The Longest Trench Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Game Idea
• Game Components
• 2. Objective
• 3. Card Descriptions
• 4. Game-Board
• 5. Game Set-Up
• 6. Game Flow
• 7. Game Sequence
  • Battle Summary
• 8. Preparation
• 9. Combat
  • Examples (from the illustrations)
• Aftermath
• 10. End of Supply
• 11. End of the Game
• 12. Variants
  • 1. Prepare for war
  • 2. Standoff battles (Stretch Goal only)
  • 3. 3 or 4 Players Variant
  • 4. Fog of war
  • 5. Historical variant
  • 6. Attrition

1. Game Idea

See above. The game is for 2 players (variant rules for 3-4 players are given below).

Game Components

• Rules of play
• 1 game-board
• 82 cards: 2 sets of 40 cards
• 2 summary cards
• 2 Pawns (1 yellow and 1 red)
• 6 dice (common D6)

Stretch goals:

• 2 sets of 14 bonus cards
• 2 sets of 5 Extra bonus cards
• 5 Standoff counters
• 5 Alternative battles counters

2. Objective

Gain the most victory points or achieve a total victory before the end of the game.

3. Card Descriptions

The cards consist of 2 sets of cards: the Allied player's and the Central player's. Each set consists of 4 types of cards: Army, Fleet, Support and Special. Each set can be expanded by 14 Bonus cards with a mix of these types of cards.

A card shows (example of a typical Bonus card): the card type, the combat points, the power icon, the card description, and extra combat points. Coloured squares indicate the battles with those extra combat points.

4. Game-Board

The game-board shows the Victory point track and the battle track. The 20 battles are performed in chronological order. The board shows: the Battle Track, the Victory Points track, land battles, extra cards for the attacker, the attacker icon, artillery hits, sea battles, winner extra cards, and VP rewards.

5. Game Set-Up

1. Place the game-board in the middle of the table.
2. Place the Yellow pawn on the white "Start" box in the middle of the victory points track.
3. Place the Red pawn on the first battlefield of the Battle track: "Invasion of Belgium" in 1914.
4. Give each player one deck of cards: Central powers or Allied powers.
5. Stretch goal only: Each player separates his Bonus cards and shuffles them. Then, 6 cards are randomly drawn from it and added without looking to the main deck. The other cards are removed from play without looking at them.
6. Each player shuffles his deck of cards and places it on a facedown pile in his reach. This pile is called the Supply (facedown draw pile). Each player draws the top 9 cards from his Supply. Face-up cards go on the Discard pile.
7. Each player gets 3 dice and a Summary card, which are placed within reach.
8. Leave the "Standoff" counters in the box. They are only used with the variant rules.

6. Game Flow

The game consists of a series of historical battles, which are fought out in chronological order. Players place armies on 3 fronts, add support cards and resolve artillery fire by using the dice. Then, the combat outcome is checked for each front separately. Whoever wins on the most fronts, wins the battle and gets the victory points for it. Sea battles follow a similar game sequence.

7. Game Sequence

A game can last 20 battle turns. The game can be shorter in case of a total victory. Each turn, players perform 3 phases:

• Preparation
• Combat
• Aftermath

Land and sea battles are resolved slightly differently. The particularities for Sea battles are indicated in blue.

Battle Summary

Preparation

1. Attacker draws extra cards.
2. Play 1 Special card, Attacker first.
3. Exchange 1-3 cards.

Combat

1. Deploy armies/fleets one by one. Attacker first.
2. Add all support. Defender first.
3. Artillery/broadside fire. Add dice. Attacker first.
4. Combat resolution.

Aftermath

1. Remove destroyed armies/fleets from play (+4).
2. Discard other cards.
3. Adjust VP and draw cards.
4. Draw 4 cards, keep max 9 cards.
5. Move red pawn.

8. Preparation

1. Check on the Battle track which player is the attacker. That player draws a certain number of extra cards from his Supply as indicated on the board. The Central Powers are the attackers and draw 1 extra card.
2. First, the attacker can play one "Special" card, then the defender. This is an optional action. Note: for Sea battles not all "Special" cards are applicable.
3. Both players can exchange 1 to 3 cards. Play the cards face-up on your Discard pile and draw the same number of cards from your Supply. Do not replace the cards one by one, but all at once.

9. Combat

1. Deployment: a land battle takes place on 3 fronts (left, centre and right) while a sea battle takes place on 3 zones (vanguard, centre and rear). For game purposes, this makes no difference.

2. Both players alternate by placing face-up up to 3 "Army" cards to occupy the fronts, one army per front. The attacker selects his "Army" card for each front always first. The defender can react by placing his Army card opposite to it. The attacker can play his second (and third) "Army" card at the left or right of a previous played "Army" card. This has no particular importance. The defender, however, must always play his cards opposite to the last card played by the attacker. Thus, all cards of one power are placed in a row and opposite to the other power.

Deployment order:

1. First army of attacker (Central)
2. First army of defender (Allied)
3. Second army of attacker (Central)
4. Second army of defender (Allied)
5. Third army of attacker (Central)
6. Third army of defender (Allied)

When a player passes, he may not continue placing other armies, although his opponent still has the opportunity to do so. Thus, the players are allowed to leave some fronts unoccupied. All unoccupied fronts are automatically lost. Follow the same procedure for Sea battles, but place only "Fleet" cards.

3. In addition, players may add one "Support" card facedown on each "Army" card of the fronts. In opposition to the deployment of armies, the defender starts placing all his Support cards before the attacker does so. For Sea battles, do not use any Support card. Instead, you may place another (spare) "Fleet" card facedown as a supporting fleet.

4. Artillery fire: The attacker rolls 3 dice, even if some fronts are unoccupied. Each 1, 2 or 3 causes the same number of hit points (e.g.: a "3" represents 3 hit points). Each 4, 5 or 6 is a failure. The attacker can place one die with hit points on each occupied front.

Note: for all battles in 1917 and later, the number 4 on the dice is also taken into account as hit points. For Sea battles, use the same system. "Artillery fire" should be read as "broadside fire".

Next, the defender rolls his 3 dice for artillery fire and places his hit points.

(Illustration: 1 Support card for the Allied powers + 1 Artillery die; 2 Support cards for the Central powers + 2 Artillery dice.)

5. Combat resolution: reveal all "Support" cards and add up the combat values for each front separately:

• Combat points of "Army" (including any extra point, which is available on specific battles)
• Points of "Support" and "Special" cards
• Artillery hit points

For Sea Battles:

• Combat points of "Fleet"
• Points of supporting fleet
• Broadside hit points

The player with the most points on a front, conquers that front. The defender wins any tie. Above this, if you have 4 or more points than the opponent, you destroy the defeated army/fleet.

To win the battle, you must be victorious on the majority of fronts, which is mostly 2 fronts of the 3. The defender wins any tie. If you are victorious on all 3 fronts, you win a decisive battle. Thus, if the attacker leaves one front unoccupied, he can never win a decisive battle.

Note: fronts which are unoccupied by both sides are not taken into account. They are not considered as a tie and don't result in an automatic victory for the defender.

To help memorizing who has won which front, remove the cards from the defeated power at once after determining the winner.

Note: some generals give support points to all Armies in the land battle. When resolving the combat, leave the general at his position to help memorizing the extra points to apply. Each side can use only one general per battle.

For Sea battles: the same system is used. Read "army" as "fleet" and "front" as "zone".

Examples (from the illustrations)

• Central Powers played an Army card as support: not allowed, not counted. Allies: 3+1 = 4; Central powers: 2+2+1 = 5. Central powers win.
• Allies: 5+2 = 7; Central powers: 3. Allies win with +4. Central power army destroyed.
• Allies: 2+1+2 = 5; Central powers: 1+2+3 = 6. Central powers win. Airforce support resolved by die roll.
• Allies: 4+1 = 5; Central Powers: 4+2 = 6. Central Powers win.
• Allies: 3; Central Powers (CP): 2+1 = 3. CP, as defender, win the tie.
• Allies win automatically (front left unoccupied by the Central Powers).
• Battle outcome (land example): Central powers win on 2 fronts and gain 1 VP + 2 extra cards.
• Battle outcome (sea example): Central powers win on 2 of 3 zones. They gain 2 VP + 2 extra cards.
• Tie = victory for defender = 1 victory point.
• Central victory = win on 2 of 3 fronts = 1-3 victory points.
• Decisive Central victory = win on all 3 fronts = 1 extra victory point.

Aftermath

1. The destroyed armies/fleets (+4) are removed from play.
2. The other armies/fleets are moved to the Discard pile together with any played support card.
3. The winner of the battle gets the number of victory points according to the battle which was fought. If he was victorious on all 3 fronts/zones, he gets one additional point for this decisive victory. When a battle ends in a tie, the defender wins and gets exactly 1 point. Move the yellow pawn the right number of spaces in the right direction on the Victory Points track.
4. There are 2 "Patriotism" thresholds on each side of the track. When the yellow pawn passes a threshold in the direction of the arrow, the defeated player gets immediately an extra card from his Supply pile. Note that only the defeated player can get extra cards in this way.
5. Some battles, as indicated on the Battle track, give the winner of it 1 to 2 extra cards, which are drawn from your Supply pile.
6. All players draw 4 cards. Your hand limit at this moment in the game is 9 cards. Discard at your choice any card above this limit.
7. Move the red pawn to the next battle in chronological order.

10. End of Supply

When your Supply pile is depleted, take all cards from the Discard pile, shuffle them and form a new Supply pile.

11. End of the Game

The game ends in one of the following cases:

• The yellow pawn reaches the box "Total victory". That player has won the game immediately.
• After the last battle the game is also over. Check the position of the yellow pawn to determine a winner. When the pawn stands on a maroon square, the game ends in a draw.

Note: The historical outcome was a minor victory for the Allies.

12. Variants

1. Prepare for war

During the game set-up, you draw 9 Bonus cards out of 14. You select 6 of them. The other 3 cards are removed from play. This variant is highly recommended for experienced players, seeking an extra tactical dimension.

2. Standoff battles (Stretch Goal only)

In order to give each game a different challenge (and to shorten the average playing time), some battles are skipped by using the Standoff counters. Roll one die for each year. If you roll 1-4, place a "Standoff" counter on the corresponding battle, counting from left to right. If you roll 5-6, do not place a counter. When moving the red pawn, skip all battles with a "Standoff" counter.

3. 3 or 4 Players Variant

Although the game is conceived as a 2 player game, here are some extra rules to play it with 3 to 4 players.

• With 4 players, form 2 teams of 2 players. With 3 players, one player will play alone against a team of 2 players.
• Each team starts the game with 10 cards. The cards are equally divided among the team-members.
• When drawing extra cards, team-members must agree how many cards each member can draw.
• Team-members must agree who will play a Special card without giving info on the card which shall be played.
• Each team-member may exchange 1 or 2 cards. At the end of the turn, each team-member draws 2 cards.
• 4-players rules: Cards are kept secret for the other team-member. When resolving a battle, each team-member takes care individually of one or two fronts (by common agreement). Thus, you can only add a support card on your own Army!

4. Fog of war

During the battle deployment, play all Army and Fleet Cards facedown. This speeds the game up, adds a surprise factor, but skips a tactical element. Before drawing bonus cards for the Central powers, remove the bonus "Fog of war" from play.

5. Historical variant

This variant makes it harder for the Central player to win the game. It simulates the real challenge the Central Powers faced. It will also prolong the game. During the game set-up, the Central player must remove 1 fleet n°4 from his Central set of cards. This card isn't used in the game. Consider the medals beside the victory track as an extra space. So the track counts now 15 spaces instead of 13. For obtaining a total victory, the marker must end on the medal-symbol.

6. Attrition

This variant simulates the attrition of war. Starting from 1917 (Nivelle offensive), players draw 3 cards instead of the standard 4 at the end of a turn. This attrition continues till the end of the game.