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Ted Raicer GRAND
ILLUSION
cont.
Ted Racier reports his GRAND ILLUSION,
the new 1914 WW Igame breaks ground with an entirely new approach
to wargaming. It is expected to be done in weeks and Ted states
it is practically a new genre, blending hex-based games with
Area Movement wargames.
We'll let Ted tell you about it in his own
words:
Grand Illusion: The 1914 Campaign in the West
by Ted S. Raicer (Designer of
Royal Tank Corps)
In recent years there has been a renewed interest
among gamers in the First
World War, and in particular the great mobile campaigns of 1914.
At least six
games (including my own 1914: Glory's End) have been published
on the German
attempt to overrun France in six weeks under the famous (or infamous)
Schlieffen Plan. These designs have varied from the super-complex
(Home
Before The Leaves Fall) to the relatively simple (Drive on Paris)
but all
have been generally well received. So when designing Grand Illusion,
there
was one question I knew I had to answer first: how is this 1914
game
different from all other 1914 games?
For starters, Grand Illusion has a highly
unusual board. Using two full-sized
mapsheets, Grand Illusion depicts the relevant areas of France,
Belgium, and
Germany west of the Rhine with just 109 VERY large hexes. (It
is just 5
hexes, for example, from Mons to Paris.) Terrain effects on combat
are
determined by a die roll modifier for each hex (similar to Royal
Tank Corps)
while movement costs depend on the exact hexside being crossed.
The use of roughly army-sized hexes with a
mostly corps order of battle
allows players to concentrate on the critical command decisions
made by the
highest commanders (Moltke, Joffre, French and Falkenhayn) without
abstracting out the course of the war on the firing line. The
result is a
swift-moving game, covering the period from August 14 to November
11 in 15
six-day turns.
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At the start of each turn, players roll on
their command table for Command
Administrative Points (or CAPS). CAPS are used to replace eliminated
units,
move units by rail, affect the Initiative roll at the start of
the turn, and
above all, to activate units for movement and combat. A limited
number of
CAPS may also be saved from turn to turn.
One CAP is spent to activate a hex-the units
in that hex (up to 8 corps plus
1 HQ). Units that are activated either use their printed movement
allowance (MA) or the MA of any Army HQ, if they move with the
HQ. Units which have
been disrupted in combat may ONLY move with an HQ. Combat takes
place when
units enter an enemy occupied space, or if they are activated
for combat
already in a space containing eneny units. Units may be activated
any number
of times, as long as CAPS are available.
Combat takes place within a hex, and involves
lining up the attacking and
defending combat units on the Battlefield area provided on the
mapsheet.
Units must roll equal to or less than their combat factor to
inflict a
disruption or eliminate a disrupted unit-the attacker's roll
modified by
terrain. Defending units may also choose to defend inside any
forts that are
present, while the Germans may use their giant siege mortars
to defeat the
extensive Allied fortifications. Areas may be entrenched (at
a cost of
command points) which gives the defenders First Fire.
But before each combat is resolved, the attacker
rolls two dice on the
Fortune of War table, which may affect the combat through such
events as
Offensive To the Limit, Cavalry Screening, and Flank Attacks.
More importantly, the FoW may cause the Action Phase of the turn
to pass to
the other player (similar to losing a combat in RTC). A player
who plans a
series of coordinated actions by several of his armies, may find
his plans
thwarted by the Fortunes of War.
Each turn players will struggle to balance
their limited command resources
with the many things they want (need) to do on the map. In this
way, the game
has some of the feel of card-driven systems like Paths of Glory.
Command
Triage will be the constant order of the day, and the winner
will be the
player best at separating the wheat from the chaff.
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With its unique map, its emphasis on command,
and the grand tactical flavor
of its combat system, Grand Illusion, I believe, succeeds in
offering a fresh
look at a much-gamed but inherently intriguing campaign. With
the inclusion
of a seven-turn scenario covering the most important phase of
the campaign,
the game is suitable both for an evening or a long day's gaming.
Once again it is August 1914-the fate of Europe
is in your hands.
TED RACIER
TED RAICER's
First Book Will Come From Critical Hit Press
Crowns In The Gutter: The Command History
of World War I by Ted S. Raicer is done and in the editing stage.
Ted's first book, CITG fulfills a life-time dream of Raicer's
to become a book author and his specialty, WW I history is a
natural place to start his career.
Crowns In The Gutter is expected to ship at
the same time as Ted's Grand Illusion. The book will be a perfect
bound trade paperback of about 296 pages with maps and illustrations.
Critical Hit
and Doug Martin of the band 'The Martins' combine to make beautiful
WW I Music
Doug Martin, the well-known lead singer of
The Martins took one look at the tattered old sheet music unearthed
by Critical Hit and knew he could make the march song of the
Fighting 69th, the famed New York Division of World War I come
alive.
What's more, the entire song has been mastered
by Doug digitally in MP3 format for your enjoyment and can be
downloaded by clicking here. If you
don't have the Real Player for MP3, it's a free download you
can access by clicking here.
We're planning MUSIC TO WARGAME BY,
a professional CD of unique military music (no Nazi ballads,
sorry). Drop us a line if you are interested in this product.
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