Acceptable Losses

Acceptable Losses is a management game in which the player takes the role of an officer in a First World War trench rather than a frontline soldier. Each day, new orders arrive and squads must be assigned to tasks such as patrols, trench repairs, wiring parties and assaults. At night, the player works through incident reports, medical updates and intelligence briefings while waiting on reinforcements. The stated goal is to survive twenty days, balancing the demands of HQ against the lives of the men under command.

The game includes more than 60 missions, each with at least six possible outcomes, along with over 120 mid-mission events that alter results as they unfold and over 30 night events affecting squads, supplies and trench conditions. More than 15 modifiers, including morale, fatigue, weather and enemy readiness, feed into how missions play out. Soldiers are randomly generated with individual names and birthplaces, and death within squads is permanent. The player can choose to join a mission in person for a leadership boost, at the risk of injury.

Performance is assessed through HQ evaluations, which determine the player’s standing. Good results earn influence that can be spent to improve conditions, while poor results see that influence withdrawn. Achieving acceptable results may lead to an order to go Over the Top, after which the player must hold the captured trenches until replacements arrive. The game is now released and holds a Mostly Positive rating on Steam from over 100 user reviews.