I first played Verdun in June 2013. It was the first time I'd ever heard of a World War I shooter, and I found it as a free download on the developers’ website.
This free demo was very primitive. The graphics were not impressive. The player used a K98 or SMLE and ran around a small arena built from a trench, with no objective but to get kills. There was nothing else to it. I still must have played it for hours before getting bored.
Two years later, an official version of Verdun was released on Steam. This time it was focused on trench-based squad combat on the Western Front and featured 32-on-32 player battles. Unlike Battlefield 1, still forthcoming back then, Verdun was about history. Most players wielded bolt action rifles. The details of each firearm were historically accurate. The squads and their uniforms were authentic to the time period, mostly.
Verdun’s release marked the beginning of a trilogy. Four years later, Tannenberg, set on the Eastern Front, would be released. Finally there would be Isonzo, set in the Italian Alps. Each would use the same engine and gameplay, but change its primary signature game mode to reflect its new setting.
(Edit from 2026: I was wrong. This was not a trilogy after all; the next title in the series, called Gallipoli, is slated for release on August 20.)
Verdun and Tannenberg are two of my favorite multiplayer shooters. They are the games I launch whenever I have a podcast to listen to or an hour to kill. This year, I thought I would celebrate 11/11 by writing an overview of them and giving a few of my reasons why I think you should play them.
Verdun
In Verdun, you take control of a single member in any one of eight squads fighting for either the Central or Entente Powers. Each squad has four players. Each player has a specific role. The role varies by squad; the top slot is always the sergeant, who usually has an automatic pistol and grenades. He gives orders and can call in support. The other roles vary, but generally the second slot is the rifleman, the third the machinegunner, and the fourth an assault specialist.
Roles receive different passive perks and a selection of three available loadouts. The assault in a German Pioneer squad, for example, has a single loadout with the MP-18. These roles are rigid; there is always one and only one per squad.
Because there can only be one assault Pioneer per squad, and because there can only be eight squads per team, only eight MP-18s can on the battlefield at any time. This is the only submachinegun in the game.
The contrast with Battlefield 1 becomes apparent immediately. Through its squad system, Verdun becomes about its strange and unique firearms. You do not use what is best; you use what your role has.
There is an enormous variety of squads. The Entente alone fields English Tommies, Scottish Highlanders, Canadians, American Doughboys, US Marines, Australians, Algerians, French infantry, and Belgian soldiers. Each brings a unique arsenal to the battlefield. The Australian machinegunner wields a Lewis gun. The American machinegunner has a BAR.
You are not Arthur Morgan. Different weapons have vastly different reload speeds. A German Reichsrevolver is miserably slow to reload. An Australian Webley-Fosbery is very fast. Your choice of firearm matters in Verdun beyond its statline, and like in Mount & Blade: Napoleonic Wars, reloading makes battle thrilling.
Verdun is not exactly historically accurate. It is broadly authentic to the time period of the late Great War, and is otherwise a pastiche of that period. But if your interest lies in history and using these unique firearms, rather than competitive first-person shooting, it has far more to offer than Battlefield.
The main game mode is Frontlines. In Frontlines, Entente and Central Powers meet head-to-head. The map has a selection of trenches, and the sides engage in a tug-of-war as they battle for each trench's control, all the way up to the opposing side's headquarters (if you make it there in time). This is like King of the Hill meets Rush. Teams take turns on the offensive, which means taking turns dying constantly.
Squad leaders can call down artillery, gas, or smoke strikes. This covers the approach and allows each squad to make it to the enemy’s trench. Once there, clear it out, hold it, and capture it. If you do, the sides immediately flip: you're now on defense, the other side is on offense. They have a chance to recapture. If they fail, the whole field moves on up to the next, and the process repeats.
Offense can be fun with the right role, but it is unsurprisingly a slog. Expect to die a lot. Defense is where you rack up the kills. Frequent death is the price that makes the game mode work.
When I play Verdun, my time is mostly spent swapping between sides and squads in search of the weirdest, most fun gun to use. Once I’ve found what I’m in the mood for, Verdun is much more compelling than similar shooters. There is almost no downtime. The enemy is straight ahead, although finding him across No Man’s Land can be a nightmare.
The only problem I have ever had with this game is its player count. It can be very low. But when a server is empty, it gets filled up with bots, and the bots are incredibly inept. And doesn’t that just make using weird old guns more fun?
Tannenberg
Tannenberg uses the same systems as Verdun, but swaps out everything for the Eastern Front. Frontlines is replaced with Maneuver.
Maneuver makes a big difference. Rather than trench-based tug-of-war, this new type of combat is more or less identical to Domination from Battlefield. In play, however, this game feels nothing like Battlefield 1, because there are no BARs, MP-18s, or RSC rifles: nearly every weapon on the field is manually operated.
I spend most of my time in Verdun looking for the rarest self-loaders to use. But I do not miss them in Tannenberg. This game is so much better for its arsenal. Here my favorite weapons are the breechloaders. These are accurate and slow. They kill in one hit at any range. Engagements in Maneuver happen at extreme distances, which makes the Martini lethal. There is nothing as satisfying in any other shooter as landing a kill at 200 meters with the plunk and recoil of this rifle. Just don't miss!
Stripper-clip loaded bolt-action rifles are more usual. Almost everyone gets one. There aren't even any light machineguns; if you want a full-auto rifle, find one on the map. Otherwise this is cowboy action.
The only self-loaders are pistols, and in this game, they are very weird. This is probably my favorite part of Tannenberg. On the Western Front there are Lugers and Mausers and M1911s. These are functional firearms that we have all seen before.
Not so on the Eastern Front. Here, each pistol has its own quirks. Many of these early self-loaders aren't even magazine fed, which makes them far more interesting to use. Want to reload a Roth-Steyr after a single shot? You can't. It's loaded by stripper clip. You have to empty your entire magazine first.
Having to obsess over reloads wouldn't matter in Verdun, but Tannenberg restricts ammo to a far greater extent, which makes conserving supplies significantly more important. The more spread-out map also means that sticking with your squad is harder and more vital for victory.
Tannenberg is significantly more fun than Verdun. There is never the misery of charging machine gun emplacements. Contrary to what DICE must think, a lack of automatic weapons and a greater degree of uniformity between squads make the combat more enjoyable, not less. Operating a breechloader is simply more fun than reloading a BAR.
Unfortunately, Tannenberg never found its footing on Steam. It's not rare to log on and find literally no one online. Usually it has 5-10 players, the rest being bots.
It's a testament to the game that I play it all the time anyway. Even if all I get to do is blast bots, it’s still incredibly fun.
Please Buy These Games
I can't wait for Isonzo. I know nothing whatsoever about the Italian front, but it doesn't matter. I can guarantee it'll be fantastic. If you're at all interested in military history or firearms development, this is the series for you. It blows Battlefield out of the water, and its relative simplicity is far superior, in my opinion, to the complexity and atmosphere of more recent World War I shooters (like Beyond the Wire, which I have nothing to say about).
So please. Buy these games. They're available for $20 each on Steam.