1914 Rules Review | Storm of Steel Wargaming
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 лис 2022
- Buy 1914 Rules here: www.greatescapegames.co.uk/1914
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @stormofsteelwargaming
Storm of Steel official merchandise:
Storm of Steel Hex Logo: www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/784...
Storm of Steel Long Logo: www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/784...
Give me a one off tip on Ko-fi here: ko-fi.com/stormofsteel
Please support me through Patreon here: / stormofsteelwargaming
There's more gaming content here: www.stormofsteelwargaming.com
You can follow Storm of Steel on:
Facebook: / stormofsteelwargaming
Twitter: / soswargaming
instagram: / stormofsteelwargaming
#StormofSteelWargaming #1914 #RulesReview - Ігри
I’m looking forward to GEG releasing their eastern front supplement with the Austro-Hungarians & Russians.
Very interesting set of rules. I am still leaning towards the smaller scale Through the Mud and the Blood, but I will definitely keep this on my list.
I think the rules are maybe a little barebones but the core ideas of the game are fun and easy enough. The cards add a little bit of flavour but don't dominate the game with their effects which I appreciate.
I actually gave it a try because I was overthinking and never getting started with any of my great war ideas, a relatively cheap buy in and an 'everything you need' bundle for this meant I could scratch that itch.
The eastern front is being worked on as well which I'm looking forward to.
Fun game, I should put it on the table more often.
As well as the orders and use of them on commanders did you ever find out WHERE the commanders go on the table? We always end up putting the model on the army sheet and distributing the command from there.
Nope, in a word. Your solution seems to be the way to do it, as there are no rules for them in combat either that I could see.
They're very light on deployment guidelines in general. I treat the commander as your field HQ so you have to keep it protected somewhat, contact with it captures it and you would lose the command tokens it generates, or lose the game if it makes sense in the scenario.
We use the commander as an abstract command ability with some direct influence. The commander, as well as having two "wild card" initiative tokens, can re-roll one failed activation (and morale?) roll per turn. We put the commander model on the table as eye candy and as a reminder of his abilities.
I think an expansion was planned to go deeper into the war but never materialised for some reason, its a good game which scratches the itch for big expansive battles and looks great on the table
Great review mate.
Thank you!
Like GEG rule books. I play Sword & Spear and Seven Days. Top company, based down the road in Cardiff.
Great Review! I hope to see a play through on the channel one day. Is there a section on troops of various quality or is it assumed that all the troops are similarly trained?
Cheers, n, there is only the basic force lists, but I'm sure it wouldn't take much to tweak quality in the game.
Good points on use of cavalry.
How odd - we just played these rules for the first time about a month ago. Austrian against Russians, somewhere in Galicia. As we had played Seven Days, and Iron Cross, and enjoyed them, we thought these would be fun.
Like yourself, we were initially really looking forward to them, even though - as you point out - there are a fair number of grey or confusing areas in the rules. In practice however, what seems intriguing on the page, didn't seem to work so well on the table.
Since multiple activations mean it is less likely that a unit will continue to act (which makes sense) in practice we found that giving all units equal numbers of chits (or roughly equal) was the most effective. Oh, we allowed generals to use their activations for anything, on anyone on the basis that no mention was made of any command radius nor limitations on types of orders. So the whole intriguing pre planning and secret allocation of activations didn't really pan out when playing.
The oddest thing we found were the morale markers. Since they are removed when you lose a stand, suddenly the unit is completely fresh! So we found ourselves in the strange position of hoping for one more morale marker on our unit, so that the unit was fully effective again. As long as units have just two stands, they fire as well as units with five.
The initiative bidding and shifting back and forth was good though. Quite liked that. And GEG are fantastic to deal with.
All that said, although the game has some interesting bits, after it was over, neither one of us really thought it "felt" like a WW1 game. I have to add the huge caveats that of course that's entirely subjective, and we didn't use cards as it was our first game.
However, cavalry seemed very, very effective, even charging frontally against machine guns. Didn't seem right.
Will I pick up the Eastern supplement if it appears? Probably. Will I play it again? Perhaps, as maybe we played it poorly. But overall, I might tend to lump it into the Blood & Valour area of WW1 rules - good game, but not really WW1.
That's a shame to hear.
I hope you try a game. Love to hear your opinion. As I said, I had the same roughly positive opinion of these rules until I gave them a try.
Thanks for a useful review. It strikes me these are intended and probably best suited, to the war of movement. With minor additions I think they’d work well for 1918 on the Western Front, the Middle East and the Eastern Front. They should also work for the Russian Civil War, providing the morale system is flexible enough to handle poorly disciplined and led troops.
You're welcome, there was plenty of movement throughout the western front, they'd work well for the middle of the war there as well.
If you want to do the RCW check out Red Actions by The Perfect Captain.
@@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar yep, got them, great set of rules, but at a slightly lower tactical focus.
Cracking episode Mate, really enjoy watching... even if not a historical period I'd ever play. Hope you continue going strong
Cheers Luke!
My review of your cat. 10/10
She's the star of the show.
So, based on playing 'Seven Days...' there's almost never a time that all units on one side end up doing something during a turn. You almost always end up pushing one set of units to do more than the other as attacks go in. It is very much like O-Group in how you end up rewarding success with more stuff to do.
The General's command tokens I think are just General use tokens. In Seven Days, the force commander is on the table, and he can be targeted. If you lose a commander, you actually have to roll to see how any command tokens you lose, until the 2iC takes charge a turn later. I'd suggest doing it the same way.
Cheers for the clarifications John.
A nice review as always. The approaches of the command system sound interesting, even with it's confusing parts. 😉
Cheers, yeah if you could iron out the confusion I think it would be an interesting game.
Thanks for the review, that was really interesting. 1914 has been one of those rule sets on my radar but which I've never investigated.
Reckon I'll give them a go.
They'd probably work absolutely fine as an alternative for my Square Bashing Balkan Wars armies too.
Lovely 🐱 BTW 🙂.
Thanks, glad you found the review useful, I did think of using them wit my SB armies as well. I'll pass on the compliments to Tiny.
@@StormofSteelWargaming Give him a cuddle from me 🙂.
Yes, it was your comment that made me think of trying them with my BW stuff - good idea. Thanks for it. Rules duly ordered!
Interesting elements added from their previous iterations. Iron Cross also had holes and gray spots.
That's a shame to hear.
@@StormofSteelWargaming in some ways it’s ok because many gamers adjust and houserule anyway. I’ve gone back and forth with IC.
"This is something that seems to elude wargamers." I'm sure there's whole theses to be written on the subject of inertial wisdom in wargaming and historical spheres!
Yeah, people can get wedded to ideas, that are perpetuated by rules writers as well. I know they might not be trained historians, but there are plenty of modern sources available these days.
I’d also been aware of these rules since their release but had likewise overlooked them, as most of the wargaming press and community appears to have done so this is a highly worthwhile overview which I found very interesting. I hope it I’ll be followed up in due course. I note your claim that the rules can readily be used for the entire war but you didn’t say much, as I recall, about how they reflect the changing weaponry and tactics. I realise you’ve not played a game as yet but it would be particularly instructive to see the comparative ‘feel’ of games set at different stages of the war, supposing, of course, that you have the time and inclination to do so.
I'll try and get a game in at some point. But at this level of abstraction, the change in weapons is not really a thing to worry about, all sides had grenades, all sides had LMGs etc, so all things were quite equal, it's more about the command really.
I accept your point regarding weaponry and would suppose it also applies to small-unit tactics. As far as command is concerned I wonder whether it would be possible to reflect such matters as the higher rate of officer casualties in the early stages of the war, particularly where the French are concerned, given their propensity at that point to lead infantry attacks on horseback, and even division commanders being so close to the front line that they were killed by artillery. The uniforms worn for the first year or so, essentially unchanged since at least the Crimea, can hardly have helped, either.
The difference may, I accept, be less than widely perceived. I haven’t seen comparative figures but casualties, among junior officers at least, remained very high throughout the war. I would nevertheless expect the traditional style of leadership exhibited in the early months to be reflected to some degree, even in a fairly abstract fashion.
Well Tiny seemed to like them!
Ahhhh those Great War myths .... bane of my life. Lions led by Donkeys, All shot at dawn etc .
Indeed. The myths that never died.
Oh what a lovely war, and then perpetuated by Blackadder. Much to answer for. I found ‘Mud, blood and poppycock’ a very good antidote.
@@samb2052 very true but started even before that with the defamation of Haigs name after his death, by people with an axe to grind.
With our club name, no need to explain where our belief lies. I fear Lloyd George did a complete hatchet job on Haig. Politicians don’t necessarily make good historians.
That is true but revisionism can go too far. Haig learned a lot in the course of the war as did other senior generals - most of them, anyway - but still merits criticism for his conduct of many offensives and even - in the case of the Somme at least - launching them in the first place when they could not have achieved much beyond ‘wearing down’ not only the enemy but his own forces. His persistence in costly attacks that had little prospect of success or even potential benefit - even as late as November 1917 in the later Passchendaele battles - merits particular criticism. By 1918 he had learned that doing the same thing over and over again with diminishing returns was futile, but he took a lot of time and, more to the point, wasted many lives doing so.
I wish my cat loved me as much as your does lol I went to go pet mine and she bit my hand 🤦♂️
Tiny just plays up for the camera.
Email Stuart and ask about the general ‘s command tokens. He has always answered my questions about their other games.
Thanks, I think they actually answer it in the FAQ
The war also encompassed far more than the Western Front, the middle east and the eastern front generally remained mobile throughout the war.
Indeed it did, but there are already plenty of wargaming rules that also encompass those theatres.
What about the Australian light horse
Besheeba
?
What about them?
You were talking about the last great cavalry charges . No mention of the Australian light horse? Beersheba? Don't you think it deserves a mention?
I was specifically talking about cavalry being used on the Western Front. But Beersheeba wasn't the last cavalry charge anyway.