With an upcoming pre-order launch, here's the publisher's high-level overview of Western Twilight, as we await further details:
As the leader of one of the five great powers in Europe, you will compete to spread and protect your influence around the globe using military, economic, and diplomatic might. Use the press to sway public opinion to force nations into alliances or war and upgrade your empire's capabilities by establishing control over important regions of the world. You must be careful though because the world is on the brink of all out war and it could spell the end of the West’s dominance.
In Western Twilight, you will perform actions using your personal rondel and will have the opportunity to upgrade your rondel with enhanced and new abilities for a unique engine building experience.
Compete with the other nations of Europe for control of territories around the world by competitively drafting cards to place your nation’s Military, Economic, or Diplomatic Influence Markers.
However, you must be cautious because every action you take can bring the world one step closer to the war to end all wars. Western Twilight can end in 3 ways: diplomatically, economically, or militarily. Each ending will change how your different influence markers will score so you must steer the world down the path you are most prepared to win whether that be peace or war.
Here's an overview from the publisher for further context on what Kaiserkrieg! is all about:
The heart of the game is its depiction of the ground war, which saw the battlefield deaths of some ten million soldiers. Kaiserkrieg’s treatment can be traced back to Darin Leviloff’s inspired Israeli Independence (2008) and the “States of Siege” system it started. The evolutionary leap in Kaiserkrieg! is the shift from the old ‘horizontal’ States of Siege model – where enemy forces converge on your central position along clearly defined lines of advance – to a new ‘vertical’ model where enemy forces mass in separate regions around you, to eventually achieve an advantage in size that threatens your overall position. This adaptation allows Leviloff’s original concept to more closely simulate the trench warfare realities of World War I on the continental level.
The game also depicts the epic naval struggle of proGerman blockade runners trying to evade fleets of British cruisers. Many historians identify the failure to outwit the British naval blockade as the main reason for Germany’s defeat in the war.
The ‘sideshow’ war in the Near East, where Germany’s Ottoman Turkish ally was assailed by Russia and the British Empire – including a massive army of Indian troops – is played with a simplified version of the game system (12.0). This theater also includes East Africa, where a German-led Black African army (the Askari) held out against Indian and British Empire forces even after the Germans in Europe had surrendered!
The game is an uber-strategic view of the conflict. Some aspects are dramatically simplified to make it playable and to emphasize the “cool stuff” of World War I, like Zeppelins, trenches, and U-boats. Kaiserkrieg! is not a detailed historical simulation, but a fun and challenging game covering the salient themes of the actual conflict while whetting the player’s appetite for more detailed treatments of this fascinating war.
Death of an Army, Ypres 1914 plays in 4 to 10 hours as briefly described below by the publisher:
"The break-through will be of decisive importance. We must and will therefore conquer, settle for ever with the centuries-long struggle, end the war, and strike the decisive blow against our most detested enemy. We will finish with the British, Indians, Canadians, Moroccans, and other trash, feeble adversaries, who surrender in great numbers if they are attacked with vigour." - Order of the Day, issued on the 29th October and found on a dead officer of the XV. Corps
The Battle of the Marne signaled the failure of the Schlieffen Plan and of German hopes to win a quick, decisive victory. In turn, this triggered the Race for the Sea as opposing armies attempted to outflank each other. Then, in a final bid to gain the upper hand, both Allied and German Armies clashed in the First Battle of Ypres. On these fields, the British Expeditionary Force, the professional army of Britain, and the strongest on the Continent, was bled dry.
In more detail from the publisher:
Caporetto 1917 is the third wargame on a battle on the Italian Front, after Strafexpedition 1916 and Gorizia 1916, using the same system and scale.
It will have a series rulebook with the 2nd edition rules usable for both Strafexpedition 1916 and Gorizia 1916, with consolidated errata and a more detailed artillery use. The Specific Rules will cover the game scenario itself, with rules dedicated to this battle and where game turns will be 12 hours long (instead of one day per GT). In the historical campaign game there is no way for the Italians to win; the two players, or teams, will play the Austro-German and Italian right wing, against the Austro-German and Italian left wing. In detail, Krauss and Stein Groups attacking the Italian IV Corps, and Berrer and Scotti Groups attacking the Italian VII Corps and part of the XXVII.
The map will run from Mount Canin and Rombon on the West to Tolmino bridgehead on the East, and from Plezzo and Monte Nero on the North to Cividale and the Friuli plains on the South. It will be divided in sectors where each player, or team, will have to achieve its objectives faster than the opponent.
The campaign game will be big, with 2 maps, and over 1000 units and markers, but short, from October 24th to October 27th, when general Cadorna gave the order of general withdrawal in front of an unrecoverable situation. By that time, after 8 Game Turns, the Austro-German troops should have run across the whole map. Caporetto campaign game is a rush, but also a study of two different approaches to warfare in World War One. In Caporetto 1917 you will find units and specializations from the former two games, beside Stosstruppen, Arditi, gas and mine attacks, and more. Small scenarios will cover specific episodes of this epic confrontation, and an alternative campaign game, with Austro-German and Italian counterparts, where the Italian player can freely deploy its reserves (only), and can test if the battle could have gone better for the Italian colors.
Welcome to the mobile warfare in the Great War.