Warfare 1917

The First World War is an awkward fit for a strategy game. There is no elegant manoeuvre to find, no flanking route around a line that stretches from the sea to the mountains — just two trench systems facing each other and a strip of open ground between them. Warfare 1917 leans into that instead of pretending otherwise. Your orders are limited to which men leave the trench and when, and the battle is decided less by losses than by which side's nerve breaks first.

A Side-On War of Attrition

Con Artist Games built the battlefield as a flat cross-section: your trench on one edge of the screen, the enemy's on the other, and a series of intermediate positions in between that either side can occupy. Units you deploy climb out and move forward automatically. You do not steer them. What you control is composition and timing — who goes over, in what numbers, and against what is already waiting.

The campaign runs from both sides of the line, with British and German missions covering the same grinding advance from opposite trenches. Objectives vary: some battles ask you to take the enemy position outright, others simply to hold your own ground for a set period against attacks that keep coming.

Morale Is the Real Health Bar

The system that makes Warfare 1917 tick is morale. Each side has a morale meter that drops as its units are lost and as the enemy pushes into its territory. Empty that meter and the opposing force routs — the battle ends without you having to clear every last position by force. It cuts both ways, so a costly failed assault can hand the initiative to an enemy who was on the back foot a minute earlier.

Advancing works the same way at squad level. Troops in a forward position hold there until enough friendly soldiers are gathered to push on, so a trickle of single riflemen sent forward one at a time will sit in a shell hole and achieve nothing. Massing is not optional; it is the mechanic.

Controls

Everything runs through the mouse: pick a unit from the deployment bar to send it over the top, and click the support options when they come off cooldown.

The Roster

The unit list is period-accurate and small enough to learn in a mission or two.

• Riflemen are your cheap line infantry, useful for occupying ground and for the sheer numbers that trigger an advance.
• Assault troops carry grenades and are far better at clearing an occupied trench than at crossing open ground to reach one.
• Machine gunners dig in and shred an infantry push, which makes them defensive anchors rather than attackers.
• Snipers pick off individual targets at long range and are one of the few answers to enemy machine gun positions.
• Support fire called down on a marked stretch of ground softens a position before your men arrive.
• Tanks appear late, as they did in the real war, and absorb fire that infantry cannot while they crawl forward.

Winning Ugly

New commanders lose because they spend everything at once. A few tactics that hold up across the campaign:

1. Let them come first. Defending is cheaper than attacking. Sit tight, let the enemy spend units crossing open ground into your machine guns, then counterattack into the gap they leave behind.
2. Send waves, not individuals. Queue several riflemen close together so they reach the next position as a group and keep moving.
3. Pair assault troops with cover fire. Grenadiers are wasted if they are cut down before arrival — clear the target with support fire first.
4. Spend upgrade points on what you actually use. Improvements carry between missions, and a fully upgraded rifle squad beats a scattering of half-improved specialists.
5. Watch the morale bar, not the map. If the enemy meter is nearly empty, one more successful push finishes the mission outright.

Custom Battles and Replay Value

Beyond the campaign there is a custom battle mode that lets you set up an engagement with your own parameters and fight it out. It turns the game into a sandbox for testing compositions you would not risk during a scripted mission.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who developed Warfare 1917? Con Artist Games, the Flash studio behind the Warfare line and later action series such as Strike Force Heroes.

Can I play as the Germans? Yes. The campaign covers both the British and German sides of the front, with separate mission sets.

Why won't my soldiers move forward? A position only advances once enough friendly troops are stacked in it. Reinforce that spot and the whole group will move together.

What happens when the morale bar empties? The side that runs out of morale routs and the battle ends immediately, which is usually a faster route to victory than clearing every enemy position.

Do upgrades carry over between missions? They do. Points earned in battle are spent between missions on unit improvements that persist for the rest of the campaign.

Is there a mode outside the campaign? There is a custom battle option where you configure the engagement yourself, which is the main source of replay value once the campaign is finished.