World War I board game/CCG combo

Hi!

I've been listening to an audiotape course on WWI and was wondering if I could make this into a game. Here are the basics. There are two players, France and Germany. Here are some snippets from the rules.

The board is a 6x6 hex board which starts out empty. The goal is to get one of your units over to the other end of the board -- a breakthrough. Each player draws 7 cards out of a deck of 60 to start the game -- I can't remember where that magic number came from.

TURNS

During each turn, each side writes down a set of actions he would like his units to do. No individual unit may perform more than one action. The actions may be one of:

1. Have a unit shoot at a target in a hex.
2. Have a unit to a hex not occupied by an enemy unit
3. Use a tool. Each unit has four tools: barbed wire (obstacle -- requires extra effort to cross), a gas mask (protects against gas but is a defensive liability due to loss of peripheral vision), a gun (well, using that is shooting), and a shovel (trenches and foxholes may come in handy -- give a defensive bonus just like in the actual war).
4. Play a card. Cards are responsible for initially deploying units (for instance, the German may have a "Dieter" card in his hand, so he picks up the token with the name "Dieter" and puts it on the board. The names of the soldiers are important -- before the game begins, certain soldiers are chosen to be snipers, miners, machine gunners, and so forth so we need to know who is who as some have special abilities) or trigger actions (call in a gas attack, mortar attack, grenade attack). The cards can give units bonuses (Head of State Visit: all your men get a bonus for this turn; Shore Leave: remove a unit from the board and when he comes back he's permanently stronger because of morale; Fraternization: remove one unit from each side from the game; Hello, My Name is X, You Killed My Comrade Prepare to Die: unit gets +2 offense/-2 defense until end of turn etc.).

The list can be as long as you want provided that each player has at least one action. At any time, a player can say "Done" and both players must perform the actions in the order specified in alternating order (French 1 German 1 French 2 German 2 etc.) with the side acting first chosen at random. People who think fast can get more done in a turn than those who strategize -- quick thinking is important in a battle.

SHOOTING WITH A GUN

To determine if A hit B, take B's defensive value, subtract A's offensive value, and add the distance between A and B. This is the "THAC0" so to speak. You roll a d8. If you beat the THAC0, B is hit and eliminated. Trenches and foxholes give a +3 bonus, a 1 always misses, and an 8 always hits.

MORTAR ATTACK

Choose the target square and roll a d12. 7-12 means the mortar was on target. 1 means long, 2 means right long, 3 means right short, etc. The occupants of the target hex suffer an attack with distance 4 and offense 3 (big explosives can be problematic)

GAS ATTACK

Targeted square is determine similar to a Mortar attack. Anybody in the target square who is not wearing a gas mask suffers an attack with distance 4 and offense 2 (you can survive a gas attack if you're lucky). The gas cloud lasts 3 turns -- roll the d12 to determine where the cloud moves next after each turn. 7-12 it stays put, 1-6 it moves like in the Mortar targeting scheme.

THE COLLECTIBLE CARD GAME ASPECT

The basic set will have 30 soldier tokens per side ("Auguste", "Bruno", "Charles", "Alfred", "Balthasar", "Dieter") and 30 "other" cards. By "other" cards I mean stuff like Gas Attack, Pacifism, You Killed My Comrade, Shell Shock (chosen enemy unit suffers -1/-1 until end of turn). Some of the cards will be commons (Mortar Attack, for instance; possibly Gas Attack -- otherwise no one will put their gas mask on; Bad Weather (all units get -1/-1 until end of turn)). Less common cards will be things like Tank, Shell Shock, Christmas Truce (which actually happened in 1914 and pissed off both sides' generals -- no one can use a weapon for three turns); Aerial Reconnaissance (opponent reveals his hand for this turn) and cards which are a little more powerful. Head of State Visit, Shore Leave, and other still more powerful cards would be rares. There would even be legends: von Ludendorff (all German units get +1/+1 permanently) and the French equivalent Petain.

All decks are required to have the 30 soldiers (think of "Summon Dieter" cards from Magic) and 30 "others".

Here's an example of fighting.
---------------
The French plan five actions:

Henri points his gun at Ludwig’s hex, and shoots from distance 4.
The Gas unit tries to gas the hex with Dieter and Karl in it. Jurgen is in the hex directly north of the one with Dieter and Karl.
The Tank runs over some barbed wire.
Charles, who started in the same square as the Tank, follows the Tank into enemy territory now that the barbed wire is out of the way.
Thierry grenades the hex with Adolf in it.

The Germans plan five attacks:

Ludwig, who starts out in a foxhole, moves somewhere.
Karl puts on his gas mask.
Dieter, a Sniper, shoots at Henri from distance 4.
Adolf grenades the hex with the Tank from a trench.
Jurgen lays some barbed wire.

SCENARIO 1: The d8 is rolled, and the French attack first. Here is how things play out.

FRENCH 1: Henri needs a 6 to hit Ludwig. He’s 4 units away, Ludwig’s defense is 2, and Henri’s offense is 2. That would mean he needs a 4 to hit. However, Ludwig is in a foxhole, so that gives him a bonus of 2. The player rolls and gets a 3. He missed.
GERMAN 1: Ludwig moves somewhere.
FRENCH 2: The first thing we need to check is if the gas actually hits the desired hex. The player rolls the d12 and it comes out a 1. This means that it misses Dieter and Karl – and lands on poor Jurgen’s head. Jurgen does not have his gas mask on. Out comes a 2. Jurgen’s toast.
GERMAN 2: Karl puts his gas mask on, thanking God that the last shot just missed him.
FRENCH 3: The Tank runs over the barbed wire.
GERMAN 3: Dieter shoots at Henri. He needs a 3 to hit instead of a 4 because he is a Sniper. He rolls and gets a 7. Bye-bye Henri.
FRENCH 4: Charles runs after the Tank.
GERMAN 4: Adolf grenades the square which had the Tank and Charles in it – but both have moved. Oops.
FRENCH 5:Thierry grenades Adolf. He needs a 3 to hit. He gets a 6. Looks like Adolf is about to spend time talking to Jurgen.
GERMAN 5: Jurgen would have loved to lay the barbed wire, but he’s dead. Nothing happens.

BETWEEN TURNS: Gas cloud rolls a 1 and moves 1 north. This movement (and any associated casualties) take place just before the next turn's actions. Let's hope Charles didn't follow the Tank north!

Compare this to what would happen if the Germans attacked first.

GERMAN 1: Ludwig moves somewhere.
FRENCH 1: Henri pulls the trigger only to find Ludwig gone. Insert French expletive here.
GERMAN 2: Karl puts his gas mask on.
FRENCH 2: The gas attack gets a 12, so the missile lands on target. Karl has his gas mask on, but Dieter doesn’t. The die is rolled, and Dieter is toast. Karl survives.
GERMAN 3: Dieter would love to shoot at Henri but he’s busy arguing with St. Peter.
FRENCH 3: The Tank runs over the barbed wire.
GERMAN 4: Adolf can’t hit the Tank because the Tank moved. However, poor Charles is still stuck in the hex. Adolf needs a 3 to hit. He gets a 3. Charles is toast.
FRENCH 4: St. Peter starts screaming as Charles starts trying to shoot Dieter. This has no impact on the battlefield, though.
GERMAN 5: Jurgen puts up his wire.
FRENCH 5: Thierry needs a 5 hit Adolf because Adolf’s in a trench. He gets a 6 and misses.

BETWEEN TURNS: The gas cloud roll is a 10. The gas stays put. Karl falls in love with his gas mask.

Depending on the order the actions are resolved and the dice, we have two entirely different series of events. The first series of events knocks off Henri and Jurgen and the second set blows away Dieter, Charles, and Adolf. Yet the plan was the same both times!

What do you think?

ACG