Hi,' 1918 by SPI is one of my favorite games, but the 2nd review you have has many rule mistakes in it. I include this review with the errors in brackets. Thanks, Don Johnson From: Christopher Salander Subject: Game Review 1918 by Simulation Publications, Inc. Game Review by Chris Salander Note: Many errors in review I imbed the corrections in []. 1918 was published by SPI in 1971 [1972] and has been out of print ever since. It can only be purchased used. The main purpose of this review is to describe the game for people who have the opportunity to buy the game and are wondering what it is like. There has also been renewed interest in WWI games recently. In short, 1918 is one of those 10% of all games which people have decided are worth keeping and playing, even when they sell off most of their other games. As a result, prices for 1918 have gone up to the $30 to $50 range. The game is for two people, although you could divide up the front between a couple of players on each side. 1918 recreates Operation Michel, the last major German offensive in World War I. If the Germans don't win this, they must go on the defensive and wait to lose the war. The key feature of this game is the deployment of the specially trained Stosstruppen, who create the possibility of a breakout from trench warfare. It comes in an SPI flat tray, with a map, rules, two counter sheets, and one d6. There is an earlier, "beta test" version of this game, with much simpler production values. Make sure which "edition" you are getting. Counters are divisions, with up to two per hex. Turns are days. The game lasts about two weeks [10 turns]. Germans counters are gray, Allied are brown. Units have simple attack and movement factors, but special rules in the game make moving and attacking more interesting. Still, I find it a relief from so many of today's counters, which have 6 to 8 pieces of information on them in tiny but fancy type. Units also have their historical unit name abbreviated on the side, but only the most fervent WWI fans will care about who goes where. Units German Stosstruppen 7-5 Regular Div. 6-4 Trench Div. 5-3 Cavalry 2-7 Allies British Regulars 6-4 French Regulars 5-4 British Territorials 4-4 Cavalry 2-7 Most of the German units are Stoss, most of the Allied units are British Territorials. The most critical units in the game are the Supply/Artillery units, which are 4-3. They can be used for one of four purposes: General Supply (stay on the map) any # of units Attack Supply (removed) 1 attack [all units w/i 4 hexes] [1/2] Defensive Artillery Fire (stay on the map) 2 factors Offensive Artillery Fire [or full defensive fire] (removed) 4 factors So the big decision both players have to make in this game is how to use their Supply/Artillery units. More on that later. Map The map is standard for SPI at this time; three colors. Black, blue, and gray, on an off-white/beige background. Still, it is everything you need to play and easy to read. (Again, some current maps are overdone.) There are no woods or elevations, but there are towns, roads, rivers, historical set-up positions, trench zones, and a "devastated zone." Towns and rivers modify the combat die roll by one, trenches by two. Roads give no bonus, but cancel out bad terrain. Rivers cost two extra points to cross, trenches one. The devastated area adds one point to movement costs. It reflects an area very torn up from years of fighting, and all on the Allied side, due to a German move to shorten their line. It has a significant impact on the pace of the game. Rules The turn sequence has three parts: move, fight, move. This is an unusual sequence for a WWI game. It is usually found in WWII games as a "breakthrough" move. This sequence interacts very explicitly with a frequent result on the CRT: Both Retreat. After attacker and defender have both retreated, the attacker gets a chance to move back. But terrain conditions are often so bad that he is lucky just to get back to his starting location. Two key movement rules are: a) Allied units must spend another point to leave German zones of control. b) Only German Stosstruppen units may move [advance] from one enemy ZOC to another. The last rule dominates the game, in combination with the two moves per turn. If the Allied player leaves even a one hex gap in his line, the German player can wiggle up to two 7-5 units through it. Stoss are also the only units that can voluntarily move out of supply. The end result is that Allied units often risk encirclement. This is a bad way to die, since combat units and supply units that die out of supply cannot be brought back as replacements. One key to Allied salvation is another special rule: c) Leapfrog retreats. Any unit except Stoss surrounded by enemy ZOCs cannot retreat. However, if you have or can get another friendly unit adjacent to the surrounded unit, not only does this put the surrounded unit into supply, but the surrounded unit can then retreat onto its friend. Typically the "friend" moves into position in the first movement phase of a turn and the surrounded recipient pulls out in the second phase. There are occasions where the terrain will be so bad that the 3 factor units cannot move. 4 and 5 factor units might be reduced to 1 hex per movement phase. As a result, control of roads becomes critical, especially north-south roads that will allow the player to shift forces. Also, British reinforcements come in from the North edge and French reinforcements from the south edge. In combat the attacker has an uphill battle. While getting at least 3:1 odds will almost ensure that the attacker will not get hurt, typically you have to achieve 6:1 odds or better to be sure to displace or kill the defender. The CRT goes up to 10:1. Besides the Both Retreat result, there are the somewhat standard AR, DR, Ex, AE and DE results. Twists are: in an Ex the attacker loses only one unit [this is because the defender only defends with one unit and thus can only lose one]. AR and DR can be 1 or 2 hexes. You cannot retreat through enemy ZOCs. Each attack on a single hex of defenders uses up one supply unit [totally false, expending a supply unit gives attack supply to all units that can trace 4 hexes]. Even though you can stack two units into a hex, only one will defend. Used up supply units return at the edge of the board on the next turn, so unless you want to use them for artillery, the supply units tend to become "attack chits" which keep track of how many attacks the German can make in one turn. Defensive artillery fire, even if only two factors, can be very effective. Four 7-5s attack one 4-4 at 7:1. The 4-4 gets two factors of arty to become a 6. Now the odds are only 4:1. The game (like some Battle of the Bulge games) is a very different experience for each player. The German player is constantly attacking, pushing, driving, trying to push through any little hole he can find. The Allied player is constantly pulling back, shoring up, plugging holes, and shifting units. You can play a whole game where there are no Allied attacks. If there is, it is usually British 6-4s supported by artillery trying to recover Arras, a VP town in the north. This makes for a pretty good solo game, but many people might not like the passive Allied role in a two player game. When used as artillery, supply units have a 3 hex range. The Allied player normally only uses his for limited defensive fire (2 points) since it may take a while for the replaced unit to come back with range from the edge of the board. However, the rules do not indicate a distance limit on supply counters used for attack supply, so they can be spent as soon as they come onto the board. [totally false, range is 4 hexes] There are a number of grey counters included in the counter mix that have iron crosses on them. They are not explained in the rules. My best guess is that they are for marking hexes where German units have left the map (provided they break the Allied line). Every third unit that is lost in combat can come back from a friendly map edge as a replacement. The Allies also receive a steady supply of reinforcements. The Germans receive none. They are using everything they have from the beginning. Victory is based on points gained by the German player, either by seizing towns (Amiens, Arras, and one other), or by sending units off of the map to the west. Units set off to the north, to roll up the British line, are worth FOUR times as much. But since the British reinforcements come in from the north, this rich reward is rarely achieved. Like France '40, 1918 includes a number of variable scenarios that change the forces fighting on each side or the conditions that they fight under. One example is related to another special rule: German artillery that fires from the original German trench line has its attack factor doubled. This is to reflect the fact that the British packed their men up into the front trenches, where they suffered heavy losses during the bombardment. A variant scenario assumes that the British were smarter and the German artillery benefit is lost. Another variant eliminates the "devastated zone." Most of the variants increase the Allied forces and reduce the German forces. Some Allied divisions were sent to Italy. One variant assumes that fewer troops were sent, leaving more to face the Germans. The extra counters to support different variations means that this game is somewhat immune to the loss of a few counters. The one exception to this is that the historical scenario uses every single Stosstruppen counter available. Play When you first see the historical set-up, with piles of high value German counters across from a few lower value British counters, you might think this game will be a blow-out. But we all know that WWI was hard on the attacker, and the game reflects that. It will take the Germans the whole two weeks to push their way across the board. One quirk is that the Germans do not have a lot of troops where the British are weakest, in the south next to the French. So the greatest breakthroughs take place there, but there are often not enough units to exploit the success. Variants allow free set-up. The German advance is controlled by the management of supply. Some supply units will be dragged along to provide artillery support. The Germans have to pace how often they "fire off" these units, since as the advance progresses it takes longer and longer for the replacements to reach the front. Normally it is best for the Allied player to have an even spread of artillery support behind his whole line. Occasionally, however, there will be such a bad break in his line that he may have to put a supply unit into the breach. Normally this should be avoided, since they will fight with only a factor of 1, and they cannot be replaced if eliminated in combat. But every now and then this sacrifice may save the day. So, with relatively simple counters and map, and short but clever rules, 1918 is a "keeper" that you will want to play again.