The Great War: 1914-1918
Description official description
A turn-based strategy game set in World War I, using a similar engine and gameplay system as Battle Isle.
Both players act simultaneously on a split screen. While one player can move his units, the other can attack and vice versa. The results of battles are shown in animated sequences that can be turned off or on depending on a player's choice.
Terrain affects the performance of units during battles adding a little variety factor. The more damage a unit causes to opponents the more experienced it becomes. It has a huge influence on its accuracy and strength. Units have different weapon and movement range depending on the type and the purpose of the unit. Different units are introduced as the game and war progress with more air and sea battles later on. Maps are filled with depots where a player can repair damaged units and factories where units can also be produced. During the game, seasons change with an impact on the terrain and the battles.
There are 48 single-player maps in the game - 24 maps for each of the battling parties: Germans and French. In addition, there are 24 two-player maps. Each of them is accessible through an access code received after successful completion of the previous map. While playing, it is also possible to make a save game of the current progress on the map.
The game includes a lot of information about the period: after each mission, historical facts with black and white pictures about two months of wartime are displayed, as well as some technical specifications and pictures of units are presented during the game. This also adds an educational factor concerning the World War I time period.
Spellings
- History Line: 1914-1918 - Alternate European spelling
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Credits (DOS version)
26 People (22 developers, 4 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 84% (based on 17 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 25 ratings with 1 reviews)
Great World War I Strategy Game
The Good
Historyline has many different kinds of weapons systems: infantry, motorized and armoured units, artillery, navy, air force of both the Central Powers (Austria and Germany) and the Entente (France, Great Britain and Italy) and all units available were actually used in World War I.
The game is played in sequential turns like Warlords, Heroes of Might and Magic. That means that each side completes all its moves before ending its turn then the other side does the same and so forth.
The military units are moved on a map divided in fields. some units can move only on roads like armour, heavy artillery. Navy units can move only in deep water fields. Airplanes can move everywhere and the furthest.
Each unit has a different range of attack which varies from one to nine fields. Knowing those ranges and using them in battle is essential to victory.
Each unit receives a qualitative upgrade of one star up to a maximum of six after each successful shot. A unit with more stars shoots better and kills more of the opponent unit. Some units like heave artillery, rail guns or battle cruisers cannot shot and move in the same turn.
The objective of the game is to either destroy all enemy units or conquer a specific field on the map.
Historyline can be played against the computer or another human player, which is recommended since the strategic capabilities of the software are limited.
The Bad
It would have been nice to have more (larger) maps to play or even a map and campaign editor.
The Bottom Line
Historyline was release before Battle Isle, which is the same kind of game but takes place in the future and has naturally more kinds of weapon systems.
DOS · by gylgamesh (1) · 2008
Discussion
| Subject | By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| march piece in soundtrack? | Rola (8486) | Mar 2nd, 2012 |
Trivia
Battle Isle Platinum
This game is also contained in the Collection Battle Isle Platinum , though there it was announced neither on the package nor in any advertisement.
Development
Historyline 1914-1918 was originally meant to be set in World War II, but because of doubts from distributors (can a German studio make a game about WWII?) it was set in World War I instead. Blue Byte planned a series detailing different wars (the CU Amiga review states that the Roman, Medieval and Napoleonic eras were considered), but because of poor sales they returned to Battle Isle.
Awards
- Amiga Joker
- Issue 02/1993 – #2 Best Strategical of 1992 (Readers' Vote)
- PC Games (Germany)
- Issue 01/1993– Best Strategy Game in 1992
- Power Play
- Issue 02/1993 – Best Strategy Game in 1992
Information also contributed by Martin Smith
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Game page on IGCD, a database that tries to archive vehicles found in video games.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: xcom1602, Martin Smith, Patrick Bregger, Victor Vance.
Game added February 18th, 2002. Last modified January 19th, 2024.