A War Transformed: War on the Doggerland Front Review

I flip through the new Osprey's Weird World War I wargame, "A War Transformed" so you can decide if you want to pick it up or not. This very evocative, Arthur Machen-inspired folk horror setting, combat rules, magic rituals, creatures, and army lists are discussed, including various cautions and highlights.
Buy it: amzn.to/3tgATQP
Bookmarks:
Setting Overview: 7:30
Occult & Paganism Caution: 11:40
Overall Aesthetics: 17:00
Rules: 20:00
Orders, Magic Rituals & Manifestations: 47:50
Vehicles: 56:31
Creating a Patrol & Army Lists: 57:48
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[@weirdwwii8775]

Good to see other conflicts breaking WEIRD!!!

[@brodi4894]

Christ is king! Thanks for the review. I got the book and had a lot of the same thoughts and cautions you've offered here. I already planned on essentially "reskinning" a lot of the content. Keep up the good work!

[@attentionspanlabs]

Christus Vincit! Thanks for your view and comments!

[@minimundus1712]

I think using the awsome boltaction rules with the dice bag would fit this game nice, use the stress marker skip all the other rest.

[@attentionspanlabs]

Bolt Action could certainly work with little modification. Just tack on the magic rules.

[@thomaswilliams5005]

I was hoping for pictures of minis also. Nice review. Thanks for doing it.

[@attentionspanlabs]

It's very strange to get a book of this size, professionally published, illustrated, etc... with no photographs of miniature battlefields. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before.

[@juddgoswick2024]

When I saw this game, I knew you would be on top of it soon enough. WWI is a natural for horror, because of its brutal, hopeless, stalled nature. Not sure what to make of this setting, though. Do you think it is meant to be a reference to an early rapture?

[@attentionspanlabs]

I haven't seen anything that alludes to that, but that is a provocative thought. The author explicitly mentions Arthur Machen, one of my very favorite authors, but the influence is not as strong as I would have thought. For instance, I saw no mention of the famous 'Angels of Mons' or Machen's "Bowmen" story. The themes are there, and presumably the Horned God is the equivalent of the Great God Pan, but no mention of Dendo or Voors or whatever. The terrain effects (which I unfortunately omitted from this video) can be made haunted, both to provide advantages to certain supernatural unit tags and as a danger, which I suppose represents something of the Algernon Blackwood 'ominous nature' stories like The Willows.

[@attentionspanlabs]

I would have liked to have seen some kind of reference to Conan Doyle's "Land of Mist" as well.

[@SpannSr1970]

Love the review and your take on the paganism. What changes would you suggest to change that stuff?

[@attentionspanlabs]

Hard to say at this juncture. I generally like to play games Rules As Written before I start making changes to them. I would definitely not use tarot cards to attempt to 'divine' anything. I might use them to remember what spells I have, but since the cards wouldn't explain what the spells actually do in the game, you'd be better off with your own printed list. I would let everything have cover bonuses, if they qualify, including armored vehicles and artillery. I might experiment with the order-token-initiative-bidding system, but only once per round, not for every phase within a round. Probably I wouldn't do that at all since no one has been able to explain what those command tokens/points are supposed to represent and it's a lot of extra bookkeeping that doesn't interest me. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@DjigitDaniel]

Another day, another ruleset. LOL Fascinating. Reminds me of various Bolt Action mods and games like Sludge (or more tangentially Turnip28). Thanks as always. +

[@attentionspanlabs]

There really is a bit of a turnip 28 feel to it!

[@DjigitDaniel]

@@attentionspanlabs , it's the curse of being at this hobby for a minute while knowing how to navigate the darker waters of the internet. I have over a thousand digital documents of various RPG and wargame rules from the last fifty years and after a while "nothing new under the sun" goes from realization to foregone conclusion. LOL Still, it's good to see more rather than less in the hobby.

[@attentionspanlabs]

@@DjigitDaniel I know what you mean. I think it is the inevitable result of a hobby where every participant is a creative, so eventually everyone publishes their own house rules and house setting.

[@DjigitDaniel]

@@attentionspanlabs , one billion percent agreement. Well said.

[@elijahherstal776]

I'm a bit hesitant for anything by Osprey for a bit... I took the plunge on 'The Doomed' recently, and I have to say that game was "notionally" a game but mostly seemed like another kitbash art project with a lazy ruleset slapped onto it. As far as WW1 games goes- I'm curious about this, as well as this mysterious "Trench Crusade" game that seems to not be manifesting (made by one of the original guys that worked on Mordheim)- but I've heard next to nothing about the actual game, the pre-orders for miniatures shut down early, and I'm skeptical. If this game is good, I'll put it on the list.

[@attentionspanlabs]

I like Doomed, but considering all the work you have to do to play it, they should pay you to read the book. 😉

[@elijahherstal776]

@@attentionspanlabs I don't mind a game giving me a lot of 'planned miniatures'- but I think I did enough of that with Reality's Edge. I was just more disappointed with the 'one stat for a unit' thing. How far can you move? Doesn't matter, as far as you want! How far can you shoot? As far as you want! How good can you fight in melee? As good as you can shoot!

[@attentionspanlabs]

@@elijahherstal776 what's funny is that you are exaggerating, but only slightly. I like the move mechanics and I shall try to explain why when I do the video.

[@captainferrite]

@@elijahherstal776 None of that is actually problematic if you have a proper table. Having now played north of a dozen games of Doomed, I think it has some of the best page count to game depth ratios out there.

[@elijahherstal776]

@@captainferrite >1 stat >"Game Depth" Less than 1/3 of the book is actual game mechanics- everything else is mostly-the-same monsters for 50 pages, and mostly-the-same missions for 50 pages (and it's got a desperate spread that'd make GW's Codex-writers envious). Dude I'm not trying to be a dick here, but you're talking to someone who's got pretty much everything from Osprey's mini-agnostic collection, a veteran Necromunda/Mordheim player, Bushido, Infinity, and is actually in the process of developing a tabletop game. This game has about as much depth as a puppy's piss-puddle. It's an art project with a notional ruleset attached. It COULD be better. It's playable, but it's got no depth. It's a boredom killer, something to use old miniatures for to piss away a slow afternoon when you don't feel like digging into other games. That is, if you feel like building all 40-something horrors and their minions- which, I don't. I'll find something 'close enough', but I've got better things to build with my bits. It should be smaller. The content in this book should fit into a package the size of Zona Alfa, but because it's an art project trying to be a serious game- it's a bunch of photos of miniatures and spacing big enough to drive a bulldozer through the lines in the page.

[@PraetorHesperus]

I really like the artwork and worldbuilding for this game, and the rules look interesting, though I share your skepticism towards the bidding for priority each phase. I'm planning on building up a couple armies and giving it a try. I understand where you're coming from on the spiritual angle, but I think there are opportunities in the game for factions that have remained aligned with Christianity or other established faiths. The Americans have their preacher, the German army is said to be highly skeptical of the new magic, and some of the Freikorps explicitly model themselves on the teutonic knights. The game seems to imply they are still ultimately drawing power from the moon goddess or horned god, which is theologically troubling from a Christian perspective, but I think its well within the rules and spirit of these miniatures-agnostic games to alter the premise to your own tastes, that's certainly what I'll be doing. I hope the game does well enough for an expansion or two, It'd be cool to see more options like taking a Tsar tank for the Russians, as well as lists for the Austrians, Italians, Ottomans, Japanese, ANZAC, colonial troops, etc.

[@attentionspanlabs]

I almost always alter the premises of every game I play in some way. :D I am building a Confederate WW1 force as we speak.

[@PraetorHesperus]

@@attentionspanlabs Hmm, a Harry Turtledove style scenario where the Confederacy survives and fights the US again in the great war is an interesting scenario. I also like the idea of some very Orthodox cossack white russians vs. bolsheviks that have creatures from slavic mythology. Or have the zimmerman telegram go through without getting intercepted, so you have the US army, maybe with native american allies, fighting against Mexican villistas with an aztec flair. Lots of possibilities, WW1 is already underrated as a wargame setting i think, and adding the mythological and alt-history aspects makes for even more interesting options.

[@attentionspanlabs]

My video on the WW1 Confederates will go live in a few minutes. I also share some thoughts on the quality of Mr. Turtledove's alternate history :D

[@tonyhind6992]

Liked the review. Was a interesting take on the religious angle. Rules look over complex to me. The background seems fun and really dark.

[@attentionspanlabs]

Thanks for watching. I'm actually making CSA infantry for this game now!

[@wollyram6248]

I've bought dozens of war/rpg manuals for the lore, any meat on this one?

[@attentionspanlabs]

Other than what I read in the Setting portion of the video, not much. Several pages, but all to flesh out the main premise rather than go into detail. I think there is a fair amount of *implied* lore in the army lists, spell lists, and creatures, and so forth. I thought the setting was quite evocative and developed a lot of ideas about it just reading those descriptions, but now that you mention it I wonder if the general audience would get as much from it. If you are already pretty familiar both with WW1 history, plus the alt-religious milieu of the time (theosophy and spiritualism, early parapsychology), plus have read a lot of of weird fiction of that era(Machen, Blackwood, Hodgson, Conan Doyle), it is *very* fertile ground. But if you are not familiar with those things, then there's probably a lot of other stuff you've got to pick up first.

[@minimundus1712]

@@attentionspanlabs Do you have any book ideal for a beginnen reading this Kind of stuff ? The Alt Religions belives of this time and thx a lot for the Review.....

[@attentionspanlabs]

@@minimundus1712 Frasier's "Golden Bough" was very influential, and so was Murray's " The Witch Cult of Western Europe" although the latter was almost entirely made up

[@minimundus1712]

@@attentionspanlabs thx a lot love your channel

[@attentionspanlabs]

@@minimundus1712 thank you!

[@sapphirewrench5285]

I don't think this reviewer should play this game..too many complaints..Recommend getting a refund !!

[@attentionspanlabs]

I disagree. The best way to judge a complex set of rules is to play it a few times. I don't even regard this as an especially negative evaluation. Quite a few commenters are mad about this video, but it's obviously not because I was especially critical of the game itself.

[@johndaybell5114]

Gave up on 30 mins. After 15 mins of opinion on religion and the habits of menopausal women. We got into the actual review,. After commenting that artillery can't be entrenched only infantry can, when field guns etc have the key word Infantry, so can that was it for me I wanted a review of the game not how it stacks up with your moral compass and you couldn't even get the game bits right. I wish I'd used my Tarot cards to tell me how poor this review would be.

[@attentionspanlabs]

You poor dear! If only you were smart enough to use the timestamps I included!

[@attentionspanlabs]

You are right about artillery having an Infantry keyword. This is unexpected and counterintuitive, but fine. Regardless, I'm not going to apologize to you for making a small mistake, especially given that the rules on trenches are on page 27 and the first hint that artillery might have this keyword is on page 136, and I was very clear up front that I had not actually played the game yet. We all know that's not what you're mad about anyway.

[@ArcaneCowboy]

Did you miss the part where you said this doesn’t match real history? Imagine if the added Christianity? Wouldn’t that have been more offensive?

[@attentionspanlabs]

I'm very sorry you're having a bad day today, but it's hard for me to not respond to snotty sarcasm like that in an equivalent way. Like, I could say, "Did you miss the part where it still follows the course of the war pretty much exactly until Doggerland reappears, with the same weapons, formations, and strategic alliances? If A, B, and C, why not X, Y, and Z?" Honestly, that's a stupid question. You could pull out the same excuse for literally anything else. Just because the author puts out a disclaimer that it's not a historically accurate depiction of WW1 warfare doesn't immunize it against all objections. Secondly, I'm not "offended" by it. I feel no personal insult by it. It didn't make me cry or keep me up late at night. I just don't like it. I think it's implausible and it makes me less interested in playing the game. If it's still permissible for me to express my own opinions on a review, of course!

[@davidczarnecki6230]

​@@attentionspanlabsI actually have a response from the author on this subject that I wanted to share. He responded to some posts about people creating armies sponsored by the church to resist the old gods. "I was quite careful about making too much mention of real world religions. Pastiching or loosely interpreting the beliefs of the ancient past is one thing, but with living, breathing faiths it is easy to inadvertently cause offence. I skirted around the issue of how the church (for example) reacts to the shattering because these kind of decisions, which only affect the “plot” of the game peripherally, are best left to the players themselves! That said, my own feeling is that when confronted with the horrors of a post shattering world and the resurgence of the old gods, the church would do what it has done historically - apply a thin veneer of Christianity to obscure pagan rites and call it a day!* The Catholic Church has only thrived for as long as it has by adapting to new realities and has only spread as far as it has through syncretism, hybridising itself with local traditions and customs. To my mind, Marian cults seem an obvious choice. The three Marys present a triune goddess in and of themselves. Stretch it a bit further and mother, maiden and crone is just a gender swap away from father, son and Holy Spirit… Christianity also has its fair share of prototypical horned gods too, John the Baptist in his animal skins springs to mind. Even Christ in the wilderness. So the church would choose to see the old gods as avatars, or emanations of an ultimate divine truth. People seeing them as deities in their own right are heretics. TLDR: Sounds like a cool idea for an army! *e.g. Christmas, Easter, All Saints’ Day."

[@durnaxe8708]

My first thought of this game was "Oh a weird war 1 game, neat!" then watching this-between the tarot card nonsense, the complicated phase initiative order, and definitely the command points (that made me finally quit 40k) really have discouraged me from this game. So thank you for the preview! Also not really keen on the rather large amount of pagan stuff, seeing as I'm reconnecting with my Christian faith.

[@attentionspanlabs]

I'm sorry you are turned off by it, but I'm glad I could help you make a good decision. God bless you, brother!

[@davidczarnecki6230]

When I first saw the rules, I assumed (incorrectly apparently) that there would be a faction representing both technology and the established religions trying to reassert the way of life not dependent on ancient deities, which would have made a lot more sense than simply saying "they won", they could have included in the lore how the major religions had made these sacrifices unnecessary and freed mankind from the worship of fickle and malevolent entities (it would have also opened the door to new factions if the game is successful - maybe they still could) I read the authors commentary and assumed this was due to him playing into the hysteria generated by mystics and mysticism rampant in the western world in the late 19th and early 20th century and how everyone simply lost their collective minds, gave in to the heathen like worship and renouncing faith and technology for the bloodthirsty fervor of the moment and the rewards being dangled in front of them, as if the world was becoming irrational much like in the wicker man films or from stories/films like "The storm of the century". Maybe I misread the blog posts but THANK YOU for sharing your honest and faith-based sentiments!

[@attentionspanlabs]

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I agree and perhaps the author intends some kind of expansion in the future. The millenarian preacher in the US list perhaps suggests this, but it should have also been a strong element with the Russians and Austria at least. It is hard to guess whether the author harbors anti-Christian sentiments, or he deemed it less interesting or liable to confuse the concept, or such a thing was deemed unacceptable by Osprey editorial, as editors often believe silly things like presenting quasi-fictional versions of real world religions is a third rail while occultism is acceptable.

[@minimundus1712]

@@attentionspanlabs Yeah and its intresting, the Freikorp has a option for a teutonic leader, why not gave the option if your army is christian or pagan and taking the freikorp the christion would have stuff like new teutonic knights, and priests instead of a witch ,and the others are the freikorp we now have, i think the game lore has potential but iam a sucker for weird war stuff so... ^^

[@attentionspanlabs]

I agree,@@minimundus1712 . There are obvious solutions to this that are easy to make, though not presented in the main book. I am going to do something similar with the army(ies) I'm working on.

[@MasterShake9000]

Good review of your faith and your ex-gf’s mother. Can’t wait to see part two that actually talks about the game.

[@attentionspanlabs]

What a shame you are too low IQ to make use of the bookmarks. You'd be able to see I go through the entire book.

[@JBGarrison72]

@MasterShake9000 ...when's the last time you touched grass?

[@attentionspanlabs]

@@JBGarrison72 it's not his fault. A life of tiktok videos and clickhole hot takes had destroyed his attention span

[@captainferrite]

Yea this is basically a rewrite of classic 40k with different mechanics... I'll stick to Turnip and Last War.

[@attentionspanlabs]

Hmm... in what sense is it a rewrite of classic 40k, beyond the general grimdark theme?

[@captainferrite]

​@@attentionspanlabs It tries to accomplish everything 40k (3rd-7th style) did, in much the same way of layering disjointed mechanics on top of each other.

[@attentionspanlabs]

@@captainferrite ah, yeah disjointed is a good word for it.

[@Irishrover13]

I was with you till you started proslitizing and got weirdly religous and anti-woman. Maybe keep your review on track or add that your are going to share your christain beleifs more then review the game.

[@attentionspanlabs]

What gives you the idea that I am looking for your input or approval?

[@Irishrover13]

@attentionspanlabs you are putting a video on KZbin for public consumption. If you don't want comments, turn them off. Otherwise I guess you will just have to live with people calling you out on your videos that provide bad or false information or make weirdly anti women comments.

[@attentionspanlabs]

@@Irishrover13 Comments are a courtesy for my subscribers, meant to enrich the discussion and foster a fellowship among those of like mind. You should not jump from that to the idea that I care about the opinions of everyone who watches, nor that I would ever cease to speak the truth about God or anything else because it makes delicate, self-important NPCs uncomfortable. On this channel, I entertain a lot of honest disagreement and arguments contrary to my own. You have not even been man enough to express the particulars of your disagreement, other than that you don't like what I said, accompanied by a petulant, mealy-mouthed demand that I stop saying it. This is the behavior of a young child or perhaps a fat, menopausal feminist who spends her empty days looking at tarot cards. Of what possible weight can I give to such sentiments?

[@Irishrover13]

@@attentionspanlabs When did I say stop saying it. I said I was with you till you got weirdly religious. At no point did I tell you stop preaching your turth. As a new comer to channel I had zero notice you would spend as much time preaching your truth as reviewing the game which was not what I was looking for. I left a message to express that and you got a bug up your ass. I only did as you don't mention it in the channel discription or the video discription that you will be do that. As for your "I entertain a lot of honest disagreement and arguments contrary to my own." Judging from your ad-hominem attacks on myself and the other people who mentioned anything not conforming to your views I would question that. You do you regardless though.

[@attentionspanlabs]

@@Irishrover13 Why do you believe I have an obligation to warn you, a person whom I've never met and know nothing about, a person who I had no clue would ever even watch this video, that you may find something I say objectionable? How could I ever even guess such a thin? How could I live up to such a standard except by not saying anything at all? I can hardly conceive of the entitled, socially dysfunctional mindset that gives birth to such an idea. Only a Boomer or a Late Millennial/Zoomer is capable of such extreme antisocial solipsism: I'm guessing from the "your truth" nonsense and "you do you" cliche that you're in the latter group. Of course it is possible to disagree with me on matters of fact or opinion in a way that is reasonable and civil, which is the exact opposite of your presumptuous, emotion-based demand that I run my channel differently. I guess that like so many people in your generation you are trapped in an antisocial bubble that prevents you from being able to understand this. To a large extent this is the fault of your parents and their generation, but nevertheless it is up to you to overcome that. I hope, very sincerely, that you are able to break free of it and live in the real world where people will talk about religion without the slightest bit of concern about whether or not you disagree with it, or find basic tenets of a 2,000 year old faith -- the one that built the civilization that you're free-riding in, btw, -- to be "weird." Being exposed to the true faith of Orthodox Christianity may very well be the best thing that happened to you on the day you watched this video. I don't expect you to recognize that in your current condition, of course. Christ is King!