WHITE DOG GAMES
The Adventure of Board Game Development
Kaiserkrieg has been nominated for the 2022 Charles S. Roberts Award for a wargame set between 1910, up to the beginning of World War II. Excludes World War II topics.
"Kaiserkrieg! is another brilliant and challenging twist on the States of Siege engine by designer Ben Madison." - Ian W.
Game Components
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One 18 x 18" Color Game Map
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One 8.5 x 11" Counter Tray Sheet (single-sided)
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One 8.5 x 11" Game Setup Sheet (single-sided)
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One 8.5 x 11" “Berliner Tageblatt” Card (double-sided)
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One 16-page Rules Booklet (You are reading it!)
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176 Color Game Pieces or “Tiles” (single-sided)
“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 BIG PICTURE
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Socialist Agitation and Revolutions,
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the French Mutiny
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American Intervention
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the German "Askari" Defense of German East Africa
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Armenian Genocide and Resistance
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Senussi Wars in Egypt
and Libya -
the Arab Revolt and Lawrence of Arabia
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National Morale
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Urban Unrest
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the Hindenburg-Ludendorff Dictatorship versus the German Constitution
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the Free Press and the Rule of Law.
THE GROUND WAR
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Tanks
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Trench Warfare
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Poison Gas
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Forts
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the Siegfried Line (Hindenburg Line)
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the Gallipoli Campaign
THE AIR WAR
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the Red Baron,
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Zeppelins
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Strategic Bombing Campaigns
THE WAR AT SEA
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the British blockade
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German Blockade Runners
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the U-Boat Campaign,
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the German High Seas Fleet
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Major Naval Battles in the North Sea
INFLUENTIAL LEADERS
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Putnik
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Brusilov
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Mackensen
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Foch
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Diaz
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Hoffmann
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Kemal
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Plus German Alpenkorps and Stosstruppen
"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.
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.
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.
"Fun game!" Michael R.
"Looks like a marvelous game again, a typical Ben Madison, with chrome and historical flair steaming out of every pore." - Alexander J.
Kaiserkrieg! The Great War 1914-1918 from White Dog Games
"This one is simply fantastic! A solitaire treatment of The Great War using the States of Siege Series model but with a change to a horizontal rather than vertical layout of spaces where enemy forces can build up and perform an “Over the Top” move if you don’t destroy their troops before then. The player takes the side of the Central Powers and must deal with events that replicate the history of the period and the tumult of various revolutions, threats and opportunities. Well done game by Ben Madison that uses chit pull to activate the enemies and cause events. Lots of chaos. Lots of tough choices. Lots of history. And it always seems to come down to the very end. The only draw back to the game though is that it is long, taking 2-3 hours to play through an entire game. Each chit drawn has lots of information and there are always lots of things to do each turn with your very limited actions.
One of my favorite parts is the use of Blockade Runners to gain your funds for the turn. During the Naval/Air Warfare Phase, the player will place out their available Blockade Runners on various seas zones numbered 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3 and 4 in order to attempt to break Allied blockades and deliver goods and funds to Germany to fuel the war effort. Each of these numbered sea zones will provide a haul of Reichsmarks based on the number of the sea zone if they are able to evade the British Cruisers. This is determined by rolling 2d6 and consulting the British Cruisers Table to find out in what sea zones the available British Cruisers will be placed. If there is a Blockade Runner in the determined sea zone, it will be destroyed and placed in the Neutral Ports box where it will wait to be built later at a cost of 2 RM. If the rolled sea zone contains a Blockade Runner and the High Seas Fleet marker, the British Cruiser will be unable to destroy the Blockade Runner and a naval combat will ensue.
In the above picture, the Central Powers defeat the British Cruiser with the High Seas Fleet and the 3 Blockade Runners placed in seas zones 2b, 3 and 4 bring home a cash haul of 9 Reichsmarks that will be used to take actions and push back the amassing Entente forces in the various staging areas to avoid an Over the Top chit from being placed and prevent the built up forces there attacking into Germany. This process of gaining income is very interesting and unique and it really feels correct as you are trying to do your best to avoid and destroy the British Cruisers so that you have your choice of the best producing sea zones without the fear of Entente intervention.
You can check out our unboxing video to get a good look at the components." - Review from The Player's Aid
"This one is simply fantastic! A solitaire treatment of The Great War using the States of Siege Series model but with a change to a horizontal rather than vertical layout of spaces where enemy forces can build up and perform an “Over the Top” move if you don’t destroy their troops before then. The player takes the side of the Central Powers and must deal with events that replicate the history of the period and the tumult of various revolutions, threats and opportunities. Well done game by Ben Madison that uses chit pull to activate the enemies and cause events. Lots of chaos. Lots of tough choices. Lots of history. And it always seems to come down to the very end." - The Player's Aid
