“My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.” - Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Allied Commander of the Western Front
Though believed to be apocryphal, the quote above, attributed to Foch, is nonetheless an encapsulation of the realities of the Western Front during World War I. A fog of war almost as thick as the actual fog, pressure to simultaneously hold and take ground along every inch of the 475 mile Front, and constant artillery bombardments meant to intimidate and shake the earth almost as much as they were meant to hit enemy targets - this is the world of Fields of Despair: France 1914-1918. (Note: we earn a small commission from our affiliate link at no additional cost to you.)
The Jameson motto “Sine Metu” or “without fear” is especially fitting. Photo © 2026 WargamesandWhisky.com
World War I wasn’t called The Great War for nothing; its scope was and still is somewhat mind boggling considering the technology of the early 20th century. Everyone knows that Europe was engulfed in trench warfare, and many probably remember the tale of the Sick Man of Europe in which the Ottoman Empire finally came crashing down amidst the brutal campaigns waged in the Middle East - but how many know that the British and French armies invaded Togo, Namibia, and Rwanda during the war? Or that Australia seized Papua New Guinea, then a German protectorate? Each of these fronts is worthy of its own war game.
A a brutal fight of inches along a perilous front line. Photo © 2026 WargamesandWhisky.com
Fields of Despair from GMT zooms the camera lens in to focus on just one element of the war: the infamous Western Front. One player commands the Allied Forces of France, Britain, Belgium, and eventually the USA. The other commands the Central Powers, represented in this game entirely by the Germans. Although the focus on the Western Front brings clarity to your objective, the fog of war lays thick across this game. Your armies are represented by wooded blocks, the strength illustrated on just the side of the piece facing you, so your opponent usually won’t know exactly what you have where until they commit to a frontal assault. If these kinds of games are new to you, think Stratego, except a single block in Fields of Despair can be anything from a worthless decoy to the largest army the game provides.
Blocks here, blocks there… are there any deception blocks anywhere? Photo © 2026 WargamesandWhisky.com
Each turn begins by abstracting the Great War’s other theaters, in the context of their economic impact on the Western Front. Primarily, this means the Central Power’s Russian campaign, and the German effort to use their U-Boats to break the Allied Naval Blockade. What economic power you have left after this phase is all you have to allocate to new artillery, chemical weapons technology, reconnaissance assets, and a bid to go first that turn - all in secret behind player screens. This means the game relies on an honor system to function, which feels strange at first (or at least when learning the game) but the commitment is worth it. Once your economy is sorted, the fighting begins.
The player who won the bid to go first declares reconnaissance targets against as many board positions as they desire or have the planes to attempt. The second player may save their pilots for their turn or commit them immediately to a dog fight to thwart the first player’s attempt to spy on their blocks. Then, artillery barrages are declared across the entire board all at once, with both players alternating targets in response to each other. Finally, the first player can issue the attack order, moving all, some, or none of their blocks on the board. Big dramatic offensives may send your adrenaline surging, but players will soon realize exactly why the Western Front was so infamous. This brings us to one of our favorite mechanics in Fields of Despair: the concept that both players can occupy a board space at the same time, with combat only lasting for a single throw of the dice. No endless shooting until one side is obliterated, no forced arbitrary retreats, just the cold stare down of a newly contested hex of land that was probably just one spot away from a hex of land you already controlled. Your brave defenders may have held the line valiantly, or maybe your overwhelmingly large army finds itself quagmired in the mud as a result of one lone cavalry detachment that you just couldn’t hit, setting your battlefield advance back by an entire turn or more.
Fields of Despair is a dramatic, intense, game of inches - and an excellent entry into both block war games and war games that are serious enough to have something to say about their subject matter.
To pair with this intense wargame, we’ve chosen another Irish whiskey- Jameson Black Barrel. A reserve expression from the world’s best-selling Irish distillery, it features Jameson’s signature motto, “Sine Metu” meaning “without fear,” which we found fitting for the charges across No Man’s Land found on the Western Front . This small batch expression is aged in double charred sherry and ex-bourbon barrels, which intensifies the sugars in the wood, giving the whiskey a delicious depth and dark amber color. The sweet butterscotch nose is enticing, and the palate is balanced between nutty, vanilla, and toasted notes. A lightly oily expression, Black Barrel lingers with a richly warm and toasted wood finish that brought to our minds the ever-present industrial nature of the war. It’s a dram to savor as you fight across the Western Front in the Great War.
Happy Veteran’s Day to the veterans we count among our friends and family, and to all those who served- many of whom are fans of both wargames and whisky. We are extremely grateful and we raise our glasses to you- sláinte!
