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Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

:siren: We are currently between games! New players can sign up from next Monday, March 6th!



Just under two years ago, LP powerhouse Grey Hunter had one of his many magnificent, ridiculous ideas: a massive re-enactment of the First World War using Great War: Spearhead tabletop gaming rules. The smallest chit size in that game is a company; so Grey, being Grey, decided to play it with Army-sized formations. This is how it ended up...



It was magnificent, and ridiculous, and far too soon it fell over under its own weight. But the basic idea deserves another go-round. Leaner, meaner, faster, better.

The System

(This is based on you-know-who's excellent original OP.)

Spearhead is an IGOUGO system, designed so it could be played with hidden movement and the fog of war concealing the battlefield. Individual commanders pass orders to an umpire, the umpire resolves them, and all the commanders get told is what their men can physically see happen, groping blindly for command and control. An excellent way of simulating the First World War, a war in which generals were forced to wait miles behind the lines, acting on information that was often out of date when they receieved it, sending back orders that usually bore no resemblance to the situation on the ground when they arrived. Can we do better than history? Or worse? Or about the same?

The game is designed for play with corps and division-sized formations. Individual miniatures represent companies of cavalry and infantry, machine-guns, artillery batteries, and so on. Commanders produce a pre-battle plan, watch it all go horribly wrong, and then must succeed on a dice roll before they can put things right. The system also is flexible enough to cover the vast advances in technology and tactics; from a fast-moving open war of manouevre in 1914, through the worst of the trench slog in 1916, the rise of tanks and artillery, stormtroopers, defence in depth, to the eventual maturity of combined arms in 1918.

Here is the map for the first round, somewhere in France. It doesn't represent anywhere in particular; we'll have no "aha, I know that in real life attacking such-and-such a place was a hideous failure" metagaming here.



The purple magenta hot pink thing is a railway line, by the way. And here's a small section zoomed in to 100% so we can see what fog of war really means. It's all made of layers, large enough that IRL the map would be spread over rows and rows of tables, big enough to fill a hotel conference room.



Here is a French infantry brigade defending on a hillside as the Germans approach. This is what the French brigade commander sees; it all looks good for the men in red trousers. But, not so fast!



That's what the German brigade commander sees. Suddenly it looks like curtains for the French; the German commander too is unaware of exactly what awaits, his vision blocked by the wood.



And that's what the umpire and the schadenfreude-lovers in the observer thread see. Now it seems that it could go either way when the Germans advance!

There will be two teams; Entente vs Germans, each playing in their own thread, preparing their troops, laying their plans, groping through the fog, and we'll fight a battle. And then we'll bury our dead, and the enemy will bury theirs; and then it'll start all over again. We'll be able to see the war ebb and flow over this little corner of France as the years go by; 1914, 1915, 1916, who knows? New technology will arrive; aircraft, gas, landships, armoured cars, and more.

Everything anyone needs to know to play will be posted in the team threads once we've had a few signups; there's a big complicated rulebook, but we'll be making this as simple as possible, and I'm also introducing plenty of house rules and tweaks to spice things up a bit and hopefully solve the problems we ran into in Grey's game. We'll be playing at corps level, and what I'm hoping to do is get to a situation in which divisional and corps commanders have to build up a picture of the battle for themselves, based solely on interpreting reports from their brigadiers, who will be the ones at the sharp end ordering individual chits around.

Timing

Last time round we played one full battle, which lasted just over 24 hours of game time, but took about two months to play through. I'm hoping to streamline that to the point where we can get an entire battle done in about 7-14 days, with turns coming thick and fast and players given minimal time to react to changing events. Don't worry if all this seems overwhelming; it did to the real generals at the time. That's the challenge! Who can get there firstest with the mostest? Who can gently caress up the littlest and the leastest? Who'll get lucky, and who'll stand on the rake?

Round 1: August 1914 has just concluded, taking about 2-3 weeks of real time! Round 2 will begin shortly!

Entente Thread
German Thread

Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Mar 6, 2017

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thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!
Hello yes I am waxing my moustache and studying dreadful poetry in grim anticipation of getting the flower of Europe's youth blasted into quivering pieces of meat.

Entente, s'il vous plaît. I want high level command.

thatbastardken fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Feb 8, 2017

Ikasuhito
Sep 29, 2013

Haram as Fuck.

A return of this delightful idea with the big WW1 guy himself at its head? I'm in.

I would gladly fight under the marvelous mustaches and spiked helmets of the glorious German Empire

Ikasuhito fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Feb 8, 2017

Splode
Jun 18, 2013

put some clothes on you little freak
Yes I loved reading this last time, but I'm just going to observe again. Good luck goons!

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat
Volunteering for THE KAISER (Germans)

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
Excellent, this war shall be an easily accomplished and, yes, refreshing shower of steel!

(Just observing.)

Bacarruda
Mar 30, 2011

Mutiny!?! More like "reinterpreted orders"
In as the Tommies.

HEY GUNS
Oct 11, 2012

FOPTIMUS PRIME

thatbastardken posted:

Hello yes I am waxing my moustache and studying dreadful poetry in grim anticipation of getting the flower of Europe's youth blasted into quivering pieces of meat.

Entente, s'il vous plaît.
same, but reading goethe and sighing about young werther and his deathwish

central powers assemble!

i would like the lowest rank possible plz

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

HEY GAIL posted:

same, but reading goethe and sighing about young werther and his deathwish

central powers assemble!

i would like the lowest rank possible plz

You're the tross piss boy :getin: (also, answer my questions about tross in the milhist thread :argh: )

Affi
Dec 18, 2005

Break bread wit the enemy

X GON GIVE IT TO YA
Germans

Tevery Best
Oct 11, 2013

Hewlo Furriend
RESERVES!

let's go kaiser

Camrath
Mar 19, 2004

The UKMT Fudge Baron


Very much interested in this, but as a complete virgin to this sort of thing what sort of level of participation is needed? We talking a few posts per day or sitting at my desk pummelling F5 like it's Verdun and my finger is German artillery?

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

Camrath posted:

Very much interested in this, but as a complete virgin to this sort of thing what sort of level of participation is needed? We talking a few posts per day or sitting at my desk pummelling F5 like it's Verdun and my finger is German artillery?

Definitely more the former than the latter; think of a lot of people building a big long line of falling dominoes. Everyone needs to put in a little effort to put the thing up, but then once it starts, you can't do too much but watch and give it an occasional push if your bit falls the wrong way.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
edit: Switching to Entente, since nobody seems to want to play as them. Applying for the position of the supreme commander.

my dad fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Feb 8, 2017

The Sandman
Jun 23, 2013

Okay!

So, I've, like, designed a really sweet attack plan that I'm calling Attack Plan Ded Moroz, like "Deadmau5!"

WUB!
Germans. We'll be in Paris by Christmas!

lenoon
Jan 7, 2010

I am surprisingly not going to object to this, but will be Entente provided that I can secretly really fight for L'Internationale

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

Trin Tragula posted:

Definitely more the former than the latter; think of a lot of people building a big long line of falling dominoes. Everyone needs to put in a little effort to put the thing up, but then once it starts, you can't do too much but watch and give it an occasional push if your bit falls the wrong way.

In that case, I'll switch to the Central Powers, requesting a company. Long leben die Vierbund, soldaten heil!

Tias fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Feb 8, 2017

AbortRetryFail
Jan 17, 2007

No more Mr. Nice Gaius

Entente could use more players!

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


Volunteering for the German side. Not that it matters too much, we'll all be home by Christmas anyways.

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 15:36 on Feb 8, 2017

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Low ranking entente

Camrath
Mar 19, 2004

The UKMT Fudge Baron


Cool! Low ranking Brit then please!

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat
All I remember about this game from a PDF of the manual that circulated behind the scenes is a bunch of nebulous rules interpreted seemingly at random, so this should be fun.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

steinrokkan posted:

All I remember about this game from a PDF of the manual that circulated behind the scenes is a bunch of nebulous rules interpreted seemingly at random, so this should be fun.

And in the spirit of the Great War! As it should be!

xthetenth
Dec 30, 2012

Mario wasn't sure if this Jeb guy was a good influence on Yoshi.

I want to be in the Hon Hon Hontente (Give me some random french command, I want to be DLC content)

Arbite
Nov 4, 2009





:canada: Coming in for that Entente there, eh?

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
How specific can our requests be? I'd like our forces to include the 18th Division, so I can command elements of the 86th Füsilier Regiment :denmark:

glynnenstein
Feb 18, 2014




I am committing my rabbit fur to the German Empire!

sullat
Jan 9, 2012
Observer last time, but I think I can do better than that lunatic Frenchman from last time. En avant, for France!

aphid_licker
Jan 7, 2009


This seems fun. I'd like a mid-level sort of command where I can use my incompetence to mangle the flow of information from the bottom to the top and vice versa in cruel and unusual ways. By my rough count sides are equal in size right now so I'll join the Germans as General von Lauslecker. Under my command, suicide shall be the only way to avoid an Iron Cross.

aphid_licker fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Feb 8, 2017

Comrade Koba
Jul 2, 2007

sullat posted:

En avant, for France!

This!

Maybe this time I'll actually finish the battle with less than 90% casualties. :unsmith:

Hunt11
Jul 24, 2013

Grimey Drawer
It is time for all true Brits to stand up for king and country so Entente for me.

aphid_licker
Jan 7, 2009


Comrade Koba posted:

This!

Maybe this time I'll actually finish the battle with less than 90% casualties. :unsmith:

French already suffering from low fighting spirit, excellent :getin:

koolkevz666
Aug 22, 2015
I will join the German Empire. I have great experience with WW1, I must have watched oh what a jolly good war countless times.

Slim Jim Pickens
Jan 16, 2012
Les boches ne passeront pas!

Sign me up for Entente

Taishi Ci
Apr 12, 2015
Give me a low-level command under the Germans.

Perestroika
Apr 8, 2010

Ah hell, count me in for the Central Powers! Ideally some nice low-level position, so that I can develop a deep and meaningful bond with the soldiers under my command before inadvertently ordering them right into an MG crossfire.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

Time for me to get cracking on some team threads already, I guess! Still plenty of spots available for those who want them! Players who aren't sure about jumping into command can also join the game as staff officers, playing observers who don't command any units but who stick to one side and offer their advice to the commanders; this also ensures we have a pool of ready replacements in case of player drop-out, who haven't been reading both sides of the battle. For obvious reasons, once we have those threads up and start talking tactics, I'll post a big obvious message; anyone who wants to play in the first battle must then pick their side and stay out of this thread and the other team's.

Oh yeah, and that map needs some names, people.

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat
I understand you don't have the details worked out, but what are the dimensions of that map, and how large forces are we talking about?

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
Assuming we can fiat in elements of the 18th Division, I would like to be Col. Mattias Heinold, in command of a regiment of Jute peasants of some sort or other :hist101:

Tias fucked around with this message at 10:20 on Feb 10, 2017

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lenoon
Jan 7, 2010

The big wood should definitely be Boulangier Bois, no doubt soon to be renamed Boolanges Wood

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