Well, here we are. Clash of Sovereigns is finally emerging from my basement (and Vassal playtest), and (hopefully) on its way to your doorsteps in the next year or so. When all is said and done, it will have taken ten or eleven years from the decision to try to make it (because no one else was doing it! 🙂 ), and seeing it in print. I hope we’ll all be beneficiaries of that long gestation; I know it’s been good for COS.

I will be writing a series of longer and shorter articles, in irregular order, on COS game system aspects, a comparison to its predecessor, Clash of Monarchs (hereafter, “COM”), each Power’s armies and leaders, their rich card event decks, and whatever else I can decently present to impart about the game. These won’t be comprehensive; I find it hard to get past third gear nowadays, and Real Life and Work are up to my nose this year. Mixed metaphors, century-jumping analogies, and odd references will abound; narrative may occasionally look organized and tangentially brush literary competence (but don’t hold your breath); and make use of below standard literary devices. But these articles will show and tell a lot about COS.

So let’s start with some Big Picture here. (By the way, did you ever see the size of the nail they hang the Big Picture on? 🙂 )

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COS Approach and Influences

Up front, let’s lay this on the table; Clash of Monarchs was my magnum opus; I had studied the Seven Years War for twenty years, and wanted COM to be the two alarm Chili, Beethoven big symphony embodiment of that. COM was intended to be a closely accurate simulation of the Seven Years War at a strategic/operational level, with well-articulated Kleiner Krieg, economic, supply, and even tactical aspects. It’s not for casual gaming. It mostly did what I wanted it to do. A lot of people love it; a lot don’t like it at all. Fair enough. To some, COM is your brilliant, intense, demanding, mean old Uncle Frederick the Great. Well, COS is his equally brilliant, but less intense, smiling peer, Maurice De Saxe (complete with travelling camp opera troupe 🙂 ) He likes to have a good time, and he’s listening to Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” (A more detailed comparison forthcoming).

When I started my whole Frederick jag reading everything in the Pentagon library in the mid-80’s, I was quickly fascinated by the War of the Austrian Succession. At the same time, I realized it was more subtle, politically involved, and conflicted as a game subject. The Seven Years War was better known, more clear-cut, and had more rocking battles, and fourteen years later, that’s what I attempted first. After three SYW games, and all the sturm und drang concerning COM’s heavyness, when I came back to the WAS, I knew I wanted a different approach. 

The WAS didn’t invoke the same level of intensity in me as the SYW; maybe that’s due to embarking on this journey starting ten years older, or laziness, or just wincing at the thought of having to push another big boulder (a wargame) up that steep design hill again, or all three. If I wanted to get it done at all, I knew I’d had to be less passionate, less compulsive about capturing things at the detail level, less concerned about covering everything exactly. I needed to dial back the Spinal Tap amps from 11 to about an 8. And to fit it all on one map, that brought the quick realization it had to be backed off design-wise from strategic/operational with a running thread of tactical to pure strategic with a just a smidge of operational/tactical. Campaign turns in COS represent about 3- 4 months, not three weeks, so that enabled me to forego a lot of detail associated with a smaller scale.  

I also decided that I’d use a lot more Design For Effect (DFE) in COS. For instance, economics are accounted for – but here, they are 95% baked into the backstory; I tabulated all the reinforcements/battle losses/attrition that occurred (where would we be without Excel? The world would grind to a halt…) and turned this all into Reinforcement card events, or the Bourbon Treasure Fleet voyages rule, along with a small, set number of internal “Kingdom’s Resources” strength points per power, to spackle over minor gaps, and complete the picture. There’s virtually no bean counting; you get your troops from cards, and lose a few if you don’t hold certain key cities.

Keeping this mindset, I brought in game mechanics I thought fitting and light on rules. COS draws influences from what some might consider unlikely places; the Action Point (hereafter, “Ap”)  move/fight/ siege mechanic is largely based on the fun I had playing S&T’s 1991 Hannibal:  Second Punic War. I had another Aha moment when I asked myself, “What do I want the Naval rules to look like?” I would love them to be at the level of AH’s Russian Campaign. There, the entire naval game boils down to a simple die roll to cross the Black Sea or Baltic, with some drms making it sweeter or more risky for the Germans based on their controlling ports. In COS, that translated into the Fleet Intercept/Combat table – roll one die to see if you catch the enemy; roll another die to see how much you and he get hurt. A few accumulating, permanent drms are involved, from Brit event cards, which drastically improve their intercept probability and lethality  [insert French player frown here].

I made a lot of Events deterministic, or boiled it down to a weighted drm, vice adding a chunk of “cause” machinery to achieve that same Effect. It may be a simple Event die roll that will elate or slam you, vice three paragraphs of rules, 4 markers, and attendant  track shuffling. 

In macro view, instead of a design that is so finely-tuned and unforgiving that, comparing it to a former occupation of my youth, I am white-knuckling it on a 480 mph A-6 low level, flying 200 feet above the ground through the Appalachians at night, using radar clearance only (we didn’t have night vision goggles then), COS is a daytime low level at a slack 500 feet above ground through those mountains on a sunny Fall day; still exciting, and gorgeous, and I’ve been able to lean back in the seat and  relax a little, and enjoy it more. This has also enabled a generally harmonious Development period with Developer Kevin Boylan (my take – Kevin may disagree!), and a much easier acceptance of play-tester inputs from Ed Pundyk and the rest of the International Men of Mystery playtest team. There’s more wiggle room in my vision, and the outside inputs have been excellent.

There’s more to say on that, but I forget at this moment.  Onward…

How do you run a War of the Austrian Succession, Nemo? “We need Cards. Lots of cards…”

COS has a lot of cards. By last count, 24 Prussian 37 Austrian, 47 Bourbon, 45 British/Pied, and 10 optional Day of Battle cards. The decks grew organically, first based on my storyboarding the war in parallel tracks for each major power. How many forces campaigned this season – 1, 3? Which got stymied somehow (Interrupt card for an enemy power), what diplomatic events occurred when, etc. As the game took shape and I started soloing segments, other things had to be accounted for. We had a few card additions based on playtester inputs.

I could say a lot more about “lots of cards,” but that’s several tales for another day. For now, know you can use them in seven ways:

1. Campaign points (CP)
2. Their Event
3. Interrupt event when stated
4. Fleet Builds – buy 2-3 more ships to enter next year
5. Buy Depot units  — cost 1 per depot, but 2 per depot for the French (more on that some other time)
6. Launch a Fleet Sortie – chase the other guy’s fleet, or transport troops (or do optional shore bombardment)
7. Saved Resources Recruiting – in the rare event you have some cards left over at the end of the year that you don’t want to hold, you can buy 1 SP per card spent.

CPs and Aps Aspects; How you get things done. 

On to some game facets…each card has a CP rating. If you don’t play it for an event, you could use it for CPs. CPs are expended to pay a Leader’s Initiative rating to activate him and his force. On Activation, he uses his Action point (AP) allowance to move, fight, and siege. So, it’s largely about APs. They are energy, potential. The more you can expend with purpose, the better you’ll do. The more you limit enemy expenditure, or make him expend it on non-productive tasks, the less VP he will score.

It’s also a lot about CPs and Initiative – the more good initiative leaders you have, the more you can activate in a campaign round, and the more you can do. (Leader ratings in visual above – initiative right center, rank left center, offense/AP rating/defense at bottom.)

Side Note — There are about a dozen subtle and less subtle shadings of supply rules, leader ratings, a few event cards, and even geographical space selections that have entered the game over the years, all contributing minutely or slightly  to help play balance. I’ll let the WAS scholar gamers do the detective work to identify them! I ain’t tellin’. 🙂

Some Supply Aspects: 

The supply rules and use of Depot units are “loose,” and somewhat abstracted, yet their underlying basis is a common logistics practice of 18^th century warfare; armies often sent small parties out ahead of the intended line of march to contract for and collect the supplies, often in “neutral” territory, and even in enemy territory. This was referred to as gathering or collecting Depots in the correspondence of the day, and you do it in COS. A player can place and chain depots in most spaces free of enemy units (watch out in Austria proper though!); the strong national loyalties of the 19-21^st century weren’t as fully in play in Europe in the 1740’s, and merchants were willing or happy to sell to army supply parties that paid in cash, rather than waiting for the real army to arrive and commandeer everything. This is reflected in the sequence of play – you place and move Depots before you move your forces. So you can create a supplied march path before you move – if you remember to place and move your depots (That’s your logistics parties moving out ahead of you, eh?)

Overall, game-wise, I didn’t want supply to be as exacting as in COM. You have to be aware of it, but it’s usually not a notable consideration in a player’s turn. Players are usually tracing back to a friendly fortress vice a Depot, especially in the more populous map regions (Flanders, northern Italy, northern Empire). Depot rules offer flexibility as well; you can buy depots and place them directly on the map, or put them on your player mat, poised for future efforts. From there, you can plunk them down at any time in an appropriate space. 

But where do you have to think about it? Supply line planning isn’t needed much in Flanders, where all those forts provide supply, but is necessary for everyone moving in the south Empire (until you take Empire forts), and is critical for the French in their early war drives through Bavaria to get the HRE installed; on the Pragmatic side, it’s a critical factor in the Austrian dream stab of getting down to Naples and grabbing that VP prize from the Bourbons. And in Bohemia and Moravia, the Prussians will be thinking about it, often! Faced with an Austrian player who appreciates Croat/Hussar raid capabilities, many Prussian players are going to undergo “burn, then learn” experiences, until they learn to leave healthy garrisons behind their lines of march, and plan advances to minimize opportunities for C/H mischief.

Armies: 

It’s a strategic scale. Forces are Infanty at 2000 men a SP, and Cavalry at 1500 a SP. No artillery, no siege artillery, and only the Austrians get Croat/Hussar Light units, which are actually Markers in this game. Feats of Tactical brilliance are captured in Battle Cards, such as Prussian Charge of the Bayreuth Dragoons and Firing with Fearsome Rapidity (Prus infantry), Austrian Cuirassiers and Dragoons charge,  but more so on the grand tactical level with Able Subordinate cards (add a sub leader’s rating to your battle roll). The Cav Battle cards require require 2-3 cav SP to be in your force, so it pays to spread them around, but there are no consistent “cav superiority” ratios in the standard game (one as a chrome optional rule). Just as important is your overall Army Rating, which, added to your leader’s off or def rating, combines to make your side’s Army Battle Rating. So, a good army and good leader will have a distinct advantage over lesser foes. At the same time, a good army will make up some for a non-descript leader. We start with these ratings:

English – 5 (and all their mercenary allies)

Spanish – 5, various Spanish allies 4

Prussians – 4 can improve to 5 (Maneuvers and training event)

Austrians — 4

French – 3, can improve to 4 (Renewed French Commitment event)

Pieds – 3

Dutch – 2

Russians – 6 (if they get in). Were the Russians that good? Well, everyone in Europe in 1748 thought they were that good, and their march through Germany in 1748 helped hasten the Peace treaty getting done. So, DFE at work!

Battles:    

Battles are rarely decisive in COS; they should be viewed as the instrument to shrug off enemy interference with your drive to siege and take VP forts; a losing defending force goes DM, and is thus unable to attempt Intercepts any more. A high Ap leader who wins a battle early in his activation can spend the rest of his move sieging with impunity.

Minor Combat: 

To get the entire campaign to a reasonable length, I progressively reduced the amount of seasons that forces could be activated. It went from 6, to 4 active + 2 limited (Early, Late winter) then down to 2 active. Why? Too much was getting done; too many battles, too many sieges. The current time span is good, but there’ll probably still be more battles fought than historically. However, I also discovered another thing that had to change. Gamers being gamers, if you only have a few chances to move a year, your opponent is going to try to game that, and throw speed bumps in front of you. Battles cost 1 AP each in COS; so, why not string 2-3 single or small force SPs in front of the enemy and eat up his AP? I would! So I have to eliminate this gamey tactic. Enter Minor Combat – outnumber your enemy 2 to 1 or greater, you can essentially Bounce him back, you lose 1 sp, he loses 1 sp – and it costs 0 AP to do. So, forget speed bumps, unless you as defender are up for an even trade in sp – but it won’t stop the enemy army from going where it could normally reach. This kept the Summer/Fall seasons full of real movement and sieges, and not stymied by gamey delay ploys. 

Garrisons and Fortresses:

Due to the game’s time scale, literally any “Tom, Dick, and Harry” (or maybe for COS, “Broglie, Waldeck, and Castropignano” 🙂 ) can take an enemy fortress, with 2 inf sp (about 8 battalions) in hand. If you WANT TO KEEP A FORT, PUT AN INF SP IN IT. You have been warned.

Free Moves, Less False Choices: 

COS inherits the sub-mechanism from COM of a free leader move and minor force moves for each Power. Players appreciated this as a grace which smooths army operations and helps eliminate false choices, and annoying “how do I get these 3 sp back here to someplace useful?” CDG anomalies. As your campaigns roll forward and backward, you may want to decrease or increase fortress garrisons, plunk or remove fort garrison leaders, etc. These rules let you make those backfield adjustments without burning a whole card to do so. Administrative Marches, which let you move a 15 SP force six spaces through friendly territory, are another cost-efficient way to get reinforcements to the fronts, or radically shift your campaign schwerpunkts.  

Army Sizes:

A word about mega armies; they are usually a disappointment, since they are penalized with the Large Army CRT column and movement penalties. This reflects the history; mega army operational march rates, and actual performance in causing enemy casualties. The two very large “mega army” battles of the war actually resulted in far less casualties as measured by percent of forces engaged than the typical sized battles. Hence, that wan 35+ SP column of the CRT. So before you load up a 45 sp army, weigh carefully the trade-off in lost mp, and drop in % of enemy losses on that large army CRT column.  

BUT, if you’re going to build one, two star De Saxe is the only leader who may merit leading it, and if you go for it, you should very well enact “Go Big, or Go Home” and load it with 50-60+ sp. De Saxe can still achieve 6 ap activity rates with a 70 sp army, and even duding battle rolls for 5 % enemy loss results, that still ensures 4 enemy sp every time. If you happen to have a rare Tac card in hand, and roll a 5-6, you may indeed achieve an even more rare, crushing Major Victory in the field. (And now the second) BUT, if you then find yourself losing ground due to sparse French armies in Bavaria and Italy, don’t blame me! 😉

One Campaigning Tip:  

An effective plan of campaign, which was enacted historically several times by the French, is to gather and be prepared to activate two forces in a theater; your main “battle” army, and a second “siege” army. The battle army advances, attacks the nearby enemy army (or forces it to Withdraw), and, ideally, makes it go DM, which snuffs out its ability to interfere with subsequent activities. Your main army uses its remaining AP to siege, or at least start one. You then activate your siege army to move and siege unimpeded, with luck (and for the French, their +1 siege drm advantage! 🙂 ). You may grab 2-3 VP worth of enemy fortresses in a season. 

I could go on, but I’ve worked this article 3-4 times this week, and I (and probably you) have had enough, so — suddenly I am hit by a truck! (see what I did there? — a literary device…arararar)

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