First World War Campaigns: FRANCE 1914

[Dog Soldier]

The greatest change that PzC/MC players will have to adapt to is that this title uses a modified version of the Alt fire rules by default and one of the favourite tactics of many PzC/MC players to create huge stacks to disrupt and assault enemy units will now lead to massive (and i am talking in the hundreds) of men lost per defensive shot!
So this will mean that players will have to be more cautious/subtle their attacks and all the testers agreed that we will have to repeat this message over and over until PzC/MC players unlearn the stacking habits of the past! LOL

Just like the actual commanders in 1914 were cautious about frontal assaults.

The action on 26 August 1914 between the BEF and the German First Army at Le Cateau would be interesting to highlight the FWW 14 game differences.
The BEF had been retreating from Mons. This action was a delaying action as the BEF turned to face the pursuit. The fight begins at dawn. The Germans first pinned the British with heavy fire while trying to envelope the BEF's right wing. It ends at 17:00 that day with the British continuing their retreat to prevent encirclement.

I wonder how the game system will handle the fatigue the BEF units would have from the Mons fight. Would the BEF have the capacity to turn and face the oncoming German army?

The battle is famous for the stand of the 28th RFA (Royal Field Artillery) which had a one hex (in PzC game terms) duel with the German heavy guns. Only two guns of the 28th were saved, the unit would be considered eliminated in game terms. The British 2nd corps lost 38 guns that day, once the German batteries found the range. The Germans also maneuvered nine machine guns in close enough to rake the valiant British gunners.
The British lost 8,000 men in this one engagement.

While I like the idea of the using a new set of fire rules for a series on WWI to model the horrific casualties of that conflict, it seems to me that many of the tactics used in WW2 were different because of the lessons of WW1. Then there is the evolution organic of firepower between the two wars.

I think the issue of killer stacks in PzC would be better dealt with by lowering the stacking limits in the pdf files for the PzC titles rather than ramping up the killing power of artillery. Employment of artillery in WW1 and WW2 was quite different. The Spanish Civil War convinced the Germans of the need for very different tactics, though the Italians and Russians learned little from their investments of blood in that conflict.

Dog Soldier

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Also the new "Forced Bridge" rule would help to prevent the "straddling" tactic of using the ZOC rules to prevent river crossings via bridges.

If I understand your posting of this rule elsewhere in this forum, a unit ends up on the enemy side of the river, in "T" (travel mode) and isolated unless another friendly unit is in the hex on the other side of the river.

Sounds like dinner for the wolves.....

Dog Soldier