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"Kaiserkrieg! is another brilliant and challenging twist on the States of Siege engine by designer Ben Madison." - Ian W.

Kaiserkrieg!

Game Components

  • One 18 x 18" Color Game Map 

  • One 8.5 x 11" Counter Tray Sheet (single-sided)

  • One 8.5 x 11" Game Setup Sheet (single-sided)

  • One 8.5 x 11" “Berliner Tageblatt” Card (double-sided)

  • One 16-page Rules Booklet (You are reading it!)

  • 176 Color Game Pieces or “Tiles” (single-sided)

map

THE BIG PICTURE

  • Socialist Agitation and Revolutions,

  • the French Mutiny

  • American Intervention

  • the German "Askari" Defense of German East Africa

  • Armenian Genocide and Resistance

  • Senussi Wars in Egypt
    and Libya

  • the Arab Revolt and Lawrence of Arabia

  • National Morale

  • Urban Unrest

  • the Hindenburg-Ludendorff Dictatorship versus the German Constitution

  • the Free Press and the Rule of Law.

“Kaiserkrieg!” (‘Emperor’s War!’) is a strategic solitaire game of the First World War of 1914-1918. As the player, you control the Central Powers (“CP”; Germany, AustriaHungary, Turkey and Bulgaria). The game’s automatic systems direct the efforts of the Entente Powers (“EP”; France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Serbia, the United States, and their minor allies) who are trying to defeat you. As in many of Ben Madison's games, you play the “bad guys.”  

 

The heart of the game is its depiction of the ground war, which saw the battlefield deaths of some ten million soldiers. Kaiserkrieg’s treatment can be traced back to Darin Leviloff’s inspired Israeli Independence (2008) and the “States of Siege” system it started. The evolutionary leap in Kaiserkrieg! is the shift from the old ‘horizontal’ States of Siege model – where enemy forces converge on your central position along clearly defined lines of advance – to a new ‘vertical’ model where enemy forces mass in separate regions around you, to eventually achieve an advantage in size that threatens your overall position. This adaptation allows Leviloff’s original concept to more closely simulate the trench warfare realities of World War I on the continental level.

 

The game also depicts the epic naval struggle of pro-German blockade runners trying to evade fleets of British cruisers. Many historians identify the failure to outwit the British naval blockade as the main reason for Germany’s defeat in the war.

 

The ‘sideshow’ war in the Near East, where Germany’s Ottoman Turkish ally was assailed by Russia and the British Empire – including a massive army of Indian troops – is also simulated. This theater also includes East Africa, where a German-led Black African army (the Askari) held out against Indian and British Empire forces even after the Germans in Europe had surrendered!

 

The game is an uber-strategic view of the conflict. Some aspects are dramatically simplified to make it playable and to emphasize the “cool stuff” of World War I, like Zeppelins, trenches, and U-boats. Kaiserkrieg! is not a detailed historical simulation, but a fun and challenging game covering the salient themes of the actual conflict.

      THE GROUND WAR

  • Tanks

  • Trench Warfare

  • Poison Gas

  • Forts

  • the Siegfried Line (Hindenburg Line)

  • the Gallipoli Campaign

   

      THE AIR WAR

  • the Red Baron,

  • Zeppelins

  • Strategic Bombing Campaigns

      THE WAR AT SEA

  • the British blockade

  • German Blockade Runners

  • the U-Boat Campaign,

  • the German High Seas Fleet

  • Major Naval Battles in the North Sea

       INFLUENTIAL LEADERS

  • ​Putnik

  • Brusilov

  • Mackensen

  • Foch

  • Diaz

  • Hoffmann 

  • Kemal

  • Plus German Alpenkorps and Stosstruppen

KK Counters

To order Kaiserkrieg! use the drop-down menu below. The game comes in two formats: boxed and print-and-play (PnP). PnP is sent to you by email. Boxed is printed and shipped by mail to your PayPal mailing address. Payment is by PayPal. A Vassal module of the game will be sent to game owners by email upon request. Due to onerous EU and UK import duties, we do not ship direct to the UK or Europe. However, you can find WDG games at sellers like Second Chance Games and Hexasim in the UK and Europe. 

           The price shown includes shipping and handling.

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A canvas map is available for Kaiserkrieg! These are beautiful and durable game maps that do not easily crease and can be rolled up for convenient storage. See the drop box menu above to order with your

game or separately. You can order a great canvas map for any White Dog Game title. Just contact us at KennedMW@aol.com.

"Looks like a marvelous game again, a typical Ben Madison, with chrome and historical flair steaming out of every pore." - Alexander J.

"Fun game!" Michael R.

From The Player's Aid:

"I have had a blast playing Kaiserkreig! I really enjoyed it, and as soon as one game finished, I wanted to play again. I enjoyed the early turns especially as there were some really tough choices to make...(the game) provides an enjoyable, stimulating, and well-developed challenge." - Charles D.

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