1914 Rules Review | Storm of Steel Wargaming 

I’m looking forward to GEG releasing their eastern front supplement with the Austro-Hungarians & Russians.

Very interesting set of rules. I am still leaning towards the smaller scale Through the Mud and the Blood, but I will definitely keep this on my list.

As well as the orders and use of them on commanders did you ever find out WHERE the commanders go on the table? We always end up putting the model on the army sheet and distributing the command from there.

I think an expansion was planned to go deeper into the war but never materialised for some reason, its a good game which scratches the itch for big expansive battles and looks great on the table

I think the rules are maybe a little barebones but the core ideas of the game are fun and easy enough. The cards add a little bit of flavour but don't dominate the game with their effects which I appreciate. I actually gave it a try because I was overthinking and never getting started with any of my great war ideas, a relatively cheap buy in and an 'everything you need' bundle for this meant I could scratch that itch. The eastern front is being worked on as well which I'm looking forward to. Fun game, I should put it on the table more often.

Great review mate.

Like GEG rule books. I play Sword & Spear and Seven Days. Top company, based down the road in Cardiff.

Good points on use of cavalry.

How odd - we just played these rules for the first time about a month ago. Austrian against Russians, somewhere in Galicia. As we had played Seven Days, and Iron Cross, and enjoyed them, we thought these would be fun. Like yourself, we were initially really looking forward to them, even though - as you point out - there are a fair number of grey or confusing areas in the rules. In practice however, what seems intriguing on the page, didn't seem to work so well on the table. Since multiple activations mean it is less likely that a unit will continue to act (which makes sense) in practice we found that giving all units equal numbers of chits (or roughly equal) was the most effective. Oh, we allowed generals to use their activations for anything, on anyone on the basis that no mention was made of any command radius nor limitations on types of orders. So the whole intriguing pre planning and secret allocation of activations didn't really pan out when playing. The oddest thing we found were the morale markers. Since they are removed when you lose a stand, suddenly the unit is completely fresh! So we found ourselves in the strange position of hoping for one more morale marker on our unit, so that the unit was fully effective again. As long as units have just two stands, they fire as well as units with five. The initiative bidding and shifting back and forth was good though. Quite liked that. And GEG are fantastic to deal with. All that said, although the game has some interesting bits, after it was over, neither one of us really thought it "felt" like a WW1 game. I have to add the huge caveats that of course that's entirely subjective, and we didn't use cards as it was our first game. However, cavalry seemed very, very effective, even charging frontally against machine guns. Didn't seem right. Will I pick up the Eastern supplement if it appears? Probably. Will I play it again? Perhaps, as maybe we played it poorly. But overall, I might tend to lump it into the Blood & Valour area of WW1 rules - good game, but not really WW1.

Interesting elements added from their previous iterations. Iron Cross also had holes and gray spots.

So, based on playing 'Seven Days...' there's almost never a time that all units on one side end up doing something during a turn. You almost always end up pushing one set of units to do more than the other as attacks go in. It is very much like O-Group in how you end up rewarding success with more stuff to do. The General's command tokens I think are just General use tokens. In Seven Days, the force commander is on the table, and he can be targeted. If you lose a commander, you actually have to roll to see how any command tokens you lose, until the 2iC takes charge a turn later. I'd suggest doing it the same way.

Thanks for a useful review. It strikes me these are intended and probably best suited, to the war of movement. With minor additions I think they’d work well for 1918 on the Western Front, the Middle East and the Eastern Front. They should also work for the Russian Civil War, providing the morale system is flexible enough to handle poorly disciplined and led troops.

Cracking episode Mate, really enjoy watching... even if not a historical period I'd ever play. Hope you continue going strong

Thanks for the review, that was really interesting. 1914 has been one of those rule sets on my radar but which I've never investigated. Reckon I'll give them a go. They'd probably work absolutely fine as an alternative for my Square Bashing Balkan Wars armies too. Lovely 🐱 BTW 🙂.

"This is something that seems to elude wargamers." I'm sure there's whole theses to be written on the subject of inertial wisdom in wargaming and historical spheres!

A nice review as always. The approaches of the command system sound interesting, even with it's confusing parts. 😉

Great Review! I hope to see a play through on the channel one day. Is there a section on troops of various quality or is it assumed that all the troops are similarly trained?

My review of your cat. 10/10

Well Tiny seemed to like them!

I’d also been aware of these rules since their release but had likewise overlooked them, as most of the wargaming press and community appears to have done so this is a highly worthwhile overview which I found very interesting. I hope it I’ll be followed up in due course. I note your claim that the rules can readily be used for the entire war but you didn’t say much, as I recall, about how they reflect the changing weaponry and tactics. I realise you’ve not played a game as yet but it would be particularly instructive to see the comparative ‘feel’ of games set at different stages of the war, supposing, of course, that you have the time and inclination to do so.

Email Stuart and ask about the general ‘s command tokens. He has always answered my questions about their other games.

I wish my cat loved me as much as your does lol I went to go pet mine and she bit my hand 🤦‍♂️

Ahhhh those Great War myths .... bane of my life. Lions led by Donkeys, All shot at dawn etc .

The war also encompassed far more than the Western Front, the middle east and the eastern front generally remained mobile throughout the war.

What about the Australian light horse