops behind the enemy’s line, provided the landings are made by adequate forces and with clear plans in a global strategy. For the Central Powers it is important to notice that everything depends on Germany, the others play only a second lead, this fact makes the conduct of the Central Powers easier because the whole conduct depends on the land power.

If a player decides to be in command of the Allied, he must know that the first two years of the war are in favour of the Central Powers. The victory depends, in particular, way, on to get over, psychologically, those moments, so frequent until the ’17, in which nothing and none seems to be able to stop the German crowd and on to aspect the opportunity to counterattack, in other words, the victory can be achieved on the long time. If a player decides to be in command of the Central Powers, it is necessary that he plays at his best from the first turn, knowing well that a war on two fronts can only conduct to the defeat, on the long time. Another very important aspect is the technologies, above all the trenches, even those innovations that seem, on the moment, useless become important, sooner or later.

Here, we want to make another consideration: the military victory values nothing if it does not mean a political victory, and the skilful of the players depends on the capacity to hoard at the best even the littlest success and to make vain even the greatest victory of the adversary.
This simulation makes the players free to make their choices from the first turns and it is impossible to accuse the bad luck for own defeats or the bad historical plans which one must execute. In “ La Grande Guerre “ the victory is really the consequence of the ability of a player.