March to Victory - Front Cover

March to Victory - Front Cover

A game in the "Great War" series that covers the 1914-16 Campaigns in France and Italy. This war to end all wars was fought in the dawn of new technology that laid waste to vast empires and their armies. Virtually all our modern weapons were first used in this war. The tactics were not. Mass attack resulted in mass destruction. During this war both sides were forced to rebuild their armies. Each new army with the air and naval forces are in this game. This game features many scenarios, and the ability to play with, or without the air and naval system.

The Game was designed by A. E. Goodwin and Eric Pierce and is the first of five games that are planned to cover the whole of the First World War.

Scenarios

Battle of Liege - A MTV Battle scenario by Eric Pierce, published in August 2016 on the Europa Mailing List.

References

The Europa Magazine

“Field Report: 1916.” By Michael Tapner. TEM 76.
“March to Victory – Europafest 1998.” By Carl Kleihege. TEM 71.
“March to Victory – Europafest 1999.” By Carl Kleihege. TEM 71.
“MtV Player Notes: Bombardments.” By Carl Kleihege. TEM 76.
“MtV Player Notes: The Need to Attack.” By Carl Kleihege. TEM 76.
“Play Notes for the Grand Fleet.” By Carl Kleihege. TEM 72.
“The Schlieffen Plan, Solitaire.” By Carl Kleihege. TEM 72.

Game Reports

March to Victory No 1: Before buying GR/D from the estate of Winston Hamilton, Karl Kleihege was heavily involved in the design and development of March to Victory. The game was demonstrated at several conventions and three successive Europafests - this short report is from Europafest 1998.

March to Victory No 2: Another short writeup from a March to Victory game at Europafest by Carl Kleihege. In this report from 1999, the "February 1915" scenario was played.

March to Victory No 3:The third and last of the March To Victory game reports from Europafest written bei Carl Kleihege - 2000.

March to Victory No 4: This game report details the course of a campaign game of March to Victory, played in 1998-99 and written up by Carl Kleihege.

Related Games

Cover Art from Over There

Over There - Extension

FAQs

Battle of Liege: German Rifle Division breakdowns

Question:
The German rifle division break pieces don’t exist and would occupy slots in some future product

Answer:
In MTV there are indeed no break downs for the divisions – mostly. The only breakdowns provided were those that needed to be the game in order to complete the OBs appropriately. Dreadnought was to include a number of breakdowns so that players could use their forces more fully. Now BE & BW would have included some breakdowns, but  in MTV & OT there was simply no room for the usual breakdowns. Players are welcome to create their own breakdowns.
Source:
Mail by Eric Pierce to the Yahoo Europa Mailing List, 15.8.2016

Battle of Liege: Scenario Instructions

Question:
The scenario instructions allow the Germans to move freely and to attack in or adjacent to Liege with their entire OB; if the intent is to allow German movements only in hexes adjacent to Liege and to attack only Liege and hexes adjacent to Liege then that should be made crystal clear (given freedom to move anywhere, even a reduced effect German army controlled by a player instead of by history will push forward into Belgium and be in position to do horrible things to the Belgians and subsequently to the French)

Answer:
The “March to Victory” AUG I 14 listing describes the forces allocated to the attack upon Liege. Under ‘Special Rules #3, CP, Initial Phase’ , explains what the “Army of the Meuse” is allowed to do. Note that in MTV there is no OB listing for AUG I I4, thus no possible use of the forces of either side. As such I decided that there was no need to describe the effects of Mobilization upon the forces of the two sides. However, one such effect is ‘Reduced Effectiveness’. And just to be clear, during Mobilization, nearly (a few exceptions) all forces under the Mobilization Plan (of each nation) may not enter enemy own hexes.

Source:
Mail by Eric Pierce to the Yahoo Europa Mailing List, 15.8.2016

Battle of Liege: Movement Restrictions

Question:
The scenario instructions allow ALL Germans to move, even units at reduced effect from outside the Army of the Meuse, so that any real German player will bring up eight regiments of engineers and much more artillery, use the leader and aerial reconnaissance for potential bonuses, and have an approximately 94% chance to take the fortress and completely eliminate its defenders (including almost the whole 3rd XX) during the I AUG combat phase, then exploit move southwestward without needing (given multiple armies of units and ZOC kills, the stray brigade of 3rd XX that starts outside Liege can 100% chance be eliminated in the combat phase)

Answer:
Not ALL Germans may move. The scenario only allows the Army of the Meuse to move. No other forces are available AUG I 14 as they are not listed.

Source:
Mail by Eric Pierce to the Yahoo Europa Mailing List, 15.8.2016

Battle of Liege: Escape of 3rd Belgian Division

Question:
Even if the rules are clarified to restrict the Germans to both moving and fighting only adjacent to Liege, no actual player will allow 3rd Belgian XX to escape the fortress as it historically did…if a player has no incentive to act historically and lots of incentive not to, the rule is probably wrong.

Answer:
True. An Entente player probably will not move the 3rd Div out. What a player might do with the 3rd Div may depend on other considerations. Note too that the the AUG I 14 Setup is not intended to carry over to AUG II14. MTV starts AUG II 14. Sorry if this is not clear. The “March to Victory” scenario is only the AUG I 14 turn. I added CP Setup MTV: to the AUG II 14 listing.

Source:
Mail by Eric Pierce to the Yahoo Europa Mailing List, 15.8.2016

Battle of Liege: Morale

Question:
The tripled morale point loss for Belgian REs during I AUG appears irrelevant because when Belgium loses all its major cities and fortresses, it automatically falls to zero morale points and the Belgian army and geography aren’t big enough to allow the country to be collapsed before that event…how many points it loses when it collapses has no meaning, whether 1 or 70 the effect is identical

Answer:
No actual morale point loss is useless. IF Belgium surrenders the points would simply disappear, naturally. But you are only looking at the short term effects. The rules must cover the effects of game/history activities for completeness.

Source:
Mail by Eric Pierce to the Yahoo Europa Mailing List, 15.8.2016

Battle of Liege: Rolling from reduced Effect

Question:
The scenario isn’t clear when units recover from being at reduced effect but seems to say that a large majority of units on both sides across the entire front roll normally (per the Britain nation-specific rules, which also govern the US oddly) and I can’t believe that’s the intent because it would be a huge change to the game and a huge pain in the posterior for the players; I thought perhaps units would become full effect automatically for II AUG, but some Belgians are noted in the OB as still being reduced effect

Answer:
No it does not. As the AUG II 14 is when the game actually begins. Like I stated earlier, AUG I 14 is not MTVs start time. However, let me help here – mobilization is complete AUG II 14.

Source:
Mail by Eric Pierce to the Yahoo Europa Mailing List, 15.8.2016

Battle of Liege: Automatic +1 for German Attacks

Question:
All I have to support this point is personal experience of having played 1914 about 4 times and some knowledge of the historical campaign but I don’t agree that the Germans should get +1 in every attack they make during the first three turns of the war (remembering that 3 German armies have automatically successful activation rolls in II AUG and 2/3 success activation rolls in I SEP); IIRC, quite a number of German attacks ended-up badly bloodied when directly confronting defenders who stood and fought – the defense usually retreated when Germans were lapping around the flanks (which the game does really well already)…and the scenario doesn’t limit the +1 to only the Army of the Meuse or even only to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Armies, it gives +1 to the attacks in the south that were launched against the Schlieffen Plan and even to Germans in the East (clearer writing to fix this)

Answer:
The +1 bonus applies to ‘The Army of the Meuse’, as described in the scenario. It will also apply to the 1,st, 2nd, 3rd armies during the Special pre-turn (only), before the regular AUG II 14 turn begins.

I had planned to post a list of TGW changes very soon that would include this new rule. It would also list the new Setup changes. I’m play-testing the new changes at this time, and all seems to be working very well. The German drive is indeed getting into France.

Source:
Mail by Eric Pierce to the Yahoo Europa Mailing List, 15.8.2016

Battle of Liege: Rationale for Scenario

Question:
I suggest that rather than making things complicated, the II AUG scenario ought simply be modified such that the German “surprise movement and combat phases” begin with a few German units having already moved and be besieging Liege plus an obstructed rail marker or two near the frontier.

Answer:
The AUG II 14 Setup upgrade will show all new changes. Anyone may use the (changes) CP Setup AUG II 14 as provided in “March to Victory”.

Source:
Mail by Eric Pierce to the Yahoo Europa Mailing List, 15.8.2016

Gallery