Strategic Command: World War I

About this game

Comprising seven campaigns, including some of those most frequently requested by our gaming community, Empires in Turmoil expands Strategic Command: World War I to include some of the most momentous battles of the 20th century’s turbulent second decade. With battlefields stretching from Siberia to East Africa, the fate of empires is in your hands.

Assemble your armies and prepare for battle: the powder keg of Europe is ablaze!

1912 The Balkan League

Decades of nationalism prompted Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro to form the Balkan League: an alliance aimed at driving the Ottomans out of Europe. With long, indefensible frontiers to guard, and the Ottoman’s best forces fighting against Italy in Africa, the “sick man of Europe” has a difficult fight ahead of him.

But those same nationalist pressures that brought the Balkan League together threaten to drive it apart. Competing territorial claims ensure that the Balkan nations will eye each other with suspicion, while the arrival of Ottoman reinforcements mean that any fracture in the League’s unity may prove fatal to their war effort.

1913 The Broken League

The Balkan League may have triumphed, but the promises of the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano remain unfulfilled. Mere weeks after defeating the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria turns its guns on former allies Greece and Serbia, seeking to conquer on the battlefield what wasn’t won in the London Peace Conference, and beginning a Second Balkan War.

Yet Bulgaria is not the only nation harbouring territorial ambitions: Romania looks to occupy Southern Dobruja, while a resurgent Ottoman Empire is eager to reclaim Adrianople. For the moment both remain neutral, but having shattered one alliance, the Bulgarians must now move quickly to prevent another from forming against them.

1914 Hindenburg’s Glory

Having been called out of retirement to take over command of the German Eighth army from von Prittwitz, von Hindenburg faces an unenviable situation. The Russian First army is advancing from the east while Samsonov’s Second Army is advancing from the south. Both must be defeated if East Prussia is to be saved. Indeed, the whole German war plan requires victory here. Can Hindenburg pull it off?

1915 Disaster in Mesopotamia

General Townshend’s advance on Baghdad has been halted, and his command, consisting of British and Indian troops, has been forced to retire to Kut-al-Amara on the Tigris. Here, they prepare to withstand a siege, fully confident that a large relief force will soon be coming to their rescue. But will it arrive in time, or are the British about to suffer one of their worst defeats of the 20th century at the hands of the Ottoman Empire?

Requirements