Due to hardware issues (hardware that has reached its used by date, as well as replacing said used up hardware), I may not have ftp access to the site for a period of time. I will endeavor to post updates to the SPW blog as per normal. I appreciate your consideration in this matter 
The Grand Campaign Rules are designed to hold all of the rules pertaining to the entire game and ARE designed to cut way down on having to consult multiple rulebooks.
Sections 20-32 of the Grand Campaign Rules cover things that apply to all fronts for the entire war.
Sections 33-35 of the Grand Campaign Rules cover Front Specific Rules.
Section 39 of the Grand Campaign Rules consolidates all of the Special Rules (from all fronts) governing the start of the war (French Plan 17, Austro-Hungarian and Russian initial war plans, and so on).
Section 40 gives a timeline of when certain rules on certain fronts become active.
All of this is meant to give players a primary source when playing the Grand Campaign, and to cut way down having to refer to other rulebooks.
The only thing that you really have to use the scenario rulebooks for are initial set ups, but the exact sections of the initial setups are given in the Grand Campaign Rulebook.
http://www.spwgame.com/rules.php
The new rules are labeled as ‘Sterling Edition’, plus also posted are the final draft for ‘The Grand Campaign’, and the Production Book for ‘The Grand Campaign’.
Please give these a look through; Dave is asking for feedback to be posted here or at CSW.
In the design of the Grand Campaign game, it is much easier to deal with a “standardized” supply point. That is a supply point that supplies 4 strength points for an attack, rather than nationality based supply points that are designed to supply a single national division for an attack. This is because of the complications of production and shipping and so on not present in scenario games.
Yet this obviously raises an important issue, how to deal with this going forward. There are two options.
I would like to ask your input before I make a final determination.
I can, at this point, go with either option. In my mind, I had kind of been resigning myself to option A, but the more I think about it, the more I have started to lean towards option B.
Let me know what you think.
GRAND CAMPAIGN Update
Thought I should let you know how things are going with the production of the new game (and reprints).
As you may be aware, not only are we putting out the Grand Campaign Game (which ties all of the other games together), but also are reprinting the older games.
The games that will come out this summer are therefore Grand Campaign, Eastern Front (contains Tannenberg, Galicia, Serbia, Romania, and Gorlice Tarnow/Brusilov Offensive), Western Front, Italian Front, and Osmanli Harbi (Ottoman Fronts).
If you have the series already, you will NOT need any of the reprints. I am making things so that your older components will not need replacing.
All of the maps have been sent in for printing. All of the reprint counters are done, and I am finishing the Grand Campaign counters this weekend.
On the maps: Grand Campaign will contain map 5-4, Central Germany (linking east and west fronts), map 5-6S (Besarabia, to the east of current Galicia map and to the north of current Romania map), and additional map extensions for West Front (Le Havre area and south, Geneva area plus France-Italy main rail connection) and Ottoman Front (Cyprus, Cilician Gates area of Turkey, rail link from Palestine to Mesopotamia – map 7-8S), plus the Strategic Sea Map (which also is used as long long range rail movement coordination (like from Archangelsk to St Petersburg or East Front to Caucasus).
I also made some small changes to older maps (but again, your old maps still work – you are not forced to replace anything). I added the LeHavre area to map 5-3. I added out to Western Crimea on the Romania map (just because it fit). On the reprint of the Palestine map, Cyprus and more of Turkey are added on (so new players won’t have to fiddle with the extensions). I removed all the 1914 and 1919 borders and just put in a dashed line border showing pre WW1 borders on all maps. I also removed the macro hex outlines, as these are not used in WW1 games. And only WW1 rail lines are now on the maps.
On the counters: I made unit symbols that show minor German Kingdom based units. All are still white circle 8 for recombination, but now Bavarian infantry are white X on light blue box, Saxons are white X on green, and Baden Wurttemburg are black X on red. I also added a black outline to the values of Russian infantry to make the values easier to see (especially for those who are color blind – I got that special request at CONSIM convention last year).
New counters for Grand Campaign will contain all the sea transport point and pipeline markers, markers for amphib landings, production track markers, air “advantage” counters, and 1919 tank units (like the Italian Fiat 2000, the French Char 2C monster, and German options like the LK-II). I even added option for early war Austro-Hungarian tanks as they actually had the first AFV plans (pre-war even).
Can’t wait to show everything off at this years CONSIMWORLD convention.
~Dave Schroeder
I thought it would give you all a taste of what I am working on right now, the rules for the Grand Campaign Game.
First Rough Draft of the Grand Campaign Rules
These are very rough right now, but I wanted to put them out there, not just to whet your appetite for the new release, but also to ask for suggestions and proposals.
If you have ideas on how something could be done better, I am open to your proposals.
You will need to post them here. I will consider them, but in the end I have the final say.
I believe the exchange of ideas can only help all of us.
I will post updates as further progress is made.
~Dave Schroeder
You can Pledge “Der Weltkrieg’s” Grand Campaign game at Decision Games.
Meant to put more news about CONSIM convention earlier…
The biggest news is that Joe Youst and I came to an agreement for him to help with new terrain look for WW2 maps. His work is great. He’s also very approachable and helpful (to say the least).
This of course also means that WW2 games will be done.
Materials -
I have decided to make all of the hand drawn maps that I originally created for Der Weltkrieg available to all. Since I can take payments over paypal, its easy to work out payment processing, and with email, I can send you a 300dpi jpeg of the map sections.
There are about 200 hand drawn map sections (see attached “hand drawn map layout.xls). I will sell these to people at a cost of $2 apiece.
Below is an example map. It is of the Vienna area, It is not at 300dpi so that you can download fast as an example. The terrain is just a basic color, but it works well.
With this, you can buy maps now and not have to wait till the portion you want is available through a new game release.
If you would like to buy sections, send me an email at davschroed@yahoo.com
I returned from attending the CONSIM convention early this week (took me a couple of days to get back home, as I was driving).
I met a lot of customers, got a lot of feedback, and had long conversations with Jackson regarding the duration game and future of the system.
We displayed a 1914 campaign (West, East, Serbian) for all to see.
I gave a seminar on my book, “Business in the Trenches” (see www.businessinthetrenches.com) and another on the Der Weltkrieg System and future plans.
We are on track to have the duration game out by Summer of next year.
World War II games will follow.
I will now get down to posting the developments and decisions reached during CONSIM in subsequent posts.
http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@812.5cVkcVcTvRd.15@.ee6bea9/7369
