From: David Schroeder Subject: Schlieffen Plan Rebuttal Comments. I did see that some people had set up the game and didnt play. The stacking example in the rule is the EXTREME WORST CASE. While it can happen, the odds of it happening are beyond remote. In playing the game you wont have more than 6 or 7 counters (at almost the very most) in a hex. Also, I used 20mm hexes instead of the normal 16mm to give players greater ease in dealing with stacks. The game does take a bit more to set up. I wanted to provide a level of realism and detail that other games gloss over or abstract out. I want to provide players with greater capacity to make decisions about things. If people would like a 'quick set-up', I can publish one on the web that would only have a miniscule effect on the outcome of the game, but would greatly speed set-up (would allow players to set up units in 'zones', rather than give specific unit starting locations). The Simulation. The game covers the initial stages of WW I in France and Belgium. The map goes from Tours France in the west to Stuttgart Germany in the east and from the Ruhr valley in the north to Bern Switzerland in the south. The time period is from August to mid November of 1914. This period covers a lot of movement, and a lot of combat. One third of the casualties suffered by Germany and France in WW I occur in this time period. Map The map was made from 1940s era French army maps. This means that the game map is much more accurate in the representation of terrain than other games available (they use 1970s era maps). The most striking thing about the map is that terrain is per hexside, NOT per hex. This TRIPLES the amount of information on the map. Although it looks very different than other maps, you will get used to it quickly, and find that it greatly increases realism, both in movement and combat. It also adds more realism into unit movement without sacrificing playability. I made the decision to go with hexside terrain due to a desire to make even the map as true to reality as possible. The patterns used for the terrain are from aerial photographs. Each pattern was made to be seamless, and to invoke the ‘feeling’ of marching across it or fighting in it. Another thing which is very different are the Resource Symbols. Other games use just plain map symbols like you would find in a road atlas. I use diagrams derived from actual pictures of typical industrial centers. The entire game map is quite large. It is 250 sections of 8.5 by 11. Six of these are the Schlieffen Plan map. Pieces First, you should note that I used divisions and brigades. Corps would have reduced the number of pieces substantially, but greatly limit the players in making operational decisions. The pieces are pretty standard, but do have a couple of nice features. The color inside the unit type box is the color used by the unit’s country for that branch of the service. For this reason, the German infantry units have white as the color in their unit type boxes, while French infantry have a darker blue. Also on each combat unit piece is a symbol that shows the full strength of units of that type. This is used in recombining understrength units. The Headquarter units use their national flags for unit type identification. The German Headquarters really came out well for the intricacies involved (The eagle in the middle). The 560 counters in the initial game are for Schlieffen Plan only. There are about 50 games in the series (WW I, WW II, Modern). Each will have its own counter set. The Rules The game rules were written to be very ‘to the point’, yet explain the details of the game. I used a lot of diagrams. The diagrams have two benefits. First, they make the rule less liable to have ‘interpretation’ problems. Second, it makes the game easier to learn for beginners. The SYSTEM The combat system of the game is designed so that every strength point you bring to bear influences the attack. I got tired of having 31 strength points attacking some 8 strength point unit, and having to use 3 to 1 odds. Any commander in real life would use (and want to use) everything available, and expect it to increase his chances of success. The game uses a shorter game turn than most other games of this scale. A two week game turn makes a game too much of an abstraction. Four day turns allow more realistic action-reaction decision making between players. The game uses what could be called 'layered complexity'. You will note on the map that 7 hexes make up a 'macrohex' while 7 'macrohexes' make up a 'megahex' this allows the scale of the game to be increased, and will be used in modern games (naval aspects of WW II games) as rules are brought in to reflect the abilities of more complex weapon systems. The WW I games (such as 'The Schlieffen Plan') use an almost pure infantry system for land warfare. The WW II games will add the 'layer' of armor systems (and thier interaction with infantry systems), as well as the air dimension. Background I have been playing games since the early 1970s. I was a fan of the earliest of the ‘monster’ games, ‘War in the East’ and ‘War in Europe’ both by SPI, and the original ‘Drang nach Osten’ (the first of the Europa series) by GDW. These were huge hits with me. Yet each of these games had what I considered to be large flaws. Too many game aspects were abstract (naval and air combat in the SPI titles, TIME in the GDW title). Many unit values were blatantly wrong (Russian unit values in the SPI titles), and the combat resolution systems in all of these games left a LOT to be desired. Over the years I thought a lot about designing a game that would be as realistic and playable as possible, and one which would use the same basic systems to represent conflict across all of the first half of this century. The result is the ‘Weltkrieg’ series, of which ‘The Schlieffen Plan’ is the first part. As you can see in the ad, the entire map is already done. The rules and scenarios are already done. The reason it’s not being released all at once is simple economics. I don’t have the kind of money that it would take to release this thing all at once. THANKS I need to put out a big thanks to Chris and Callie Cummins at Decision Games. This project NEVER would have seen the light of day without their help, encouragement, and support. You really have no idea all of what it takes to publish one of these things unless you go through it. The number and frequency of ‘little detail’ type of decisions was almost unbearable. But now that the first game in the series is done, the rest will be a comparative ‘piece of cake’. The Release Plan Right now the plan calls for ‘Tannenberg’ (Germans versus Russians in 1914 East Prussia) to be next. Then will come ‘Serbia’ (The Austro-Hungrian invasion of Serbia) and then ‘Galicia’ (Austro-Hungarians versus Russians in 1914). After that I am thinking of doing a WW II scenario (I haven’t decided which one yet). There have been requests for German invasion of France in 1940 to be done before another WW I scenario. Please let me know what you want. The game will be published in a series. I have to do this for economic reasons. I just don't have the kind of cash it would take to publish the whole thing at once. Multiple games in the series will use the same map. For example, the map provided in 'The Schlieffen Plan' will also be used for scenarios on West Front 1918, The German Invasion of 1940, and The Battle of the Bulge. If the games are economically viable (that is, sell about 1000 units apeice), then I should be able to crank out a scenario game per quarter (or thereabouts). Regards, Dave Schroeder - Designer