1918 (wargame)

1918 is a two-player board wargame designed by Jim Dunnigan, illustrated by Redmond A. Simonsen, and published by Simulations Publications, Inc. in 1970. Subtitled Operation Michael, March 21 to 30, Germany's Last Chance in the West, the game simulates the major German spring offensive of the First World War, in which German forces attempted to break through Allied lines and force a peace settlement before the full weight of arriving American troops could be brought to bear on the Western Front. One player commands the attacking German forces, while the other controls the defending Allied armies, and the German side opens the game with a significant advantage through the use of special stormtrooper units modeled on the real infiltration tactics that defined the historical offensive. As the German advance progresses, it faces mounting supply difficulties that constrain how far and how fast it can press its early gains, while the Allied player must judge when to yield ground and when to hold, watching for the moment to launch an effective counter-attack. Contemporary reviewers praised the game's mechanics, with one calling the actual play of the game more than compensation for any shortcomings in its components, describing it as a first-class game worthy of recommendation, though it achieved only modest commercial success and ranked 128th among 202 wargames in a 1976 SPI popularity poll.