AA 1914- WW1 ANNOUNCED!!!

From Larry Harris

What units are included???
Infantry, artillery, tanks, fighters, submarines, battleships, cruisers, transports.

D6 or D12?
D6, but lots of them

I suspect the usual suspects in the game:
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Ottomans
Russians
UK
France
Italy
USA
Yes, and many minor powers

Map size?
I think it’s the same size as Europe 40

Are the sculpts all the same except infantry, or you got two sets of sculpts one for allies and one for central powers?
Each major power (eight of them) have their own infantry sculpts. Other sculpts are either allied or Central Power’s artillery, tanks or fight aircraft… and of course the naval lineup.

Special rules for Russian Revolution and American entry?
There are special Russian Revolution rules, as well as special American entry rules.

Convoy zones?
Not exactly… but there is an unrestricted submarine warfare moment during the Collect Income phase.

Tech tree with at least 12 choices?
No tech tree…

will it be to AA42, AA41 or AA40 scale and complexity?
If I understand this question correctly I’d say it’s just left (meaning easier than) of AA42.

How many players will it be for and how many nations will be playable?
This can be a 2 or 8 player game or any number in between.

How will the Western Front be simulated in the game?
I don’t want to get too deep into this. I will say, that there is only one round of combat dice rolling per turn per battle. The game, IMHO, feels very Western Front as you play it. It’s very cool and interesting how this system works and plays out. I like how it feels.

And since this starts in 1914, I wonder how the nations that opted to stay neutral in the beginning will be played. Many minor powers are neutral initially, including the US, which if not attacked by the Central Powers will enter the war on turn 4.

I also wonder what the nation colors will be…
Particularly Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.
I think you will like the colors. Some of them are your standard colors and others are brand new. Germany will be grey.

What’s the release date?
March or April 2013

The Map, will it be fully global or 2/3 global covering from Eastern US into the Middle East or maybe India. Will Anzac and India be represented as UK units entering the war through Egypt, or will there be a commonwealth unit? Will the map stretch to E US (US needs transports etc…), or will American units just enter through England, or embattled territories in Western Europe.

The map will range from Calcutta to NYC and from the top of Norway to South Africa

Having Turkey (Ottoman Empire) as one of the Central powers and not neutral is going to be very different, looking forward to that.

Yeah… it’s a fun power to manage, but then again… they all are! Of course, as usual, its’ hard to resist the desire to play an aggressive Germany!

I see Cavalry is to to be out of the mix interesting as it played a big role on the Eastern front and in the Middle East. :?

I know, and no rail-guns or Zeppelins. That sucks.

Yeah, no Cavalry, especailly if the game is supposed to start in 1914, is a little odd. I like how they function in the Triple A Great War mod, same attack and less defense stats as Inf. but a way to creat break throughs. I shall miss them. Also, still don’t understand the lack of gas. Zepplins and Rail-Guns i can live without but they would have been fun.

Oh well, I’m just glad there will finally be a WW1 board game

@Army:

There is room in the market for more than one game set in WW1. Look at the large amount of WW2 games there are out there. If something’s good - it’s good. Don’t go giving up; you may have done something quite different (or even better) than what Larry does…

I agree.  No game is ever definitive.  If Larry’s game isn’t as good as it could be, this creates an opportunity for someone else to create a better one.  If Larry’s game is as good as we all hope it will be, this creates an opportunity for someone else to create a “differently good” game that uses another approach.  WWI was a huge and complicated conflict, so there is a vast range of methods that can be used to translate it into a game.

Yeah, I would have loved to get Zeppelin units but I guess their role in World War I was so minor it doesn’t really fit the scale of the game.  Cavalry would have made sense… I wonder why it was left out.

Yeah, cavalry wouldn’t really make much sense on the Western front.  Even on the Eastern front, while they were tactically useful for scouting, raids, and cutting rail lines, it would be hard to represent them on the strategic level.  If they don’t move faster than infantry, then what’s the point?  If they do move faster than infantry, there is a danger players will build more of them than would be historically accurate, and they might become defacto blitzkrieg machines.

The combat system that involves only one round of combat is interesting.  Given how it would tend to have the effect of preventing territories from changing hands quickly, it must somehow generate massive casualties.  Either that or the cost of new units must be relatively high compared the income available on the map.  If not, you’d end up with massive stacks of units in some of the key territories after a couple of turns.

@almashir:

The combat system that involves only one round of combat is interesting.  Given how it would tend to have the effect of preventing territories from changing hands quickly, it must somehow generate massive casualties.

I think that’s what Larry’s going for.

At first I was imagining that the static nature of World War I would make for a somewhat uninteresting game… but on second thought, it might be a really tense if both sides are losing massive numbers all over the place. Although the battle fronts might not move very much, it sounds like they will be highly unstable.

It’s about time the Great War get the attention it deserves.

Can’t wait!

I own probably most all tof he stragetic WWI Games produced,even the SPI WWI Varient to it’s War in Europe
(we played it for 4 days straight back in the day( & then the Game Group broke up :roll: )

I always wanted to see a stragetic minatures game on the Great War so I’m excited.
Looking forward to the release of more information but will probably Home Rule this thing
to death  :evil:  or at least paint figs to represent the Bavarian Army & Saxon Corps.

OD