1914 (game)
Encyclopedia
Board wargame
A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer, or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The hobby around this type of game got its start in 1954 with the publication of Tactics, and saw its greatest popularity in the...
published by the Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
game company in 1968 and designed by James F. Dunnigan. It was a corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
-level simulation of the first few weeks of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
on the western front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
. The game came in an 11" × 14" cardboard box, and included a fold-out, cardboard-backed game map (22" × 28"), German and Allied cardboard counters, a set of dice, game variant cards, a mobilization
Mobilization
Mobilization is the act of assembling and making both troops and supplies ready for war. The word mobilization was first used, in a military context, in order to describe the preparation of the Prussian army during the 1850s and 1860s. Mobilization theories and techniques have continuously changed...
chart pad for secret deployment, and various charts and instructions including a Battle Manual.
The game board map was covered by a hex grid to regulate movement. The game scale was 2 days per turn, with approximately 16 km per hex. The map covered the terrain from Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the east to Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in the west, and from the southern portion of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
in the north to the northern edge of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in the south. The terrain included major river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s, ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
lines, rough terrain, forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
, and the sea
Sea
A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...
. It also displayed the location of cities
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
, fortifications, economic sites, mobilization
Mobilization
Mobilization is the act of assembling and making both troops and supplies ready for war. The word mobilization was first used, in a military context, in order to describe the preparation of the Prussian army during the 1850s and 1860s. Mobilization theories and techniques have continuously changed...
squares, and railroads. The hex grid was marked with coordinates: numbers running south-north, and letters west-east.
The various military formations are represented by counters—square pieces of colored cardboard printed with game information. German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
counters were gray-green (Feldgrau) in hue; the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
were light red; British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
pale khaki, and Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
counters were light blue. Each counter was marked with a standard unit symbol for infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
, cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
, or artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
. The counter also displayed the unit size (corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
, division
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...
, brigade
Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
, regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
, or battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
), unit designation, and whether it was an active army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
unit, or reserve, landwehr
Landwehr
Landwehr, or Landeswehr, is a German language term used in referring to certain national armies, or militias found in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. In different context it refers to large scale, low strength fortifications...
, etc.
Standard game
The combat ratings of each unit was given in the form of their Attack-Defense-Movement ratings. (German artillery units list their caliber.) Cavalry units had their attack factor in parentheses, indicating they can only attack isolated artillery units. The major (corps) units had a sequence of steps they could lose as a result of combat or lack of supply. At each step loss the Attack and Defense factors were reduced. Thus a German active corps went from a 7-12-3, to 5-10-3, then 4-9-3, and a 2-7-3, before it was finally destroyed. However, each side in the game also received step replacements which could be used to build back up units that had taken losses, as long as the unit was in supply and some distance from an enemy unit.Combat was based on an odds ratio between the attacking units Attack Rating and the defending unit's Defense Rating. The odds ranged from 1-to-4 or less, up to 5-to-1 or more. Different combat results charts were used based on the number of Defense Factors, and the results determined by rolling a six-sided dice. The result was in terms of step losses by each side, with at most one step being lost. Many of the results called for a step loss by both sides, reflecting the heavy attrition
Attrition warfare
Attrition warfare is a military strategy in which a belligerent side attempts to win a war by wearing down its enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and matériel....
incurred throughout this conflict. Defending units in clear terrain that suffered a step loss also had to retreat a hex, or lose a second step.
Rules were included for the effects of fortresses. A fortress could be attacked and destroyed by a purely infantry attack. However, the infantry incurred step losses from these attacks and only had a 1 in 6 chance of destroying the fortress. The German side also had the option of using their artillery to destroy a fortress, which frequently improved the odds of success. The most effective artillery, however, was the German railroad guns; since they could never leave rail lines, they were limited in geographic scope.
Units could move their indicated movement factor during a turn, with higher movement cost for certain types of terrain. No more than two corps could end their movement in the same hex, and only one corps could defend a hex. The infantry typically had a movement rating of 3, with some reserve units moving 2 per turn. Cavalry units had a movement rating of 4, and artillery could move 2.
The basic 1914 system did not include zone of control
Zone of control
In board wargames, zones of control represent the tiles adjacent to tiles occupied by objects. For example, in hexagonal tiled maps, the six hexagons adjacent to the hexagon occupied by a unit would be considered to be in its "zone of control."...
rules, but did have a supply requirement. Units were in supply as long as a line could be traced through any three contiguous hexes to a friendly railroad line. Enemy units blocked supply lines, but only in the hex they occupied.
The game was played in a series of turns, with first the German and then Allied player performing their actions. Each player would receive any reinforcements scheduled for the turn; move any friendly units up to their maximum movement, then initiate combat against adjacent enemy units. (Neither movement nor combat was required, but was at the option of the current player.) If an enemy unit was forced to retreat due to combat, the current player could also advance into the abandoned hexes.
Each game began with each player marking on the Mobilization Chart where their forces would initially be deployed. A few units were required to occupy specific hexes, such as French active infantry corps in Toul
Toul
Toul is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:Toul is located between Commercy and Nancy, and situated between the Moselle River and the Canal de la Marne au Rhin....
, Belfort
Belfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...
, etc., but the remainder could be placed in any friendly hex. This secret deployment created an element of surprise at the start of the game.
Advanced rules
Once the basic game was mastered, the players could use the advanced rules and options included in the Battle Manual. The main feature of the advanced game was the use of inverted counters. The back side of a counter displayed only a national symbol and a facing arrow. This arrow affected how the unit could move, as it cost a movement factor each time the unit was moved. It also modified the ability of the unit to defend itself. Units attacked from the direction of their facing arrow used their (generally weaker) Attack Factor for defense.The advanced game also included special rules for the effect of events on the eastern front, where Germany was opposed by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. It also included a set of game variation cards that could produce unusual chance effects that might alter the situation. These could modify the size of the Belgian and Dutch armies, vary the effectiveness of the British force, alter mobilization rates, and so forth.
There were additional rules for supply lines, cavalry probes, amphibious
Amphibious warfare
Amphibious warfare is the use of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain...
attack, German requirements for garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
s, retreat before combat, movement cost for disengaging an enemy, dummy counters, and variable time limits for game completion.
The Battle Manual contained additional information concerning game play strategy and tactics, and how the various forces were armed and organized. At the end was a historical commentary and a series of maps depicting the course of the actual campaign. There was also a bibliography and a glossary of abbreviations used on the counters.