Downfall of Empires Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Components
• 2. Initial setup
• 3. Map, stacking and control
• 4. Powers
• 5. Victory points
• 6. Supply
• 7. Actions
• 8. Recruitment
• 9. Activation
  • 9.1 Movement
  • 9.2 Combat
• 10. Research
  • 10.1 Attack and defense
  • 10.2 Manoeuvre
  • 10.3 Offensive
  • 10.4 Aviation
  • 10.5 Tanks 1 and 2
  • 10.6 Poison gas
  • 10.7 Assault troopers
• 11. Entrenching
• 12. Diplomacy
• 13. Missions
• 14. Central Powers coordination
• 15. Movement and combat examples
  • 15.1 Example 1
  • 15.2 Example 2
  • 15.3 Example 3
  • 15.4 Example 4
  • 15.5 Example 5
  • 15.6 Example 6
• 16. List of armies
  • 16.1 The Triple Entente and its allies
  • 16.2 Central Powers and their allies
• 17. Designer's notes
• Credits

1. Components

• 1 Map (divided into zones)
• 75 Army counters
• 32 Trench counters
• 32 Technology tiles
• 1 Turn marker
• 41 Control markers
• 4 Attack/Move Markers
• 2 Dice
• 1 Rulebook

Combat units are Armies, and counters are defined by nationality, combat factor and support factor. All counters have 2 steps: full and reduced.

Technology tiles carry a technological level (requires having previously developed the lower levels of the same technology) and some carry a pre-requisite (requires having developed any other 4 technologies before).

2. Initial setup

Place armies and trenches in zones as marked on the map. All setup armies are deployed as full armies and trenches are level 1.

Each Power places three technology tiles in box 1, taking into account restrictions described in the technology chapter.

Place control markers in the 0 boxes of the diplomacy track and the turn marker in the summer 1914 box.

3. Map, stacking and control

The map is divided into zones. A Power can have a maximum of 3 armies in a zone (only 2 in the Caucasus, Syria and Egypt). A zone can hold armies from two enemy Powers (with up to 3 armies per Power), but not of two Powers of the same coalition (exception; see section 14).

Terrain in zones can be: plain, forest, desert and mountain (zones with drawings of dark mountain outlines. For example, the Belgrade zone is not mountain).

Initially, all zones of a country (home zones) are controlled by that Power. Control changes when a zone is occupied or crossed only by one Power's armies. This means a zone is controlled by the Power that was the last one to occupy or cross it solely with its armies. A zone stays controlled by the owner when it is occupied by its armies and that of an enemy Power.

Zone control changes at the end of the active player's turn.

There are zones with cities and/or ports. These are recruiting and supply zones. Zones with cities are also used to calculate Victory Points.

There are 4 square areas connected with arrows (three Russian and Ankara) in which enemy armies cannot enter.

4. Powers

There are four Powers. Until these Powers are joined by new countries as a result of diplomacy, they are composed of:

• German Empire: Germany and its armies, except those it lends to Austria-Hungary.
• Austro-Hungarian Empire: Austria and Hungary and its armies as well as those armies lent by the German Empire.
• Franco-British: France, United Kingdom, Serbia and their respective armies.
• Russian Empire: Russia and its armies.

The German and Austro-Hungarian Empires form a coalition (the Central Powers) enemy of the coalition formed by the Franco-British and Russia Powers (the Triple Entente).

Five initially neutral countries (Turkey, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and the U.S.A.) can join the war, on one side, as explained in the diplomacy chapter.

The order of play is: German, Franco-British, Russian and Austro-Hungarian.

5. Victory points

Victory Points (VP) are added up at the end of turn 18. The player who controls the Power with the most Victory Points is the winner.

Starting victory points

Power	VP
Germany	-3
Austria-Hungary	0
France - UK	4
Russia	5

Each Power starts with a set number of VP which can be modified by:

• Controlling an enemy zone with a city at the end of the game adds a VP.
• Not controlling a home zone with a city at the end of the games subtracts a VP.

(This means only conquered enemy zones with cities and home zones with cities lost to the enemy are taken into account, not home zones with cities still under control).

• The German and Franco-British Powers also take into account of VPs for controlling cities of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Powers respectively.
• If at the end of the game, the Austro-Hungarians control Warsaw, Minsk, Vilna or Riga those VPs only count for the Germans.
• Diplomacy VP: For every neutral country joining the war and for the surrender of Russia, add one VP to both Powers of the alliance concerned. If Bulgaria or Romania do not enter the war, subtract a VP from both Powers of the alliance concerned.

To summarize, VP are calculated as follows:

• Initial VP
• • number of enemy zones with cities controlled **
• • number of home zones with cities controlled by the enemy **
• • Diplomacy VP
• = Final VP

** German and Franco-British add and subtract those of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian respectively.

6. Supply

Controlled home zones with cities are sources of supply for the armies of that Power.

Controlled zones with a port are also a source of supply for Franco-British armies.

Armies and zones are in supply if they can trace a line of supply to a controlled source of supply through controlled zones. It is not necessary to control the zone where the armies are.

The Franco-British side can be supplied by sea.

The supply of armies is checked after zone control change.

When an army is out of supply, it loses a step immediately. Out of supply armies can be activated in their turn. If at the end of their turn they are still out of supply, they are eliminated.

Zones change control when they run out of supply, passing to the control of the side that has cut it off or to that of its ally.

7. Actions

The German and Franco-British Powers have three actions per turn. The Russians and Austro-Hungarians have two actions per turn. Available actions are:

• Recruit
• Activation
• Research
• Entrench
• Diplomacy
• Missions

With the exception of Activation, actions can only be played once per turn.

The Recruit action can only be played as the first action.

(To keep track of completed actions, the player can place control markers in the Actions boxes on the map).

8. Recruitment

Armies are recruited in controlled home cities or in contiguous controlled areas. American and British armies are recruited in controlled zones with ports.

Reduced armies can be reinforced to full strength in any zone unless they are out of supply.

Reinforcing a reduced army to full strength or placing a new reduced army on the map counts as recruiting one step. Placing a full strength army on the map counts as recruiting 2 steps.

When using the recruiting action, you can recruit three steps except for the Austro-Hungarians who only have 2 steps. These steps count for any army of that Power except for Americans.

From 1917 the Franco-British side recruits 4 steps.

Germany gets 4 steps in winter turns if it controls the Brussels zone.

Italians, Turks and Americans recruit for themselves an extra step when the Power they belong to uses the recruiting action if they have joined the war.

In the three Mediterranean zones with ports, only armies with a 3(2) combat factor can be recruited.

The Franco-British side cannot move to Salonika or recruit there until 1916. In Salonika, in addition to the British factor 3(2) armies, the French factor 3(2) armies and the Serbian army can be recruited.

The Austro-Hungarian side cannot move to Greece until the Franco-British side has moved or recruited in Salonika, or from 1917 without restrictions.

9. Activation

The Activation action allows up to three armies of a Power to do the following:

• Move
• Attack or support an attack
• Move and attack or move and support an attack

The player must announce what his armies are going to do and make the moves before resolving the combats.

An army cannot be activated twice in a player's turn.

Germany has to attack Franco-British armies in the two turns of 1914 (at least one army per turn).

Russia has to attack at least two German or Austro-Hungarian armies in 1916.

9.1 Movement

Armies can move up to four zones. Moving into a zone controlled by the enemy counts as moving two zones.

British and American armies can move, move and attack, or move and support, between zones with ports by using all their movement. In Mediterranean zones only armies with a 3(2) combat factor can do so.

Only one British army can move to Gallipoli in 1915 and without using air support.

Strategic Movement: this allows the movement of one army through any number of controlled zones (and cannot include movement by sea). It counts as the movement of two armies.

Zone control changes at the end of a turn so, if as a result of a second activate action, an army enters a zone that was controlled by the enemy it costs two zones to move into.

Armies that are in the same zone as enemy armies can only move out of this zone to a zone controlled by their side (a zone with armies from two enemy Powers is controlled by one of them only).

Armies cannot move into zones of neutral countries.

In Italy and the frontier zones of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with Italy, apart from Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies there can only be one German army and one French or British army.

9.2 Combat

Combat is between armies, not zones. In each combat there is an attacker and a defender. Both armies must be in the same zone.

For every activation you can attack several armies, in the same or different zones.

Armies that exceed in number those of the enemy in the zone can support the attack of one army. Defending armies cannot receive support.

Activating an army to "move and attack or support an attack" requires the army to be in a zone adjacent to the one where the enemy army is being attacked. In this case, the movement must be directly into the combat zone without passing through other zones.

If moving to a zone with enemy armies and without friendly armies then at least one of the activated armies must move and attack.

The attacker chooses which armies to attack but full-strength armies must be attacked first.

An army can only be attacked once in a turn no matter how many activate actions are done.

To resolve combats follow this procedure:

Combat factors for the attacking and defending armies are adjusted by:

• The adjusted combat factors of the attacking and defending armies are calculated, starting from their combat factors, as follows:
• If there are armies activated to support the attack, the support factors are added.
• The defender adds, in its case, the factor for mountain or trench (not both).
• Mountains add +1. The defender's trench (no matter its level), if not cancelled by the attacker's tanks, adds +2 in Germany, France-Belgium, Riga and Kiev and +1 in other places.
• The attacker's Attack technology is compared with the defender's Defense technology, if someone has a higher level, it adds +1.
• The attacker's aviation adds +2.

Add the result of a die roll to the modified combat factors. The results can be:

• One side has a higher score but not double that of his opponent: 2 losses for the loser and 1 loss for the winner.
• One side's score doubles or more that of his opponent: 2 losses for the loser and none for the winner.
• Draw: 1 loss for both armies.

A loss involves an army losing a step or a reduced army being eliminated.

If the defender has a trench, he can absorb a loss, eliminating it if it is level 1, or reducing it to level 1 if it is level 2 (even if attacked with tanks). He cannot absorb losses with trenches if the attacker's score was double.

If the losing army is a reduced defending army, the second loss is taken, if possible, from another army in the zone that has not fought in the turn (of the side being played), or from a trench.

If the losing army is a reduced attacking army, the second loss is taken on an army that has supported the attack if that is the case.

If the losing side cannot take a second loss, the winning side does not take any loss.

If a defending army loses a combat but avoids being eliminated by removing a trench, it must retreat to an adjacent controlled zone except if it is in a mountain, forest or desert zone, or if the casualty is taken from a level 2 trench in France-Belgium or Germany (in these cases, the reduced defeated army remains in the combat zone).

10. Research

The German and Franco-British Powers have 10 technologies they can research. The Russians and Austro-Hungarians have 6.

Research involves putting a technology tile in box 1 or moving it from box 1 to box 2. Technologies in box 2 are available on the next turn.

In 1918, with the action of research, a technology is placed directly in box 2.

You cannot research a second level of a technology if the first level has not been researched.

The four Powers all place 3 technologies in box 1 at the beginning of the game. Technologies are selected in secret and are not revealed until they are used.

Italian, Turkish, Serbian, Bulgarian and Romanian do not get any benefits for technologies except for "Manoeuvre".

10.1 Attack and defense

Five technology levels that improve the attack and defense of armies. In combat you compare the attack technology of the attacker with the defense technology of the defender. The side with the higher technology level (the amount does not matter) has a +1 in combat. If they have the same technology level, they have cancel each other out.

10.2 Manoeuvre

Allows the activation of 4 armies instead of 3 for every Activation action.

10.3 Offensive

Grants one extra Activation action per year, if at least one attack is made (Germany has to attack Franco-British).

Russia does not have the extra action in 1918.

10.4 Aviation

Adds +2 to the attacker by spending a mission. It can only be used in one attack per turn per Power.

If the defender has air support he can cancel the attacker's by spending a mission in which case the attacker can spend more missions to attack followed by the defender to cancel them.

10.5 Tanks 1 and 2

Negates the defensive factor of trenches of the same or lesser level by spending a mission per attack. The attacker decides whether to use it before the attack takes place.

Example: The attacker attacks two armies in a zone with a defender's trench. In the first attack he spends a mission to cancel the effect of the trench. The defender loses the combat and takes one of the losses by removing the trench. For the attack on the second army, the attacker does not spend a mission on tanks as he no longer needs to cancel the effects of the trench.

The Tanks technology cannot be researched until a Power has four other technologies researched.

10.6 Poison gas

Once a year, from 1915 to 1918, inflicts a loss to a full army in an entrenched area of France-Belgium or Germany other than a mountain (an own army must be in the same zone or an adjacent one).

The side that has the technology chooses in which turn it performs it (in addition to the Actions).

10.7 Assault troopers

German armies reduce from +2 to +1 the defensive factor of trenches in France-Belgium, Germany, Riga and Kiev.

11. Entrenching

The Entrenching action allows a Power to place a level 1 trench in a zone or raise a level 1 trench to level 2. One trench gives combat modifiers to all defending armies of a Power in a zone.

Entrenching is possible when there is an army in a zone at the beginning of the turn or an army has been recruited there in that turn.

When a zone contains one side's trench and only armies of an enemy Power, the trench is removed.

12. Diplomacy

The Diplomacy action is intended to gain one of the five neutral countries as an ally or force the surrender of Russia.

The action moves one of the diplomacy table markers two boxes forward or one box backward. Once the marker reaches the final box, the diplomatic action is successful and cannot be reversed.

The symbols on the 0 boxes of the five neutral countries indicate which side they enter the war with. The two coalition countries of that side can move them forward, and the two of the other coalition can move them backwards. The following restrictions apply:

• Turkey: until the end of 1915.
• Italy, Bulgaria and Romania: until the end of 1916.
• USA: from 1917. Can only be moved forward by the Franco-British and backwards by the Germans.
• Surrender of Russia: in 1918 the Central Powers can move it forwards if they own two zones in Russia with cities. It cannot be moved backwards.

The surrender of Russia implies the surrender of Romania if it is allied. Armies from a surrendered nation cannot attack or be attacked and cannot move to zones outside their country that they do not control. Russia only gets one step when it recruits.

Countries that join the war as a result of diplomacy join the following Powers:

• Turkey and Bulgaria join the Austro-Hungarian.
• Italy and USA join the Franco-British.
• Romania joins the Russian.

13. Missions

The Mission action consists in moving the mission counter by four boxes (you cannot accumulate more than 6 missions). When a mission is spent, move the counter down one box.

The mission marker is increased by 2 when Aviation, Tanks 1 and Tanks 2 technologies are obtained.

14. Central Powers coordination

From 1915, Germany can cede armies to the Austro-Hungarians by moving them to any zone controlled by the latter. The movement can be normal or strategic.

The ceded armies belong to the Austro-Hungarian Power until the Germans decide to take them back or they are eliminated in combat. Once ceded, it is the Austro-Hungarian that has to activate them although only the Germans can reinforce them from reduced to full armies.

Germany can only activate those armies to recover them. This is done by strategic movement to a zone it controls.

German armies that have been ceded fight with German Attack and Defense technologies. They cannot use other German technologies. A ceded German army that attacks can be supported by Austro-Hungarian air support.

The Austro-Hungarians cannot move their armies to Germany or to German controlled zones. If at the end of the game, the Austro-Hungarians control Warsaw, Minsk, Vilna or Riga those VPs only count for the Germans.

15. Movement and combat examples

15.1 Example 1

The German armies cannot move from Verdun to Paris, Orleans or Nancy but they can move to adjacent German controlled zones.

15.2 Example 2

Two German armies move from Königsberg to Warsaw. One must move there directly and attack the Russian army there. The second German army moves first to the zone between Vilna and Warsaw to occupy it (by putting a German control marker) and cannot support the attack of the first army.

15.3 Example 3

The Austro-Hungarian player activates the army in Venice to attack and the two in Trieste to move to Venice, one of these attacking the second Italian army and the other supporting this attack.

The Austro-Hungarians has plenty more options. For example, two are:

• Not activate the army in Venice and move there, without attacking, the two armies in Trieste (there is no obligation for one of them to attack as there was already an Austrian army in Venice).
• Not activate the army in Venice and move there the two armies in Trieste with one attacking and the other supporting the attack (this is possible as there are more Austrian armies than Italian armies even though one of them is not activated). In this case, as only one Italian army is being attacked it must be the full army.

Attacking with one army and supporting with the other two would not be a valid option as there is only one Austrian army more than Italian armies.

15.4 Example 4

Two German armies are activated to attack a Russian army in Minsk with a trench. The German Power has an attack technology of 2 and the Russian Power has a defense technology of 2.

The modified combat factor for the Germans is: 5 (combat factor of the German army) + 2 (Support factor of the second German army) = 7.

The modified combat factor of the Russian is: 3 (combat factor of the defending army) + 1 (trench) = 4.

As the German attack technology level and the Russian defense technology level are the same, neither side counts the +1 for technology.

Both sides roll a die and add it to their modified combat factor. The German gets 3 and the Russian 4. The German total is 10 and the Russian is 8. The German wins the combat but does not double the Russian score.

The Germans take one loss and reduce one army. The Russians take 2 losses, the army is reduced and the trench removed. The Russian army does not have to retreat as it is a forest zone.

If the Germans had doubled the Russian score, the Russians would have been forced to take both losses on the army thereby eliminating it. The zone would then be German controlled and the Russian trench removed.

15.5 Example 5

The Austro-Hungarian player activates the reduced German army (ceded to him by the German player) to attack the Russian army with the support of the Austro-Hungarian army. In order to find out if there is a technology combat modifier, compare the attack technology level of the Germans with the defense technology level of the Russians.

Let's assume the Russians win by rolling higher. In this case, the German army is eliminated (returning to the available German pool, ready for recruitment) and the Austro-Hungarian army is reduced to take the second loss for the attacker. The Russian army is reduced.

15.6 Example 6

A British army moves from London to Cairo (it has to be an army with a combat factor of 3(2)) and attacks one of the two reduced Turkish armies. The British wins the combat.

The Turkish player has to take the second loss on the second army even though it has not been attacked.

As both Turkish armies have been eliminated, the British recover control of the zone.

16. List of armies

16.1 The Triple Entente and its allies

• UK: 5 armies (4) and 3 armies (3)
• France: 9 armies (4) and 2 armies (3)
• Russia: 14 armies (3)
• Italy: 5 armies (3)
• Serbia: 1 army (3)
• Romania: 1 army (3)
• USA: 2 armies (5)

16.2 Central Powers and their allies

• Germany: 17 armies (5)
• Austria-Hungary: 10 armies (3)
• Ottoman Empire: 5 armies (3)
• Bulgaria: 1 army (3)

17. Designer's notes

When Jesus (the graphic designer) suggested in 2015, to design a wargame, for several players, with simple rules and that could be played in one sitting, I immediately thought that the First World War was an ideal conflict for this type of game.

The game had to be a good historical simulation, exciting and not become stale after a few games. That same year, earlier than I thought, I had Downfall of Empires (DoE) finished, although a small edition of the game was not made until the beginning of 2020.

DoE is a game for 2, 3 or 4 players. The rules are short and simple and the games, when you know the game well, last less than 3 hours.

For a game to be exciting, players must have several alternatives, making it difficult to decide between them. In DoE this is achieved with the Actions system: A player has only 2 or 3 Actions per turn, for 6 types of Actions, most of them, in turn, with multiple alternatives.

The Research Action is one of the particularities of the game. Obtaining the maximum of technologies is a key factor to obtain victory. As it is almost impossible to obtain them all, you have to think which are the most appropriate, and in what order depending on what you expect the enemy to do.

Be careful not to do too many Activate Actions, especially in the early years, as this prevents you from doing other Actions that are key for the long term.

One of the objectives of the game is to be a good historical simulation of the First World War. Therefore, there are some special rules to make it easier for the game to tend to run along historical lines or for unique events of the conflict to take place. These are the cases, for example, of the British being able to move to Gallipoli only in 1915, and the mandatory German and Russian attacks in 1914 and 1916, respectively.

A special rule that may surprise is that the trenches in Riga and Kiev add a +2 factor as do those in Germany and France-Belgium (where trench warfare preponderated). In the case of Riga, this is for historical reasons, as it was taken after two years of siege with the massive use of Sturmtruppen. For Kiev this represents the difficulty of taking it due to its size and remoteness.

Talking about trenches, it is worth clarifying that the combat factor they add to the defenders (+1 or +2), depends on the place where they are and not on their level, as we have seen in the previous paragraph.

Level 2 trenches do not add more combat factor to the defenders than level 1 trenches, but they have other advantageous effects; namely: they absorb an additional casualty, their defensive factor is not cancelled by Tanks-1 and in France-Belgium or Germany they allow to cancel the retreat in case of defeat (see last paragraph of section 8. Activate). This last effect makes the Western Front quite stable as was the case historically. But beware, a proper attack strategy can end up breaking the front.

I encourage players to read the examples carefully. They clarify how movements and combats are carried out, including support and casualties, since this aspect of the game, together with the already mentioned trenches, can be the one that causes more confusion at the beginning. With a little attention and practice, the mechanism is quite clear and simple.

The many possibilities available to players make each game different and the game stays interesting. I hope you enjoy it a lot!

Credits

• Designer: Víctor Catalá
• Graphic design: Jesús Peralta
• Published by: DOITGAMES DISTRIBUCIÓN SL
• Acknowledgments: To all members of the AlphaAres wargame association in Barcelona who have participated in the development and playtesting of the game.

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