Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory: The First World War, 1914–1918 is a strategy board wargame, designed in 1999 by the six-time Charles S. Roberts Awards winner Ted Raicer and published by GMT Games. It covers World War I from its outbreak to the 1918 Armistice, or based on the progress of the game a hypothetical later ending of the war in early 1919, possibly due to exhaustion of Europe. The game is played on a map of Europe and the Middle East as the game board. Gameplay Unlike many other wargames with hex maps, this game uses a point-to-point system, with all spaces costing one movement point to move between, difficult terrain (e.g. the Pripet Marshes or the Alps) being represented by fewer links between spaces. A unit may not both move and attack in the same activation. Most game turns represent seasons, although there are a few extra turns to allow more manoeuvre in the summer and autumn of 1914. Counters represent corps and armies, counters for the latter being physically larger and attacking on a more favourable table to represent artillery support. Corps may be deployed on the map as needed, or kept in the off-map "reserve box". Armies which take losses are also replaced by corps from the reserve box, or are permanently eliminated if no such corps is available, so a player must be careful to keep enough corps in reserve. Most minor countries (except the Serbs and Belgians) have only corps-sized counters. Up to three units (of any size) may stack in a space. An attacker attacking from multiple spaces may attempt a "flank attack". If successful, the attacker attacks first, only after which can the now weakened defender fire back – the opposite is the case if the flank attack fails. This tends to be a key tactic on the more mobile Eastern Front. Players may dig "trenches" under their counters, which besides weakening the attacker, strengthening the defender and making the defender immune from flank attacks, also allow defeated forces to avoid retreat at the cost of extra casualties, thus potentially making a densely packed Western Front as immobile as it was in reality. Certain other forms of terrain (e.g. mountains) also have similar powers to trenches. The map also contains numerous printed fortresses (e.g.