( Guide image from the IWM under a Non-Commercial License https://www.iwm.org.uk/corporate/policies/non-commercial-licence )

For thousands of years, the open field was the place of battle. Now, it is the slaughtering ground.

The invention of the machinegun was the first step in changing warfare forever. Death-dealing entering the industrialized age, with finely crafted machining allowing hundreds and hundreds of rounds to be fired every minute - so long as the factories can feed the guns. But men could still use smoke, fire artillery to force the gunners to duck down. They could charge in waves of infantry and overwhelm by force of numbers alone.

The second step was barbed wire. Forged of iron, drawn out, barbed, strung across battlefields to prevent soldiers from making headlong charges, slowing them down, funneling them into tightly controlled killing fields for the guns. Lain out under darkness, thickets rising so quickly they must have seemed like the thorny briars growing overnight to engulf a castle in a fairytale.

Never before could it be made so lethal to cross open ground so quickly. Together, these two inventions changed warfare, and history. Together, they will let you fight a war beyond Europe's imagining - The Great War.

This guide will contain my observations from playing the game and tips that will hopefully help you think about it differently.

---

Edit: For those interested, here's my review: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/rataphract/recommended/2109370/

Edit: Also, for my bona-fides...Here's the game-over score screen from my first playthrough. Not the highest score you're ever going to see, but, I've played in the trenches. (PLUS I'M PROUD I WON A CAMPAIGN! :D!)

On the surface, a trench is a hole dug in the dirt. They have existed for as long as the practice of warfare, becoming part of siegecraft since the creation of the city wall. Within a trench, a soldier is protected. The only reliable way to kill him (other than the usage of massive-scale artillery and explosives of absolutely astonishing scale) is to enter the trench, and once in the trench, fight in close quarters. This has always been the case - which is no doubt why soldiers of the great war who assaulted other trenches employed close combat weapons that seemed like something medieval.

(See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_raiding_club for more on these weapons.)

Some special infantry (flamethrowers) can attack trenches from a distance, otherwise, your only option if you want to attack one is to move in to attack in melee - a dangerous proposition.

Trenches aren't very wide. This means that, while a trench can contain two companies of infantry, only one company will be able to fire from it at a time. Further, with a second company of infantry in the trench, the trench will block all movement of other infantry through it.

(NB: Remember you can use that little arrows button to switch which company is firing - it's a good idea to make sure it's the company with greater strength.)

This means if you have a line of trenches, and one trench has two infantry companies in it, a third company ordered to move along the trench line will be forced to leave the trenches and go over-ground.

This is risky. Outside of a trench, a soldier is vulnerable. Whether on defence or offence, the last thing you want is for your soldiers to spend any time out of their trenches. So make sure they're not blocked by two infantry companies in their path.

Since a firing trench can contain up to two infantry companies, that also means that ONLY two companies can enter a trench to attack in melee. If you send three companies to attack a trench occupied by the enemy, the third will go stand on top of the trench being shot at by the other defenders!

(NB: 2 companies of infantry in 1 trench act like a blockade for your troops! Only 2 can fit in at a time!)

A single line of trenches may seem to be a good defence, but you have to remember that someone will come and attack that trench, and when they do, if that single line falls, your defence will collapse.

The moment the enemy enters your trench, your troops will stop firing so they can fight off the enemy in melee combat. Which means the next company of soldiers can simply pass by unhindered. This is why historically speaking, trenches were layered.

There was a front trench, for actual fighting from, then a support trench behind that, where reserves could shoot from to support the front trench, or move from to redeploy elsewhere. Often there would be a third trench behind that, perhaps a fourth, depending on what was required. Far behind that were smaller trench networks that could be retreated to and fortified if the trench line fell.

(NB: There are two main kinds of trench in this game. Firing trenches, which can be occupied by your troops, and communications trenches. In this game, no one can stop and fight in a communications trench - they're just safe paths, and those paths can be used to help control how soldiers move through your trench network.)

These layered trench lines were like the layers of an onion, or, perhaps, like the many layered walls of a castle.

In many ways, a trench network is very much like a castle. You can build redoubts - heavily fortified areas, which will be like the towers in your castle. You build 'curtain walls' connecting them, which you expect to have the enemy enter - it is very difficult to prevent a breach by a determined enemy, after all. That's why castle walls had soldiers on top, because someone would climb up with a ladder.

( For more on historical trench layouts, try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_warfare#Layout )

However, since only two companies can enter each trench section, that means that the rest of the attacking enemies will have to wait above, or cross over open ground to the next section of trench, letting you shoot them.

The enemy will likely use artillery to suppress your troops and stop them from shooting - more on that in the next section, but be aware that your defensive trenches should have enough space between them that artillery won't suppress all of them at once.

Ultimately, on the defence you have two options - before the enemy enters your trench, and after.

Before they enter your trench network you can kill them in the open. Barbed wire or other obstacles to slow them down increases the amount of time you have to do this - and in front of a machine gun, they will die in droves. After they enter your trench network it purely comes down to the might of your soldiers in melee. They will use bayonets, clubs, grenades, anything they can - but so will the enemy. Meaning that if the enemy outnumbers you, you will be killed. However, you can create chokepoints.

If there is only one trench leading between your outer 'wall' of trenches and the inner 'redoubt', then only two companies of infantry can attack you through that trench at once. The others all have to go over the top, where you can kill them. All you need to stop two companies of infantry in a trench... are two companies of infantry. And if you can keep throwing bodies into the grinder to keep the enemy from entering your redoubt, and so long as you kill plenty of infantry before they reach your trenches, more of the enemy will die than your men. Meaning they'll send ten companies of infantry, only get two into your trenches, and you only need to fight those two in melee on equal terms while while the rest of your soldiers keep firing.

Unfortunately, the enemy very likely have artillery. Let's talk about that.

Except... that's not what artillery is for.

Artillery, let me be the first to tell you, is not there to kill anyone.

A bayonet is there to kill someone, but a gun set up hundreds of yards behind the lines and firing exploding shells overhead cannot be used to kill anyone.

'Rataphract', you say, 'what foolishness is this?'

Yes, an artillery shell CAN kill someone... but unless they're out in the open, they'll be hiding in a trench. Which means your artillery probably can't hit them.

But it can force them to keep their heads down, because those shells explode and send shrapnel everywhere. A man with his head over the lip of the trench to fire will rapidly have his head taken off, which means that artillery is first and foremost for suppression.

When you assault a trench, use your artillery right up to the moment your soldiers arrive in order to prevent the enemy from peeking up and shooting at them. Light artillery is great for this, but it isn't very good at destroying manpower. Heavy artillery is also great, it can pound a trench and reduce the fighting strength of the men inside, sure, but it's also great for destroying machine guns, barbed wire, all sorts of things.

(NB - There is some debate about this. It seems that light artillery has a longer barrage over a larger area, heavy has a tighter area with fewer more powerful shots, so the amount of damage can vary. Experiment a little to make your own determination - light artillery seems to be good for destroying some kinds of building and not others, heavy artillery can damage troops in trenches more easily.)

'But isn't artillery for killing people since you can damage things with it?'

No, it's for controlling the battlefield. It's for making sure the enemy don't cross open ground, it's for keeping their heads down, and it's for destroying tanks.

It is a way for you to micromanage and react to events as they unfold, at very high speed, and it is expensive.

Every round of artillery fire costs 6 or 9 (noice) points of supply. Generally, a company of infantry will cost something similar. It will take multiple rounds of artillery barrages to kill a company of infantry.

For roughly the cost of 1 artillery barrage, you can get a reinforcing company of infantry. And that one company of infantry can, properly positioned in trenches with overlapping fields of fire, kill many, many, many more soldiers than that single artillery barrage.

However, infantry can't make soldiers in a distant trench duck down and hide - artillery can. Artillery can blow open a temporary hole in someone else's defences. It can blunt a powerful attack. But it can't kill the enemy outright, it's much too expensive in supply to do that. Your soldiers, however, can use the support you give them with artillery and do incredible things.

Artillery is not for killing people. Artillery is a tool you use to control the battlefield. Special artillery shells, like gas and airburst, are very expensive - like 70-80 supply. That's right - for the supply cost of an entire attack wave, you can use one shot of these special attacks. They're so expensive because they're not there to let you simply let you kill the enemy - they're there to let you react to a situation instantly and change the flow of the battle.

So don't use artillery like it's there to kill people - use artillery like it's a special purpose tool.

(NB: Artillery barrages cost almost as much as a company of infantry - so having like 6 artillery pieces firing repeated barrages will burn through your supplies and achieve very little on its own, compared to what that infantry can do. Consider using fewer pieces of artillery in more careful, thought out ways.)

On the strategic level, there are three major resources.

Gold - which you use to buy things, but, VERY importantly, you also use to pay for replacement infantry. Any infantryman you lose in a battle forces you to spend gold to replace them. That means that losing a battle will eat into your gold supply.

You get additional gold at the start of each turn, and can use it how you like. If you run out of gold you go temporarily bankrupt, causing a massive loss in national will - the score at the top of the screen, which is the main way of winning/losing the war.



Supplies - which you use to do things, both in battles - reinforcements cost supply, artillery costs supply, etc - and in the strategic layer/battle setups. Initiating a battle costs supply, building trenches costs supplies, and so on. Meaning that if you run out of supplies, you can't do anything, and all you can do is wait around.

The primary way of getting supplies is to purchase them with gold. (There are some battlefield victory awards that give you supplies, but, these will almost never cover the cost of a battle)

You can access some of your global supplies in a battle by building supply depots on the strategy layer.

Your corps, the infantry and other units on the strategic level, provide a certain baseline amount of supply to the province they're stationed in. This is very important.



Guns - Meaning... corps of infantry, which carry guns. Tanks, which carry guns. Aircraft, which carry guns, and siege artillery, which is a gun.

(NB: An infantry corps is the strategic level unit on the campaign. These contain infantry companies, the battle level units you actually fight with. It's easy to mix up corps and companies - I know I do! - but remember there's a difference.)

The amount of infantry corps you have is relatively static, although there are some events and research unlocks that will get you more infantry corps. The others - tanks, planes, siege artillery - you have to buy with gold.

As mentioned, each company will provide a certain baseline amount of supply, which can literally mean turning the tide of battle. While you can only have 30 active companies in a battle at any one time, you buy and reinforce those companies using supply. So if you bring more corps than the enemy brought to a battle, you'll have more supplies, which means you can reinforce more and build more than your enemy can.

When your men die on the battlefield, the corps remains in place - gold is spent to send replacement soldiers from outside the theatre of war automatically. So you CANNOT run out of infantry on the strategic map.

Tanks and planes can, if destroyed enough on the battlemap, be lost on the strategy map also, so be aware of that.




When choosing what to spend your gold on, remember, you need gold to replace lost troops. You need gold to buy supplies. You need supplies to win battles. Which means, you shouldn't let yourself run out of either.

When making your attacks, be sure to keep as much gold and supply on hand as you think you'll need to fight off the enemy's attacks during their turn.

If you're sure you're going to lose a battle, consider conceding up front. You'll only lose national will, which is... what you use to win the game. But you'll keep your gold and supplies, which could be much more important to you over the next few months than maybe losing the war in two years.

(NB - On the strategy layer, you can only buy new tanks, planes, and siege artillery, things like that. Infantry corps, on the strategy layer, cannot be recruited - but they're functionally immortal, replacing all losses after a battle by spending your gold automatically to replenish them.)

(NB - On the strategy layer, a corps of infantry/infantry corps contains multiple companies of infantry - also, usually, artillery pieces of the battle layer. Each corps also provide supplies in battle.)

(NB - the AI is VERY good at handling its supplies and gold! The most common accusations of cheating AI during pre-release were levelled at this, but the devs say it follows the same rules you do. If so, it is doing absolutely everything right all of the time - which means you're likely to fall behind. Which also means you're going to have to defend well, to try and take some of the enemy's gold by killing more of them than they kill of you.)

Time for a practical demonstration, of sorts.



Two important things to note, from the screenshot above.

Firstly, as you can see, the enemy brought way more soldiers to this fight than I did. Secondly, as you can see, the enemy lost about about 3000 gold's worth of stuff, and I lost 800. So while I didn't win, I did kill about half of their army despite the massive difference, forcing a stalemate against what could have gone considerably worse.

... How did I do this? Let me take you through some of what I did, and why.



So, this isn't great screenshot work, but. Here's a clear picture of the minimap early on. Aaand... here's some scribbles on it:


Note that my 'front line' trenches are not near the foremost part of where I can build them. Instead of building right up to the front line, I mainly build my trench network to protect the objectives. The start of that protection is at the green 1, and note how there's a zig-zaggy line of trenches leading to where I protect my command trench, the path marked 2.

In the diagram, red lines are for firing trenches, orange is for communications trenches.

Why did I build like this? Why didn't I put my troops across the whole front line? Because, firstly... I didn't have enough troops.

You'll see below that I've stacked a ton of MGs around my command trench, and the AI didn't immediately bombard it all. Either it didn't see it, or it only started blowing it up when its troops were going to come into range anyway. It was far enough back that I don't think their balloons could see anything, however. Putting MGs in a place where a barrage balloon can spot them? They're going to get hit by artillery. And while it will cost the enemy valuable supply points to destroy them, and force them to halt their assault until the MGs are dealt with, you don't want to waste the supply points. So, keep that in mind.

Machine guns are not there to kill people. I mean... they are, but people, sane people, will hide from machine guns. Which means smoke, which means staying inside trenches. And I want my enemy, who massively overnumber me, to stay in the trenches as they assault me.

(NB: This is just my opinion, but don't put your machine gun nests out front. Put them well behind your trenchline, protected from attacking infantry.)

So, that long line of trenches leading from point one to point two? It's like a corridor, and I know that my enemy have to go down that corridor, and only two of their companies can do it at a time.

Any extras who want to attack me will have to go over the top, and because I have so many layers of firing trenches, even with artillery suppressing some of my line, the rear ones will be able to shoot overhead and kill anyone above ground.

That's my plan, and you can see I did something similar over on the other side of the map, but that's not where they attacked from.

Now, it took the enemy a long, long time to properly take point B - because the trench zig zags meant that men in the path, blocking the way, could very often shoot ahead and kill the enemy. Keep in mind that while troops will fire most effectively in the trench's direction, they can shoot both ways, meaning they can protect both sides of their trench.



At about six minutes left on the clock:

You can see my 'final' defence, a redoubt connected by the corridor of trenches. You can also see some of the points my many machine guns have been blown up by artillery. The minimap shows that the enemy has taken most of the path from 1 to 2, but you can also see that they've taken considerable losses doing so - and because they want to do this in the remaining 6 minutes on the clock, they're charging over land. And that... that is a good way to get killed.

You can also (and this is IMPORTANT) see how I'm blocking the point where the line from 1 to 2 enters my final redoubt with two blocks of infantry, on the left of the screen.

Remember, if 2 infantry are there (or have been ordered to move there, sometimes), your own infantry CANNOT pass.

2 infantry in one trench are like a roadblock, and will FORCE the enemy to melee them if they want to move along that trench.



An assault a minute later:

You can see that, already, the enemy are losing a lot of men, and the victory doodad on the top of the screen is already moving in my direction.

You can see that my infantry aren't doing too great, but, those two weak units at the 'head' of the assault? The moment they're gone, I move the next two up, and push reinforcements into the line to make up the gap. In fact at one point, earlier, when they were fighting for B, they pushed me off, but I slowly pushed my infantry back up and pushed them out for a moment before they attacked again.

In this case, the Germans, my enemy, are using plenty of conscripts (the guys with one rifle, rather than two) - conscripts have low morale, and are especially easy to kill. Notice how the AI is using them as a screen ahead of their regular infantry, who are better in melee in the trenches.

Also, notice that due to my overlapping fields of fire from the trenches behind the path from 1 to 2, all of these rushing infantry who can't get into the trenches... are getting shot down before they can get close enough to hop into the trenches where I have one or two guys.

At this point I have 70 supply left, which isn't very much, but thankfully since I'm using only french units, they cost less than other infantry - 6 supply, leaving me with 10~ish reinforcements to call in.

I COULD withdraw my damaged infantry, which will return some supply to me if they make it out alive, reducing my unit cap from 30 to 28, and bring in fresh units... but because the assault was ongoing, I decided to, uh. Let them die in an orgy of blood. (BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD)

I kept pushing up fresh infantry reinforcements, to keep the enemy from reaching my trench redoubt, and...



And with fifteen seconds left on the clock, the AI offers a ceasefire moments later:

As you can see, the enemy did, finally, manage to push into my redoubt.

Into the very first layer.

They had three infantry units left, but, I had run out of supply entirely at this point.

Thankfully, however, I still had enough units to do my 'blockade' thing, and I could, if this battle had gone longer, pulled some of my infantry back from A ( making sure that no double-infantry stacks were in a trench they needed to use to get there) to keep my defence going.

As you saw, in the first screenshot, this meant that the central powers lost about 26 000 infantrymen to the 6000 I lost defending.

While this wasn't a 'proper' victory, pushing this situation to a stalemate was very worthwhile for me. While the AI didn't lose 3000 gold - remember, that's how many units it brought to the party - it probably lost close to 1500 of that.

The end result?

I lose -5 national will... and the Germans lose -13.

If they keep making attacks like this, their national will will eventually fall to nothing, and I'll win the war. But, we have to keep their casualties as high as possible.

And... that's how I defended against overwhelming odds.

I hope it helps you.

I am NOT very good at drawing diagrams and I picked some poor colours (the yellow is hard to see), but, I tried, and hopefully this will help to explain some concepts...




In this trench layout, you can see the 'artery' trench at the top, which runs off the sides to other places on your line, behind the objective being protected - could be an actual objective marker, or arty or a barrage balloon you're trying to keep safe, doesn't matter. The point is, we're protecting it.

Then in front of the artery trench, we have the redoubt - made up of two trenches. The one in the middle is the 'support' trench, where you just have some soldiers who can shoot overhead to double your firepower and keep shooting even when the front trenches are caught in melee. In front of the support trench, that's the 'fighting' trench, the first one that the enemy has to cross in front of, and the place they'll enter your trench network.

The trenches are all linked by communications trenches, but notice how it's set up so there are only a few links into the artery trench, that way it's hard to fight out of the redoubt, and you can protect it by blockading the exits without letting the enemy get into the artery trench behind.


In this scenario, you can see how your reinforcing troop, with the blue arrows, cannot enter the support trench if there's two groups of soldiers in it.That blocks him, so he needs to run all the way around to reach the spot on the fighting trench he's got to go and reinforce. And remember, he can't leave the trench - if you leave the trench, you become an open target and will die!

The support trench and the artery trench MUST only have one troop in it - only put two where you expect to have to melee, and ideally make sure the fighting trenches are upgraded. Since you'll have twice the troops in them, they need more protection from artillery than the soldiers behind the front line.

Please note that the communication trenches going TO the fighting trenches, in this setup, link up at the corners of two fighting trenches. This means your reinforcements can reach either, but, when the enemy attacks you, both of those fighting trenches go to the same communications trench, so they're less able to choose where to go!


In this example (and yellow was a terrible colour, I'm sorry!) you can see how the double infantry in the branch leading to the artery trench makes it so the enemy, even though they're in your trench network, can't go that way. However, in this case, we've left the other side wide open, so they can enter the rest of your trench network or even go and fight your reinforcements before they can reach you, or go and attack almost ANY of the front line trenches they want in melee! This is why it's so important to keep troops in the support trenches in the middle, so they can shoot overhead AND so they can stop the enemy in your trench, forcing them to fight melee, giving you time to bring your reinforcements up.


In THIS example, the yellow lines show how the first wave of the enemy successfully fight their way into your trench, but get caught up in melee with your troops blockading the support trench in the middle.

When this happens, the purple enemy either has to stop advancing - slowing down and waiting for an opportunity to slowly move more troops into the safety of your trench network - or they have to go through the open ground BETWEEN your trenches, to try and reach the objective, or stand on top of a trench that's already occupied by two of their troops fighting two of your troops.

And if that happens, soldiers further back - in the artery trench - will be able to shoot them down before they get to the objective! In fact, it's a great idea NOT to put your machine guns on the fighting trench for this very reason. If you put them further back, by the artery trench, it's much more likely the enemy won't see your machine guns until it's too late, or the enemy will have to stop and blow up your machine guns before attacking.

See, if the enemy uses light artillery on your fighting trench to suppress it, then the machine gun far behind won't be suppressed at the same time - they'll have to use two separate sets of artillery guns to suppress both if they want to advance. So they HAVE to slow down their assault and wait until their guns have destroyed that machine gun before attacking - buying you time to move reinforcements up through the artery trench.

Please note this is NOT an optimal trench layout, it's only an example, and there are LOTS of different shapes, designs, and layouts you can use.

You can have only one communications trench connecting your fighting and support trenches to the artery, or you could link them in a single chain, with one communication trench into the side of the support trench, and on the far end of the support trench, one trench into the opposite side of the fighting trench.

(NB - If you find that your troops keep blocking each other, consider 'leapfrogging' units over each other. So move one unit past one unit, then move the next unit past those two, and so on. That can help the pathfinding AI understand what you're trying to do and keep your soldiers in the trench - give them orders that follows the shortest path, and deploy your reinforcements to somewhere along the artery trench before they move up - they don't move in trenches reliably until they've entered one somewhere.)

There are so many possibilities to play with, and by thinking about how you're going to defend your trench network, you can learn a lot about how you're going to attack someone else's trench network.

If you don't think you're going to succeed, don't do it. If you don't think you have enough soldiers to hold part of the battlefield... don't. If you don't think you have enough soldiers to attack that trench network... don't. If you don't think you have enough artillery to get through... don't. This is a game won in inches. If you can take one point on a battle map, but not any of the others, don't stretch yourself to do so. If you're facing down an overwhelming enemy, don't defend the entire frontline to the last - set yourself up to defend a smaller portion of the map that you can defend better, and give up on the rest. Even if you have an infinite supply of infantry, you shouldn't send these men to needless deaths. (Because that costs gold and supplies you could be using better elsewhere.)

You only get 30 units in the battle at a time, but you can put up as many machine guns and mortars and things like that as you like. But keep in mind, with only 30 units to cover your trench network, if it's big? You can't have soldiers in every trench. Which means that you don't NEED to hold your whole trench network at once - just the chokepoints, so you can force the enemy to either fight you melee or go over the top.

Remember that putting two companies of men in one firing trench means NONE of your other units will be able to get by, the trench will be too tightly packed. This is why you should consider avoiding chokepoints and having plenty of communications trenches - that way your troops can get anywhere you want even if you've got doubled companies everywhere. However, two companies in one trench will both take damage from artillery fire even though only one company can shoot at the enemy at a time. So, consider having 'dead ends' near the front line, where you can put doubled companies as reinforcements to move up when you need them, or a 'melee' trench where you have doubled companies specifically to force the enemy to fight you in melee. (Bunkers make for GREAT places to store reinforcements.)

I spend a lot of time in this guide talking about defence. You can flip it around and use that to guide how you'll attack, but, honestly? A strong defence is a method of attack in this context. If the enemy can't break through your trench network, that gives you as much time as you want to throw artillery or tanks or whatever at the enemy, and you can afford to wait. Plus, you can build yourself supply depots and field hospitals and maybe do an attack once in awhile, while mostly just defending your cool place. Blitzkriegs are a 1930s/1940s thing, first someone has to figure out tank warfare, and the tank got invented like, literally yesterday. Don't sweat it. Defend first, attack later.

If you don't understand how to do something... watch the AI do it. Attack? Wait for it to attack you, then do more or less what it did. Defend? Throw troops at it the way it did to you, and watch, carefully, how they all die. You will learn a surprising amount.

A machine gun is 30 supply. I'm not sure on the exact numbers, but it will take multiple artillery barrages to destroy your machine gun, so don't worry too much about losing them, firstly. Secondly, consider putting them way, way behind your lines. Put down a chokepoint, to force the enemy to melee fight you in a trench or go over ground, and cover that chokepoint with your machine gun from far enough back that the enemy artillery either won't get it or won't see it until it's too late. Look at where the AI puts down machine guns - not usually on the front line directly. Probably this is why.

Observation balloons let you see a whole lot. And the AI uses them, regularly. Which means it can probably see you, so take out their balloons. I have also seen it hide infantry in forests - and that infantry can see out of the forest even if you can't see it. Try doing that to the AI sometimes - it can be a very good way to get troops closer for an attack, and to see into the fog of war.

When constructing trenches, think in terms of having main 'artery' trenches, to move your reinforcements along, which you NEVER block with 2 infantry at a time unless you're trying to prevent the enemy from progressing up the trench, having 'reinforcement' trenches, which are little dead ends where you can store spare troops near where you'll need them without blocking an artery, and having 'melee' trenches, which are ahead of your firing line where the enemy must stop to melee you if they want to get into your trench network, which you can block up with extra infantry easily. (Having reinforcement trenches at an angle to your artery, like the branches on a tree, so anyone advancing along the artery gets shot at by them, is great!)

Use communication trenches in novel ways. You can use them to make it very easy to move reinforcements around a spot you're defending, or you can use them to create spots to put an MG far enough behind your main line of battle that if the enemy shells it, they won't be suppressing your main firing troops as well. You can also use them to get your troops closer to the front line before attacking the enemy - a long winding path. The enemy might use it to attack you, but, remember, with melee trenches they can only bring in 2 soldiers at a time before it plugs up.

So, uh, committing war crimes is fun. By which I mean using gas shells. What did YOU think I meant? Gas shells are really interesting - they seem to force enemies out of their trenches, otherwise that infantry will lose morale and flee, or die. They're very expensive - like 80 supply each - but they basically 'switch off' a trench for a fairly long time. Two heavy artillery pieces alternating can keep an area constantly gassed, which means nobody can be there. HOWEVER, it doesn't do anything to emplacements like machine gun nests.

It is VERY important to keep an eye on the campaign map and make sure that the enemy doesn't outnumber you too badly anywhere. I suggest making sure you have, if not equal numbers to the enemy in all places, to at least make sure you have more than half of the enemy's numbers. If they have 3 soldiers, make sure you guard your provinces that can be attacked with 2 minimum. If they have 4-5, 3 minimum, 6, 4 minimum, etcetera.

It's possible to make the AI stop attacking you, by regularly attacking it. If you force the AI to take regular, large losses of manpower, it runs out of gold, and if it runs out of gold, it can't buy supplies. Just keep in mind that it, like you, gets its tax income every turn (like 1200), even if you knocked it down to 0 gold. Which means that every turn it'll be able to buy some supplies and replenish a bit, and you have to keep up the pressure every turn to prevent that.

Trenchfoot is mainly caused by wet, cold feet. Ensure you always have dry socks, and consider wearing two pairs - a thin cotton pair with a thicker woollen pair over them. Use healthy amounts of foot powder, and patch any leaks in your boots as soon as possible.

===================

I hope all this helps, and I may or may not update it depending on how much more of the game I play/whether or not it sparks off any thoughts. It's all based on playing it during the early pre-order access all day.

I invite you to leave any questions you have in the comments, and, if you're passing by and know the answer to someone else's question, please do chip in.