1918: Brother Against Brother

About this board game

1918: Brother Against Brother is a two-player, approximately 180-minute wargame about the Finnish Civil War of early 1918. One player commands the Whites, the government troops led by General C.G.E. Mannerheim, while the other leads the Reds, the socialist revolutionaries associated with Comrade Kullervo Manner.

Set in Finland shortly after the country declared independence, the game presents a point-to-point map featuring the era’s railways and roads. These routes affect gameplay as players maneuver company- and battalion-level units through a bloody struggle over the nation’s future.

At the heart of the experience is a deck of more than 50 unique action cards, each illustrated with a picture from the period. Cards may be played as action points or as events, making every decision a balance between immediate operations and the potential impact of history-changing developments.

• Play as the Whites or the Reds in a two-player conflict.
• Use railways and roads while moving forces across Finland.
• Choose between card-driven actions and powerful historical events.
• Command Civil Guards, Red Guards, armoured trains, Jaeger units, and German intervention forces.

Events can bring German intervention, Swedish occupation of the Åland islands, grain trains from Soviet Russia, or even a drunk Red commander. The Reds may attempt to capture the White capital at Vaasa before the Germans appear, or defend their territory until the game ends. The Whites must respond while managing their own actions and events.

With separate English and Finnish action-card decks, 1918: Brother Against Brother is also a bilingual introduction to wargaming terminology in Finnish, while remaining focused on the difficult strategic choices of the 1918 conflict.