Currently on the P500, Downfall is Chad Jensen’s strategic-level two-player game on the final three years of WWII in Europe. He evolved the design over several years and left its parts in various stages of completion. I was honored to pick up the project and see the design through.

The game begins at the high-water mark of Axis expansion. One player controls the Western Allies while the other commands the Soviet Union, in their joint effort to destroy the Axis. Though sharing the goal of defeating the Reich, each player seeks a victory that favors their dominance in post-war Europe.

Shown here is Chad’s 34” x 44” map for the game, with design finishes by Mark Simonitch.

Downfall’s innovative game system and play features are evident in the map and counters.

Let’s take a tour!

Two Players, Four Factions

The counters are shown on the map in their starting locations for November 1942. They include land, naval and air units for four different factions. The Western player commands the Western faction, and also commands the OKH faction – that is the Axis armies facing the Soviet Union in eastern Europe and Russia. The Soviet Union player commands the Soviet faction and the OKW faction – that is the Axis armies facing the Western allies in western Europe and the Mediterranean.

Turn Track

The campaign game is played over eight Turns, from November 1942 to May 1945 with earlier victory possible. Each Turn represents four months divided into three weather periods. Shorter scenarios start on Turns 3 and 5.

Initiative Track

An Initiative marker for each faction advances on the Initiative track as the faction spends initiative to conduct orders and other functions. The faction whose initiative marker is in the lowest Initiative space has the initiative. As shown here, the Soviet faction’s Initiation marker is in Space 19; they have the initiative at game start and will choose and conduct the first order.

The Weather marker advances along the track with the Initiative markers, by dice roll. As shown here, a new weather period will begin when the weather marker advances to space 31.

When the markers reach the end of the initiative track (space 91), the Game-turn ends. The markers continue around to the start of the track and the next Game-turn begins.

Action Track

Ten randomly-drawn order markers on the action track are available to the factions at any given time. The faction with initiative selects an order from the action track and places it on their order display, paying the initiative cost listed there and then conducts the order. As shown here, the active Soviet faction could select a Partisan Warfare order or the Stavka Flag order (a “wild card” allowing the conduct of any operational order). After each order selection, the action track is filled in with a newly-drawn order marker.

Order markers drive the game, allowing a faction to move units depicted on the marker, conduct attacks lead by units depicted on the marker, recruit infantry strength, build armor strength, raise partisans, or conduct strategic warfare, among other activities.

Orders Display

Players place the orders they select from the action track onto their order display, which depicts all orders potentially available to the player’s factions, along with each order’s initiative cost. The player places the marker into the matching space here and spends the initiative cost shown.

For example, the Western faction could take the Attack/ Redeploy order from the Action Track, place it in the matching space on their Order Display, advance their Initiative marker 9 spaces along the Initiative track and then conduct the order.

Strategic Warfare Track

The Western and OKW factions oppose each other in three strategic warfare campaigns. The two factions play strategic warfare orders to gain advantage in The Siege of Malta, affecting naval control of the Mediterranean; The Battle of the Atlantic, affecting sea lanes from the USA; and Strategic Bombing, affecting airpower in Western Europe. In addition, the Western faction gains Transport Points by conducting strategic warfare, necessary for amphibious invasions.

Objective Track and Victory Track

Victory is determined by control of objective hexes – key cities on the map outlined in red. When the Western or Soviet faction gains control of an objective, they place a faction control marker in the corresponding space of the Objective Track and adjust the Victory Point marker on the Victory Track. The game ends immediately if either player achieves a 10 VP advantage. Failing that, the player with VP advantage at game end wins.

Event Card Display

The Event Deck drives political and logistical aspects of the war. Three Event cards are displayed at a time. At game start King Michael is the spent event, Continuation War is the current event and Urals Industry is the pending event. The three cards together determine which factions have air units on the map. As shown here, the West has one air unit on the map, OKH has one air unit and the Soviets have two air units. Air units provide persistent combat advantages within their range, weather permitting.

The Event cards are updated each time a faction’s initiative marker enters an Event space for that faction on the track. To update the Event cards, the player moves the current event card to the discard pile (covering the existing spent event), then moves the pending event card to the current event position and resolves the event text on that card, and finally reveals a new card from the deck as the pending event. At that time all players receive action cards depicted on the new pending event card. For example, when Urals Industry was revealed, the Soviet faction received two Action cards (more on Action cards in our next article!). Each time the Event cards are updated, the players place or remove air units on the map to match the air units now showing on the three cards.

Over the course of a game-turn the advancement of the faction’s initiative markers along the track trigger many event updates, resolving events such as supply checks, arrival of new units, surrender of minor allies, unit promotion, offensive momentum and conditional victory checks.

That concludes our overview of the Downfall map, the setting for Chad’s novel design simulating the strategy and sweep of World War II in Europe on land, sea and air.

In our next Downfall Preview, key playtester Bob Heinzmann will demonstrate the first Soviet orders of the game, launching their counter-offensive at Stalingrad.

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