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I'm looking for a playtester to play the United States side in a Bn level scenario covering a Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania in 1914. It's based on Turtledove's American Front series & Tane Woodley's AF1914 scenario.
The scenario covers the first two to five months of the war in North America’s Eastern Theater. The map stretches from the Northeastern tip of Tennessee in the Southwest to New York City in the Northeast. Both the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion of Pennsylvania & the United States’ 4th Army’s invasion of Southwestern Virginia are covered. There is a theater option to play either the short game (through September) to cover the CSA drive into Pennsylvania or the long game (through December) to also cover the USA’s counteroffensive.
The scale is at 2.5 Km hexes with 1 day turns.
I'm looking for a playtester to play the United States side in a Bn level scenario covering a Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania in 1914. It's based on Turtledove's American Front series & Tane Woodley's AF1914 scenario.
The scenario covers the first two to five months of the war in North America’s Eastern Theater. The map stretches from the Northeastern tip of Tennessee in the Southwest to New York City in the Northeast. Both the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion of Pennsylvania & the United States’ 4th Army’s invasion of Southwestern Virginia are covered. There is a theater option to play either the short game (through September) to cover the CSA drive into Pennsylvania or the long game (through December) to also cover the USA’s counteroffensive.
The scale is at 2.5 Km hexes with 1 day turns.
Got 'Docs', maybe a scenario dump?
Everyone likes screenies, eh?
Got 'Docs', maybe a scenario dump?
Everyone likes screenies, eh?
Here's an overview map
Got 'Docs', maybe a scenario dump?
Everyone likes screenies, eh?
Here's the background doc (still incomplete) I had to remove the pics so I could attatch it.
Units: Battalions/Companies
Hex Size: 2.5 km/hex
Turn Length: Day
Scenario Length: 53 to 145 turns
Background:
It is August, 1914, & the war that is engulfing Europe following the assassination of Erzherzog Franz-Ferdinand has spread to North America. The United States, humbled in two successive wars by the Confederate States, has declared its support for its German and Austrian allies. In the de-facto capital of Philadelphia, President Theodore Roosevelt has declared war against the Entente powers in a fiery speech in which he promised the next Remembrance Day parade would be in held Richmond.
In reply, flanked by the statues of George Washington & Albert Sydney Johnston, the Confederate President Woodrow Wilson has asked for & received declarations of war against Germany, Austria-Hungary & The United States. The Confederate States are a modern industrial state, rich and powerful, in part due to its long and close ties to Britain and France. But Wilson and his cabinet know that if the United States and Germany defeat Britain, the damnyankees to the north won’t be long in seeking revenge on their southern counterparts.
Across North America, from Virginia to California, and from New Brunswick to Washington State, men are being called to the colors, as the finely tuned machinery of mass mobilization kicks in. While the various armies are formed to attack and defend, in the theatre east of the Appalachians, the Confederate Armies of North Virginia and Western Virginia prepare to face the United States 4th and 5th Armies.
The world in early August, 1914. The Central Powers (Green) square off against the Entente (Orange). Later, the war would spread into South America & the Middle-East as more nations are dragged into the fray.
The Scenario:
The scenario covers the first two to five months of the war in North America’s Eastern Theater. The map stretches from the Northeastern tip of Tennessee in the Southwest to New York City in the Northeast. Both the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion of Pennsylvania & the United States’ 4th Army’s invasion of Southwestern Virginia are covered. There is a theater option to play either the short game (through September) to cover the CSA drive into Pennsylvania or the long game (through December) to also cover the USA’s counteroffensive.
House Rules:
Entrenching:
Neither player’s units (except for artillery) may entrench until they receive a news item stating that they can. This will happen sometime in September. In 1914 both sides were fielding 19th Century style armies designed to re-fight their 1881 war. Elmer will sometimes dig in units on his own, put it down to forward thinking unit commanders modifying army doctrine to suit local conditions. This rule is completely unenforceable, so a degree of trust is assumed between players.
Garrison Requirements:
Every enemy county seat (place name has an * at the end), State or National Capitol (Capitol Letters) or and dense urban hex that you occupy needs to have a company sized unit garrison. Only the following unit types may be used for garrisoning captured hexes…
• Infantry,
• Cavalry,
• Security,
• Military Police,
• Border,
• Naval Infantry,
• Marines &
• Engineer (Just the sideways “E” combat engineer variety, not labor, bridging or RR repair types)
Units that can’t leave their home state:
Irregular & Guerilla units cannot leave their home state (The District of Columbia counts as part of Maryland for this purpose)
Units that can’t enter enemy held hexes:
• Headquarters
• , Artillery,
• Border,
• Labor,
• Bridging &
• RR Repair.
These units can follow an eligible unit into a hex on the same turn, they just can’t be the first unit to enter the hex.
Blowing Bridges:
If a road or railroad crosses a river you can blow the bridge, if the road or railroad runs parallel to the river you can’t.
Arid Hexes:
There are areas along the map edges that are used for rail movement only & can’t be entered by enemy units. American United States units can’t enter arid hexes in Virginia, North Carolina & Tennessee. Confederate units can’t enter arid hexes in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey & New York.
New Equipment
I pretty much went berserk with the Bio-Editor for this scenario. The first group takes existing units & splits them up by nationality. This will affect replacements & slightly favors the United statesStates player. For example, The 27th Virginia infantry regiment contains 100 Confederate early rifle squads & 2 heavy machine guns, while the 9th Cuba infantry regiment contains 100 Latin American early rifle squads & 2 heavy machine guns.
The second group consists of new or modified equipment types. They are…
Engineer Squad:
These are toned-down from the flamethrower wielding standard TOAW engineers. They have the same firepower as the early rifle squads.
Construction Crew:
They have half the firepower of the Engineer Squads.
Un-Armed Construction Crew:
They Have no firepower.
Road-Bound Horse Team:
I think that the TOAW horse teams are more like pack-mules than horse drawn wagons. Units equipped with Road-Bound Horse Teams, such as heavyas heavy artillery will move poorly cross-country.
Naval Units:
I used a modified version of Bob Cross’ ship classes that emphasize the ships primary armament at the expense of its secondary & tertiary armaments. Mixed caliber Pre-Dreadnoughts seemed too powerful with his original formula.
Map Notes:
Mountains:
Most mountain hexes also contain badlands terrain. This makes mountain passes (which do not contain badlands & usually contain roads) extremely important. While your boot propelled infantry can cross the mountain hexes, your heavy artillery won’t be able to. More importantly, you won’t be able to trace supply across mountains until you capture the passes.
Urban & Dense Urban:
Towns that had 1,000+ residents in 1910 rated an urban hex. Cities with 15,000+ residents per hex in 1910 rated dense urban hexes. Towns with less than 1,000 residents in 1914 are shown with cropland hexes.
Railroads:
I did the best I could in finding out where the railroads where in 1914, but I may have missed some. I also arbitrarily added some “military railroads” where I thought they would be needed. There are also some destroyed RR hexes that the players may repair.
Light Woods:
I used light woods to both represent lightly wooded areas & areas that were a patchwork of farmland & woods.
Wadis:
I used wadi hexes to represent small rivers.
Virginia / West Virginia border:
I made Berkley & Jefferson Counties part of Virginia rather than West Virginia. The two counties were not part of West Virginia’s original group of counties & their later inclusion into the state had more to do with the fact that the B&O railroad ran through Martinsburg & Harpers Ferry than to any desire of the residents to become part of the state. After the Civil War Virginia tried unsuccessfully to get the two counties back. Since the game assumes a Victorious Confederacy, I included the counties in Virginia.
Map Sources:
DeLorme’s Topo USA for PC (2004)
DeLorme’s Atlas & Gazetteers for PA, NJ, DE, MD VA & NC (2003)
Hammond’s Handy Atlas of the World With 1910 Census (1911)
Geographical Publishing Co’s New Pictorial Atlas of The world (1941)
Confederate States Player Notes:
Overview:
The CSA has adopted a go for broke strategy, to Capture Philadelphia, the American de facto Capitol and win the war quickly. Otherwise, the, the United States’ industrial & manpower advantages will eventually be overwhelming us. To achieve this, additional units have been transferred from the western armies, effectively doubling the size of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Decisions:
There are two ways to win;, the first way is to go for the knock-out & capture Philadelphia. The city contains 228 victory points, plus there is a 100 point bonus for capturing the Powell House
(hex 225,50). The CSA may not ultimately win the war with the capture of Philadelphia, but you’ve definitely won the campaign.
The second is to win on points. The USA’s steel industry is centered in Pennsylvania & there are 740 points to be won by destroying industry units. This strategy can be especially effective if the US player adopts a “fortress Philadelphia” strategy & leaves other areas lightly defended. The downside is that the majority of the factories are in Western Pennsylvania. Getting to them will involve marching & fighting through some nasty terrain.
The Army of Western Virginia’s job in Southwestern Virginia is to hold off theoff the US 4th Army’s drive towards Big Lick / Lynchburg / Richmond, preferably with the five divisions with which they start out. To accomplish this, they need to make the most of the mountainous terrain that they arethey are defending. This is a tough mission, despite the good defensive terrain, as the Army of Western Virginia will be greatly outnumbered. This front will test your defensive ability at the same time as the Army of Northern Virginia is on the attack.
United States Player Notes:
Overview:
The pre-war strategy developed by the United States’ pre-war strategy had simultaneous attacks on the Confederacy and Canada. While the 6th and 7th Armies attack Quebec and Ontario, three complete armies are to invade Kentucky. Kentucky is where the United States is aiming its main blow against the Confederacy, but the drive into western Virginia by the 4th Army is a significant supporting effort, and the US General Staff is hoping for a major breakthrough here.
In the Eastern Theatre, the US plan is for the 4th Army to invade Virginia from the west, while the 5th Army was to first to attack with thedefends Maryland and Pennsylvania. If possible, the 4th Army from the west, to draw off CS reserves & then the 5th Army would then attack across the Potomac, drive south & capture Richmond. But, as von Moltke once said “No plan survives the first contact with the enemy”.
Reinforcements:
The United States does have a significant manpower advantage over the Confederates, Canadians and British, but most of these troops have been allocated to Kentucky, Quebec and Ontario. For most of this scenario, reinforcements for the Eastern Theatre can only be gained at the expense of weakening the offensives in other theatres.
The declaration of war and the massive outburst of patriotism did see hundreds of thousands of young men, many with college deferments, enlist spontaneously. These ‘College Corps’, hastily trained and equipped, but with the finest young men in the United States, will be available from early October.
Got 'Docs', maybe a scenario dump?
Everyone likes screenies, eh?
Philadelphia
Got 'Docs', maybe a scenario dump?
Everyone likes screenies, eh?
Big Lick 2
Bill;
If nothing else, you've certainly captured my imagination, eh?
I'd certainly like to load it up and look about.....One always likes to know the details befor commiting to something that might go on for a year, LOL!
I've read the beginning of Turtledove's series, but haven't played any of AF1914 (tho I've read some of the AAR's from it), so have only a rough idea of what's to be expected from it, but am a serious fan of the WW1 period.
And Monsters :laugh:
What sort of turn response rate are you looking for, and what else in the way of reports etc would you like?
I'm already commited to 'multi-player The Great War' (mcbride's), and have certain RL pressures encroaching on my time, but this looks like a really sweet scenario, so I'd at least like a look....
If you can go with a 'maybe', my E-addy is lzard2 (at) comcast (dot) net. I should at least be able to give you a (probably long winded) response to what I see in between the lines, not to mention a goodly helping of all those idiot questions that need addressing in a doc file, LOL!
Bn level...wow! :yummy: If nothing else, we should have an interesting conversation concerning artillery throw wieghts/effects!
PS: a guy has to ask, but what were you playing befor you started posting here?
Bill;
If nothing else, you've certainly captured my imagination, eh?
I'd certainly like to load it up and look about.....One always likes to know the details befor commiting to something that might go on for a year, LOL!
L'zard,
I'll be sending you the files for you to look over & see if it's something that you would be interested in.
Bill
I've helped Bill with this scenario, so I'm a little bit biased, but I would like to say that it's a bloody beauty.
The map is gorgeous in detail, and huge. The Armies, while large, aren't quite big enough to cover the whole map, so there is lots of room for maneouvre, counter-attacks, delay operations, the whole lot. I've been able to shift whole Corps from one side of the map to the other, and launch some fairly sneaky attacks with them.
The game also has a 'sword-and-shield' format; each player is attacking on one half of the map, and defending on the other half (though the US player has tougher terrain to deal with). You get the best of both worlds.
In short, I strongly recommend this scenario, especially now that it's almost complete. I'm playing Bill for the 3rd time, and it's a lot of fun.
This sounds interesting. I would like to take a look at the files. You can send them to me at will5869(at)hotmail(dot)com.
Silvanski
31 Dec 07, 16:52
Factory units? Nice
Factory units? Nice
Silvain, you definitly want to check this out, It's freaking Awsome!
Bill is a 'hidden jewel', eh? Where ever he has been, thier missing him now, LOL!
Once the rough edges get knocked off, this is going to be an OUTSTANDING scenario for those that love 'huge' and 'monster' games!!!
Already three thumbs up, and that's while it's still in playtest!
Kurt
Menschenfresser
01 Jan 08, 13:17
I'll sign up for playtesting. Bill can you send me the file(s)?
menschenfresser@rcn.com
Any takers?
Just an update, eh?
Work continues on this excellant scenario (presently rev12).
IIRC, I personally have been onboard for the last 6 mo.s, and believe it's on the home stretch! It's been tons of fun to be part of the playtesting and to anyone that wants to be part of it, there's still oportunity!
:smoke:
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