A Hitler’s Reich Gaming Experience or “Why a Perfect Plan Isn’t Always Perfect”

by

by Herman (Ted) Bingham

Introduction by Hitler’s Reich Co-Designer Fred Schachter: A wonderful part of our beloved hobby of gaming is the opportunity to meet fellow enthusiasts through a variety of means.  This was the case when I responded to a BGG Hitler’s Reich site post, captivatingly titled “Is Hand Size a Game Breaker?”, from the author of this article, Herman (Ted) Bingham.

What follows is an edited version of Ted and my posts and related emails converted into InsideGMT article form. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy this read which only goes to show that with a game such as Hitler’s Reich, initial impressions can be deceiving and its great fun putting a theory to the test.

Incidentally, if you’ve not yet viewed it, here’s a video from Hair Brained Games, a revisiting of the Hitler’s Reich Game after four years which features its Second Edition Rules: Hair Brained Games Revisit – Hitler’s Reich (GMT Games) – YouTube.  

TED’S OBSERVATION

“I’ve been enjoying this game for a while with a regular opponent, my buddy Jacob Murray: playing back and forth tense games of Hitler’s Reich.

On our 7th game last Sunday, as the Allies, I didn’t take one area via an Attack Action. I just drove the Axis hand size to zero through repeated Event Actions.

There came a point when I realized the Axis could not beat me in Event conflict. His hand size fell to four cards, then three, then two, etc. He couldn’t stand up to my hand of eight cards.

During our “after action” debrief, we wondered if attacking hand size again and again was the one obvious strategy that breaks this game.

Has anyone else had that experience? If so, how do you counter that? Next game he’s going to do it to me!”

FRED’S ADVICE RESPONSE

“Hi Ted,

Just as Allied cards can be used to drive down the Axis Hand Size; the Axis counter-measure for that is to acquire cards which cancel that… such as Swedish Trade, Synthetic Fuel, and/or the Axis-Allied War Production cards. For each card which reduces a side’s Hand Size, there’s an opponent’s card to counteract it.

This should drive a player to seek another approach to victory…. such as on the map… for which the Axis has an early game advantage. A successful Blitzkrieg series of Attack Actions can take more than one Allied Production Center while a single Wolfpack Event Card only reduces the Allied Card Hand by one. That should distract the Allies from the described economic Event Card approach… particularly during the early war turns.

Then it may be the Allies who’ll need those economic cards such as War Production and Convoy to keep their Card Hand size “above water”.

Hopefully, the preceding provides a solution to what you and your opponent confronted.

Enjoy Hitler’s Reich: A Card Conquest System Game.”

RESPONSE TO ADVICE

“Thanks Fred,

What you recommend wasn’t happening for sure. The Axis was too busy trying to get me involved in land battles.

My friend will be the Allies this Sunday. I’m guessing he’ll try the same strategy. I’ll be ready!”

TED’S HITLER’S REICH GAME AFTER ACTION REPORT

“(BTW We use the Hitler’s Reich 2nd Edition Rules.)
 
I played the Axis on Sunday and made the mistake of doing Operation Barbarossa on my first turn. I lost hand size through a Blitz to Kharkov and never recovered. As predicted, my friend Jacob hammered my hand size via Events. My initial Event draw helped only in Land Conflict. So, using my high value Conflict cards in Barbarossa put me at a further disadvantage when it came to Event Conflict. Before the end of 1943, I conceded. Nothing I had in my Conflict card hand or with available Event cards on the table was working.

German troops at the Soviet state border marker, 22 June 1941 (source)

The good news is the following Sunday we again played Hitler’s Reich and I learned something. Always good, yeah? Me still playing as the Axis. My initial Event cards included Special Ops, which could improve my chances at winning Events a bit, if I ever used it! At the beginning of play with my Axis Conflict card hand front loaded with high value cards; I used that threat to bring out the Allies’ high value Conflict cards. He couldn’t afford to lose Event Conflicts for cards such as Wolfpack that would reduce his hand size.

But actually: I bluffed him and threw nothing higher than an 8! I just wanted his high value cards out of the way. When his Russian high value cards were gone, I did Barbarossa. Each battle (Attack Conflict) was a success. Now, he’s scared of what I’m going to do next, right? So he fortifies Russian Production Centers. I then learned what I suspected, but until then didn’t see, which is an important facet in the game’s tight economy: Placing Fortifications don’t get Bonus Actions. They’re a passive approach!  He puts one down and I’m right back to menacing him.

I’m feeling good now about my increasing threats to the Allies and win the Franco Spain Event. In response, his final fort goes to Gibraltar. Then I win the Iraq Revolts Event and start crawling up the south of Russia. He admitted he didn’t see that coming. As one Production Center falls after another, he concedes.

TED’S HITLER’S REICH POST GAME ANALYSIS & PARTING THOUGHTS

As usual, we debrief after each game and now we saw for the first time that we weren’t even close yet to playing *all* of what this marvelous GMT game offers. For example, we spent 30 minutes imagining all the scenarios to use the Paratroopers Event in. Neither of us had yet to play it in 10 games! Oh, we imagined, oh the places we’d go!

Frankly, I would not have stayed with Hitler’s Reich without my friend Jacob’s insistence that we continue playing it. I confused short with lite and when I was not playing expertly after a couple games, I blamed the design. After sticking with it, I realized I just expected it to be a different game, a lighter game.

I’ve pushed cardboard and blocks around ZOCs for 40 years. As a wargamer, I’m better tactically, but competent operationally. So I was shocked at how hard I worked to outplay my opponent in Hitler’s Reich. The excitement, the uncertainty, the agony is in every play. It’s grand strategy with an emphasis on grand. 

The more competent we become with Hitler’s Reich, the longer it takes to play. This is something I will talk about in my upcoming review (a teaser folks!). The length of the game depends on the competence of the players and their will to win. It isn’t AP (“Analysis Paralysis”) that makes this game longer to play, it’s the tug-of-war of constant tension between players. The design is brilliant, and it may be better than you, dear readers, thought it was. It certainly is better than I initially thought it was. If it wasn’t for my opponent seeing more in the game, I would have put it back on the shelf. Now, it’s on the table every week. Sadly, though, not during the 2022 holiday season. 

Thank you Mark McLaughlin & Fred Schachter for this experience. Thank you for Hitler’s Reich. I hope it never goes out of print. It is the best game I have played in any genre. As a war game, HR makes you fight for everything. Every decision is a sacrifice. Learning how the parts work together and then putting them together for your good or your opponent’s harm takes many games to experience and appreciate. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, like Islay Scotch or caviar. Whatever, HR is under-rated, and is probably a better game than you think.

I won’t be playing any other wargame any time soon. I don’t want to. Neither does my regular opponent. Hitler’s Reich is a game we want to get good at. And after 10 plays, we can see there is so much more to get good at. 

Here’s my favorite Hitler’s Reich review. I hope you enjoy it! Finally, here are a series of captioned pictures from the 12th Hitler’s Reich game Jacob and I played.  It’s not a complete detailed replay; but should provide an impression of what the game’s about and the fun we had playing it.

Game set up. Fancy holiday tablecloth not included with what GMT provides.
End of ’41. After Opertion Barbarossa: Black wooden circlular wooden bits mark the Axis’ land attacks’ success. Small blue markers are Allied fortifications at Moscow and Gilbraltar. The Long black wooden bit near England is an Axis fleet in the North Sea. It threatens an Operation Sea Lion invasion of Britain!
Close up of the Russian Front at the end of ’41, This illustration also shows the long numbered tracks of both sides’ hand sizes. While the Axis have been successful blitzing in Barbarossa, their success shows its costs in hand size reduction (each Blitz Attack lowers the Axis hand size by one). Hand size is an abstraction of production and other resources’ consumption. Hitler’s Reich Conflict Card values are an abstraction of production, leadership, and C3.
Close up of Axis Event Cards. These are a known threat to the Allies each turn. Each of these cards are useful for Land Combat. This means the Allies have intel that the Axis are likely to be aggressive on land. Event Cards always nudge a strategy, but are not always useful every turn. Notice in the upper left-hand corner the cards’ green and red circles. These indicate the Axis can keep the card for possible reuse only if they win when they use the card. If they lose an attack the card goes back into The Array. The Axis player can take a turn trying to get it back, without gaurantees. The ‘bird in the hand’ principle often makes the decision to use Event Cards agonizing.
In the upper left, the white wooden cylinder with its star side up shows where a battle begins. The oil barrel icon indicates a Production Center. If the Axis can take the Caucasus, the Allied hand size will be reduced and the Axis is closer to bringing pressure on the Steppes…. a next valuable objective. The Axis player decides he’s using all his Event Cards for this battle. It’s important for many reasons, not just hand size. So, the Axis plays Waffen-SS to give himself one more die in the fight. He will now role 4 dice to the Allied 3. The Axis also play Stukas, which give the Allies the ability to force the Allies to reroll one die of Axis’ choosing. A potentially harsh card to be sure. Finally, the Axis play Gen. Rommel, who allows the Axis to either force a reroll of another Allied die or reroll an Axis die. Big play. The shown green card is all the Allies can play this turn. ‘Their finest hour’: This sacrifices a hand size, but allows the Allies to also pluck the top card of the Allied Conflict Card deck to add to its total combat score. The total combat score of both sides is always cards plus dice. So, while the Axis can manipulate dice rolls with impunity, the Allies have the chance of bringing a high numbered card to the combat total. This was a very tense battle.
With Event Cards in play, the players reveal one Conflict Card each from their hands. The Axis plays an 8. Probably because–after Barbarossa–the Axis have no more high valued cards in their possession.. The Allies play a “Saboteur.” This reduces the Axis 8 to 1. So both players now start with only 1 value cards. Ties will always go to the Germans, but there are still more cards to play and dice to roll. The Allies played an Event Card, Their Finest Hour, that lets him pull another card from the top of his deck for this defense. The value of this card gets added to the 1 of the Saboteur. Unfortunately, it’s only a 7. So now the Allies have a total combat value of 8 to the Axis value of 1. But the dice have yet to be rolled. The photo shows what happened after all the dice were rolled and manipulated by the Axis. The Axis gets 1 more die for a multi-direction attack on the Caucasus and 1 more die for the Waffen SS Event Card. Five dice! What could go wrong?!? This photo shows the end of the dice manipulation. To be honest, we were caught up in the combat and not thinking about what photos to take. What happened was the Axis player rolled trip 5s. The Axis player forced him to reroll a 5, which became a 6 (argh!). Despairing, the Axis player rerolled one of his die with a value of 1, only to have it reroll into the same 1: the five dice were 4,4,3,3,1=15+a Conflict Card Value of 1 for a total of 16. Not enough, not nearly enough! The Allies won the battle, but sacrificed a hand size to do so. However, keeping the Caucasus kept the Axis lane into Persia and the Middle East closed for now. This defeat cost the Axis dearly as the Waffen SS, Rommel, and Stuka cards had to be returned to the Axis Array.
The end of ’43 was the last photo we took. The game overtook us. We were no longer thinking about recording the game. It had to be played. So, dear readers, we’re sorry that after Photo #6’s desciption of the Axis Caucacus disaster, things only went downhill for them from there. Here you see the Allies invading Germany for the win. At the end of ’43, the Allies get a huge production increase and they thought the time was right to invade from Yugoslavia. This photo shows the first northern push into Austria. The Event Card Enigma lets the Allies see the Axis Conflict Card before the Allies’ Conflict Card is played. The Axis played an 11, so the Allied chose the best card in his hand. But the Axis plays Desperate Gamble, which adds the top card from the Axis deck. In our twelve games, Desparate Gamble has never been playes and Their Finest Hour, its Allied equivalent, was played only once. In this game, with tightness of the battles, they were both necessary. Spoiler alert. The Axis lost Austria, then Berlin. To capture Berlin the Allies spent their production riches and hand size with blitzes. The Axis player was down to one card in his hand. The loss of one more production center and he would lose the game. The Allies determined they didn’t have the firepower to win Ruhr; so with their bonus action they fortified newly captured Berlin since the Axis had one opportunity to retake it or lose the game. Mistake. The Axis took Berlin back and ultimately gained parity of handsize with the Allies at a time in the game when the Allies should have been be far ahead. We didn’t finish the game and, like I said, we forgot about photographing it, because we were immersed in our World War II experience. Hitler’s Reich has the thinkiness of chess, the gueswork of trick taking, the planning of combos, and the despair of a stock market crash. I shouldn’t like this game. I’m a tactical guy with aspirations of operational excellence. But this grand strategic game is hands down the most fun I’ve had boardgaming in 40 years.
Herman Bingham
Author: Herman Bingham

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Category: After Action Report

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