How to play 1918: Part 8: Vehicles and Cavalry
- warfulcrumgames
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
When most people think of the Great War, they picture the endless, churned fields of France and Belgium, of beleaguered infantrymen desperately charging into a wall of lethal machine gun fire, and of endless lines of trenches pounded by distant artillery.
All of that is accurate, but it’s not the whole picture. Cavalry - so deadly in earlier ages - were still deployed right to the very end of the conflict, albeit in a much reduced capacity. Tanks, meanwhile, started to see action as early as 1916, though it wouldn’t be until late 1917 that they became truly effective. Ironically, it was the advent of the tank that unlocked the power of cavalry, who could follow a breach in the enemy lines to harass unprotected assets at the rear, which meant they became more common towards the end of the war - particularly during the period in which 1918: A Miniatures Game is set.
Tanks on the tabletop
Tanks and cavalry are both featured in the main rulebook, and we’ve already released two miniatures, the Mark IV Heavy Tank, available either as a Male (armed with 6pdrs) or a Female variant (armed with machine guns). Either variant may be modelled with an optional crib fascine, to help bridge the trenches and keep the armour moving. Mark IVs are usable by both the British and the German army, who captured a large number of these vehicles in late 1917.
We’ve also released the Mark A ‘Whippet’, a fast breakthrough vehicle used by the British. Designed as a breakthrough and exploitation tank, primarily to support cavalry, it could reach top speeds of 8mph - extremely fast for an early tank but not fast enough to keep up with horses. Nonetheless, it proved incredibly popular, with one British veteran claiming the tank was the 'big surprise' of the Tank Corps.
The German tank of WWI, the A7V, will be coming out later this month, while there are also a number of armoured cars and other wheeled vehicles on their way too.
The rules for vehicles are in the Advanced Rules section of the core book. They act in the same basic way as infantry - receiving and carrying out orders as usual. We’ve designed them quite carefully so you can deploy them in a historically accurate fashion - tanks may be equipped with fascines to bridge trenches and grappling hooks to drag barbed wire out of place. Most have enough armour to shrug off small arms fire, and in future expansions, we'll even explore
Vehicles all have the Initiative (x) keyword, which allows them to issue their own orders on a successful dice role. This is obviously not always effective, so Senior Leaders may also issue orders - but they have to be within 1” of the vehicle to make themselves heard. This accurately replicates real-world battlefields of the era, when officers really did have to keep up with the tanks to tell them what to do!
Tanks are often slower than infantry, and they can only turn a certain number of times during each action. Other vehicles may be faster and more manoeuvrable.
When shooting, vehicles have enough crew to fire every gun they possess, which in the case of the Mark IV tank, is quite a lot. Each weapon has a firing arc - turrets were in short supply in 1918, with only the Renault FT tank and some armoured cars having them.
Shooting at vehicles happens in the normal way, with some changes to reflect their stature. They’re large targets and therefore easier to hit, and they can be pinned, if only by weapons with a Strike attribute - which counts out most small arms, including some machine guns. Likewise, such weapons cannot inflict damage on an armoured vehicle.
Instead of Veterancy saves, armoured vehicles make Armour saves on a d8. Each arc has different armour - they’re often weaker at the rear. When targeting them at long range, their save is improved by +1. Vehicles also have Hull Points, which is a measure of how many hits they can take before they are destroyed.
There are plenty of other fun details we won’t go into now: crews can bail out and remount their vehicles, critical hits can immobilise them or cause massive explosions, while infantry can advance in safety behind them.
Cavalry on the tabletop
Cavalry are no less important to the stories we are telling with 1918, and we have big plans to bring them to the tabletop in 2026. We’ve included rules for them in the core rulebook, for those who have a burning desire to sound the charge and use proxies.
Cavalry are scouts who can also act on their own initiative. They’re fast - if they start on the table at the beginning of the game, they can range ahead of your deployment zone - and they hit very hard on the charge in close combat. They’re often best held in reserve and brought onto an unexpected table edge using a Gambit or two to remove enemy infantry or weapons teams caught out of position. Frankly, we can’t wait to get deeper into this largely forgotten facet of the last days of the Great War.
For now, however, that’s it for this week’s How to Play, but next week we’ll be wrapping this series up with a look at the first four factions in the game: Britain, Germany, France and the U.S.. There’s plenty more to come this year, including many more units and a Spring Offensive of our own… Stay up to date with 1918 by signing up to our newsletter and following us on Facebook and Instagram.