Balance of Powers

About this board game

Balance of Powers is a 2–7-player strategy game that recreates the First World War at corps level, with sessions lasting about 1,440 minutes. Players fight across campaigns from the Somme to Dar-es-Salaam and Tsingtao, competing to control territory and outperform their historical record.

Land combat combines strategic pressure with tactical decisions inside each hex. Corps can entrench by flipping, opening an in-hex dimension for trench battles and representing the tactical ebb and flow behind the front’s apparent stalemate. The promise of a breakthrough drives repeated attacks, although breakthroughs remain elusive until tanks and aircraft arrive in sufficient numbers.

A roll-to-hit system scales air combat from the Fokker Scourge’s dogfights to larger aerial engagements. Optional naval combat extends the same approach to the sea, including clashes between dreadnoughts such as those at Jutland. Specific admirals and generals, including U-boat ace Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere, add a personal dimension to the conflict.

• Territorial control: Victory depends on holding ground across multiple theaters.
• Attrition and morale: Losses and accumulated demoralization can trigger a domestic political crisis.
• Diplomacy: Haggle over land swaps, or use a simpler neutral-entry schedule with added randomness.
• Production: A streamlined 1-2-3 system keeps accounting manageable while showing the cost of losses.

Balance of Powers presents a respectful, deeply strategic view of the war on land, in the air, and at sea. Players must manage attacks, resources, diplomacy, and political stability while seeking the balance that can carry their side beyond its historical result.