Ageod WW1 Manual Cover.qxd

27. Events and Stratagems
Many events occur during the game. When they occur, a window will open
to display your choices. To see what the consequences to the event will be,
hold the mouse over the central answer button, and a summary will pop up.
Once you have made your choice, click on the button, then on the
OK button at the bottom right-hand side of the window to confirm your
choice.
Stratagems are secret “cards” that you can play at different crucial
moments in the game (combat, diplomacy, politics, economics, etc). The
cards are displayed at the bottom left-hand side of the interface, right under
the region and units panel. Click on the card to see a pop-up window with
the stratagem description. Confirm the proposed choice (OK button) in
order to “play” the stratagem. This is usually effective as soon as played. If
you refuse, the stratagem remains in your inventory.
So each event is either public (historical event) or secret (stratagem). At the
beginning of the game, all of the event cards are placed in a deck. Each
player takes 1 to 3 events each turn, depending on the Season. During the
very first turn of 1914, the number of drawn and kept events depend
instead on the combination of war plans and options selected by all major
nations.
● When played, some events require a success roll to have an effect;
otherwise it is a failure. The player must roll equal or more the
difficulty value of the event.
● Some events are automatic.
● Some events enter in play in a certain turn.
● Some events may enter in play in a certain turn and not later than a
given date, so having a semi-random range of occurrence (they have
a difficulty value).
Important: most events may happen only if some conditions are met. To
play stratagems, you are always requested to click first on one map area
belonging to the playing/target nation, commonly under your control.
27.1 Picking events
Each turn, the number drawn varies according to the Season played:
Spring-Winter: 1 event per side.
● Jan/February: Germany 1, Great Britain 1
● Mar/April: Austria 1, France 1
● May: Germany 1, Russia 1
Summer: 3 events per side.
● June: Germany 2, Austria 1, France 1, Great Britain 1, Russia 1
● July: Germany 2, Austria 1, France 1, Great Britain 1, Russia 1
● August: Germany 2, Austria 1, France 1, Great Britain 1, Russia 1
Fall: 2 events per side.
162 World War One: La Grande Guerre 1914-1918
● September: Germany 1, Austria 1, France 1, Russia 1
● October: Germany 2, Great Britain 1, France 1
● Nov-December: Germany 1, Austria 1, Great Britain 1, Russia 1
27.2 Public events
Public events enter in play:
● if drawn from the deck, or
● at a fixed date.
If drawn from the deck, they have commonly a “difficulty” value: it means a
die is rolled (and modified), the event occurs only if the die roll is equal or
more the difficulty value. These events are called “Mandatory Events”.
If the event enters in play at a fixed date, instead, a difficulty check may
take place, depending on the event itself, and most times the event has a
certain range of time to occur. These events are called “Historical Events”.
27.3 Historical events
For ease of simplicity, the historical events are grouped by nation, as
follows.
Austria-Hungary
Death of Emperor Franz Joseph
Description: The death of the old Austrian emperor will bring his son
Charles to the throne. The new emperor will try to inaugurate some key
reformations in the monarchy, not all of them successful for sure!
Historical notes: By the time Franz Josef stepped onto the throne in 1848
at the age of 18, Austria’s position as a great European power was already
in serious decline. In 1867, following a series of failed constitutional
reforms, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise would see Franz Josef
crowned King of Hungary, establishing the Dual Monarchy of
Austria-Hungary. Nearly 50 years later in 1914, with the Dual Monarchy still
intact, the aging emperor had seen the Habsburg Empire lose its holdings
in both Italy and Germany and was determined not to allow further decay
by the loss of holdings in the Balkans to Serbia. Josef was to die in
November, 1916 and his successor Karl, who reigned for just two years,
would be the last of the Habsburg monarch’s.
Conditions: automatic.
Difficulty: die roll 6+.