Death in the Trenches: The Great War, 1914-1918 (2005)

DEATH IN THE TRENCHES is a strategic-level World War I game covering the entire war, from the opening shots in Serbia and Belgium to the final defeat -- or victory! -- of Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1918. The game includes a map stretching from the Pyrenees to Moscow, and from Norway to the Sudan, covering every square inch of territory in Europe and the Near East which saw combat from 1914 to 1918, in a manageable 22x17 format. An additional map shows the German colonies

The game also features 308 beautifully-illustrated counters depicting the national armies that fought in the war -- from the Germans, French, British and Russians all the way down to the Persians, Montenegrins, Armenians, South Africans, and a host of other specialized units (French Foreign Legion, Gurkhas, Italian "Arditi", Cossacks, Tyrolean Kaiserjaeger, Zionists, Bavarians, "Dunsterforce"... even the Chinese may send a small expeditionary force).

DEATH IN THE TRENCHES includes a deceptively simple twelve pages of rules (and an additional twelve pages of random events) detailing the game's unique combat system (no CRT!) which portrays the grinding nature of World War I combat in a realistic way that still gives players plenty of options to pursue. Using army-level units (which contain numbers of divisional level formations, represented off-map), players use numerous special military abilities to drive back the enemy.

Detailed random events rules give you more gory details about World War I than you've ever seen before in a game, while helping keep play simple and straightforward. Lenin, the Senussi revolt, intrigue in the Romanian court, the Cruise of the Emden, the Armenian Massacre, the Sinai Pipeline, the Ukrainian Reactionary Hetmanate, Rasputin, Mata Hari, the Russian shell shortage, the murder of Edith Cavell, Wilhelm Wassmuss (the "German Lawrence"), Lawrence of Arabia, the Nestorian resistance, Pancho Villa, the Grand Duke Nicholas, Thomas Masaryk, the Red Baron, Czech Legion, Irish Rising, Berber Revolt, air raids, typhus, influenza... they're all here.

For the World War I buff, "DITT" has everything: Tanks, Alpenkorps, artillery barrages, flamethrowers, poison gas, Krupp guns, Mustapha Kemal, the Royal Air Force, French elan... while the great wartime leaders all leave their mark (good or bad!) on history: Bruchmuller, Haig, Hoffmann, Mackensen, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, Rennenkampf and Samsonov, Sarrail, Von Francois, Foch, Brusilov, Nivelle, Plehve, Putnik, Yudenich... they're all here. Players command the armed forces of nearly forty nations, in a game that still manages to be small enough to fit on your table!

It sounds like a massive game, but it isn't. DEATH IN THE TRENCHES is designed to be played--easy to play, hard to master. You'll learn things about World War I you never knew before, and you'll have to face the same crises the leaders of the Entente and Central Powers did. Think you can do better than Douglas Haig and Robert Nivelle? Now it's your turn.

Death in the Trenches won the Charles S. Roberts awards for Best DTP-Produced Boardgame (Charles S. Roberts Awards) for 2005.