LA GRANDE GUERRE

REVIEW
This review to “ La Grande Guerre “ by Azure Wish would be a little contribution to the knowledge of a military simulation worthy of the greatest attention.

About an argument as important as the First World War there are, beyond hundreds of simulations regarding individual war facts, some “ monster games “ of the whole conflict. No one of them examines all the aspects of a so complex war fact, which has determined the end of the 19th century and the start of the Contemporary Age. La Grande Guerre has the merit to neglect nothing of that historical moment and to simulate the reality in so perfect way that the players are put in front of choices, decisions, unforeseen events that the historical counterpart had to confront. Of course the difficulty level, not only for the amplitude of the rules but also for the task necessary to govern the countries in the war, is at the top ( we could say over the top ! ); this is a reason that suggest a careful reflection to whom want to play this simulation before to play the game. La Grande Guerre gives many satisfactions, but at the same time, it demands the greatest care. 
After the preface, we can exam this “ monster game “, which is not only a game of pure amusement.

The great innovations of the designers Ph. Thibaut and B. de Scorraille consist in the vision of the First World War as of the first total war on planetary scale and in the project of a simulation which discredits the commonplaces, frequent among the gamers, of a “ static “ war and therefore boring to play. The designers, honouring their intent, have crated a perfect historical reconstruction, where the players are really “ in command “ and not only the destiny of whole armies, but also that one of whole countries is due to them. About our opinion another of their great innovations is to conceive of the victory not only in military terms, they have put the armies and their victories or their defeats at the service of the “ Final Victory “ which is always a political victory. Analysing the historical reality of the First World War, we can see that the Central Powers were the real winners by a military point of view ( defeat and destruction of the secular Russian Empire, a great part of Belgium under their control at the time of the armistice ). However, the political victory, the only one that is important, was of the Allied: and here we want to mention the famous sentence of von Clausewitz “ The war is nothing else than the prosecution of the politics using other means “. In this simulation those thing are true and it puts to the players dilemmas which only the political man can resolve; here we like to mention a sentence of Clémenceau , often used by Churchill, “ The war is a too serious thing to leave the generals to do it! “. 
Another great innovation is to have considered not only the foreign policy but also the home one of the major powers. The designers have created two tracks to measure the mood of a nation: the Parliament’s cohesion and the national will. The first one allows the players, who are the government, to understand if the Parliament supports or not their actions. The second one ( the real heart of the whole simulation ) states the will to fight “ Pour La Victoire “ which a people has; a people who, with its firm faith, pushes its armies to the success, or on the contrary with its defeatism makes every military effort vain and pushes the whole nation into the abyss of the defeat. 

After this short introduction, we can have a comprehensive view of the game. First of all the quality of the material: it is really of the first choice not only for the counters and the maps, but also for the richness of tables, short summaries of rules which can always be useful and for the whole of the playing aid charts together with the very clear rule-books. Then getting to the heart of the simulation, all the main theatre of operations ( Europe, Mediterranean Sea, and Middle East ) is represented by a hexagonal map. For the rest of the world, the designers have created some “ boxes “ linked each other and with the hexagonal map, so that it is possible to include in a manageable space, a table of medium dimension, the whole World. This system allows the players to expand the conflict to the African colonies, to the Far East and to the immense Asiatic territories of the Russian Empire. The whole then is divided in two fronts: on one side, the western front ( divided in two sectors the French and the Italian ), on the other side the eastern front ( divided in four sectors, Russian, Balcanic, Armenian, Middle East ) in which there are also all the boxes.

The simulation develops at corps level. The designers have divided the warfare in two great categories: during the ’14, there is the movement warfare with its specific features; gradually from the end of the ’14 and then during the whole war there is the trench warfare. This difference allows to comprehend in the best way the starting phase in which there were great subversions of the fronts with deep advances and then, step by step, the passage to the immobility of the trench warfare. La Grande Guerre starts from the ultimatum to Serbia. The ultimatum pushes in to the conflict Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany and France with, and here there is an interesting subtlety too often forgotten, the uncertainty of the English position the immediately entry of which in the war is much due to the German decision of the war plan, as we could see after.
The simulation starts from August ’14 and goes on until August ’19 for a total of five years. Every year is divided in nine turns, which represent a month of the real live, except for January-February, March-April and November-December: every three turns, at the end of May, August, November-December there is an interphase that is a “ sequel “ of the previous turn. During the turns the whole military activity takes place and the diplomatic pressures upon the countries not yet at war are resolved. In the interphases all the activities of purchasing new ground units, ships, ammunition, takes place and the players decides in what countries they want to place the new embassies and all the political actions which a country want to do to support its war effort and its “ home front “ are decided. In the interphases is concentrated the more strictly political activity, which will reflect on the militaries activities during the subsequent turns.
Now we enter in the heart of the simulation making an analysis of its components and its mechanisms. 

ULTIMATUM TO SERBIA AND THE START OF THE HOSTILITIES

At the start of the hostilities the players must select the starting war plan, among some plans historically designed by the HQs, for each of the four powers ( France, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary ) that are at war from the beginning and then they must choice some military and political options with which the countries will face the conflict at its start. The choices can be even very different from the historical and in this way the players can start La Grande Guerre so as the future could be very different from that of their historical counterpart. After this phase in which only the nose and the instinct of the players are important, there is a sequence of diplomatic actions to sound all the European country not yet at war, England included, out. At the end of the pre-war phase, to which a completely little book of fifteen pages is devoted, the game starts with the first military actions.

MOVEMENT WARFARE AND TRENCH WARFARE

An important innovation is the distinction between the first phases of the war, from August ‘14 to October ’14, and from the end of ’14 for the whole war. The first part has its own rules that allow very well to relive the excited and grand clash with which the hostilities started: the armies face each other without parsimony of forces and the movement warfare allows great advances and makes retreats of enormous size.
We are still in the phase of the movement warfare, the trenches are remote, and Paris and the decisive victory are within reach. The CRTs favours the attacker and the possibility to make an unlimited number of attacks pushes the players not to save their armies: of course, the losses are very great, but the countries allow replacing the losses and the national will supports the war effort with favour. With the turns of the end ’14, the situation starts to change and the new trench warfare replaces the old one. Now the CRT favours decidedly the defender and many of the rules of the game changes so that the second Rulebook is entirely devoted to this new kind of warfare. The essential differences are:
a ) The possibility of only one major battle ( the great offensive ), to which the designers have devoted some rules very detailed that fill some pages. The great offensive can go on one year to the utmost, it must be planned at the end of a year for the next one and the players must plan the exact turn of its start and its objective. The great offensive can take place only on the two sectors of the western front and on the Russian sector of the eastern one and it is possible only one great offensive per sector, where it is allowed, for the whole of the countries of an alliance. For example, on the Russian sector the great offensive can be made by both Germany and Austria-Hungary or by one of the two powers; what is impossible are two different great offensives, during the same year of course;
b ) in addition of the great offensive, on every sector of front, also on those sectors where the players cannot make the major battle, it is possible to carry out some minor battles; two minor battles per turn applying a very simplified system;
c ) The possibility to discover new tactics of combat ( gas, stosstruppen etc. ) that allow to overwhelm the trenches of the enemy and make own attack devastating.

THE OPERATIONAL TURNS

Every turn is divided in seven phases; in all the phases, except for the military phase, the players make their actions at the same time.
1 )  The First Phase: THE PHASE OF THE EVENTS.
The players random pick one or more chits which are given to some power ( for the Allied Russia, France, England; for the Central Powers Germany and Austria-Hungary ) under a fixed order. Every one of the chits represents a fact really happened during the war and which had an effect on the game: the chits can be secret ( to be played at the most suitable moment ) or public ( to be played immediately ). This system puts the players in front of some unforeseen events, which can try their ability; then it is impossible to predict if and when they will happen because they are historical but casual. The abundance of the random events is another aspect of the accurate historical research of La Grande Guerre; even a profound expert of those events could find some things he does not know. We can mention some random events among the over one hundred of them. There are facts and figures well known as “ The Tsar in command “,” Rasputin “, “ The Spanish Flu “, “ Lawrence of Arabia “. And there are names and events fallen into oblivion as “ Bolo Pacha “, “ Wassmuss “, “ Bruechmueller “, “ The Senussi’s Revolt “. This phase, that could be seemed of secondary importance a little for its simply course, a little for its shortness, is in reality fundamental and very often the chance makes an event be picked up when it could be fatal, in a certain situation, for an already hardy exhausted country at war or, on the contrary, it could shake who thinks all is lost out of his torpor.
2 )   Second Phase: PHASE OF THE DIPLOMACY AND OF THE TECHNOLOGY.
In addition, this phase has a simply course, but it does not deceive. The diplomacy is the only way to persuade a major power ( with the exception of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, France and sometime England ) to enter in the war on one side or on the other and the same thing is valid for the minor powers, which often have a fundamental role. Every major power has a number of “ embassy points “ due to its political importance and the military situation: then there is the possibility to purchase some extra embassy points. The embassies are represented by counters that show an anonymous face ( we apologize with the historical figure selected by the designers ), but their real value remains unknown to the opposite player. During the interphases the players can purchase the embassies and can allocate them to the countries not yet at war ( as we could see better then ). But it is during the diplomatic phase of every turn that an alliance can “ call out “ a country and confronting own embassy points with those of the opposite side can roll two dice on a table and can see the result of own pressures. There are also embassies of zero value the only purpose of which is to confuse the opponent. As it is easy to understand a victorious diplomatic struggle is often more important than a success on the battlefield. Everyone who would play this simulation, if he will be at the head of the Allied, will soon understand that a neutral Italy allows the Austria-Hungary to make its plains quietly and to give a decisive aid to the Germany in destroying the Tsarist Empire.
The part of this phase devoted to the technology research is very simply to play, but the simplicity does not deceive. This second part of the second phase has a very simple development. Every alliance has its own cup of chits every one of which represents a technology. A player random picks two chits per turn and selects one of them putting back the other one in the cup, then he rolls two dice to try to achieve that technology or another  one picked before and no yet achieved. All seams easy. In reality, the technological improvements are a lot and in the most varied fields. Due to those things if a player does not have a clear strategic project of research in his mind he would research what he then will not know how to use. Then the random system of research often does not allow getting what would be useful and, on the other hand, a players gets research projects not suitable at the moment. A player must have the necessary flexibility not to waste the labour of his scientists. Someone could say that this random pick is too random. In reality this have been a definite choice of the designers to avoid that who lives after the historical events and knows their developments could get him strong of the knowledge of the past. In this way, on the contrary, the players must confront the unforeseen event such as they write the book of the History in their own hand. 
3 )   Third Phase: REINFORCEMENT PHASE.
The players, at the same time, receive the ground, naval, air units purchased during the interphases and place them on the map. Then each player receives the ammunitions to fire with the artillery units, the quantity of the ammunitions depends from how many each player have purchased during the preceding interphase, and a quantity of replacement points that is different for each country. The RPs ( replacement points ) represent the manpower necessary to strengthen the ground units, which have had losses in the combats of the previous turns. We want here to anticipate one of the most interesting aspects of this simulation: the introduction of the Replacement Points. Too many times, it seams that it is sufficient to have a great number of resource points to take disastrous losses and then to purchase all again as nothing was happened. Those losses are not only material, but also human. A country could have “ unlimited “ material resources, but the human resources are always limited, as great a nation could be. Finally, this thing counts and so every player must use carefully his army before the losses will be so numerous that as many rifles could be made there will be no sufficient arms to bring them! Interesting is, in the naval field, the fact that the counters represent specific units ( for example the Queen Elisabeth ) which if they are sunk cannot fished up and repaired. The unique possibility to replace the losses is to construct new naval units, but also in this case the units are historical, at least in the project, and their number is limited: another good reason to avoid battle conducted by waster players!
4 ) Fourth Phase: THE INITIATIVE AND WEATHER PHASE.
The most aleatory and less demanding phase. Each player rolls two dice, one for the western front and one for the eastern one, modified by the initiative value of an OC on a front, the highest wins. Who has the initiative decides who of the players will go first in the military phase: if there are two players, who has the initiative on the western front decides which of the two fronts is played first, if there are four players the two fronts are played simultaneously. Then the weather. The whole map is divided in five climatic zones: Cold, Continental, Temperate, Mediterranean and Sub-Desert. Depending on the season and the dice roll the weather can be Dry, Rain, Snow ( except during the summer when it is dry everywhere and in the sub-desert zone where it is always dry ). The weather conditions have an impact on the mobility of the ground units, on the combats, on the air and naval actions. 
5 ) Fifth Phase: NAVAL PHASE.  
As the designers rightly note the simulations of the First World War very often neglect the naval warfare as of secondary importance on the conduct of the war. In reality the choking of the Central Powers, with the Continental blockade, and their surrender is due to the English control of the seas. In La Grande Guerre, the naval phase is described very minutely with rules that cover some pages and allow conducting all the naval activities like Patrolling, Escort, and Transport etc. without forgetting the naval activities in the extra-European seas with the famous German raider. Here we cannot spend too many words to analyze rule by rule; we think it is sufficient to give comprehensive view of the matter. The ships of a class are represented by one counter that is named by the most famous ship of that class ( each ship-counter shows the values of attack, defence, speed and the range of the guns that can be long, medium, short ). The ship-counters are grouped in fleets that have their own counters showing the greatest number of ship-counters, which a fleet can have; the other face of fleet-counters is anonymous. This system creates that great uncertainty that is the glamour of every naval battle until the end of the Second World War. The most important part of the naval activity takes place in the seas around the Europe. All the seas are under the control of the Allied, the exceptions are the Baltic Sea, under the control of the Germany, the Adriatic that is contested ( this means it is not completely under the control of one of the two side ), the Northern Sea and the Black Sea that are contested. Only across controlled seas the transport missions can take place without an escorting fleet, the ports that are on them can be supplied, and then the ports can supply the ground units. Those activities are impossible across the enemy controlled seas ( a particular case are the contested seas where the supplies can go through, but the transport missions must have an escorting fleet ). From those things, it is easy to comprehend how the control of the seas is fundamental to have the possibility, for example, to land behind the enemy front and to destabilize it. The naval phase is divided in two sub-phases: in the first the movements in the seas under control are made, they are gratis and at no risk. Then each player announces the possible sorties in the enemy seas that have a great cost due to elevated consumption of coal; it is from those sorties that sometimes can be born great naval battles. Every naval battle is divided in steps that start with the initial determination of the size of the battle and end with the losses’ calculation, all those things across some battle rounds. The designers have created a detailed and accurate rule system that perfectly recreate the uncertainty of a naval battle during the First World War when the “ instinct “ of the admirals had to make up for the absence of radars and satellites. The players have not great occasions to fought great naval battle, at least for the risks and the costs of a defeat. Besides the disparity of forces dissuades even the most adventurist players to cast the Kriegmarine into the harms of the mighty English Great Fleet: above those considerations, it is important to add that the Central Powers war efforts are directed to ground warfare. Then a problem that is often present during the naval phase is the little knowledge of the rules. Due to the rarity of the great naval battles, the players often forget some rules so that it is possible that in an accidental naval battle, the players would be in embarrassment and they would make not repairable mistakes. Our advice, because of the effects of a naval battle, is to reread very carefully the rules and to follow step by step the very good sequence of play of a naval battle stopping every time something is not clear. Perhaps it would be a long system, but it is completely rewarded by the emotion, which a titanic struggle like the Jutland can create. In the end, we would like to quote a phrase of Churchill with which he referred to the admiral Beatty: “ He is the only man who can win or lose the war in an afternoon “.
6 )   Sixth Phase: MILITARY PHASE.
This only one phase is played before by one player then by the other one. Because it is the hearth of the whole simulation, its sequence is very detailed and divided in some sub-phases. We have already written about the difference between movement warfare and trench warfare, we will repeat it every time it will be necessary. During the military phase, also the air warfare takes place: it is divided between battles of fighters and air missions like Reconnaissance, Tactical Air Support, and Bombardment etc. The possibilities offered by the game are a lot and a there are all the possible operations made during the Great War. It would be too long to write of every aspect of the air warfare. We want only to remember to the readers that the Air Army, even if it is almost inexistent in the ’14, becomes more important during the course of the war often being decisive; this is a good reason to increase own air power that, passing the time, will reward our efforts and our confidence. Returning to the ground warfare, first of all, we must write that in La Grande Guerre the combat units ( infantry or cavalry corps and the support units like artillery, tanks etc. ) are grouped in armies, the real keystone of the game, with a HQ and commanders. The armies are activated one by one in sequence and every one of them must end its activities before it is possible to activate another one. This system makes the game more fluent avoiding that a great number of counters is moved and involved in combats at the same time and allows the players to avoid errors caused by the great number of counters. The activation of an army is divided in six steps. 1) The player checks if all the units of an army are supplied or not. 2) The player decides which units are under command of the activated HQ. 3) The player can put some units in reserve that is to put in the second line some units for future use. 4) The player moves all the units of the activated army he want and then resolve all the battles he want to fight moving the units in the hex where the battle takes places; with the trench warfare all the battles can be preceded by an artillery bombardment made by the attacker. 5) If the attacking player looses the battle, then he makes the retreats, that is the attacker’s units returns in the hex from which they have arrived. 6) If the attacking player wins, then he gains the control of the hex where the battle was fought and if he wants he can pursuit the enemy units. As it is possible to see the sequence of activation is the same either in the movement warfare or in the trench warfare, the only difference is the bombardment before the battle that is often necessary before the assaulting the enemy trench. After a player has finished all of his activations, it is the turn of his opponent. The combats are always voluntary and they are very different between movement and trench warfare. In the first case, the battles are divided in two sub-battles that take place contemporary, if there are at least four corps defending and attacking; then there is the possibility of counterattacks, retreating the units’ one additional hex to reduce the losses. In the second the trench warfare is more static so that it is impossible to make counterattacks and the battles are divided in two sub-battles if the attacker has at least four corpses ( the number of the defending corpses is irrelevant ). We want to add that in the trench warfare it is extremely important to make a heavy bombardment before the assault to cause the defender losses and to reduce the level of the trenches. It is interesting the system to engage in the combat one corps per round among the corpses present at the start of the battle and then among the reinforcements arrived during the battle. This system creates a well-balanced CRT that is based upon the differential of strength ( attacking strength – defending strength ). Then this system recreates very well the reality of the assaults during the First World War when fresh corpses replaced the exhausted corpses until a part prevailed. It would be unthinkable that six corpses ( the maximum stacking ) with some support units attack together in a space ( a hex is about fifty kilometres ) that is not sufficient for over one hundred thousands of men moving and attacking. The CRT, then, based upon the differential of strength eliminates those irritating fractions that are too often rounded down in the defender’s favour! We want, now, to underline the great importance of exploitation phase that allows the attackers to advance deeply behind the enemy lines changing a defeat in a rout. In this way, a simulation about the First World War becomes less static and less bore to play. Finishing our analysis, we want to underline a very important aspect of the simulation: the suspense of a battle. There are some cases in which the battles are very long, above all in the trench warfare, but the uncertainty are always present until the end of a battle and it rewards the time spent to resolve a battle. There would be many things to write, but, in a review, we think it is sufficient to give a general view of the simulation.
7 ) Seventh Phase:  FINAL PHASE.
Before all we must spend some words to describe the first part of this phase: the sieges. On the map, there are a great number of fortresses, some small some great, and there are two ways to conquer and to destroy them. The first way is the assault, which takes place in the military phase after the attacker has wined a battle in “ rase campagne “. The second one is the siege, which can last many turns until the surrender of the fortress or until the release of the besieged. The first system is faster but it could cost dear, the second is slow but the player has not any loss. Every player has his own preferences and he is free to choice what seems better! The second part of this phase is very simple in its development, but in this second part, a player harvests the fruits of his labour made during the turn. Now it is the moment to verify the national will of every major power involved in the war. A marker, for each major power, with its flag, goes up and down along the track of the national will; the national marker can go from +40, the best situation, to -7, the worst one. When the marker riches +20 then the national will is in the “ unstable zone “ in which strikes, mutinies of national army, revolts, revolutions and, in the end, the Capitulation are possible. At the end of every turn the modification, up or down, of the national will is influenced by many causes such as the losses, human and territorial, and by the conquests and military successes. The basic concept is that the impact of the war upon the population if of the greatest importance: a country with a high national will can face the difficulties of the war and it can permit a great war effort. The nations under your command can sustain great human losses if the losses allow conquering important objectives, but if you think to send whole corpses’ death to conquer an inhospitable swamp or desert hex, you can be sure to go very fast to the capitulation. The national will is the most important marker of the situation in the game; it can give some very important information about the conduct of the war. The peoples whom you lead to the Victory watch you and evaluate your action, on their trust in the final Victory depends your personal Victory!

THE SEASONAL INTERPHASES

At the end of the operational turns of May, August, December there are the three interphases of Spring-Summer, Autumn, Winter, the interphases are played like a sequel of the turns. The interphases have their sequence:
I.	Testing the mood of the parliament ( the best mood is Holy Union, the worst is Defeatism ).
II.	Verifying the effects of the strategic warfare, practically verifying the losses of RPs and of the national will due to the Continental Block for the Central Powers and due to the submarine warfare for the England.
III.	Computing the shifting of the national will in the same manner like at the end of an operational turn and then computing a second time the national will using other factors, specify for the interphases, ( such as the mood of the parliament, the overall military situation, etc. ).
IV.	Making the home politics actions: the player can do many actions from the increasing of the war production to putting a new general in command of an army, passing across all the aspects that allow the player to optimize the home life of the major powers for the war effort. Every political action ( either succeeded or not ) has some consequences on the national will.
V.	Starting with the year 1915, because of the fatigue due to the war, the too much high national wills are lowered.
VI.	If a power is in the unstable zone ( starting from +20 ) must do a test of instability and, if it is negative, the national will goes down. Then there are some checks to determine if serious social troubles arose and if it is necessary, a player can make a new government to bring the national will out of the unstable zone with the risk of a negative reaction of the parliament.
VII.	At this point, the player calculates the national military production and then he can use the budget of a nation to purchase new corps, ships, airplanes, embassy points and much more things.
VIII.	At the end of an interphase, the player can move every general he wants from an HQ to another.                      
As it is easy to guess, the interphases not only influence the subsequent turns but, passing the time, the whole actions of a nation assumes a specific form, which influences the strategic priorities of a player. To control the nations under own command in the best mode and to use their potentialities to the utmost, without destroying them, is the best way to the success. La Grande Guerre gives the players the opportunity to confront with the historical reality like if they would live in it without sure formulas but where the intuition and the fortune are fundamental things in the same manner as the personal ability to govern. It is easy to be on the way up again making a new government and throwing onto the old one fault, which are of the player only, but the parliament not always bends docile to those intrigue. The designers have created, with the interphases, an important moment of reflection on the situation of each nation, which is often forgotten during the agitated military phases.

FINAL OPINION

La Grande Guerre is surely a point of swing for the military simulation on the First World War. Beyond a thorough historical and military research, we can find some new items very important for the mechanics of the play. The designers have created a really complete simulation, a simulation that is a “ game “ that recreates all the aspects of a great war using a coherent whole of rules which are, in front of their complexity, flowing. The game offers a set of counters admirable for their graphics aspect and completely plasticized, two great maps of easy readability where every kind of terrain is clearly recognizable, an extraordinary number of tables, rulebooks, playing aid charts, which are of great aim for the players and permit a considerable saving of time. The rulebooks have a clear description and they are rich of examples for every rule and situation, then the designers have enhanced the rulebooks with some humorous phrases that make the learning a pleasure. 
It is obvious that a simulation of such a level involves long times to play a campaign scenario, but every hour spent in gaming is source of great cultural enrichment due to the remarkable quantity of information, often new, which a player learns. Our advice is to learn the rules step by step playing one of the numerous shorter scenarios, which allow learning the mechanics of the game in such a way to make them natural and to concentrate on the global strategy. Do not be frightened by the length of a campaign scenario: when you are sure with the rules the sense of deep gratification, which gives you to play a whole campaign, is the just achievement of the preceding efforts. We can add the advice to play it in four; not only the time of play is halved and the control of the Allied is easier, but also the two front are played at the same time with the uncertainty not to know the situation of the other front.
Although it is not easy to give marks, however we give them to synthesize the whole:
COMPLEXITY 10+,
OVERALL LEVEL 10+.