The War to End All Wars -File Folder Game- Review

Today's review is of  The War to End All Wars - File Folder Game that comes from the A La Carte product line at Home School in the Woods.   This is a download product that you print out and assemble for use.   There are two options for printing.  Option one is black and white that allows the student to color the various components; option two is to print in color and avoid the coloring.   Since we only have a black and white printer, we chose option one.  

Once you've printed all the items out and colored everything, then it's time to cut and assemble.   The game board itself simply glues into a regular size manila file folder.  The only other item that is not included is a regular, six sided die to roll.   We snatched a die from one of our other family games without issue.

The game pieces include 5 French Artillery Units, 5 German Artillery Units, 20 French Infantry Units, 20 German Infantry Units, 2 French Tanks, 12 Gas Cloud Tokens, 10 Barbed Wire Tokens, 10 Free Tokens, 8 Gas Mask Tent Marker Replacements, 20 French Action Cards, 20 German Action Cards, 2 Turn Reference Cards and 1 Round Tracking card.   Also included in the download is the rule book and instructions.   

My suggestion is that you use Ziploc style bags to store all the various pieces in, because some of the pieces are really small. If you look at the photo below you can see how small some of the pieces are.

Once you've colored, cut and assembled your game, you are ready to go.  The game is not set to mimic or duplicate one particular battle, rather it's set up so that the players can strategize and come up with creative ways to mount an offense using the newer technology of the day (tanks and gases for example), while staying safe in the trenches and avoiding being overtaken by those newer technologies.   Despite the fact that you're only playing a game, this particular product lets you see just how precarious the battles of World War I were, and how easily they could have swung from one side of the pendulum to the other.

My history lover (she's 14) spent a great deal of time getting all the parts colored just so, then studying strategies and reading about various battles so she could set the playing area up to get a bird's eye view of how they went.  She used the game board more as a study of battles than as a faux battle game.  When we played, we swapped sides so that she got an opportunity to be on each side of the battle.  This was a great way to bring history off the pages of a book and put it in the hands of the student, bringing battles right into your home, so to speak.

The A La Carte items give you the opportunity to add smaller bits of hands on history to your students learning, giving you control over how much work you want to take on.   Regardless of what curriculum you use, you're sure to find a project to enhance what your student is learning, without braking the budget!

To read other Review Crew opinions on this and other Home School in the Woods products, click here.