As I continue to organize my old notes and come across/replay these old games, I will share this information with the list. It would be interesting to compare this game with the DG version and XTR's TGWiE. SPI's World War 1 (WW1) appeared in both S&T and folio versions in 1975. Designed by Jim Dunnigan, this is a fairly interesting strategic-level game, especially for some of the design solutions Dunnigan used to simulate this conflict. WW1 is a small game (which produced no end of controversy when it and other smaller games appeared in S&T) with a 22 by 17 inch map, 8 pages of rules, only 100 counters, and 10 turns. Due in no small part to its components, WW1 has very high playability. It's very easy to setup and get into play with minutes of perusing the rules. WW1 concentrates on the land war in Europe from 1914-18 with the effects of naval conflict abstracted. It is very strategic with individual units representing armies, turns covering 6 mo., and a hex = 70 km. Redmond Simonsen did a good job with this map, which is done in the SPI style of the day in muted tones of blue, "clear" and tan, by shoehorning most of Europe onto it. It is interesting because the vast majority of the map is made up of the Balkans, AH/Germany and Russia with the Western Front barely 8 hexes in length from Switzerland to the Channel and only 4 hexes "deep." Units contain silhouettes of a nation's fighting man, have attack/defense strengths and a common movement allowance of five. The first interesting aspect is the Sequence of Play. Dunnigan uses a multi-phase approach which works well in representing the long length of time of one turn. Allies move/ Central Powers (CP) move/ then the "superior" player is determined by totalling up the Combat Resource Pts (CRPs pronounced krips -- more on them later) of each side with the highest going first in subsequence phases.../then three attack phases occur for each sidewith the Superior player going first/ and finally both sides take/lend new CRP and build units. The "waves" of attacking work very well in simulating an offensive/response cycle. Movement is pretty "traditional," albeit with no stacking, semi-locking ZOC, simple rail line moves, one Allied sea move per turn to any clear coast save in Germany or Russia (and Simonsen's map neatly channels such possibilities to parts of Italy, Greece and Turkey). The map also contains "fortification" hexes which have intrinsic (also noted directly in the hex) combat strengths and for those with strengths of 2-3, a full ZOC. This concept covers most of the Franco-German and Russo-German frontiers. Units can also abstractly move from France to Italy via spending a turn in a transit box. Combat is not mandatory and a die is rolled on a differential CRT. Units can attack/be attacked once per Attack phase. Defenders receive a strength bonus of 1 in rough terrain which covers most of the southern West Front, Italian spine, Balkans and Austro-Russian border, and another bonus of 2 in Winter turns which make up 5 of the 10 turns. The next interesting concept is the combat results which are taken either as a number of hexes to retreat, a loss of CRP or destruction of the unit; attackers can't satisfy losses by retreating and there are limits on "destroying" units in particular attack phases. Russian/Rumanian units take double losses. This is a clean way to simulate the tremendous impact of these offensives on the manpower/material capacity of a nation simulated by the CRP. So you have the choice of retreating and giving up territory or standing firm and losing precious CRP. Attackers can advance after combat. Supply is checked at the instant of combat and at turn end (when OOS units are eliminated). Supply is traced to map edges for the Allies (or a single in-country city for minor allies), with supply by sea following a sea move. CP supply is traced to cities. OOS units can't attack, defense is halved, and more importantly, can't use CRP to take losses. So if they can't retreat, they are eliminated. This leads to the next interesting concept: the CRP. They exist for 2 purposes: the satisfy combat losses and build new units/rebuild destroyed fort hexes. Building units cost 5 CRP ea. with the counter mix serving as a design limit. CRP (with some limits) can be lent among allies. CRP gains or losses are noted on a map track for ea. country. Germany starts with the most CRPs but Russia is initially (and surprisingly) powerful in CRP as well. Italy enters the game as an Ally and Turkey as a CP and optional rules vary the entry turn. Special rules cover the collapse and surrender of Russia with the occupation of four cities for collapse (five for surrender) out of seven named cities on the map. The German can build Stosstruppen which force a one hex retreat with certain CRT results. The map has other little but very nice aspects such as a track for tracking each phase of a turn; unit setup hexes, all info you'd need on a particular turn: new CRP per nation and other "build" allowances, entry of other nations into the war, Vps for Russian surrender; and the universal CRP track. The CRT is on the back of the rules booklet and contains a nice touch: reminders for certain combat limits/options. There are two scenarios: historical (which begins with Belgium invaded, and post Tannenburg) and free deployment. The victory conditions are the last interesting concept for here is how Dunnigan can impact/dictate play. Each side gets 5 Vps per "resource hex" held (noted with a pick and shovel on the map. Also, if an opponent invades a neutral and a variable (and declining amount) per turn for the CP if Russia surrenders. In my biggest quibble with the game, the Allies automatically get 75 VP simulating the RN blockade. Placement of these resource hexes impact play. The CP have 14 (70VP), mostly in Germany; the Allies: 11 (55VP, with two ea. in Italy and Belgium). None are in Russia, Turkey or the Balkans. Since the historical scenario begins with the Germans on the verge of taking Belgium's two hexes and within a hex of 3 in France, there is implicit pressure to continue to drive in the west. But the CP gets 100-60 VP if Russia surrenders within the first four turns. So we've found holding in the West and seeking to quickly knock out Russia to be a viable strategy for the CP. 'Course because of the relatively huge number of new units per side which can be built each turn, this leaves the CP vunerable to an early Allied push in the West. AH should seek to occupy Russian attention, draw units into somewhat static positions along the border. An AH push into Italy is not recommended unless you want to send some Stoss there to try to grab 1 of the 2 resource hexes. Candidly, if the CP can seize Belgium and some of France's CP, they should just hold on. There is virtually no way to approach Paris beyond throwing everything in the first 2 turns to the West and you still might not make it. And there's no reward for it and only 3 resource hexes near it. Go for Russia first for the CP. As in most games of this war, the Allies begin reactively. Try to hold onto the "surrender cities" in Russia but you'll eventually lose. The combination of having to take double losses and probably a lot of CP attention is deadly. But if the CP concentrate in the West, try for the 2 resource hexes on the German border (of course, this sets you up for a possible riposte that might catch the Russian OOS given the long fortified "flank" formed by East Prussia. Seeking a way to lend Russia CRPs via the Dardanelles is nice if you can spare some Brit/French units. Else, keep hammering away in the West and wait for the Amis. The Americans are not the saviors they are in other games, it's their CRPs which make the impact as by game end, all nations are flagging (with decreased "new" CRP per turn). This game is very playable solitaire. Because of the CRP ability to absorb losses, some have claimed the static lines that develop in the West make for boring play, but it is interesting to see how neatly this simulates the "need" for attacking these lines in order to deplete an opponents CRP and ability to build new units...and as 1918 rolls around, it's a race between successful Stoss attacks and CP CRP depletion (or the collapse of CP allies if the Allies pursue the strategy of attacking the CP "perimeter." I've had all sorts of things happen in games over the years: successful attacks in the Dardanelles can keep Russia afloat through subsequent lending of CRP. We always argue about the 75 VP for the Allied blockade as it seemingly assures Allied victory or at best for the CP, a Versaille-like stalemate. We've usually played with 50 or even 30 VP forcing the Allies to continue to attack. Usually Salonika-like adventures don't come to much given the Balkan terrain and ability to bottle up such forces. In one game, the late sudden collapse of Italy unnerved the Allies enough to transit too many units which led to a CP breakthrough at the end of the game in the West. Only once in many, many games has the West front collapsed or the Germans gotten near Paris usually because the French refuse to retreat and eke out the crucial early turn with enough CRP. On the other hand, a slow-to-develop but powerful Russian offensive in the east throttled the German western attack and led to an early stalemate which was broken only by renewed CP attention to Russia. Enjoy. Doug Murphy