The Battle of Cantigny, fought May 28, 1918 was the first major American battle and offensive of World War I. The U.S. 1st Division, the most experienced of the five American divisions then in France and in reserve for the French Army near the village of Cantigny, was selected for the attack.
Because the Americans did not have them in sufficient quantity, the French provided air cover, 368 heavy artillery pieces, trench mortars, tanks, and flamethrowers. The French Schneider tanks were from the French 5th Tank Battalion. Their primary purpose was to eliminate German machine gun positions. With this massive support, and advancing on schedule behind the creeping artillery barrage, the 28th Infantry took the village in 30 minutes.
The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. The rest is history.
Germans
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Americans 5 4 10 5 0
- MOVE FIRST
- 1 Medal for each soldier unit eliminated.
- 2 Medals for each tank eliminated.
- The 3 building hexes form a Turn Start Temporary Majority Medal Objective worth 1 Victory Medal for the side that occupies the most buildings. The German player starts with 1 Medal.
- The American forces are racing against time. The German player may take a Victory Medal, instead of taking two command cards, when playing a “Recon” command card.
The French FT-17 tanks set the standard of tank design between the wars.
Its battlefield debut occurred on 31 May 1918, east of the Forest of Retz, east of Chaudun, between Ploisy and Chazelles,
during the Third Battle of the Aisne. This engagement, with 30 tanks, successfully broke up a German advance, but in
the absence of infantry support, the vehicles later withdrew.
German 6 4 6 2 4
Germans move first
French 4 2 4 4 2
•Trench Objective - Attacker gains Temporary Objective Medal whilst occupying enemy Trench hex
•2nd Trench Objective – Attacker gains a Temporary Objective Medal for controlling 5 Enemy Trench hexes
•Racing against time- Defender gains Time Pressure Medal objectives if playing a Recon card.
•German player does the No-Man’s-Land shelling roll.
•FT17 uses the same tank unit details as the Whippet tank
The Battle of Solstice (also known as the Second Battle of the Piave) was a battle on the Italian front of World War I. The main offensive (Battle of the Solstice) began on the night of June 15, the Austrians, immediately were blocked on the mountains and on the plateaus in the Northern sector by the firing of Italian guns: the Italians had gathered intelligence on the enemy plan and opened up half an hour before the Austrians, slaughtering their forces as they moved into position for the attack. While on the Piave and Montello it would last until 23 June with initial successes. The stretch of the Piave from Valdobbiadene to Grave di Papadopoli was defended by our 8th Italian Army. On the night between 14 and 15 June the 58th division, which guarded the southern area of Montello, was changing the front line troops (Tevere and Lucca brigades) when it was attacked by two Austrian divisions and forced to retreat to the line of extreme defense. After a few hours of violent fighting on the Montello the departments of the two armed forces mixed and the Italian artillery was temporarily silenced, this allowed the passage of the Piave to the Austro-Hungarian divisions using footbridges, boat bridges and barges. 100,000 Austrians successfully crossed the Piave, river swollen by the flood, establishing bridgeheads on the western bank. The attack on the Italian lines manifested itself vigorously towards the town of Nervesa, where however the Piacenza brigade stood in defense at the Villa Berti, on the outskirts of the small town of Nervesa and on the embankment of the local railway. The fight was furious for several days, the strength of the Italian troops, strengthened by the elite troops of the 'Arditi', allowed the retreat to be halted, joining forces and giving life to a stronghold on the outskirts of the town of Nervesa. On the north side of Montello, at Casa Serena, the Austrians collided with the 27th Army Corps and were stopped. But it was at the stronghold of Villa Berti that the fight continued furious, due to the Austrians' need to break through and head towards the Ponti della Priula to rejoin the troops attacking in the lower Piave, near the Grave di Papadopoli islet. Having contained the northern threat, Diaz deployed his reserves southwards against the Austrians’ bridgeheads. Finally, from the night of June 19, the Italian Command engaged the Italian reserves, which slowly, and with little coordination, created a stopping line between Giavera and Spresiano, changing the fate of the battle in favor of the Italians..
The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. The rest is history.
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MOVE FIRST
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The growing domestic crisis in the Habsburg Empire in 1918 sped up Austrian preparations for a final offensive aimed at bringing about Italy’s military collapse. With Russia out of the war, Vienna concentrated all of its reserves in Italy. The Austrians were divided in two army groups: Army Group Tyrol (10th and 11th Army) under Conrad von Hötzendorf in the north; Army Group Piave (6th Army and 5thIzonzoarmee) under General Boroevic in the south. The former aimed at seizing the Altipiani so as to flank the bulk of Italian forces on the Piave; the latter insisted that the main thrust be launched on the Piave in order to isolate the Grappa sector. The final plan resulted in a two-pronged attack which dispersed the Austro-Hungarian forces. The Austrians gathered fifty-eight divisions supported by 5,000 guns, as opposed to fifty-five Allied divisions, including five Anglo-French divisions, supported by 4,500 guns.The Italians had other advantages, namely the ability to hold nineteen divisions in reserve and use interior lines to concentrate them where needed.
The attack plan suffered from personal and ideological clashes between the two Austro-Hungarian leaders, Conrad and Boroević: the effort, instead of being concentrated in one point, as in the Caporetto offensive, was divided between the two respective groups of armies.
In the battle, the massive use of the Italian Air Force and bombing masses represents the decisive element of the retreat of the enemy who had launched the last offensive. The walkways thrown on the Piave by the Austrians on June 15 were incessantly bombed from above and this led to a slowdown in the supply of weapons and food. This forced the Austrians on the defensive and after a week of fighting, in which the Italians were beginning to gain the upper hand, Boroević von Bojna ordered the retreat across the river to avoid the complete annihilation of his bridgeheads. The lack of clear tactical superiority and the reconstituted strength of the Italian army, implemented by Diaz after Caporetto, condemned the Austro-Hungarian offensive to failure.
The German commander, General Erich Ludendorff, in the spring of 1918, believed it was essential for Germany to use the troops freed from the Eastern Front from the collapse of Russia, to achieve a victory against the war-weary Allies on the Western Front, before American troops arrived. The German offensive, Operation Michael, was directed against the British army north of the Somme River. It was the first time German tanks were used. Three of the five A7V Sturmpanzer-Kraftwagens (tanks) broke down, but Number 501, called “Gretchen”, and Number 506, known as “Mephisto”, helped the Germans overrun the first and second allied trench lines near St. Quentin. By March 22, the British 5th Army was in retreat. The offensive had obtained the single largest territorial gain on the Western Front since the early months of the war, but in spite of these gains, the Allied lines were only bent, not broken.
The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. The rest is history.
Germany’s 1918 Spring Offensive, Operation Michael, along the Western Front, was a last-ditch attempt for Germany to win the war before American forces entered Europe in large numbers. On March 26, as part of the Battle of Rosières, the Germans tried to capture the village of Colincamps in France, which was on their way to Amiens. Colincamps was held by New Zealand forces, who had forced marched to fill a gap in the British line. The German forces were in the process of outflanking the village when a company of Whippet tanks arrived. The Whippets, which were much lighter and quicker than Mark IVs, were able to drive away two German battalions that were about to enter Colincamps.
The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. The rest is history.
