I have an idea to make my tabletop wargame(28mm) and started to make lore. I need some feedback on it and what you think I should change/add or just anything that you think will be useful for me to know. Well, I’ll start with some general things, It is an alternate universe(the planet is mostly similar to Earth but it is slightly bigger), and instead of humans, there are anthropomorphic creatures (since it is an alternate world and I wanna racism play part in it, it will look different and better with furries. I think racism between different species will be cool). I'm not sure about society, but I think in the 2 countries that I have already created, it is a mix of industrial/post-industrial cultures. When I will get to countries I hope you will get what I'm talking about. Countries’ technical development varies from country to country(at least in terms of military, since most of my ideas popped out in my head while I was listening to Sabaton and it is for wargame,so I mostly concentrated on military). I'm not sure how much of sci-fi things there should be, but I think hard SCI-FI stuff is the best fitting(I'm not sure what kind of technologies are hard sci-fi, but for me, it's some kind of laser weapons, simple mechs maybe rail guns, idk yet, I need to research which weapons hypothetically can be created).
So right now I'm concentrating on 2 factions, Wolvreich and Republica(still not sure of names), because of this I'm not sure what vibes there should be in general, but at least those 2 must have dieselpunk/WW1-2 vibes. They had the strongest armies in the world, but they were at war with each other for more than 20 years, which made them weaker. Before the war, they were preparing to attack each other and then when someone attacked first(it's unknown who), their attack forces met the enemy's attack force and there was a big battle, after which both sides lost the ability to make big offensives and therefore the ability to quickly end the war. Their armies degraded because war lasts for so long and it's become too expensive and they started to use cheaper and older equipment, they repaired and made ready for battle the old big battleships (like ww1 dreadnoughts), they were in use a long time ago, they were taken out of the museums and their eternal anchorages in harbours (navy and stuff are kinda not needed in wargame but I still like it). The war between them should look like a mix of WW1 and war in Ukraine(I think it is really interesting how the modern war looks like, trenches, tanks can’t get close to no man’s land because of drones, Russia is using old t 55 etc. I want my war to have the same return to trench warfare, use of old equipment, but more exaggerated).
And a couple of small things before I go to the countries’ description. The main religion in the world is paganism, but with time and the development of science, it has become less influential and important. Chronology started from the day when The Empire fell, about 1922 years ago(the Empire was an ancient country that united the globe, similar to the Roman Empire)
Wolvreich - totalitarian regime led by an Emperor (of wolfkind XD) and governed by a royal family and nobility. The ideology promotes the supremacy of wolves as the “master race”, with other carnivore species ranking below wolves, but above herbivores in a hierarchical social structure. Herbivores are marginalised, relegated to servitude, and treated as inferior beings. (Maybe they are also a source of food that feeds the whole Empire, and they get a lot of profit from exporting it. No one knows that It is made from herbivores and how badly herbivores are treated.)
The military is deeply intertwined with the ruling elite, with high-ranking positions predominantly occupied by members of the nobility. While the lower ranks are filled by individuals who undergo specialised military training, which shows great results on a tactical level, strategic decision-making is often left to the self-interests of the aristocracy, leading to inefficient military planning and execution. Over time, the exigencies of prolonged warfare have forced the country to shift in focus toward military matters, with propaganda increasingly emphasising the role of the Emperor as the supreme commander and Wolvereich’s military.
In terms of military tactics, Wolvereich specialises in mechanised forces, particularly tanks, which are spearheads of offensive operations. Even though they have technological and firepower superiority in their armored divisions, they also rely on chemical weapons, artillery, and infantry waves, which underscores the severity and cost of waging war on a front more than 5,000 kilometres long. However their artillery and infantry capabilities are slightly inferior to those of Republica.
Wolvreich has a big population, most of which is poor, because the economy is geared towards sustaining the war. The militarisation of society has led to the prioritisation of resources towards military production and infrastructure. Most of Wolvreich’s cities are industrial dystopias with grim totalitarian architecture and steel and concrete buildings of factories. All streets are covered in propaganda posters and each city has a military garrison made of lucky ones with ties who don't want to go to the frontline. Governmental buildings are much more well-groomed structures with neoclassical architecture. The only place where citizens can escape from propaganda and surveillance is military service, where they can get some kind of freedom.
Republica- one of the largest and strongest democratic nations, but after the beginning of the war its democracy and freedom of people were shortened due to martial law and heightened security measures that were made to decrease external influence on Republica. Also all radical parties were banned to prevent instability in the country. All of it has made the adoption of new laws and decisions very difficult. It has also become almost impossible to carry out reforms in the army because it is necessary to go through bureaucratic hell. The army has a lot of problems that are impossible to fix because of this, for example, one of the problems is when a new commander of a unit wants to do pointless attacks to show off, wasting manpower, while soldiers can do nothing about it because the law is on the commander's side.
Despite that, the Republica's constitution says that no matter what species, everyone is equal, but due to the war, hatred and discrimination towards wolves increased among citizens, especially among herbivores. Despite this, Wolves serve in Repulica’s military, there is a volunteer division, entirely staffed by wolves. Republica’s military heavily relies on infantry attacks and artillery. It also has mechanised and armoured forces, but they are inferior to Wolvereich’s, because of this they are used as support to infantry forces. Since there are different species living in Republica, units of light infantry are formed, which consist of species that can fly. They are equipped with lighter equipment but they can move faster on the battlefield. Republica has advanced artillery technology, which is superior to what Wolvreich could counteract. Republica’s cities mostly have brutalist architecture, but some of the cities saved old gothic buildings.
CIC (Coordinating International Coalition)- Coalition of smaller countries that united together to protect each other. Each country is doing its role in a coalition, so they are almost like one big country, borders between them are just formalities.(Similar to UN but better) It's also like Super Earth from helldivers, they claim they are free and democratic even though they use authoritarian methods.
Their army is much more technologically advanced than Republica’s or Wolvreich’s, but it's not suitable for a long, protracted war of attrition, it is more suitable for local strikes on key positions to defeat the enemy, without engaging in big battles. CIC also has advanced technology in bionics and mechs.
Since they not only concentrate on the army but also on developing new technologies and space research. One of their space research missions, on the edge of the solar system, found remnants of an alien race, CIC scientists used them to reproduce them, but the planet's atmosphere was unsuitable for their organism, so bionics were added, now they are being produced on a hidden space station. They are called Protogens. They are used in CIC’s military as elite forces(almost like space marines in Warhammer). They have a wide range of equipment and they are the main force used in special operations.
I plan to develop CIC and create other fractions later, I want to concentrate first on Republica and Wolvreich(I will call them R&W). I think CIC will have something close to sci-fi stuff rather than Dieselpunk. Maybe they will have some mechs. In terms of technology, I'm not sure yet. I think R&W can have something like light mechs(like walking tanks or Sentinels from w40k) and something big like Warhound Titans (from w40k). Also, I want all of the wars and stuff to happen on 2 planets, one is earth-like, and second is Mars, which is partly terraformed and colonised(maybe there will be some rebel faction) I want those 2 planets to be close to each other. I have an idea that those 2 planets are orbiting a small planet that was destroyed and now there are asteroids between the two planets, but it doesn't sound very realistic to me, so maybe you can think of some alternatives.
In terms of game and game mechanics, I have ideas for some mechanics, but I'm worried that the game may be too complicated. I think each game can have random effects, something like weather/daytime or something more unusual, like artillery fire(so each round, artillery shoots at random areas of the map, maybe using scatter dice), or poisonous gas is covering all map(so I think armies can have units that release toxic gas, and infantry need to put on gas masks that decrease some of their stats) and in this scenario, toxic gas is everywhere and inf. units need to wear it all the time. Also how I said, some units can release toxic gas, not sure how it will work and how effective it will be, maybe like a base with “gas” on it, and it will move with scatter dice, I don't know, I didn't think about it yet, maybe you have idea how to make it. All infantry models move on squads, while some elite units(like protogens, which also can take various kinds of weapons) can move separately(so my idea is to give more tactical freedom, for example, protogens, you can make a “fist” of them, or can spread them across the battlefield to support less survivable infantry.). Also, I want to make rules that show the country’s lore, for example, Republica uses tanks as support, which means you can take 1 tank per, let's say 2 infantry squads (stole it from Bolt Action).In addition, I want to make different missions in the game, I don't want it to be only “stand on this point for 3 turns and you win”. I think that the main goal could be killing a VIP unit(like an officer, a Wolvreich noble with his guard that came to inspire soldiers or a unique pre-war Republica’s vehicle).
If it is possible, I want to make groups on social media for each faction where narrative posts will be made that tell about current events, similar to what you can see in war-related news in telegram channels. I also want to make in-game campaigns/events and announce them in groups. For example when an offence starts, in Republica’s group message appears, an order from high command, to start an attack on that and that area, while in Wolvreich’s message appears, that tells to relocate divisions(player’s armies) to that and that region, to support 113st and 89st Infantry divisions, that cant hold Republica’s offence alone, and something related to it happen, like release of new units or special rules, I don't know yet.
To be honest, I wrote much more than I expected and I have a couple of more things that I didn't include. I hope you can help me to improve it and I hope this interests someone. Would you play war game with such lore?
Also if you are interested and want to help me with creation or just want to play it when it is ready, join discord server that i made for it: [REDACTED] Cant post link because its my first post here, if you are interested tell me, I will give you the link
P.S. I didn't create name yet, I’m open to suggestions
Art in attachment by Katok_exe