I am always a fan of Card Driven Games. There is something to be said for trying to utilize the hand of cards that you have been dealt to make the best situation possible. I also really like the back and forth tug-of-war nature of these games as one player will accomplish a thing and then their opponent will immediately start going about trying to walk that thing back. Really makes for a very interesting and tense experience. Then throw in an interesting historical setting that I don’t know all that much about and you have my interest. Such is the case with the new CDG offering GMT Games and designer Jules Félisaz called 1848: The Springtime of Nations. I reached out to Jules and he was more than willing to provide information about his upcoming game.

*Please keep in mind that the artwork and layout of the various components shown in this interview are not yet finalized and are only for playtest purposes at this point. Also, as this game is still in development, card and rules details may still change prior to publication.

Grant: First off Jules please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job?

Jules: Hi! I am a lighting engineer by trade, and my hobbies are predictably wargaming and history, but also hiking (I live in the French Alps), cinema and music.

Grant: What motivated you to break into game design? What have you enjoyed most about the experience thus far?

Jules: Ever since I discovered wargames I have always liked to tweak some rules to add a bit of chrome or to change a few things that I did not really like, so it really felt natural to take a system I loved (Twilight Struggle style influence placement CDG) and try to make one of my own. The idea sparked when I played my first game of 1989 and thought the concept of spaces representing a specific socioeconomic type (worker, intellectual, etc.) was really clever to represent revolutionary politics and class divides and fit really well into 19th century history.

It has been mostly a very enjoyable experience, as it is of course very nice to play a game that is in a way tailor made specifically for me and my tastes, but I would say the best thing is that it forced me to do some serious research about the period, sometimes around topics that I would not have read about in other circumstances, which gave me a better understanding not only of the period, but of history and the world in a larger sense.

Grant: What is your game 1848: The Springtime of Nations about?

Jules: As its name suggests, the game models the wave of revolutionary movements that engulfed Europe in 1848. The time frame is a bit more than a year as the game starts in winter 1847 and also represents the repression occurring well into 1849. As in 1989, the players spread their influence over several European countries where revolutions will eventually trigger, and winning those revolutions is the main way of gaining enough VP for victory determination at the end of the game.

Grant: What does the title of the game reference? What should it convey to players about the situation?

Jules: The aforementioned Springtime is both literal, as the wave really kicked off in the aftermath of the (late) February revolution in France as the news of the event spread through Europe in March and April, but also metaphorical, in a typical romantic way, evoking the burgeoning of the new ideas and revolutionary ideals in contrast to the winter of the politically reactionary period of 1815-1848. The way the different decks come in along the seasons follow this idea and try to bring a different feel as the year progresses. And sadly for the revolutionaries of the time, the seasonal metaphor proved especially apt, as the autumn of the revolution led to a new winter of repression in 1849…

As to the Nations portion of the title, it certainly evokes the rise of nationalism in the romantic period that was an important part of the revolutionary ethos, but the word was understood at the time more as a synonym of the « people », for example in French the chrononym is « Le printemps des peuples », the springtime of the people, and it is nice to see it this way too, as the revolutions were also very much the people claiming their right to participate in a political sphere where they were previously forbidden.

Grant: Why was this a subject that drew your interest?

Jules: I have always been interested in 19th century French revolutionary history, but I think 1848 is especially interesting because of its European scope, and its place right in the middle of the 19th century, where you can see the transition between the first half of the 19th century, defined by the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna and a revolutionary rhetoric inspired by the Enlightenment, and the second half, where the industrial revolution, nationalism and socialist revolutionary ideals are prominent. This position as a turning point (that famously did not turn, as the quote goes) makes it a very special moment where you can witness the rise and fall of important ideas and people, which I find fascinating.

Grant: What is your design goal with the game?

Jules: The goal is of course to have an enjoyable and tense Twilight Struggle style game, but I also wanted to do justice to the rich history of the time and to the important events that shaped the period, and this is why the Event Cards are maybe even more important than usual from a classic CDG, and these events have a tendency to happen more often thanks to a few mechanics.

Grant: What games have inspired your design? What have you borrowed and what new elements have you added of your own?

Jules: The game is mechanically 80% 1989, which itself is more or less 80% Twilight Struggle, so a lot is borrowed from these two great games, and it is nice to be standing on the shoulders of these giants and enjoy those terribly efficient mechanics. The new elements are there to better match these mechanics to the specific history of 1848: a simple system for Armies that represents the importance of the military, a Battle of Ideas system that models the intellectual history to replace the Space Race mechanic and the all important Momentum, that allows players to do a bit of deckbuilding to advance the seasons and to reroll dice.

Grant: What elements from the time of 1848 are most important to include in the design?

Jules: The principal element that I tried to transcribe is the « air du temps », the zeitgest, the revolutionary atmosphere when everything seemed possible, when centenary institutions that were thought immutable could suddenly be toppled and a new era of liberty looked like it was just ahead…This was an extremely chaotic time, where a lot of events were happening left and right almost simultaneously, and the CDG mechanic is really great for this, as the players are often forced to react to the events as they are happening and must be careful to not let opportunities pass: contrary to the classic CDG mechanic, one time events signaled with an asterisk will not come back if played for Ops instead of for the Event!

Grant: What research did you do to get the details correct? What one must read source would you recommend?

Jules: I mostly read a lot of books, and attended history conferences about the subject when I could. You can find the bibliography here on BGG : https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3058965/bibliography

I think the most accessible and comprehensive source would be the Revolutions podcast series on 1848 which is really great. I was also very impressed by Michèle Riot-Sarcey’s works on the subjects (La révolution oubliée and Le proçès de la Liberté) which are great works to understand the diverse points of views of the people of the time.

Grant: What is the scale of the game and force structure of units?

Jules: The game is pretty zoomed out, as the map covers most of continental Europe, from France to Poland. As for the units present on top of the Influence points, they are all called Armies and they are all equal, as their political power is more important than their military power. They can represent a few hundreds of volunteer militiamen to whole army corps.

Grant: How do the Revolution and Counter-Revolution sides compare to each other?

Jules: There is no specific asymmetry put into either of the sides so they function the same mechanically, so the only difference will be in what events and armies will be available to each of them at different points in the game!

Grant: Which has the edge early in the game? Does this change throughout the game and why?

Jules: The early game starts with the Revolution ready to start firing and the Counter Revolutionary player on the backfoot, but as the game progresses the Counter Revolution will gradually get stronger while the Revolutionary forces will find it harder to keep their momentum on the face of the repression, very much like what happened historically.

Grant: The game is a Card Driven Game. How does it use cards to drive the action?

Jules: Very classically for a CDG, each card has both an Event and an Ops Value, and can be used for one or the other, and like in Twilight Struggle your opponent’s Event will fire if you play their cards for Ops. Also from TS/1989, there are Scoring Cards that will trigger a Revolution in a specific country, which is a great mechanic that adds a very interesting fog of war and bluffing possibilities.

Grant: What different types of cards are included in the game?

Jules: There are roughly 120 Strategy Cards included in the game so a lot! What is great about this is that you can include a lot of history on them, that can range from the super important political events to more soft tendencies present at the time, from macro to micro history depending on the cards.

And there is also a specific deck of Revolution Cards to resolve the revolutions, with an updated system of 1989’s Power Struggle.

Grant: What is the anatomy of the cards? Are these cards faction specific?

Jules: Nothing revolutionary other than the theme here: The cards each have an Ops Value, the color of the faction they are associated with (or green for neutral), and an Event.

I must say I am very happy to be able to showcase some great illustrations and paintings of the time on the cards, I love art history and it was really fun to delve through the art of the period with its monumental romantic paintings and crazy caricatures!

Grant: Can you please show us a few examples of these cards?

Jules: With pleasure!

Grant: What is the makeup of the game board?

Jules: It is a point to point map composed of spaces which can contain Armies and Influence, every space represents a City, a Region or more abstract places like the Church or the Intellectuals. Every space is associated with a socioeconomic class: the Revolutionary player will have an easier time with the students and the workers from the cities than with the aristocratic countryside.

Grant: What are the different scoring regions in the game? How do players take advantage of this? What second set of regions are super imposed on the board and what does this represent from history?

Jules: The Scoring Regions are 5 Nations (France, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Poland) and 3 Empires (Russia, Austria and Prussia). These represent the national entities that the nationalism of the time sought to unite and the multinational states that for obvious reasons opposed them. The fact that they are superimposed allows some spaces to be doubly important, as they will count for 2 Revolutions.

Grant: How does this focus on two separate scoring regions affect players’ strategic considerations?

Jules: On top of the added importance of the double spaces, it can serve as a bit of deception. In Twilight Struggle, if your opponent dumps everything he has into Africa, you can be pretty sure he’ll play that Scoring Card soon. Here when a player targets Venice, you have to ask yourself whether to retaliate in Italy or in the Austrian Empire.

Grant: How do you model Revolution and the formation of new republics? How central you your game design is this concept?

Jules: This is probably the most important part of the design as most of the actions taken are done to try to position yourself for the coming Revolutions, which is where most of the VP and Momentum can be won.

The Revolutions are modeled with a minigame played with a specific deck to determine the winner of the Revolution, who then rolls on a table for the Aftermath of the Revolution, which can lead to various rewards, including the declaration of a Republic. A Republic must be protected from Counter-Revolutionary armies but is worth a lot of VP if it manages to make it to the end of the game.

Grant: How do you model the effects of the socio-economic canvas of 19th century Europe? What kind of experience does this focus create for both players?

Jules: Every space has a type, and each country has a different mix of them, which gives them a different personality, in a way. For example, France is mostly a nation of bourgeois and workers, while Russia is mostly peasants and aristocrats. Controlling a coalition of different classes is very important during revolutions, as it can give you the opportunity to use powerful Leader Cards, and a DRM when determining the Aftermath of the Revolution.

In that way, the players are encouraged to try and get beyond their natural class allies, even if some uneasy alliances might not always last…

Grant: How is Agitation used by the players? How can they protect their interests against its influence?

Jules: Agitation is mechanically similar to 1989’s Influence Check, itself an amalgamation of Twilight Struggle’s Coup and Realignment. It is the principal offensive move, which can be very powerful if backed by Armies and adjacent spaces. The good news for players familiar with those games is that in 1848 you need adjacent Influence to engage in Agitations, so the most efficient way to protect your unstable university spaces is to isolate them from your opponent’s Influence !

Grant: How does the game model open conflict and armies?

Jules: As in history, the revolution in 1848 will sooner or later give way to independence wars fought by national armies against the momentarily destabilized empires. These wars play out with a simple system of troop movement and battles. The Italian War of Independence has a specific Event that encourages players to prosecute it to gain VP but in other cases the Revolutionary player still has incentives to protect some important regions and their republics from the growing armies of the empires.

Grant: How is combat handled in the game? What are the results of combat?

Jules: When a player uses a card for Troop Movement, he can spend some Ops Points to trigger a battle between a stack of their armies and an adjacent stack of enemy armies. The battle is resolved with an opposed die roll, with a few applicable DRM’s such as the number of Armies and who has more Influence in the spaces. Winning a Battle can force your opponent to retreat, and with a little luck allows you to inflict some casualties and to win a VP.

Grant: What is the Battle of Ideas? How do players manipulate this track and how do they benefit?

Jules: The Battle of Ideas represent three important ideological debates that were at the heart of the intellectual debates of the time: the Political Question, the National Question and the Social Question. As Twilight Struggle’s Space Race or 1989’s Tiananmen Square, a card used to debate in the Battle of Ideas does not see its Event trigger, which acts as a safety valve for dangerous Events. With a successful debate, a player can gain a powerful bonus as long as it is not debated away from them. But where it gets interesting is that a player can always try to oppose a debate, including by playing a card out of turn to get better odds, so you are never too sure of how things may turn out!

Grant: How is victory achieved?

Jules: Very classically, either when a player gets to 20 VP or at the end of the last turn after a Final Scoring.

Grant: Which side has the toughest time achieving victory?

Jules: The paths to victory are very different for both players: If the stars align, the Revolutionary player has a chance to win early on turn 4 or 5, before the repression is in full swing. If not they’ll have to count on the VP from their Republics to make the difference during Final Scoring. The Counter Revolutionaries must spend the early game trying to prevent too many successful Revolutions and wait for their time to strike. I’ve often compared it to the dynamic between the Japanese and the US in Empire of the Sun.

Grant: What has been the experience of your playtesters?

Jules: It’s been very interesting to see how different approaches can break some stuff. The game has really evolved a lot thanks to the playtesters, and forced me to streamline a bunch of things.

Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?

Jules: That is a difficult question! I think that the integration of armies to a classic political influence game, and the way they interact in a simple but meaningful way is the thing that I’m the most proud of.

Grant: What other games are you working on?

Jules: Those are projects that are mostly only existing in my head right now but I am thinking about a game about the Dreyfus Affair and another about the Arab Cold War during the 50’s and 60’s…

Thanks for your time Jules in answering our many questions. We very much are interested in this game and how it works and I am glad that were able to connect to share more information about it with our readers.

If you are interested in 1848: The Springtime of Nations, you can pre-order a copy for $46.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1033-1848-the-springtime-of-nations.aspx

-Grant