WW1 Project - The Front Learns to Fight

Since the last post, the focus has been on making the front line actually behave like one: fire that costs something, fighting along the trenches (not just into them), and a line that moves and sustains itself as ground changes hands.

The firing model is complete

Fire now only happens where real combat is possible - between occupied trenches within a six-hex span, or when an assault closes to that range. In the quiet stretches, it's slow, opportunistic sniper-tempo fire; during an offensive, the whole sector opens up, with volume scaled by how many fire-steps are actually manned. Attackers crossing No-Man's-Land trade fire with every defended trench in range before the assault even resolves, softening both sides' morale on the way in.

Crucially, fire is wired into the economy: every shot burns ammunition (empty trenches hold fire, so a firefight pulls on the supply chain), inflicts a slow wounded bleed into the medical chain, and drains morale. Fire rolls along a trench in staggered bursts rather than synchronised volleys, with mesh-streak tracers and a proper running charge over the top, so a sector under attack reads as a continuous crackle building to a storm. I have per-cell fire effects at the moment, but I think I will change this to come from individual shots to make it look a bit more realistic.

Fighting along the trenches

Where an offensive leaves a ragged boundary, occupied trench cells sitting flank-to-flank now fight sideways using the same combat math - with visible bombing parties charging along the line. When one side's morale breaks, it clears to a neutral buffer, and its survivors retreat down the trench; the two separated ends then trade fire along the trench across the gap. Flanking (enfilade) fire is its own mechanic too: storming a trench whose neighbours are still enemy-held costs more, and a captured salient bleeds until its flanks are cleared.

A line that moves and feeds itself

The front is no longer static roles on a static board. As trenches are captured or lost, both sides' front/support/reserve lines re-derive from live ownership — supply, firing and reinforcement manning all follow. Behind an advance, the rear echelons march up over the top to re-establish depth, while the spearhead keeps its strength and lives off the land: scavenging captured stock, resupplied mid-assault by combat runners, and pausing to regroup on each captured line. When the offensive resolves, the platoon's supply depot itself relocates forward, with half the reserve garrison physically ferrying the crates up.

Under it all, the flat hex tiles have been replaced by a single continuous procedural terrain mesh. Seamless ground the trenches are carved into, and the foundation for craters and worn paths is in place, as I really want the battlefield to evolve into a disastrous place. I still have a few bugs with the carving and the terrain mesh not forming correctly or bleeding over trenches; fixing this took longer than all the coding I have done so far, and it's still not 100%.

Next

Continuing to work on the terrain, enemy-launched offensives, proper front medical evacuation of the wounded, and a combat balance pass. There is also a lot of fixing required when the enemy captures trenches, navigation, and blocking areas so units aren't just walking through enemy-held regions.