Campaign contracts and continuity
Public edition ·
Owner direction recorded; detailed objective contracts and outcome thresholds are proposals. Review prototype only; no game runtime implementation.
Owner direction
Preserve Soviet strength and strategic depth in Austria unless an explicit defensive strategy accepts the sacrifice.
Use protected access through Czechoslovakia to occupied Austria as the occupation pretext.
Win campaigns through specific capture/defence objectives, not accumulated victory points.
Produce graded narrative epilogues and carry actual faction/campaign results into chronologically later intros.
Strategy
Austria remains fully tasked. Bohemian field and security forces need a separate, dated allocation; no automatic Austrian donation.
Additional protected transit to Austria: rail priority, depots, junction guards and communications. Expand coercive access into control of Prague and a western concentration.
The January 1946 precedent concerns Hungary. Czechoslovak application is fiction; Austria has other supply routes. Transit does not by itself explain a west-Bohemian invasion force.
Austrian defensive contraction is a separately selected strategic course with explicit lost depth, replacement shortfall and Danube consequences. It is not the default.
Research gate
Identify a non-Austrian formation available before the campaign.
Debit its origin and check that no other campaign uses it simultaneously.
Account separately for route security, occupation and assault forces.
Verify rail capacity, transit time, depots and readiness; freeze named OOB only after that.
Objective contract
Stable objective ID, name, map region/bridge/railhead and geographic footprint.
Owner, contested state and minimum garrison; scouting or a momentary crossing is not capture.
Capture or defend until the defined operational deadline, secure connected supply/exit route where required, and retain specified installations in usable condition.
Primary objective package secured for the authored confirmation interval; deadline; surrender; destruction/withdrawal that makes further resistance impossible. Resolve both sides simultaneously.
Judge essential objectives first, secondary achievements second, operational cost separately. No hidden sum of kill points may overturn required objectives.
Track casualties, irreplaceable equipment, readiness and ability to continue. Pyrrhic is an outcome cost, not a euphemism for defeat.
If all opposition is eliminated and no reinforcement can arrive in time, resolve reachable occupation and remaining objectives without an empty-map grind. Do not award unreachable or destroyed objectives automatically.
Narrative operational limits must be stated in advance; time limits cannot secretly cancel a completed victory.
If neither faction secures its package, use an indecisive ending; never manufacture a victor from score.
Campaigns
First Orders
first-orders
First Orders
16 April; tutorial/local action within the Helmstedt operation
Secure the authored local crossing or road junction and keep the exit route open. Exact named landmark awaits the tactical map.
Capture that junction or close the exit before the local withdrawal completes.
Carry local losses, control and surviving unit IDs into Helmstedt; do not count this as a separate army-wide victory or duplicate the same units.
Helmstedt Corridor
helmstedt
Helmstedt Corridor
16–19 April proposed existing review window
Current-board proposal: hold Helmstedt and the Königslutter rear connection. Brunswick requires a separately approved enlarged board.
Current-board proposal: capture Helmstedt, disrupt the western connection and preserve supply from Marienborn. Brunswick is off-board context.
Retained corridor → held front; lost ground → recovery/withdrawal premise; exhausted winner → consolidation; destroyed formations remain absent. Named footprints and confirmation duration remain to be authored.
Bavarian Front
southern-front
Bavarian Front
Late April–May proposed; final opening date unresolved
Hold Amberg and Regensburg, with the Nuremberg supply connection open. Weiden/Cham and a frontier bridgehead offer secondary success.
Capture Amberg and Regensburg with supply back to the Bohemian entry area. Nuremberg is a further exploitation objective.
Exact controlled places, pass access, formations and mobilisation stages determine the next map and summer theatre account. Prague/Vienna remain off-board, not compulsory capture targets.
Northern Front
northern-front
Northern Front
Spring; 26 April opening remains a proposal
Hold Lübeck and the approaches protecting the western communications corridor; preserve access to the Holstein rear.
Capture Lübeck and secure the corridor toward the Holstein rear while maintaining the eastern supply route.
Elbe-crossing ownership, port/road access, Polish assembly and surviving British/Soviet units persist. Do not demand capture of off-map Hamburg or Kiel without expanding the board.
Summer Decision
summer-central
Summer Decision
After completed spring operations; 1 August remains a proposal
Use a branch-specific package: exploit toward Magdeburg/Elbe crossings if spring ground is held; recover Brunswick/corridor if lost; consolidate if earlier advances are exhausted.
Use the matching sustainable advance, recovery or defence package based on actual prior territorial control.
An earlier victory can create a different offensive or defensive campaign. If the old board is no longer relevant, use an alternate start/board or skip that operation; never reset the world to force its script.
Outcomes
Major victory
Major victory
Essential and major secondary objectives secured; sufficient force remains to exploit.
Advance, reserve release or a new defensive response from the enemy, according to actual geography.
Minor victory
Minor victory
Essential mission achieved but secondary aims remain incomplete.
Hold the gains; unfinished objectives shape the next operation.
Pyrrhic victory
Pyrrhic victory
Essential mission achieved at a cost that prevents exploitation without rebuilding.
Acknowledge the victory and retained ground; show depleted formations and consolidation.
Minor defeat
Minor defeat
Essential mission fails, but an organised force or important positions survive.
Limited withdrawal, relief or recovery; retain the successes actually earned.
Major defeat
Major defeat
Critical objectives and the ability to maintain the operation are lost.
Fallback geography, destroyed/surrendered units and delayed reinforcement consequences.
Indecisive
Indecisive
Neither side secures its essential operational package.
The line remains contested; no invented winner.
Store result and cost separately for both factions. A losing player may have inflicted a pyrrhic victory on the enemy; the epilogue should say so. Do not assume a minor defeat always equals the opponent’s major victory.
Epilogue slides
The ground
The ground
Freeze the actual final map; show captured, held and contested objectives with dated front lines.
Describe the operational result from that faction’s record; name the places actually taken or lost.
The cost
The cost
Surviving formation emblems, depleted/captured/destroyed status and verified campaign losses; no respawning markers.
State what the force retained and what the result cost. Mention mobilisation/defection only if it occurred.
The next operation
The next operation
Pull back to the theatre map; animate only transfers authorised by the saved state, then show the next objective area.
Explain the next orders as a consequence of the result. Do not promise an advance or withdrawal contradicted by the map.
World state
Operation
campaign_id
world_id
played_faction
start_time
end_time
objective_contract_version
world_state_version
Territory
objective_owner
contested
installation_state
front_line
supply_connectivity
entry_and_exit_access
Forces
persistent_unit_id
parent_identity
strength
readiness
location
destroyed_or_surrendered
defection_history
replacement_event
Politics
French_release
Polish_assembly
German_recruitment_and_equipment
Free_Czechoslovak_formation_stage
Results
each_faction_primary_result
secondary_objectives
cost_grade
withdrawal_reason
objective_events
Narrative
verified_event_facts
selected_intro_clauses
selected_epilogue_clauses
next_operation_variant
Continuity rules
Compute results once from the final world state; prose may not change the outcome.
Apply only events completed before the next intro’s date; overlapping campaigns consume dated events, not each other’s future final result.
Keep one persistent world per linked run. Switching faction changes viewpoint on that world, not which contradictory ending is canon. Separate standalone runs do not merge automatically.
Standalone campaigns use an explicitly chosen scenario history or imported linked save. Do not call an unplayed assumed defeat the player’s result.
Destroyed formations cannot reappear intact. Reconstitution requires a dated replacement/reorganisation event with equipment, manpower, time and a revised strength.
Cross-campaign map positions, available units, supply routes and objectives change with the same state that writes the narration.
If the final state makes a scripted later battle impossible, choose a compatible operation, substitute a board or omit it. Never silently erase a victory.
Coalition availability follows the established saved conditions; a victory label alone does not conjure ready German, Polish, French or Free Czechoslovak forces.
Historian voice remains dispassionate; intros contain military facts and intentions, not grade names, deck rules or score explanations.
No result-bearing clause may be played without a matching predicate. Neutral fallback may omit an unknown fact but may not contradict one.
First Orders is nested in Helmstedt. Southern and Northern may overlap; resolve their exact dates before allowing dependencies. Summer consumes the dated outcomes of completed spring operations. The war begins 16 April 1946; do not confuse that with every campaign’s opening.
Intro variants
Entry 1
Helmstedt held; formation intact
The corridor through Helmstedt remained in British hands. The formations that had held it were now ordered to prepare the next operation.
Retain Allied ownership and surviving markers; show only actual subsequent transfers.
Entry 2
Helmstedt held; formation exhausted
The corridor had been held, but its defenders needed time to rebuild. Fresh formations took over parts of the line while the survivors refitted.
Held ground stays held. Relief requires a real available formation; otherwise show the depleted line, not invented fresh troops.
Use the fresh-formation sentence only when a relief transfer exists.
Entry 3
Helmstedt lost; organised withdrawal occurred
The loss of the corridor forced the British line westward. The formations that escaped were assembling for the effort to recover it.
Begin at the recorded fallback line and remove destroyed/captured units.
Only if organised withdrawal and a recovery order actually exist.
Entry 4
Opposing campaign force destroyed; no replacement yet
The Soviet force committed to the corridor had been destroyed. The next threat came from formations assembling beyond the defeated army’s sector.
Destroyed IDs remain absent; incoming force must have a distinct recorded allocation.
Omit the second sentence if no new concentration exists. Do not expand destruction of one campaign force to the entire Soviet army.
Entry 5
Soviet corridor success
The Soviet advance had secured the corridor and displaced its British defenders. The next operation would depend on bringing supplies and reserves forward.
Show actual Soviet-held ground and surviving units, with verified supply condition.
Acceptance cases
All Soviet counters destroyed at Helmstedt: no later Allied-loss clause, no surviving duplicate Soviet unit; new threat requires a sourced new force.
Allied pyrrhic victory: ground retained, losses carried, victory acknowledged, no invented rout.
Soviet victory: Western loss and Soviet control persist in both faction viewpoints.
Contested deadline: indecisive outcome if neither primary package complete.
Overlapping north/south: future events cannot enter an earlier intro.
Successful intact-unit defection: one persistent unit changes side, no copied battalion.
Destroyed bridge: physical capture alone cannot satisfy an intact-crossing objective.
Enemy eliminated but unreachable target remains: resolve realistic movement/capture; do not teleport ownership.
Previous deep advance invalidates summer defensive board: choose compatible branch rather than resetting to April.
Standalone start: declared assumed history does not overwrite a linked-run save.
Sources
Dunn memorandum, 18 January 1946
Dunn memorandum, 18 January 1946
Hungarian lines-of-communication precedent; no claim of historical Czech transit agreement.
Only design records, research correction and a private review prototype changed. Runtime persistence, objective evaluator, branching cinematics and save migration remain to be implemented after contracts are settled.
Game Bible Book III and this register; amend in place