To be honest, the great war wasn't the first period to draw my attention. What's the fun of gaming a war focused more on attrition than on manoeuvre? Never the less, when I looked deeper into this period I realised that it actually had a great potential for fun and interesting scenarios. Just to give some examples:
Trench-raiding. Small-scale operations in "no-ones-land" for reconnaissance, taking prisoners or just harassing the opposition.
The eastern front. If you still into manoeuvring with larger units but don't want to be stuck in the trenches, this is the place for you. Here you can play the Germans, technical and tactically superior, but inferior in numbers. It you are into large but not to sophisticated units, pick the Russians. Or the challenge of trying to hold the line with the unstable units of Austria-Hungary.
On the other hand, when I think about it... who can resist the challenge of be the one who finally makes the great breakthrough on the western front?
A Swedish angle to WW 1?
I don't know how your mind work, but I am always looking for a "Swedish angle". OK I have to admit that there is no big Swedish angle to WW 1, or ... maybe there is, but then we have to set our minds to the "what if" scenarios. There was no secret that the King of Sweden and some parts of the Swedish armed force was very anti Russian. The Russian attack in 1808 wasn't forgotten. Since Germany was fighting Russia they where of course favoured. The Russians was aware about this, and kept a large army in Finland just to make sure that Sweden didn't get any stupid ideas.
Eventually they got the chance. When the Russian and Finnish civil war broke out, there where reports in Swedish newspapers that the Russian garrison on the Swedish speaking Islands of Åland was starting a massacres on the population. A swift rescue operation was launched (was it planned?) and the Islands where occupied by Swedish units. The Russian garrison resigned without any fighting. The funny thing is that the ones who were upset about this operation wasn't the Russian, but the White Finnish government! They feared that Sweden wanted to keep the Islands (actually quite right) Any way, the papers where wrong and the Islands where later handed over to the new Finnish government.
Gallery
All of the figures in my gallery is manufactured by Irregular Miniatures. There might be some comments on my painting, but keep in mind that they are made for gaming, not a museum... Like it or not. If you want to have a look, just go ahead and click on the links.