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Westfront (2016)

Westfront is a company to battalion level game for WW1 forces, designed for 1/72, 15mm or 10mm miniatures. Smaller scales could also be used.

Westfront is designed with simplicity in mind, but since it represents communication issues, orders from above, random events like units becoming lost, as well as the actual movement and attacking of the various types of forces, it can become quite in-depth.

Westfront has a fairly free-form army list composition; allowing players to choose infantry, cavalry, vehicles, various types of artillery, fortifications and barbed wire at their will. Units behave historically, and 4 different theaters are available to play in. Some will have a higher chance of poor weather, and if the entire tabletop is mud units like armored cars simply wont be able to function. Thankfully season is determined before players write their army lists, so they will know ahead of time what to expect.

Westfront covers the evolution of the war and the changes in doctrines and units involved;

Early war (1914 – 1915) will have only the most rudimentary artillery usage in preliminary bombardments, and only the basic units available (no tanks!).

Mid War (1916) will see the standardization of the creeping artillery barrage (which really works in-game: artillery provides cover as troops advance, and causes enemies to keep their heads down if it explodes near them), indirect machine gun fire and of course the introduction of the first Mk.I tanks.

Late war (1917 – 1918) will see advanced infantry tactics like Germans advancing machine gun teams through creeping barrages to set up in no mans land, and the introduction of more refined tanks and German anti-tank rifles.

Westfront provides army lists for the Allied forces and the Central Powers, covering most of the units available. 3 qualities of infantry and cavalry are available (sup-par, regular and assault/veterans), and artillery is broken into 4 categories: Trench mortars like the minenwerfer or stokes mortar, flat-firing field guns like the 37mm maxim, and the various 77mm German guns (these have varying ranges depending on the specific gun), howitzer batteries like the 18-Pdr or 15cm SFH, and heavy howitzers like the 42cm Mörser or the BL 12-Inch. Fortifications are covered, with shallow and deep trenches, dug outs and pillboxes all available

Westfront aims to give fun games around 2 hours long and to give a WW1 feel for the players. Much research has been done based on the accounts of actual combatants, attempting to implement some of the important features for those on the ground. For example a forward unit on the attack may start to run low on ammunition, so could send a runner back to request supplies, but the runner may get killed along the way… Another example might be a friendly unit capturing an enemy trench, only to get shelled by friendly artillery controlled by H.Q. They desperately send a runner back to their lines to tell the barrage to stop, but it will take a few turns for the order to get through.