Paths of Glory (board game)

Paths of Glory: The First World War, 1914-1918 is a two-player strategy wargame designed by Ted Raicer and published by GMT Games in 1999. It reconstructs the full course of the First World War across a point-to-point map of Europe and the Middle East, letting one side command the Central Powers and the other the Entente from the opening mobilization through the 1918 Armistice, with play sometimes extending into early 1919. Rather than a hex grid, movement runs along connected spaces linking cities and regions, and units represent corps and army-sized formations that may move or attack but not both in a single activation. A card-driven system lets players spend cards on operations, strategic redeployment, replacement points or historical events, forcing constant tradeoffs between offense and resource management. Players must maintain supply lines, dig in for defense and respond to political pressure requiring periodic offensives, while historical events such as revolution in Russia or the entry of the United States reshape the war as the game develops. Paths of Glory won the 1999 Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Pre-World War II Boardgame and the 2000 International Gamers Award, and is widely regarded as one of the defining card-driven wargames of its era.