How to play 1918: Part 4: The Tactical Phase

So far in our round-up of how to play 1918, we’ve taken an overall look at the game, seen how to pick a platoon and worked out how to issue orders. Today, the rubber meets what’s left of the road after four years of sustained artillery bombardment: we’re looking at the Tactical Phase.

You enter the Tactical Phase after every unit has been issued an order. Players now take it in turns to activate their units, starting with the ones which have successfully received Orders and ending with those left in Stances. Along the way, your units may be able to counterpunch with Reactive Fire, by resolving a Gambit, or by revealing a Stand To order.

As with all games with alternating activations, much of the strategy is bound up in which units you choose to activate first - do you press your advantage with a daring attack first, or is it better to suppress an enemy section in a threatening position? Perhaps it’s wiser to shell an enemy machine gun position, or maybe you need to get your commanding officer out of harm’s way. There are no perfect options - the Great War was very bloody, and your company will not escape unscathed.

Types of Action

Units activate according to the Orders they’ve received, which have been issued in secret during the previous phase. Orders allow you to make a combination of movement and shooting actions, which vary in effect according to the order. 

A unit ordered to Fire, therefore, is unable to move, but it can shoot at any target in range without a penalty. A unit ordered to Advance, on the other hand, may move and shoot - but it’ll receive a penalty to aiming and can only hit the closest target. A unit moving At The Double can sprint or charge the enemy in a desperate bout of close combat. Finally, a unit ordered to Stand To may make Reactive Fire - shooting out of sequence (perhaps at a unit closing in for an assault). It also assumes a defensive stance for a bonus in the first round of hand-to-hand combat.

As for stances, a unit which has been forced to Regroup may only attempt to fall back or rally - though it can make Snap Fire (a shoot action which only hits the target on an unmodified roll of 6). If a unit elects to Take Cover, it can crawl and make snap shots - including as reactive fire.

The mechanics of these actions will be familiar to most tabletop wargamers. A standard Run action allows units to move up to their Movement allowance (6” for infantry, 3” for field guns, etc), while a Sprint or Assault allows you to roll two dice and add the higher result to your allowance. Crawling halves your allowance but makes you harder to shoot, while certain types of terrain add penalties or bonuses.

Fire!

Shooting targets must be within range and line-of-sight - the game uses a model’s-eye view to draw LoS. A unit fires by weapon type, so seven riflemen will fire at the same time. You roll to hit according to how many Attacks your weapons have - one per rifle, in this case - applying modifiers for cover, and visibility, shooting on the move, making snap shots, and so on. Each modified roll that equals or beats your troops’ Firing Skill scores a hit. 

At this point, you calculate Pins. This is a key game concept that represents suppression - especially from machine guns and artillery fire. The more Pins a unit takes, the worse it is at accepting Orders and following them. We’ll go into this concept in more depth next week, but suffice it to say that rifle fire can inflict a maximum of one Pin, while a light machine gun can apply two, which begins to seriously affect a unit’s ability to operate. So if you’ve held off activating a key unit, it may not now be able to hit back as effectively as planned.

Once Pins are calculated, your target gets to roll Veterancy Saves. This is a measure of how tough and dogged a unit is, and it can be improved by cover or penalised by especially lethal munitions, such as high explosive artillery shells. Any models that fail a save are removed as casualties.

Of course, there are plenty of additional rules to cover night-fighting, units dug into trenches and bunkers, sniping and much more, while artillery, field guns and vehicles have their own rules. We’ll look at these in a future article, but there’s a lot of skill in judging where to land your mortar shells…

Miniatures from Great War Miniatures @ North Star Military Figures

Fix bayonets! 

What with all the trenches, there was a surprising amount of melee combat during the Great War, and it was not an elegant affair. 

Once a unit successfully assaults another, the attacker and defender count how many models are in combat and rolls a dice for each. The goal is to equal or beat your Combat Score, adding bonuses for friendly supporting units and nearby Leaders, and subtracting penalties if the unit has Pins or Wavering morale. Certain units - notably German Stormtroopers - have equipment designed to overwhelm adversaries in close quarters.

Once the rolling is over, casualties are removed on both sides, adding modifiers for defensive positioning, Pins and numerical superiority. The difference in scores determines the outcome of combat. Combat continues if things are even, but a small difference will send the loser running. A unit will surrender if it’s heavily beaten, and can be taken prisoner.

Next week we’ll take a closer look at Morale, Pins and the End Phase. For now, stay up to date with 1918 by following us on Facebook and Instagram, and you can sign up to the newsletter for a 10% discount on your next digital order.