Slitherine

Will there be mechanisms in place to provide some historical elements, such as the static Western Front? Or, will fronts e as dynamic as the player can make them?

There are no hardcoded events to trigger the trenchwar. But it will happen sooner or later: The closer the fight gets to Paris, the closer French reinforcements can be deployed to the action. The Germans will eventually wear down from attacking & moving and be forced to stop & recover (+ they have to provide more and more reinforcements on the eastern front as well). At this point - when no longer moving or attacking - units start entrenching their hexes. Low tech units are unefficient attacking entrenched hexes frontaly so until significant technological progress is made, offensives on the western front will bleed dry after only a couple of hexes won or lost.

The eastern front is a different subject because it is so big and terrain provides less entrenchment. Trying to dig in there will make it easy for your opponent to surround and cut of your entire army. So this will be a much more mobile and dynamic front, with action and reaction.

And of course there is the ability to open other fronts, for example through naval invasions. But be careful where you do it or you may get yourself into a reenactment of Gallipoli