The First World War shooter Verdun celebrates the famed Christmas Truce of 1914 with a special in-game event in which players from opposing sides can get together for snowball fights, soccer games, and card exchanges. Starting today and running until April 22, something similar, yet very different is happening in the trenches of its standalone expansion Tannenberg: The Wolf Truce. 

This event, according to developer M2H, is also based on historical happenings, but from later in the war, when the carnage had driven large numbers of wolves from their normal ranges in search of food. They pushed into Germany, killing livestock and even children, and also began attacking soldiers, especially the wounded. It became such a problem that German and Russian soldiers were eventually forced to band together to fight them off. 

The Wolf Truce event in Tannenberg recreates that lupine invasion by injecting aggressive wolves into the game, but what makes it really interesting is that players aren't actually forced to team up to fight them. The Christmas Truce event takes place in a special no-shooting area, separate from the usual maps, but the Wolf Truce will not, so while players can (and probably should) team up to survive, they can also opt to keep shooting each other and hope for the best—or, maybe, put on a friendly face and then wait for an opportune moment to hit 'em from behind. 

Wolves can appear on any Tannenberg map over this weekend but will only appear on winter maps after that, and players who survive a wolf attack without injuring or killing anyone on the opposite team will earn the new Wolf Truce medal. Personally, I think it sounds like a recipe for disaster, but that's also the appeal, right? Details of the event are available on Steam, and a historical record of the Wolf Truce from a 1917 edition of the New York Times is yours to enjoy below. 

With the dramatic new trailer above, Tannenberg has left Steam Early Access. At the time of writing, the 64-player WWI shooter has attracted 241 concurrent players, and I was able to join a half-full match on a US server quickly after completing the 5.4 GB download. The European servers are more populated at the moment, but it's also the middle of a Wednesday in the US, so that's understandable. 

Tannenberg comes from Verdun creators Blackmill Games and M2H, and has been in Early Access since late 2017. Where Verdun takes place on WWI's Western Front, Tannenberg shifts to the east, with Russian, Romanian, Austro-Hungarian, German, and Bulgarian armies. 

The primary mode, Maneuver, sees teams attack and defend sectors. It's more Red Orchestra than Battlefield, with a focus on authenticity as the armies push and pull along a front line—the tutorial here explains the basics.

Tannenberg is $20 or £15.49 on Steam. We'll take to the trenches this weekend—after this week's avalanche of other game launches—and let you know how we fare with it next week.