“War is a series of catastrophes which results in a victory.” – Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France, remarks to President Woodrow Wilson during the Paris Peace Talks, 1919
Introduction
A Series of Catastrophes (ASoC) will be a corps-level game system depicting combat on all fronts during WWI. The primary goal of the design will be one or more games which can be played quickly, yet still model history and require non-trivial decision making by the players. Through the use of design-for-effect, mechanics which would require a detailed treatment at the division level will be abstracted for a corps-level game.
Production Goals
It is hoped that each game in the series will be a single-map effort, with the probable exception of the Eastern Front. It is hoped that each game in the series will contain the pieces and playing aids to support the full coverage of the war on that front. For example: a Western Front game could show the evolution of the entire war from 1914 to 1918. However, the nature and composition of the war evolved drastically over its course and there were long periods of time when entire fronts became static, such as the Western Front in 1915. As the project matures, the correct path will emerge.
Scales
- Turns: Monthly, with up to three Unit Activation Phases
- Map: 15-20km/hex
- Units: Corps & Division with Army HQ and GHQ units for logistics management plus Assets for special combat capabilities, such as Siege Art
- Logistics: Supply Points and National Production, which will throttle unit activities
Sequence of Play
The sequence of play will be as follows:
- Weather Phase
- Logistics Phase
- Offensive Declaration Phase
- Army Activation Phase:
- Offensive Tempo Subphase
- Priority Assignment
- Initiative / Activation Sequence
- Standard Tempo Subphase
- Priority Assignment
- Initiative / Activation Sequence
- Limited Tempo Subphase
- Priority Assignment
- Initiative / Activation Sequence
- Offensive Tempo Subphase
- Offensive Resolution Phase
- Reinforcement Phase
- Production Phase
The primary combat actions take place during the Army Activation Phase. Within we see three different tempo subphases, the utility of which I will try to explain.
Operational Tempo
Most wargames set a standard tempo around which the game engine is built. One common standard is called “I go / You go” where players take turns moving all of their pieces and conducting associated actions within a single game turn. Others use a chit pull mechanism to model the fact that, in real life, one side’s units don’t do things without any sort of reaction. Regardless of mechanism, however, each game designs a “turn” as a unit of time within which most or all of a side’s units can conduct actions and do so once.
ASoC postulates that time is variable, especially at the corps/army level. Combat units do not run at 100% activity 100% of the time. Those high-tempo moments come at a cost in men and material and cannot be maintained indefinitely. Additionally, some armies, due to command & control limitations, such as the complete lack of a corps-level command structure in their army, such as the Belgians in 1914, cannot maintain even the standard level of tempo or initiative that other armies can maintain.
Therefore, there are three subphases of activity within the Army Activation Phase. The Standard Tempo Subphase is used by all units of corps-capable armies. The Limited Tempo Subphase is used by all non-corps-capable armies. This places such armies at an operational disadvantage compared to those that use a corps level command infrastructure.
The Offensive Tempo Subphase is used by units of corps-capable armies which have been assigned to an ongoing offensive. This gives such units the ability to operate twice in a given turn and models the increased tempo of offensive operations, but not the entire army, unless, of course, you have the supply stockpiles required on-hand. The situation in August 1914 is one where all combatants are operating under general offensives, Schlieffen Plan for the Germans and Plan XVII for the French, and using pre-war stockpiles.
Using this layered tempo subphase approach, armies operating under an offensive can conduct activities twice in a turn, while armies in a quiet sector of the front will only conduct activities once and, finally, the armies which have a more primitive command-and-control infrastructure will move both once and last in a turn.
An example of how all this might work would be illustrated by the French Army situation in Aug 1914. The numbered armies, 1 through 5, are all operating under the Plan XVII offensive. Therefore, all corps, divisions and assets belonging to those armies will be able to conduct activities during the Offensive Tempo Subphase and the Standard Tempo Subphase. The territorial divisions allocated under Groupe d’Amade, however, are not organized using a corps system. Therefore, not only can they not be allocated for an offensive, prohibiting their operation during the Offensive Tempo Subphase, but they are not available for the Standard Tempo Subphase as they are not organized in an “army” which has corps units. Therefore, they can only conduct activities during the Limited Tempo Subphase as a reaction force after the active German armies have conducted one or two sets of activities. The Belgians in 1914 are in a similar situation as well.
Initiative / Activation
During each tempo subphase, all armies are activated using a combination of priority allocation and initiative dice rolling. The basic engine here is that both players (or teams) will roll a d6 die, adding in situational modifiers. The player (or team) with the highest roll gets to activate an army and those army’s units will be able to conduct activities. This is the basic premise.
Let me state up front that the ultimate goal of this system is to avoid the complete randomness of a chit-pull system. I don’t like chit pull games. While I understand the need for such a system to model one side “stealing a march” on another side’s forces, it’s too random. Commanders did set differing levels of urgencies and priorities upon the forces under their command and the chit pull mechanism does not allow for that.
Under the dice roll design I am postulating, there will be an Army Priority track of boxes running from ‘+1’ to ‘+5’ that will be set up at the beginning of each tempo subphase. A chit for each of the armies that are available to operate during that subphase will all be placed face down in the ‘+3’ track. Prior to actual activation, each side will adjust the priorities of their armies. For each army moved up (toward ‘+1’) the track, another army must be moved down (toward ‘+5’). For example, an army moved to ‘+2’ from ‘+3’ will cause an army elsewhere to be moved down, such as from ‘+4’ to ‘+5’.
When rolling for initiative, not only will the highest roll win, but the delta between the two dice will determine the box on the priority track which will be chosen for army selection. For example, if the winner won by a roll of 5 against 3, then their ‘+2’ box will used to determine which of their armies to activate. If that box is empty, or the winner simply wants to activate a different army of theirs due to the evolving game situation, they can “spend” modifiers to choose a different army. For each box away they select, their opponent will receive a modifier for their next roll. This system allows a commander (player) to set priorities (it is much more probable to get a ‘+1’ delta than a ‘+5’), but also to react if needed by spending initiative (interfering with already sent orders by hurriedly sending out changes).
When a side has modifiers to apply to their roll, they are not required to use them all in order to “dial in” and get the priority box of their choosing. For example, let’s say that the Allies have a +2 modifier to their roll and the delta is +2 in their favor. If the army they want to activate is already in the ‘+2’ box, they don’t need to spend any of their modifiers. If the army they want to activate is in the ‘+3’ box, they could “spend” one of their +2 modifiers to freely activate an army in the ‘+3’ box. If the army they want to activate is in the ‘+1’ box, they can also “spend” one of their modifiers in this way as the post-roll expenditure is not “directional”; it is simply a modifier. If, however, the army they wanted to activate was in the ‘+5’ box, they’d have to spend both modifiers to get to ‘+4’ and then spend a further one, which would be given to the Germans for their next roll. In essence, and with better wording, the modifiers are merely points which can be used in a + or – direction depending on need. Most of the time, you probably want to spend them as + modifiers in order to first win the roll and then deal with repercussions afterward.
Modifiers cannot be accumulated from one roll to the next. If a side had 2 modifiers available and only used one (or none), then it, or the remainder, is lost. Initiative is not a zero-sum game.
Army Coordination
When an army is activated during the Offensive or Standard Tempo Subphases, they are not required to immediate conduct activities with its units. In WWI, all units, corps and divisions alike, have frontages which affect movement and combat. This means that leaving one’s flanks exposed can be very dangerous in a mobile situation (1914,1918). Therefore, it is prudent for armies to coordinate their movements.
When an army is activated, they can be placed In Reserve in lieu of immediately conducting activities. At some point in the future, if an adjacent army is activated, they can both/all conduct activities at the same time. This will alleviate the danger of exposed flanks during operations.
If a player or side activates a non-adjacent army while there are armies in reserve, those armies in reserve return to the priority track in the ‘+3’ box. There is a cost in trying to conduct army coordination and that cost may be in modifiers spent and/or initiative given to the other player.
Note that placing armies in reserve is not possible during the Limited Tempo Subphase due to C&C limitations.
All By Myself
When only one side’s armies are available for activation, that side can simply activate those remaining armies in any order they wish. Coordination at that point is automatic, although initiative was lost.
Logistics
Logistics is the economic engine which drives warfare. Supply Points will be the abstraction and the game’s currency. Do you want to start and/or maintain an offensive? Spend Supply Points. Do you want to move combat units and fight with them? Spend Supply Points. Fire heavy siege guns? Spend Supply Points. Do you want reinforcements? Spend Supply Points.
Modern warfare is expensive. The combatants in 1914 did not know how expensive if was, given the 40 years of relative peace of the Belle Epoque. The thousands of artillery shells they had on hand in August 1914 were gone by winter; each combatant fire 10x more than they thought they would. The offensives of August 1914 ground down as much by supply exhaustion as manpower exhaustion, especially once the digging began.
The logistics engine of the game will consist of national pools of Supply Points fed by production and separate army pools which will be fed from the national pools and will be used used to conduct army movement and combat activities. Reinforcement and replacement expenditures will come from the national pools and will interfere with army activities. Replacements will appear in theatre within a turn (month) and be used to rebuild existing units. Reinforcements will be purchased and appear some turns (months) later. If done correctly, you will not be able to do everything you want to do. Offensives will start and might end prematurely if hoped-for results don’t appear shortly due to economic constraints.
That’s It For Now
I’ll get into the tactical nuts-and-bolts later. Hopefully, this post will give you a sense for the game I want to create.