A Wargamers Needful Things: Trench War

Trench War

Wisdom Owl/Fellowship Of Simulations

Le Grande Guerre, or The Great War, was a cataclysmic event that completely changed the world. The brutality of war was highly evident in it from the first day to the last. Flame Throwers, Poison Gas, and whatever could be used to kill was implemented. Even the combatants in World War II did not use gas on each other (of course, it was used in the death camps and by Italy in its grab for colonies). The term for the daily number of deaths on the Western Front was called 'wastage'. In actuality, World War I and II are now looked at by a lot of historians as the same war with a short peace in between, much like the Peloponnesian Wars.

I am finally okay with block games, and I do not break into a sweat anymore when a map does not have hexes. However, I am still a bit leery of a wargame played with cards. I have played a few, and have reviewed two I believe, but my pulse rate still quickens when I see it is a card game. Exposure therapy has worked for area movement, and for blocks. So, one would assume, after a few more card games I should be fine with them.

Let us see what comes in the box:

50 Troop Cards

58 Bonus Cards

1 Gameboard

1 sheet of Counters (Markers)

1 Rule book

1 Optional Card

This is a blurb from the creators:

"Trench warfare is a simple game for two players on the theme of the Great War. With games of less than 45 minutes, each player uses a deck of cards containing soldiers, tanks, planes and support weapons to take the opposing trench. With a simple rule, this game creates tense situations full of attacks of counterattacks."

As you can see the game is a pretty minimalist one. However, the game makes up it sparseness with having very well done components. The gameboard is nicely illustrated to match the destruction of World War I. The cards are little pieces of artwork. The German cards have the Pour Le Merite on the back of their Bonus Cards, and the German Flag on their Troop Cards. While the French ones have the Knight of the Legion of Honour on their Bonus Cards, and the Tricolor on their Troop Cards. The Rulebook is in full color and it has plenty of play examples for only being twelve pages long. The game markers are round and it is easy to understand their meanings.

This is the Game Sequence of Play:

Each Player receives six Command Points (CPs) per turn.

These can be used to do any of these actions:

Discard up to eight cards (1 CP cost no matter how many cards are discarded).

Place a Troop Card (You pay the CP cost in the upper left hand of the card).

Move a Troop Card (1 CP cost).

Attack with a Troop Card (1 CP cost).

Place a Bonus Card (You pay the CP cost listed on the Card).

The game is set in the last year of the war, and it is only between French and German combatants. Like many games this size the rules are simple. This does not mean that the game is a beer and pretzels one. It is a tense and well thought out game that gives the player plenty of choices to play well or mess up badly. The shortness of the game means that you could play more than a few times on game night. The smallness of its footprint means that setup and cleanup is a breeze. In my own games, and reading about the game, many times it comes down to the wire with the last card or cards being the difference between victory or defeat. I can easily recommend the game for a change of pace for us cardboard pushing grognards. Hell, the artwork alone is worth the cost of the game.