The Great War 1914-1918: Clash of Empires

Yea i wish it would have been brought to market by 2014…

100% 2016. Better to do it right than release early and its wrong. :roll:

no sorry. When i know you will know

ok nice, thanks

I will when that time comes

ok cool.

Yes sir.

No new news, but everything done but rewording manual, and new battleboard

Yea good one. As soon as i know

I decided to begin the process of explaining the game section by section…

Lets begin with some preliminaries:

Turns:
Each game turn constitutes four months (except the first) of real time outlined as follows:

1. August 1st - December 1914 9. May - August 1917
2. January - April 1915 10. September - December 1917
3. May - August 1915 11. January - April 1918
4. September - December 1915         12. May - August 1918
5. January - April 1916         13. September - December 1918
6. May - August 1916 14. January - April 1919 (extended game)
7. September - December 1916         15. May - August 1919
8. January - April 1917

Turn order:
Turn 1 only: Austro-Hungary, Russia, Germany,  France,  England, Ottomans.
Turn 2 - till end of game: Russia, Central powers, Entente Powers (except Russia).

Note: the first turn denotes the order of which Historically nations began at war. The game uses my “all axis all allies move sequence” beginning on turn 2.

Note also Ottomans do not enter the war until turn 2, they can’t be attacked earlier since they are neutral and you can’t attack any neutral until its activated ( if at all, example: Norway, Spain, etc are not ever activated).

At the start of turn 1, Austro-Hungary declares war with Serbia/Montenegro/Russia and is only at war with them currently. On the Russian turn Russia declares war on Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottomans. On the German turn Germany declares war on Belgium and the Entente. On the French turn France declares war on the Central Powers.  On the British turn Britain declares war on the Central Powers and finally the Ottomans declare war on the Entente.

On turn 1 only, no Naval Invasions can be made anywhere nor can you move into an allied territory.

Note the player order for each turn.  Each nation must perform their turn individually on turn one.  On later turns, Russia always moves first and separate from the other Entente allies.  The Central Powers and allies may move simultaneously when it is their side’s turn.

Section 6) Sequence of Play
(Pre-turn) Performed before player’s/side’s turns:

1. Check for new alliances – if a nation is to enter the game, or receive troops, and sets up their forces now.
2. Technology advancement – check to see the advances in technology for each country.
3. Check for special events <optional rule=“”>– see if a historical event takes place:

(Player’s/side’s turn) Each player/side does the following:
4. Income Collection
5. Unit purchase – purchase for self and any controlled minor allies.
6. Repair - Dreadnoughts, Zeppelins, fortresses.
7. Combat moves – sub detection, fighter interception and pass-through fire may be done by opposing side during this phase.
8. Combat – a) naval combat b), naval invasions c) bombardments d) land combat, e) strategic bombing, f) sweeps for mines.
9. Non-combat movement – aircraft return to base, railroads may be used, infantry entrench, naval sea mines and pass-through fire may be done by the opposing side during this phase.
10. Unit placement

In this game, you count only the income of what you start with and you can only build infantry to 75% of IPC and lastly, you can’t save.

This is a big deal than your used to, manpower is in shortage and now you are forced to buy other units to wage war. you can’t save because you would be able to glitch the game by saving and buying a net gain in infantry the following turn ( 75% of a larger number means more infantry e.g. glitching)

You place at the end of your turn. Factories place both non infantry AND infantry equal to the printed IPC value. You may also place infantry in any originally controlled territory limited to the IPC value. In captured areas, you may place at half rounded down ( usually 1) and no mech units ( even in captured factories).

Ok the Historical events are pretty straight forward, note the special events automatically occur on specific turns ( more on this latter)

T4 Senussi Rebellion
T5 Easter Rising
T6 Arab Revolt
T9 French Mutiny
T10 Russian Revolution
T13 German Naval Mutiny

You can probably figure out some of these and why they are important to add Historical flavor. ( i will explain some of these latter).

Here is the set up ( sorry i no longer use Mediafire since Dropbox is more convenient and safe) Everyone should have a Dropbox account.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xmzg7zsmvhjlmuu/AAAH_S1yPBkht1H9r_7TdoOKa?dl=0

The colors of the pieces are not final in some cases, Ottomans, Italians, USA ( not pictured they arrive latter), and Russians are going to be different. The map is not final, rather this is just an early working print to playtest. Cities are not in the right place and some territory names are different.

More tomorrow…</optional>

Ok leading off, you will notice you collect income at start of turn ( so you don’t need to keep track of money from last turn). Secondly, you can’t save money and are limited to 75% basic infantry builds. In “contested areas” ( note a term/rule originally used for this game back in 2005 and not an original concept in AA1914), The original controlling player is only getting 1/2 rounded down the IPC value… More on this latter…

offsets include occupation by enemy of convoy boxes and other map assets. Enemy sub that is not submerged, or enemy surface warship reduces the full value to either UK or latter USA, submerged subs reduce half value of these boxes. The map has two special boxes: one for American off map deployments, the other representing the British colonies and resources coming from Australia, Zealand, India, etc and these cannot be occupied by enemy. . If the Germans have Unrestricted Submarine Warfare technology the total amount of loss is doubled.

British naval blockade:
The purpose here is to force the historical situation that, other than Russia, the allies did not enter the Baltic with anything other than submarines. Allied commanders considered the blockade to be the most effective.

To simulate this, the following rules are used:

1. Only subs and Russian Naval units may enter the Baltic for the Entente.
2. To start the blockade the Entente must remain in sole possession of the North Sea and Heligoland Bight (no coexisting) at the end of their turn.  The German player is reduced by $1 in their income phase. The loss is accumulative over turns, i.e. 3 consecutive turns of the blockade costs Germany $1 the first turn, $2 the second, and $3 the third turn.
   To end the blockade the Central Powers must take any of the two ocean zones and remain there until the end of the Entente turn.

British oil pipeline:
The British were keen to protect their oil pipeline in Arabistan from Turkish aggression.  The fall of the pipeline would impact the British industry.

To simulate this, the following rules are used:

1. If the British lose control of the pipeline, they will suffer a D6 loss of income per turn.  This is rolled during income collection.
2. The capturing Central Powers player gets a bonus of D3 income per turn they own it and the territory is not contested.  This is rolled during their income collection.

Importance of Suez Canal on British trade:
The canal was considered one of the most important strategic positions by the British.    The loss of the canal would cripple the British economy, and make movement of troops more difficult and longer.

To simulate this, the British lose an additional 8 points of income for the loss of Sinai and or Egypt and may not use the canal for movement until they recapture it. To use the canal for movement of naval units you must own both Sinai and Egypt.

Combat Movement:

On land, Infantry types ( infantry and Stosstrupen) move 1, Cavalry, and Armored cars move 2, tanks move 1, fighters 3, bombers and airships 4, Zeppelins 5, all naval 4, Gas ( both types) move 1.  During non-combat movement units on land or air that didn’t move may move 4 spaces, this is rail movement. Also, Railway Artillery can ONLY move during this phase ( they fire from adjacent areas where combat occurs). Sea mines do not move.

Now i did mention “contested areas” where during combat, the attacker may announce he is doing this. In combat like AA, it is round by round with the attacker making the first decision to continue the combat, retreat all his units back to one of the areas he attacked from, or contest the area. He makes this declaration first and if he decides to continue the fight, the defender can elect to retreat ( not into another contested area however). So consider this because as the attacker you may get “stuck” hoping to soak off the enemy, but find the whole army committed to defending the area they only wanted to reduce. In this war, armies had to have a “prize”… they didn’t hit and run.

more latter…

ok wow great. I will post another segment tonight. The heart of the game is not yet covered.