Wacht Am Rhein

Vassal Module

A few prefatory comments:

1) This is my first Module in Vassal. Much of what I do is by accident, and along the way I found better ways of doing things..and completely new ways of undoing my hard work. It is frustrating, but it is also a complex and enjoyable learning opportunity.

2) The aesthetics are close to the original game, but not exactly the same. I am not a faithful copier of a design, I am a more likely to change something that suits my sensibilities or expectations. The people that made this games in 1976 did not have access to some of the things that I have access to. For those purists out there that want a faithful reproduction, please feel free to dissemble this module and reconstruct it in your prefered form.

3) Even though I have released this, I have no illusions that it is finished. I have some rough edges that need to ground back, some functionality that needs to do something better, and some double handling that needs to be undoubled. Fonts need to be standardised and formats ironed flat. So, yes you will see stuff that is inconsistant, but it is doing what is intended. It's just not very pretty. I will slowly track down these issues and hopefully rectify them.

Specific notes:

One of the most important parts of the game is maintaining organisation to optimise your artillery support and supply. As such (and this may upset the purists) I have assigned a colour to represent each Corps which brands each unit. It makes it easier for old and tired eyes to associate the unit to its correct organisation. My choice of colours was entirely my own, although governed by what was acceptable when matching with the counter colour. They may offend, or you may prefer to not have them at all. Either way, they won't change. Sorry!

Some German engineers have the ability to carry a bridge. I chose not to have the germans carry a bridge marker, but instead these engineers have a menu item "Deploy bridge". If you deploy the bridge, what is to stop you doing so again later on in the game? So, there is a menu item "Bridge Status", that puts an "N/B" (No Bridge) tag on the unit - this is a menomic to remind you the bridge is deployed.

All German divisions come onto the map and can be assigned to any corps so desired by the German player. In the module, you have to select Change Corps menu item for each piece in the division. Sorry about that. Further, I have no way of colour coding the new Corps assignment - you just get the new corps written on the counter. I will investigate if I can assign the corp colour, but my earlier attempts at exploring this would suggest that I have to completely rewrite the format of the unit IDs. Also, with regard to the German Variable Reinforcemnts, the Tank battalions all belong to ISS corps. These assets, I figure, would have been the property of the Ubermensch and unlikely to be taken from them. Ubermensch like their toys.

Mainly I have used the original markers. However, when entering march mode you will have an item that just overlays a march mode arrow on the counter - you still get to see all the unit's values. I prefer this. It's clean and allows me to move the piece without having to fiddle with carrying a seperate marker. However, I appreciate that some rules require the March Mode counter to cover the unit to hide the value - Air attacks on units in march mode for example. I have placed the original March Mode markers in the pieces tray. As far as the hidden value thing, I will still use the overlay and strike a bargain with my opponent as to how to handle air attacks.

I set up the reinforcement charts, and started putting units on them. I did this because I made a fundamental flaw at the start - I did not make the units unique (eg there is an infinite number of 1 SS Headquarter units - just keep dragging it from the pieces tray to the map). However, I really only need to vover the German Variable reinforcements - you only get a certain number of tank battalions, and I didnt want players to keep rolling until they had 20 Tiger battalions on the map, when the counter mix was limited to 5.

So I stopped adding reinforcemnts - the German independent tank battalions are there (for reasons cited above) and the US player has them up to about turn 15. After that, you can get the units form the tray yourself.

Charts are left out of the game out of respect to the Decision Game Copyright. I don't know if it does or achieves anything, but it is my attempt to keep everybody happy.

The errata from Moves Magazine 34 allows for all units to have a morale setting - for some high morale units (like airborne forces) this means that there is meant to be a reduction in Strength. I will eventually get round to providing an alternate set of counters for these units, and adding the morale level to the current counters. But not today. :)

Never really liked this rule - it is too severe for a 16 day campaign. Anyway, when you engage in contact with a Green unit, simply right click on the unit before combat (after you have rolled the dice) and select "Tried in Combat" (CTRL+G) and simply back space over the G in the text box and then hit OK. The G will be removed from the unit - be warned: if you use the tool "Refresh Counters" all the G's will come back.

If you have any constructive feedback, please feel free to contact me - email below.

Bill Clancy

bcla3003@gmail.com

December 2017