Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 22:44:11 -0700 
To: hotspur@rocketmail.com 
From: Sean Emerson <semerson@transport.com>  
Subject: Guns of August update 
       


The Guns of August
Module for the War Game Processor

Avalon Hill's strategic/corps level game of World War One allows you to
fight the entire European theater of war on either or both western and
eastern fronts, year by year, or the entire campaign on both fronts, 
from
the beginning to the end of the war.  You must own a copy of the board 
game
in order to use this module.

Scenarios - Included along with the two module files, you'll find six 
saved
game scenario files, one each for the Campaign/1914 scenario (since the
start positions are the same for both), 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918
scenarios, as well as one with all the units just sorted into their
respective force pools (GoA3FP.gps).  In the case of the specific 
yearly
scenarios, I placed the units available on start up, grouped according 
to
type; near but behind the national borders or scenario start lines.  It
will of course be up to the player to place specific units in the hexes
they desire before the start of the game.  In the case of the division 
of
units between fronts, usually applying to Germany and Austria-Hungary, 
I
placed the minimum amount of the weakest strength corps available 
opposite
the least important (historically speaking or in my opinion) front.  I 
also
placed the minimum amount of artillery that would have to be withdrawn 
in a
one front game near the less important front.  Of course players are 
free
to rearrange these as they see fit before they begin; only needing to
adhere to the minimum corps requirement for each front.  In scenarios 
with
nations that begin as conquered, I placed no garrisoning forces as 
required
in the advanced rules.  This too will be up to the players to do before
beginning a game.  Where particular nations, units, or markers come 
into
play later in the same year after the start of the scenario, those 
forces,
units, and markers are left off map at start.  

Map - I adhered as closely as I could to the look of the board game, 
with
the main exceptions being the rail lines are now dark purple instead of
black, making both the rail lines themselves, passing through the many
black hex sides, and the non-objective black cities the rail lines 
connect
to, easier to pick out, and I changed the symbol (both on map and on 
the
markers) for fortresses.  They should still be readily obvious.  The 
only
city place names I could not fit entirely in the hex name field were
Brest-Litovsk, abbreviated by dropping all the vowels, and 
Constantinople,
abbreviated by dropping the last three vowels.  Again, they should be
readily recognizable.  The line of red "x's" inside the border of 
France is
the west front 1915-1918 scenario start line.  The line of western-most 
red
"x's" on the eastern front, still partly within the borders of Germany 
and
Austria-Hungary is the east front 1915 scenario start line.  The more
eastern line of red "x's" on the east front, almost entirely within 
Russia,
is the 1916-1917 east front scenario start line.  The line of blue 
"x's"
within and along the Rumanian border with Russia is the continuation of 
the
1917 scenario start line.  The lines of red "x's" within and along the
borders of Italy and Greece are the Italian and Balkan scenario start
lines, respectively.  The turn tracks were moved from their respective 
sea
areas in the board version to the left and right border areas below the
replacement point tracks.  Lastly, I used some extra space below
(geographic south) the map to make two eliminated unit-holding areas, 
for
units to be replaced with replacement points.  You can split up 
eliminated
units east and west, Central Powers and Allies, or any way you'd like.  
I
recommend you view this module in 65K color or higher and 640X480
resolution (or no higher than 800X600 for the "wider" view) for best 
effect. 

The Redcoats Are Back - I also tried to reproduce the units and markers
from the board game as closely as possible and mostly succeeded (a tip 
of
the hat to the color palette, since most of the units are shades of 
green
and brown, the remainder being shades of gray and blue).  But though I
could reproduce the dark green of the British units almost exactly, the
black attack, defense, and movement numbers, as well as the unit icons,
were almost impossible to read.  I found it less glaring to my eye to
change the color of the unit to something different than to change the
attack/defense/movement numbers and the icons to a different color than
black when all the other units in the game have black strength numbers 
and
icons.  So the British forces are now red in color.  Also, as mentioned
above, I had to come up with a different fortress symbol for the 
fortress
markers.  

The unit values are attack strength (total), defense strength (total), 
and
movement (minimum).  The unit names use the same one or two letter 
national
designations that are found on the board game counters, for example G, 
for
German, and show the size of the unit (xxx, III, II), for use with 
naval
and rail rules.  For use with the combat function and the after combat
report, between the national designation and the size of each unit, I
listed its attack/defense/movement ratings (example AH 243 xxx, for an
Austro-Hungarian 2-4-3 infantry corps).  Since many infantry, cavalry, 
and
artillery units between nationalities and even within the same 
nationality
have different values, this is the only way you could get an accurate
display of strengths involved in a combat report.  

On the other hand, German Stosstrupen units, and British and French 
tank
and air units, as well as all fortress and rail engineer units, have 
unit
type designations rather than strength designations in their names, 
since
their attack and defense strengths are constant according to type and 
they
also result in die roll modifications or have other functions.  I 
thought
it would be more useful in the combat report to show units that 
modified
the die roll, especially since their strengths are uniform to their 
type
and should be known.  I didn't do this with the two German siege 
artillery
units, since there are only two and they are easily identified in the
combat reports by their unique 3-2-1 and 3-1-1 ratings.  However, as a
reminder of their special abilities and a way to easily identify them 
on
the map, I added a red dot to the upper right hand corner of the six 
German
Stosstrupen counters and a blue dot to the upper right hand corner of 
the
two German siege artillery units.  

I added an extra 64 markers to the module, in the form of extra
entrenchment, fortification, isolation and demoralized markers mostly, 
with
a few extra entrained and rail head markers.  There are also 15 blank
counters, stacked in the bottom-most central sea hex, below the Malta 
box.
These can be used for any purpose the player wishes, such as a reminder 
of
which units received demoralized markers in the current game turn, etc.    

Play Of The Game - Very little needs to be altered from the board game.  
If
using the random method of setting up on each front, simply roll a die
rather than picking a front marker.  I recommend that for the purpose 
of
combat, units be placed in the attack and defend boxes along with any
strength or die roll modifying markers in an order that will show which
units are affected by which markers.  For example, if a hex is being
defended that has units below a fortification or entrenchment, or 
isolated
units are participating in an attack, place the units in the attack and
defend boxes so that as you scroll down the list of units in a given 
box,
the appropriate marker appears above only those units that are actually
affected by that given marker.  Then in the combat report, the order of 
the
listing of units will also show which units are beneath which markers.  
I
included the sets of east and west front replacement markers and the
appropriate boxes to stack the units they represent in the module.  
Though
there is no danger of knocking over stacks of units in the module, I 
wanted
to remain as faithful as possible to the board version and the front
markers can still add to the element of "fog of war."  When Phase II of 
the
WGP arrives, it will be possible to designate the units beneath a front
marker as hidden while the marker itself is visible, thereby achieving 
true
fog of war in the sense intended in the rules.

3RD Edition - This module incorporates all of the errata from the 18/3 
and
25/5 issues of the General magazine.  Mostly this has to do with 
scenario
set-ups but also includes minor counter and map-board errata, such as
providing a French 3-2-2 siege artillery unit and moving the rail line 
that
was originally in HH15 south one hex to HH16.  If you play without one 
or
both versions of the errata, it may be necessary to adjust scenario
at-start forces.  In addition I've included all the units and map-board
additions necessary to use the Naval module which appears in the 
General,
volume 18/3, either alone or in conjunction with the Diplomacy and
Mobilization modules from the same issue.  Basically this involves
providing naval unit counters and naval damage markers along with four
"off-map" boxes, for the Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean Sea 
areas
and for the ports of Scapa Flow and Malta.  Beneath the name of each
off-map box and sea area, the adjacent sea areas squadrons can move to 
are
indicated in parentheses as two-letter codes, which should be obvious,
i.e., AO = Atlantic Ocean, NS = North Sea, etc.  Gunnery and Protection
values for naval squadrons are listed under attack and defense values,
respectively, since they function exactly the same.

Unfortunately, the Naval module as presented in the General is far from
comprehensive and there are numerous points that will have to be 
decided by
the individual player or agreed upon by two or more players before 
starting
a game.  Among other things, damage repair, both during battle and in 
port;
what constitutes a "pursuit unit" when disengaging individual 
squadrons, as
opposed to entire fleets; how exactly the "optional" squadrons listed 
in
the Fleet Order of Appearance section come into play; and why the US 
shows
a fleet squadron size of 3-6 for Battle Cruisers (BC's) when they 
neither
receive any BC squadrons at set-up, cannot build any squadrons using 
the
Mobilization module, nor receive any BC squadrons as reinforcements in 
the
Fleet Order of Appearance section of the Naval module are points that 
need
clarification.  I've included enough naval units to build the maximum
amount of each type for each nation if using the Mobilization module in 
a
campaign game extended to December, 1919 (including five BC US 
squadrons,
the same as the maximum number of BB squadrons they could possibly 
have,
for use at player discretion).  In addition, I've included both a 
Turkish
and German version of the Goeben and a Turkish and British version of 
the
2-3 BB squadron for use with the Diplomacy module.  Since it's not 
clear if
the British BB unit would be a normal 4-8 if not given to Turkey 
(possibly
due to superior British seamanship and command?) as the Fleet Order of
Appearance would seem to indicate and as would make sense as additional
impetus not to hand it over to the Turks, I've also included one 
additional
4-8 British BB over and above the maximum buildable total, again to be 
used
at player discretion.  In the 1917 scenario, Greece starts as a 
neutral,
but as per the rule book, I've placed the Greek units on map, along 
with
the 2-4 B squadron, which remains in Salonika, the only on-map Greek 
port,
stacked beneath the British corps.

There are twenty naval damage markers, with light damage on the front 
and
heavy damage on the back that can be used to mark damaged squadrons 
during
each round of combat.  Squadrons, which are sunk can simply be inverted
before removal.  If using the Mobilization module, the month/year track 
can
be used to keep track of when a squadron will be launched after laying 
down
the keel and then again when it will be completed after the final cost 
is
paid after launching by inverting/turning face up the counter and 
placing
it on the appropriate month.  For nations that take eighteen months to
launch, some memory/note-taking may still be necessary.  The preplotted
moves for squadrons each turn can be sent to your opponent(s) by 
encoded
message and then confirmed by exchanging passwords.  Each scenario has 
the
at-start naval forces for each nation stacked in one port.  With the
exception of nations with only one port and Russia, which starts with
squadrons specifically split between the Baltic and Black Seas, players 
are
free to adjust and distribute squadrons among their various ports as 
they
see fit before starting play.  If you don't have access to the Naval
module, or prefer not to use it, you can either place the naval 
counters
back in the individual national force pools, or simply ignore them.

Finally, there are a series of "Game Kits" produced by the Deer Valley 
Game
Company which expand/clarify a number of games (all from Avalon Hill, 
as
far as I've seen).  There's one for Guns of August, available for 
download
from the Web Grognards site (www.grognard.com), that helps clarify some 
of
the above mentioned problems with the Naval module, providing you 
accept
their interpretation.  It also includes numerous additions to the 
system,
such as optional submarine units and "command chits," as well as three 
more
additional "off-map" ports, two for Russia and one for France.  Maybe 
one
of these days I'll produce an unofficial "4th Edition" of this module,
incorporating all the changes from the game kit (but don't count on 
it).
The General magazine additions to the game may not be perfect, but now
they're here for your use and experimentation.  

I hope you enjoy the module, and if you'd like to contact me to play a 
game
or to comment, you can reach me at julianta@aol.com.  


                                  Tony Arena 3/5/00