What Price Glory? Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1.0 Game Components
  • 1.1 Counters
  • 1.2 Map
  • 1.3 Cards
• 2 Setting Up the Game
  • 2.2 Set up the Central Powers units (all are fresh)
  • 2.3 Set up the Entente units (all are fresh)
  • 2.4 Setting up the cards
  • 2.5 Setting up the markers
• 3 Game Procedure
  • 3.1 Sequence of Play
• 4 Impulses
  • 4.1 Starting an Impulse
  • 4.2 Playing Battle or Event cards
  • 4.3 Active units
  • 4.4 Conclusion of an Impulse
• 5 Card Actions
  • 5.1 Special Action cards
  • 5.2 Event Cards
  • 5.3 Playing multiple cards in one impulse
  • 5.4 How to combine the cards
• 6 Movement
  • 6.1 General Movement Restrictions
  • 6.2 Movement Costs and Limits
  • 6.3 Stacking
  • 6.4 Tanks
• 7 Combat
  • 7.1 When you can attack
  • 7.2 How you attack
  • 7.3 Applying damage
  • 7.4 Retreats
  • 7.5 Special units and situations
• 8 Supply
  • 8.3 Supply sources
• 9 Area Control
• 10 The Eastern Front
• 11 Initiative
• 12 Victory
• 13 Turn One Special Rules
• 14 Additional Card Explanations and Special Situations
  • 14.1 Steel Rain
  • 14.2 Machine Guns!
  • 14.3 Reinforcements
  • 14.4 French Army Mutinies
  • 14.5 The Kaiser Offensive
  • 14.6 Independent Initiative
  • 14.7 Battlefield Coordination
  • 14.8 Railroads
  • 14.9 Air Supremacy
  • 14.10 The Nivelle Offensive and The Somme Offensive
  • 14.11 Stosstruppen
• 15 Card Combination Resolutions

1.0 Game Components

A complete game of What Price Glory? has the following components:

• One (1) 34" by 22" map;
• One (1) countersheet with 176 individual playing pieces (called "counters");
• 6 sheets of perforated playing cards (for a total of 48 cards);
• These Rules.

Players will also need several six-sided dice (say 5 for each player) to play; these are not included.

1.1 Counters

There are 176 counters in this game. These represent both the actual fighting soldiers (these are called "units") that fought in the Great War and the markers and game aids you'll need to play.

Unit counters show: nationality, Fresh and Spent sides, Name, Combat Strength, Movement Allowance, Firepower Modifier, and (on some) a Non-replaceable / may not retreat notation, a Negates Firepower Modifier notation (Stosstruppen) and Tank Movement. Markers include: Victory Point Difference, Victory Points, Game Turn, Poison Gas, Machine Gun, Trench, Initiative and Control markers.

Unit color coding:

• The Entente Forces: Blue: French; Red: British; Green: The United States; Orange: Belgium
• The Central Powers: Gray: Germany

Note that British and French units may not be part of the same active group until the USA Enters the War card is played.

Abbreviations used on the units:

• BEF: The British Expeditionary Force
• Bav: Bavarian
• Res: Reserve
• Stoss: Stosstruppen (correctly spelled Stoßtruppen but we gamers have always used Stosstruppen)

All units in the game represent roughly corps-sized formations. In addition to these units, there are also markers for use in play that will be explained in the body of these rules.

Note: Players will notice that if two Poison Gas cards or two Machine Guns! cards are in play in any one game turn that there are only one of each counter and you would need two. This was done to include some additional rules that we feel make the game better but we apologize for this possible inconvenience. Just rotate the counters or use a spare counter to note the card's influence in the affected area.

1.2 Map

Included is a 34" by 22" map that covers the actual theater of operations for this conflict. This is an "area" map (meaning places on the map are represented by areas). There is a terrain key on the map for recognition of symbols and abstractions used. There are also many charts and holding areas on the map that players will need to use. Lines are drawn between areas to represent difficult terrain (rivers, forests and mountains). These are called barriers and are explained in the rules (see 6.2). Additionally, in 1914, the game turns are labeled Summer and Winter. For the remainder of the game, the turns are labeled Spring and Fall.

1.3 Cards

There are 48 cards needed for play. Within this total, there are 16 Battle cards for the Entente and 16 Battle cards for the Central Powers, and 8 Event cards for the Entente and 8 Event cards for the Central Powers. These four groups of cards are placed on the map in their respective holding boxes for play.

2 Setting Up the Game

2.1 Divide the cards into 4 piles (see 1.3) and place them in their respective holding boxes.

2.2 Set up the Central Powers units (all are fresh)

• German 1st Army (comprised of 4 x 4-2 corps; 2 x 3-2 corps; 1 x 2-2 corps) is placed in the Aachen area
• German 2nd Army (comprised of 3 x 4-2 corps; 2 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Koblenz area
• German 3rd Army (comprised of 2 x 4-2 corps; 1 x 3-2 corps; 1 x 2-2 corps) is placed in the Trier area
• German 4th Army (comprised of 3 x 4-2 corps; 2 x 3-2 corps; 1 x 2-2 corps) is placed in the Saarbrücken area
• German 5th Army (comprised of 3 x 4-2 corps; 2 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Metz area
• German 6th Army (comprised of 1 x 4-2 corps; 3 x 3-1 corps; 1 x 2-1 corps) is placed in the Strasbourg area
• German 7th Army (comprised of 2 x 4-2 corps; 1 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Mulhouse area
• Place 8 x 3-2 corps in the German Reserve Box
• Place 5 x Stoss Corps in the Not Currently in Play box

2.3 Set up the Entente units (all are fresh)

• French 1st Army (comprised of 5 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Epinal area
• French 2nd Army (comprised of 5 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Nancy area
• French 3rd Army (comprised of 3 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Verdun area
• French 4th Army (comprised of 3 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Sedan area
• French 5th Army (comprised of 3 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Chateau Thierry area
• French 6th Army (comprised of 2 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Paris area
• British 1st Army (comprised of 2 x 4-2-1 BEF corps, 1 x 3-2 corps) is placed in the Amiens area
• British 2nd Army (comprised of 2 x 3-2 Corps) is placed in the Boulogne-sur-Mer area
• 1 x Belgian Corps is placed in the Antwerpen area
• 2 x Belgian Corps are placed in the Ypres area
• Place 14 x 3-2 British Corps, 1 x 4-2 British Corps and 1 x 2-2 British Corps in the British Reserve Box
• Place 10 x 3-2 French Corps and 3 x 2-2 French Corps in the French Reserve Box
• Place 1 x British Tank, 1 x French Tank, 6 x USA Corps, 2 x 3-2 British Corps (BEF replacements) and 5 x French Mutiny Corps in the Not Currently in Play box

2.4 Setting up the cards

• Place the 16 Entente Battle cards in the Entente Main Deck box
• Place the 16 Central Powers Battle cards in the Central Powers Main Deck box
• Place the 8 Entente Event cards in the Entente Event Card box
• Place the 8 Central Powers Event cards in the Central Powers Event Card box

2.5 Setting up the markers

• Place the Gas and Machine Gun markers in the Not Currently in Play box
• Place a Central Powers 2 VP control marker in the Düsseldorf, Cologne and Metz areas
• Place a Central Powers 1 VP control marker in the Aachen, Koblenz, Trier, Saarbrücken and Strasbourg areas
• Place a Central Powers 0 VP marker in the Alsace and Munich areas
• Place an Entente 2 VP control marker in the Antwerpen, Bruxelles, Lille, Liege, Paris, Verdun and Nancy areas
• Place an Entente 1 VP control marker in the Orleans, Evreux, Le Havre, Amiens, Rouen, Meaux, Provins, Montargis, Sezanne, Chateau Thierry, Reims, Saint-Dizier, Chaumont, Langres, Troyes, Epinal, Sedan, Luxembourg, Compiègne, Cambrai, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Ypres, Mons, Gent, Charleroi, Namur, Hasselt, and Dinant areas
• Place the VP marker in the 0 box of the Victory Track
• Place the VP Difference marker in the -31 box of the Area Control Track
• Place the Initiative marker (Central Powers side up) in the 0 box of the Initiative Track
• Place the Game Turn marker in the Summer 1914 box of the Game Turn Track

3 Game Procedure

3.1 Sequence of Play

1. Hand Building Phase
   • a) On turn 3 (1915 Spring) and each turn thereafter, both players randomly choose one Event card to move to the Main Deck. Event cards randomly selected during this phase are available for play this upcoming turn.
   • b) Both players check their respective maximum card hand size as noted on the Game Turn chart and may choose that number of cards to populate their hand. Note that Event card play can influence this number. For example, on turn 4, the Central Powers player may have 5 cards in his hand and the Entente player may have 6 cards. If the Unrestricted Submarine Warfare card is in effect, the Entente hand size would be reduced by 2 to 4 cards. The (3) on the first turn is a reminder that Entente card play on turn one is restricted (see 13.3)
   • c) Each player chooses cards from the Main Deck box up to his hand size. The players may select any of the cards in the Main Deck box that they wish. These will be the cards they have available to play throughout the game turn.
   • d) If it is turn 4 or turn 6, the German player chooses 4 units in the German Units on the Eastern Front box and places them in the German Units Returning to the Western Front box.
2. Impulse Phase
   • a) The player with the initiative may play a card or cards from his hand and conduct an impulse, or he may pass. Note that you must pass if you have no more cards in your hand.
   • b) At the conclusion of the impulse all active units are flipped to their spent side.
   • c) The non-initiative player may now conduct an impulse or pass.
   • d) The impulse phase continues with the players alternately choosing to conduct an impulse or pass. When both players consecutively pass (two passes in a row) the impulse phase ends.
   • e) Adjust the Area Control Track, the Victory Track and the Initiative Track where necessary as area control changes hands during the impulses or victory points have been awarded by card play.
3. After the impulse phase ends:
   • a) If it is turn 1 or turn 2, The German player must choose 4 in-supply units with a movement allowance greater than 1 and place them in the German Units on the Eastern Front box. These units may be on their spent side.

4 Impulses

A player starts an impulse by playing a card or cards from his hand. Note that, unlike other games, you must play at least one card to perform an impulse. If you do not wish to play a card (or have no more cards to play), you may (or must) pass.

Some general definitions are in order now.

• Impulse: The entire sequence from when a card or cards is/are chosen to be used to when all units' actions are completed and the opposing player starts his impulse.
• Phasing Player: The player who is performing the current impulse.
• Simple Action: A movement or a combat by one group.
• Special Action: An action described by a card.
• Group: Between 1 and 10 friendly units in a single area that will perform an action.
• Activated Group: The unit or units within an area that are now performing an action. Note that British and French units may not be part of the same group until the USA Enters the War card is played.
• Fresh Unit: A unit that is eligible to perform an action (face up).
• Spent Unit: A unit that may not perform an action (face down).

4.1 Starting an Impulse

At the start of a game turn, the player with the initiative may start an impulse or pass. After that, each player alternates, either starting an impulse or passing until two passes in a row occur. After that, no more impulses may occur that game turn and play proceeds to the last phase in the sequence of play.

4.2 Playing Battle or Event cards

To begin an Impulse, the phasing player must play a card or cards. Any card may be played (reaction cards or event cards as well as cards that say "To Start your Impulse"). The play of any single card allows for one group to perform one simple action (movement or combat). If you simply play a card to perform a simple action, just put a card from your hand into the discard pile; you need not show the card to your opponent.

Additionally, Players can play one or more cards in one impulse, subject to the rules of Card Actions, to allow for Special Actions. All Phasing Player cards that will be played throughout the impulse must be chosen at the start of the impulse but they are not revealed until they apply. If any of the cards chosen are not played for any reason, the opposing player does not see the unplayed cards.

Lastly, some cards are triggered by an enemy action. These cards are played immediately when allowed.

4.3 Active units

The phasing player chooses one area and may activate any or all fresh units in that area. These units then perform either a simple or a special action and play continues until the phasing player has completed his impulse.

4.4 Conclusion of an Impulse

After all units have completed their action(s), all cards (played and unplayed) that were selected at the start of the impulse are placed in the discard box and all active units are flipped to their spent sides. Remove any Machine Gun or Gas markers in play and put them in the Not Currently in Play box for future use.

5 Card Actions

5.1 Special Action cards

All the cards have a special action printed on them and when used as a special action, some of the rules mentioned here may be overridden. For example, playing a Steel Rain card does not force any active units to be spent. The procedure printed on the cards always take precedence over the procedure in the rulebook. To use the special action on the card, you must use the card at the correct time. If the card says "If played at the start of your impulse", that special ability of the card must be played at the start of the impulse. If the card has a condition that must be met, you must meet that condition to use the special action on that card.

5.2 Event Cards

Event cards played as an event are removed from play for the rest of the game. Place these cards in the Out of the Game Cards box.

5.3 Playing multiple cards in one impulse

The play of either Esprit de Corps or Battlefield Coordination allows for more cards to be played in addition to either of these two cards. You are subject to the following restrictions:

• a) You may not play more than 5 cards in any one impulse

• b) All cards played must be different (you cannot play two of any card)

• c) Only the following cards may be played in addition to the one played to start the impulse:

  • Esprit de Corps
  • Battlefield Coordination
  • Battlefield Recovery
  • Independent Initiative
  • Steel Rain (although see 14.1 for special situations involving the play of this card with Independent Initiative)
  • Railroads

  Note that you can play either Esprit de Corps or Battlefield Coordination and then play the other card in addition.

• d) You may never play any of the following except as a single card

  • A Reinforcements Card
  • Machine Guns!
  • Grand Fleet Sorties
  • High Seas Fleet

• e) You may play an Event card in combination with a Battlefield Coordination card as the second group action. You may not play an Event card with Esprit de Corps.

5.4 How to combine the cards

Playing Esprit de Corps or Battlefield Coordination allows for multiple simple actions by groups (either two consecutive actions by one group with the former card or two groups each performing one action with the latter card). You may, in addition, modify that simple action with the play of an additional card to allow for a special action.

a) Play of Esprit de Corps

If you played Esprit de Corps (for one group to take two simple actions) and, for example, also play Railroads (as one of those actions) and then play Steel Rain as the next action, this would allow you to convert each of those simple actions into a special action but you must continue to use that same group as the base for those special actions. You'd choose a group and railroad that group to an area on the map, and then use the area occupied by that group as the selected area to perform the Steel Rain card. You have to use that same group as they are the ones currently active. If you reversed the order of the special actions, you could use one area as the base for Steel Rain, and then chose a group in that area and railroad those units elsewhere.

b) Play of Battlefield Coordination

If you played Battlefield Coordination (for two groups to do one simple action) and you, for example, played Railroads and then Steel Rain, you could rail one selected group and use another group to perform the Steel Rain card (it cannot be the same group but it could be in the same area if you didn't select all units in the area as your group). Play them in reverse order and you would use Steel Rain first (with any area - even the one where you might use all the units as a group in the second action) and then perform the rail action. Note that the order can often make a difference to how the cards interact.

c) Play of both Esprit de Corps and Battlefield Coordination in the same impulse

If you play both, the order you play them determines how the impulse goes from there. If you play Esprit de Corps first, perform two actions with one group and an additional action with another group (playing special action cards as needed). If you play Battlefield Coordination first, perform one action with one group and then choose another and perform two actions with that group (playing special action cards as needed).

d) Play of Independent Initiative with other cards

This card allows 4 singleton units from any area each to perform one simple action. When played in conjunction with other cards for a special action (in conjunction with either Esprit de Corps or Battlefield Coordination), you must play one (or more - just all have to be different) card to allow one single unit to perform that special action. The rest must perform a simple action.

e) Revealing your cards

You must choose all the cards you will play during an impulse before you play any cards but you reveal them to your opponent as you use them. He may not see what's coming. All cards chosen, whether actually played or not, go into the Discard box at the end of the impulse.

Note: An extensive example of the game in play can be found in the What Price Glory? article in this magazine. It replays the entire first turn and shows how the cards interact.

6 Movement

6.1 General Movement Restrictions

Movement is a simple action that allows one group to move across the map. Each unit has a movement allowance printed on it. This is the number of movement points it may spend to move during a movement action. It must follow these basic rules:

• a) Each group moves at the rate of the slowest unit in the group.
• b) If you don't have enough movement points remaining to make a move, you may not make that move.
• c) All units in a group must move together and stay together throughout the entire movement action. You may not "drop off" any units in an active group or "pick up" any additional units.

6.2 Movement Costs and Limits

• It costs a group one movement point to enter an adjacent area
• It costs an additional movement point to enter an area that is enemy controlled or has enemy units in that area
• It costs an additional movement point to leave an area that is enemy controlled or has enemy units in that area
• No more than 2 units may cross a boundary between two areas that is restricted (by a river, forest or mountain) in a single action.

6.3 Stacking

Neither player may have more than 10 of his own units in any area at any time (so there can be a total of 20 friendly and enemy units combined in any single area). These limits are in force at all times.

6.4 Tanks

Tanks must roll for breakdown when they move. After moving a tank unit, count the number of movement points it spent to make that move. Roll a six-sided die. If you roll equal to or less than the number of movement points spent, the tank is immediately placed in the reserve box. Tanks do not roll for breakdown if they retreat.

7 Combat

7.1 When you can attack

You can activate a group for combat if they are fresh and in the same area as enemy units. After the attack, all activated units are flipped to their spent side.

7.2 How you attack

You always attack an area, not a specific unit. Roll one six-sided die for each unit in a group that is attacking. For each roll that is equal to or less than your unit's combat strength, you gain one hit against your opponent. The total hits you roll are added up and are then applied to the enemy units in the area. The defending player then decides how to apply the damage. All excess damage is ignored.

7.3 Applying damage

The defending player must apply all hits to his units. To absorb the hits, he may do the following:

With a fresh unit:

• Flipping one fresh unit to its spent side is worth one hit
• Retreating one spent unit is worth a second hit
• Placing one unit in the reserve box is worth a third hit

(you must do these in this order to absorb hits. You can't retreat a fresh unit, for example)

With a spent unit:

• Retreating one spent unit is worth one hit
• Placing that unit in the reserve box is worth another hit

You can absorb your hits with any friendly units in the attacked area and you don't have to allocate all hits to one unit before you allocate hits to another.

If a unit cannot retreat (or is marked as non-replaceable), it may go straight to the reserve box, without absorbing the hit for retreating. So a fresh unit that cannot retreat but which is placed in the reserve box is worth 2 hit points (not the 3 it would be worth if it could retreat). The same applies for units that may not retreat.

For example, if in an area you have 2 fresh units and 3 spent units and need to absorb 5 hits, you could make the 2 fresh units spent and retreat 3 units (total of 5) and have 2 spent units still in the area; or you could remove one fresh unit and place it in the reserve box (for 3 hits) and flip one fresh unit and retreat one spent unit (for the last 2 hits) and have one fresh unit and one spent unit still in the area.

7.4 Retreats

Units that are attacked as they are entering an area (from the Machine Guns! card, for example) must retreat to the area from which they came. Defending units may retreat to any area and do not have to retreat together. Retreating units must observe the following restrictions:

• They cannot retreat to an area that contains any enemy units
• They cannot retreat to an area that is enemy-controlled
• They cannot retreat to an area that already contains 10 friendly units

If a unit cannot retreat, it must go directly to the reserve box (see 7.3)

7.5 Special units and situations

a) Non-replaceable units

These units may not retreat to satisfy a loss. Treat them as if they had no retreat route available even if one exists

b) BEF

There are two BEF units in the game. When one of these Corps is eliminated, take one of the 3-2 from the Not Currently in Play box and place it in the British Reserve box. Eliminated BEF go into the Out of the Game Units box. When an area they occupy is fired on, all Central Powers units suffer a -1 modifier to their firepower (so a German unit that has a combat strength of 4 would need a 3 or less to hit). This only applies if the BEF are the only units in the area fired upon. The modifier is not cumulative (i.e. two BEF units do not give a -2 on Central Powers attacks).

c) Tanks

Tanks can suffer breakdown (see 6.4). When an area occupied by Tanks is fired on, all Central Powers units suffer a -1 modifier to their firepower. This applies to all CP fire into that area and, unlike BEF units, applies even if there are other units also in the area. The modifier is not cumulative (i.e. two tank units do not give a -2 on Central Powers attacks)

d) Trench Marker

Trench markers are placed via play of the Trench Warfare card and provide a -1 modifier to all enemy firepower strengths when attacking an area with the marker. There may never be more than one Trench Marker in any one area. The marker is removed if the enemy ever controls the area. Note that the modification for a Trench is cumulative with those for either BEF or Tanks. So a BEF unit (or units) in an area with a Trench Marker would reduce Central Powers fire by 2.

If a combat strength is reduced to less than 1, it can't roll a hit.

e) Stosstruppen

Stosstruppen (Stoss corps) negate any negative modifiers to their firepower strength. Thus BEF, Tanks and Trenches have no effect on their combat strength. Additionally, a poison gas marker does not cause a point of damage to a Stoss unit (although they still may not benefit from a Battlefield Recovery card).

8 Supply

8.1 To be in supply, a unit must be able to trace a line of communication back to its friendly supply source. This is used in several game applications but most notably in the "refreshing" of units at the end of the turn and the placement of reinforcements.

8.2 To check if an area is in supply, trace a path from that area back to a supply source. Each area in the path may not contain enemy units nor be enemy-controlled. Note that you always trace from the unit to the source (thus the area that the units are in is not counted).

8.3 Supply sources

• Central Powers trace back to the Eastern map edge
• France traces back to the southern map edge
• All others trace to a friendly-controlled port area (British and Belgian units in port areas are always in supply).

9 Area Control

9.1 All areas in the game are always controlled by one side or the other. You mark this by placing control markers in the area with the appropriate side up. The control markers also have the VP value of the area on them. At the start of the game, all areas are controlled by one side or the other as noted in the game setup.

9.2 Control changes hands the instant that only units of the non-controlling side are present in an area. The moment this occurs, flip the control marker to the side of the units that are occupying the area and adjust the VP Difference marker on the Area Control Track.

10 The Eastern Front

The Eastern Front had a profound effect on the Central Powers throughout the campaign in France. The following rules account for this.

10.1 The game turn track has noted on turns 1 and 2, "Out: 4" and on turns 4 and 6 "In: 4". These are transfers to and from the Eastern Front.

10.2 At the end of turns 1 and 2, the Central Powers player must choose 4 of his units from any in-supply area and place them in the German Units on the Eastern Front box on the map. The only restriction to choosing these units is that they must be in supply and may not have a movement allowance of 1. Just pick them up and place them in the box. There will never be more than 8 units in this box in any game.

10.3 At the beginning of turns 4 and 6, move 4 units from the German Units on the Eastern Front box into the German Units Returning to the Western Front box. These units may only return to the game map by play of the Railroads card.

11 Initiative

11.1 Initiative is used to determine which player has the first impulse for the upcoming turn. On the first turn, the Initiative marker is placed Central Powers side up in the 0 Box (as the Central Powers player has the initiative for the first game turn). After this turn, initiative is determined by game play.

11.2 Whenever Central Powers units take control of an Entente area (regardless of value), move the marker more positively. Whenever Entente units take control of a Central Powers area, move the marker one space more negatively. Once the marker is on the +2 or -2 space, it advances no farther (if the Central Powers captured 10 areas, the initiative marker would still be on the +2 space).

11.3 At the end of the turn, if the marker is in the +1 or +2 space, return the marker to the 0 space with the Central Powers side up. The Central Powers player has the initiative for the upcoming turn. If the marker is in the -1 or -2 space at the end of the turn, return the marker to the 0 space with the Entente side up. The Entente player will have the initiative for the upcoming turn. If the marker is in the 0 space at the end of the turn, flip the marker and that player has the initiative for the upcoming turn (the player that didn't have the initiative last turn now has it for the upcoming turn).

12 Victory

Note that there is some redundancy in how you track victory points in the game because of how these charts interact with the Eastern Front game.

Victory in the game is determined by the overall victory point total. This is tracked on the Victory Track and the Area Control Track on the map. The VP Difference marker starts in the -31 space and moves whenever control of an area changes hands. The VP marker starts in the 0 space and moves whenever there is a victory point award from the play of a card. Victory points gained by the CP move the markers to more positive numbers and victory points earned by the Entente move the markers to lower (more negative) numbers. The overall victory point total is the sum of the values on the two tracks.

For example, at the start of game, the VP Difference marker starts in the -31 space on the Area Control Track (the Central Powers controls 11 victory points in areas and the Entente controls 42 - for a difference of -31). The Central Powers player captures 14 victory points in areas (and the Entente loses 14) on the first turn and the Area Control Track moves to the -3 space (11 + 14 = 25, 42 - 14 = 28; 25 - 28 = -3). During the turn, the Central Powers also plays the High Seas Fleet card (moving the Victory Track to +2 when played as it is not immediately countered by the Entente). At the end of the turn, the victory point total is -1 (-3 + 2).

The next turn, the Central Powers gains control of another 1 VP value area and the VP Difference marker on the Area Control Track moves to the -1 space. No other victory points are awarded by card events so the VP marker remains in the +2 space. The victory point total is now +1.

At the end of the game, add the scores on the Victory Track and the Area Control Track together. If the total is greater than zero, the CP player is the winner; if the total is less than zero, the Entente player has won. If the final score is zero, the game ends in a draw.

In addition to winning on victory points at the end of the game, the Central Powers player wins the game immediately if he controls the Paris area at any time during the game.

13 Turn One Special Rules

13.1 The Central Powers player has the initiative on turn one and takes the first impulse.

13.2 The Entente must "pass" on his first impulse of the game.

13.3 Throughout the first turn, the Entente player may only play cards to take simple actions (the words on the cards are never used - there are no special actions for the Entente on turn one and no card combinations are allowed). The special (3) hand size notation on the Game Turn track is to remind the players of this.

13.4 For all of turn one, the Central Powers player may ignore the normal 1 additional movement point cost to enter an Entente-controlled area in Belgium (only). The Central Powers player does pay the normal additional movement point cost to enter an area that contains enemy units in Belgium.

14 Additional Card Explanations and Special Situations

Some of the cards need some addition explanation to show how they work. Here are a few examples and additional rules.

14.1 Steel Rain

The tricky part here is if you are using Steel Rain with Independent Initiative - you get only one die roll (regardless of the number of enemy present) in one of the four units' areas or adjacent areas.

14.2 Machine Guns!

This card basically stops all enemy play while it is resolved. When an enemy group triggers the card, it stops and you place the Machine Gun marker (it is now in force for the remainder of the turn). You then fire at the group and resolve the fire - and the group then finishes its action. You may only fire at a group or units (if Independent Initiative is in play - although you get to shoot at each single unit that triggers the marker - but only once per unit per impulse) once during an impulse. So an enemy group using Esprit de Corps enters a friendly area and you play Machine Guns! and place the marker. He stops moving and accepts fire. His units are considered spent for resolution and your fresh units that are firing are not spent. Each hit you roll becomes two hits.

You don't have to place the Machine Gun marker if triggered - you may hold on to it and hope for another shot later in the impulse or turn, but if the marker is placed on the map, it must always be resolved.

For example, the CP player plays Independent Initiative and moves one unit into an enemy area. The Entente has a Machine Gun card and could play it but would only get one shot at the singleton unit. He holds on to it. The CP player moves another single unit into the same area. The Entente plays the Machine Gun card, places a Machine Gun marker in the area and gets to fire at the single unit (considered spent) and gets one hit. This is doubled to two hits and the single unit is removed from the map and placed in the Reserve Box. The single German unit that moved in first is not fired upon but any additional German units that enter the area will be.

14.3 Reinforcements

Reinforcements are always chosen at random from the appropriate Reserve box and must all be placed in the same eligible area.

14.4 French Army Mutinies

• You may only replace 3-2 French corps with Mutiny Corps.
• If there are not five French corps in the French Reserve box, you must replace any new 3-2 corps that enter the French Reserve box later in the turn or during the game until five total have been replaced or the card is no longer in effect.
• The five Corps that have been replaced by Mutiny Corps are placed in the Not Currently in Play box (as they may return to play through use of the USA Enters the War card.

14.5 The Kaiser Offensive

By "lower" this means that if you combined the Victory Track and the Area Control Track (as you would at the end of the game to determine victory) and the total is -1 or less (-2, -3, etc.), you may play the Kaiser Offensive card. In other words, if the game ended at the moment you played the card and the CP would lose the game, you may play this card.

14.6 Independent Initiative

When using Independent Initiative and moving across a restricted barrier on the map, only 2 individual units may cross this restricted boundary per action. If you used Esprit de Corps, you could move 2 units across with the first action and 2 more across during the second action.

14.7 Battlefield Coordination

When using Battlefield Coordination and moving across a restricted boundary, each active group may only contain at most 2 units.

14.8 Railroads

When using Railroads and moving across a restricted boundary only 2 units may rail across a restricted boundary during each action.

14.9 Air Supremacy

Just to make sure the timing here is understood, an example of this in play would be... a player chooses all his cards for the upcoming impulse. He plays cards as needed. At any time (including before the play of the first card of the impulse), the opposing player may play Air Supremacy. All cards left unplayed are placed in the discard pile and the player's impulse is over.

14.10 The Nivelle Offensive and The Somme Offensive

Note that because of the sequence of play, you can't use cards you gained by the play of either of these cards during the current impulse.

14.11 Stosstruppen

Pick an area that has German units in it and replace up to 5 of those units (as long as they have a movement greater than 1 and the area is in supply) with Stoss units. If there are fewer than 5 eligible German units in the selected area, you may only replace up to that number and any extra Stoss are lost (the excess Stoss units are placed in the Out of the Game Units box). Put the replaced corps in the Out of the Game Units box.

14.12 The USA Enters the War

• 6 US Corps are placed on the map exactly as if they were reinforcements. They must all be placed in the same in-supply, no-enemy-units-present area and are placed spent
• The Entente player may immediately add one card from the discard pile back into his hand
• All French Mutiny corps (wherever they are on the map) are replaced with regular corps from the Not Currently in Play box. The Mutiny corps that were replaced are put in the Out of Game Units box
• British and French units may now combine into groups.
• The Entente card hand size is increased by one for the rest of the game (so if they get 6 cards on the turn record, they now may take 7)

14.13 High Seas Fleet

If this card is removed from the game, place the card in the Out of Play Cards box

15 Card Combination Resolutions

Here are some examples of card play and interactions in the game. In parenthesis is when you'd play the actual card. This is not a complete list of available card combinations but a guide to help you understand how the combinations work and to see how other potential combinations might interact if in play

• Esprit de Corps + Battlefield Coordination (Esprit de Corps); choose a group; perform a simple action; perform a second simple action; (Battlefield Coordination); choose another group; perform a simple action
• Battlefield Coordination + Esprit de Corps (Battlefield Coordination); choose two groups; perform one simple action; perform a simple action with the second group; (Esprit de Corps); perform a second action with the same group
• Battlefield Coordination + Independent Initiative (Battlefield Coordination); choose a group; (Independent Initiative); choose four units; in either order, perform a simple action with the group and perform a simple action with each of the 4 units
• Esprit de Corps + Independent Initiative (Esprit de Corps) (Independent Initiative); choose four units; perform a simple action (although not necessarily the same action); those same four units may each perform a second simple action (although not necessarily the same action)
• Esprit de Corps + Independent Initiative + Battlefield Coordination (Esprit de Corps); choose a group; perform a simple action; (Independent Initiative) up to four units from the previously active group may each perform a simple action: (Battlefield Coordination); choose a second group; perform a simple action
• Battlefield Coordination + Battlefield Recovery (Battlefield Coordination); choose 2 groups; (Battlefield Recovery); in either order, recover one group, perform a simple action with the other group
• Esprit de Corps + Battlefield Recovery (Esprit de Corps); choose a group and either recover (and play Battlefield Recovery) and do a simple action with that group or choose a group; do a simple action, (Battlefield Recovery): recover that same group
• Esprit de Corps + Battlefield Recovery + Battlefield Coordination (Esprit de Corps); choose a group; either recover (playing Battlefield Recovery) and do a simple action or do a simple action, (Battlefield Recovery); recover, (Battlefield Coordination); choose a second group; perform a simple action