1848: The Springtime of Nations Interview: Jules Félisaz

 

1848: The Springtime of Nations is a 2-player CDG depicting the unprecedented wave of revolutionary activity that swept across Europe in the titular year of 1848. Based on the hit area control system pioneered by GMT’s 1989: Dawn of Freedom and Twilight Struggle, it pits the forces of “the Revolution” against those of the “Counter-Revolution” in a struggle to decide the future of Europe and the world.

The rules and images shown here are not final.

You can find it in P500

-Who are you? What are your favorite wargames?

Hi ! My name is Jules Félisaz, I am a french lighting engineer and more importantly a first time wargame designer with 1848 : the Springtime of Nations : ) My favorite wargames list is very conventional : it all started for me with Twilight Struggle and it is still probably my favorite game. From there I explored up and down Twilight Struggle’s lineage and have enjoyed a lot Paths of Glory and 1989, of which you can certainly find some influence in may game. If I should make it a top 5, then I would certainly add Empire of the Sun and Here I Stand. As you can see I’m all into the political side of conflicts and the CDG mechanic, which I think is a wonderful way of representing some depth and some uncertainty inherent to History.

-Why did you decide to make this game?

You may have heard of a pandemic that happened a few years ago… The fact that I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands was certainly a very material cause. But the “click” that made it happen was on the day when I played my first game of 1989 and started to listen on the 1848 season of the Revolutions podcast : I thought 1989’s system of revolutions and class-based spaces were perfect for modeling the 1848 events. I then spent a few weeks feverishly drawing maps, cutting prototype cards and reading books about the period : it was very fun ! I was already very interested in contemporan history and especially the history of the various french revolutions but it was extremely interesting to explore the 1848 moment as a pan european revolution.

-Can you tell us about the rules?

The base of the rules is of course the Twilight Struggle/1989 system, which is a simple and efficient system that proved its worth on the long run. The most obvious addition is the more direct military dimension that goes on top of the influence part : for both sides the armies will be essential tools of control and repression that will determine which areas each side can operate in. But I am also very proud of the reworked Revolution mechanic that manages with a very small rule change to make them a much faster and more dynamic affair than in 1989.

-How do the different sides work?

Both sides behave the same mechanically, the difference will be of course in the events in the deck and in the forces available to them that will change over the course of the game :

The game starts with the Winter deck, which contains a majority of revolutionary events, and will thus see the Counter-Revolutionary player on the defensive, trying to maintain presence on the board in France and maybe try to exploit a few Revolutionary mistakes in Italy.

As Spring and then Summer comes in, the Revolutionary player will try to keep their momentum as armies for both sides enter the fray : if the Revolutionary player wins enough Revolutions, Battles or Insurrections they can hope for an early VP victory, so the Counter Revolution should try to contain him as much as they can.

And then in Autumn, the Counter Revolutionary player will get all the armies and events they need to start a general repression coming from the east, the Revolutionary player must then use their military to try to hold on to strategic regions an to protect any republics they have put in place from the reactionary crackdown…

This is the general dynamic of the game, but it is important to note that those “seasons” decks do not come in automatically but that players have to spend Momentum to bring them in : an important part of the game is thinking ahead and making sure you can make them happen !

-Can recommend us books, podcasts, etc? To know the setting of the game

I will follow the example of Stephen Rangazas and direct you to this bibliography ! https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3058965/bibliography

But if there is one podcast to recommend it should obviously be Mike Duncan’s Revolutions podcast’s season on 1848 : it’s really great and covers the events all over Europe at the same time, when a lot of history books on the subject focus on a single region, country, or group of people…

-After this project, what do you have prepared for us?

I am working on some prototypes but they are still in an early stage so definitely subject to change ! One would be a smaller game exploring the political side of the Dreyfus Affair, and the other a game on the Arab Cold War in the 50’s and 60’s with a focus on the different coups d’état of the period…