I went to “Who do you think you are? Live” (
www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.co.uk ) at Olympia yesterday and picked up a copy of the rules. Lots of other Great War stuff as well: Mark IV, WW1 Reenactors/Living history, some very helpful people from the National Army Museum, and Baldrick! :mrgreen:
The game uses the same basic mechanics as Warhammer 40K. (As far as I can tell, never having played much :lipps: )
There are army lists for 1914 and 1918 British, French and German Western Front. Each list has 3 variants. For example, the BEF list has an Infantry Battalion, Cavalry Battalion and Highland Battalion. Each is laid out along similar lines to a 40K Codex. The smallest game unit is the platoon, and one model roughly equals 3 men.
A BEF Infantry Battalion has:
1 Battalion HQ
2-4 Infantry Companies (Each Company: Coy HQ + 2-4 Platoons each of 9 men)
Battalion Support of 0-2 Trench catapult or MG section (Single weapon per choice)
Regimental Support: Highlander or Scout Platoon
Divisional Support: Cavalry Squadron or 18lb Field Gun or Armoured Car
3 sample army rosters using the lists, but strangely only for the 1918 organisations. The 1918 examples comprise approx 90-100 figures each plus MG/Mortar/Gun/Tanks for around 1000pts worth. Standard and Operations Missions and various deployment options. Again similar to 40K.
It’s a nicely produced book of colour 160 pages, profusely illustrated throughout with colour photographs, mostly using Dave Andrews & Aly Morrisons miniatures (Great War Miniatures) and terrain (Miniatures porn :love:
) Generally better than the LOTHS/LOTOW books for layout/content. Approx 60 pages of the rules for playing the game. 20 pages of missions/deployment. 60 pages of army lists. A quick 2 page painting guide and a quick reference page, templates page, bibliography etc.
The first supplement, “Over theTop” covering 1917 Western Front, should be out in November with USA troops coming out from GWM. The second supplement will cover Gallipoli, Mesopotamia etc, and is due in 12 months time.
I did have a chat with Aly Morrison (Very nice bloke
), and he seems very keen to do a wide range of miniatures eventually (This is likely to be over a very extended period), not just the big theatres (Had a little chat about Salonika, so hopeful for the future
).
I would stress that I have only had a quick look at the rules. I won’t be playing it for the time being as I already use 2 sets for WW1 (Kaiserbosh and T&T) and don’t have enough painted for GWGW games.
I will be looking at the pictures a lot though (Probably instead of actually doing anything constructive :oops: )