France '14

HPS Simulations is proud to announce the upcoming release of
France '14, a John Tiller Game
 
With the end to diplomacy in the summer of 1914, Germany marched into Belgium in the first week of August to win a crushing victory with their finely tuned, but heavily modified, Schlieffen Plan. Germany saw many initial successes in France and Belgium in August and early September, and victory seemed like a foregone conclusion. However, defying all odds, the weary French and British made an about face and counter attacked along the Marne, crushing the Schlieffen Plan, and halting the German advance.

The 1914 conflict in France would be the opening act of a gruesome war that would not end until 1918, a war which would forever remove many of the monarchs in Europe, and consume the lives of over eighteen million people. This "Great War" would mark the end of the Napoleonic old world order, and would be the catalyst for an even greater struggle known as World War II.

France '14 is the first title in a new series entitled First World War Campaigns. This series attempts something that has never been attempted before; to cover all the major campaigns of World War One down to battalion level. The war itself is often plagued by inaccurate stereotypes and assumptions, and this series attempts to dispel them and bridge what is otherwise a relatively empty wargaming void in history. This series also seeks to demonstrate the evolution of warfare between the Napoleonic period and the Second World War, by directly demonstrating the evolution of weapons and tactics from its origins of a mix of a Napoleonic style of warfare with modern weapons, to the birth of truly modern warfare of poison gas, assault infantry, armor, and airpower. If you like Panzer Campaigns or the Napoleonic Battles series, then First World War Campaigns will help complete your wargaming experience!

France '14
33 stand alone scenarios and 6 campaigns to choose from.

Fighting for the fortress of Namur.

A wide sampling of actions from the battles of the Ardennes, Mons, Le Cateau, Guise, 1st Marne (the entire battle from Paris to Nancy, not just the BEF area), 1st Aisne, 1st Arras, 1st Ypres, and the sorties out of Antwerp and the assaults on Liege and Namur, and more.

The Maubeuge fortified area.

Campaigns consist of the early German invasion of France up to the reversal at the Marne (158 turns), the exciting "Race to the Sea" where both sides attempted to outflank each other in a great meeting engagement from the Aisne to the English Channel (246 turns), the entire Flanders campaign (190 turns), and the gut wrenching campaign covering the entire 1st Battle of Ypres in all three of its phases (190 turns), and more.

Von Moltke's version of the 'Schlieffen Plan' takes form.

Utilizes an easy to use and intuitive interface similar to the Panzer Campaigns and Modern Campaigns game series.

Represents all major aspects of warfare during this period, including the evolution of cavalry, deadly machine guns, the birth of aviation, the awesome power of siege artillery, the devastating firepower of massed artillery and field guns, and more.

Featuring the same map artwork as found at MapMod.

Some differences between First World War Campaigns and
Panzer Campaigns:

Setting up prevents *all* firing including direct fire

Costs MG and Field Guns (non-IF artillery) full allowance to setup

A Towed Gun Limitation value limits the number of deployed Towed Guns in any one hex

Cavalry charge (man unit on horse)
-4x assault
-Assault cost 1/3

Mounted cavalry takes assault losses when defending at 1/12 normal value but must retreat if the defending hex consists entirely of mounted cavalry and the attackers do not consist entirely of mounted cavalry

Costs Cavalry 2/3 allowance to change to Travel Mode

Cavalry costs 2X Victory Points

Mounted cavalry cannot recover fatigue

New Fort hex (1.5x pillbox effects)

Detached units -1 morale

Attachments at Army level

MG units can retreat with no additional losses (goes to travel mode)

MG units must be in Travel Mode to move

Siege Guns - must be in travel or rail mode to move
-Costs full movement allowance to go into travel mode
-Requires setup
-Cannot fire Op Fire or Defensive Fire or Fire Direct
-Setting up probability is half normal
-One fire per turn
-Fire against Forts and Redoubts *= 50

All air strikes are subject to scatter up to 2 hexes away

Air recon scatters but provides the same information

All indirect fire is plotted on map and resolved at beginning of next turn

Field Guns (non-Indirect Fire artillery) can retreat from assault with 1/2 losses and do not exert a ZOC

Only engineers can damage rail

Units moving at night not by rail or road movement become Disrupted

All assaults at night result in Disrupted attackers

All HQ units in Travel or Rail Mode are Out of Command

and more!

Not home before the leaves started falling.

New changes to both engines:

Added new Forced Bridge Crossing Rule which allows units to force a bridge crossing against enemy ZOC (see Users Manual under Movement)

Increased engineer digging in bonus from 2x to 3x

Changed hot key "R" to Toggle Rail Mode

The game also has a scenario and sub-map editor included with the game. Play modes include A/I, Hot Seat, PBEM, LAN & Internet play.
France '14 is scheduled for release on June 4th, 2010.

F14 Early Scenarios Planning Map (click image for larger pdf format)

 

Minimum Requirements

- 1 GHz Pentium CPU

- 512 MB RAM

- 400 MB Hard Drive

- Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft)

- Microsoft DirectX 9.0+

 

FWWC Series Page (Coming Soon)

FWWC vs PzC Analysis Article

MapMod F 14 Add On