During October 2014’s GMT  “Weekend at the Warehouse,” I had the pleasure of teaching many of this wonderful event’s attendees how to play Hitler’s Reich.  The games were invariably entertaining, fun to observe, and players’ responses, both during and after the event, to this marvelous Mark McLaughlin design gratifying to experience. 

Prior InsideGMT articles hopefully provide insights as to the cards of Hitler’s Reich and my gaming buddies, The Rockland Guys, inaugural experience with the game.  That article includes an image of Mark’s not so aesthetic, but completely functional, hand-drawn play-test map.

With those articles and an image of the Hitler’s Reich play-test map before you; the ensuing “Extended Example of Play” should provide another layer of understanding of the kind of gaming fun the game offers.  There are cross-references to the game’s Rule Book Sections within the article.

Be warned: as with Mark’s other GMT designs, there is “luck with the dice and luck with cards” inherent to Hitler’s Reich… but that’s what makes this game, and our hobby, so much fun, eh?

Introduction

This extended example of play is an Axis Player Turn after a not particularly effective “Operation Barbarossa” (7.8) resolution.  It is now 1942 with a fresh Axis deck.  The Axis Player reconstituted his roster of “Schwerpunckt” (German word for a concentration of military power at the spearhead of an attack) Event Cards and is ready to give the conquest of Russia another go.

Chapter One.  First Action:  Attack on Leningrad

The Axis Player announces he will attack Leningrad from Finland.

-a. The Axis declares he will use the following Events:

–Waffen SS, Stukas, Manstein.

-b.  The Allies declares he will use the following Event:

–Zhukov

-c.  Each player selects a Card from their hand and places it face down.  As Leningrad is marked Soviet, the Allies MUST choose a Red Star if they have one.

-d. The Cards are revealed.  The Axis plays the German Cross Field Marshall.  (Sorry, we messed up when we took the picture, below. That Field Marshall in the pic should be GERMAN, not Fascist.) The Allies play the Red Starred Saboteur.

-e.  Each side rolls their dice:  Both sides may roll their dice simultaneously or have the Attacker or Defender roll first (whichever the Players prefer.  However, some Players let the Attacker roll first since, if the roll is sufficiently high, it is obvious the defender has no chance and can skip rolling… which speeds play.).  The Axis as the Attacker will then go first in deciding how to use any re-rolls allowed by Events and Card he played.

• The Allies: Each player starts with three dice.
  • The Allies roll their three dice: 2-5-6

• The Axis: Each player starts with three dice.
  • The bonus die for having more adjacent friendly controlled Land and/or Sea Areas to the target enemy Land Area (8.4.4) does not apply to this Leningrad Battle nor to any Land Conflict resolution of this extended example of play.
  • The Axis gains a Die for Waffen SS.
  • The Axis thus rolls four dice: 1-1-3-6
  • The Axis uses Manstein’s Event ability to convert the Axis “1” die to a “4”
  • The Axis dice are now: 4-1-3-6

• The Field Marshall, normally worth 12, is reduced to a value of 1 because the Allies played a Saboteur (that is the special property of a Saboteur, reducing one card played by the opponent to a value of 1, nasty eh?).
• The Axis total is thus 14 + 1 = 15

• The Axis uses the Stuka’s ability to force the Allies to re-roll one die of the Axis choice: he tells the Allies to re-roll the 6.  The Allies do, and roll a “5” (remarkable luck, but that’s the hobby of gaming!).
• The Allies three dice are now: 2-5-5

• The Allies now use their Event, Zhukov.
• Zhukov allows the Allies to convert the “2” die to a “5”
• The Allies dice are now: 5-5-5
• The Allies dice total 15.
• The Saboteur has reduced the Axis Field Marshall to a “1” and the Saboteur itself is worth “1”, which is added to the Allied dice total.
• The Allies total is thus: 15+1 = 16
• With all Events resolved, any card dice re-rolls are next resolved and this only applies to the Axis player. The German Cross Field Marshall allows the Axis to re-roll up to two dice.  The Axis player elects to re-roll the 1 and the 3:   he does, but rolls a “2” and a “3”… not much improvement there, eh?   But it is enough…
• The Axis dice are now: 4-2-3-6.plus one for the Field Marshall’s value
• The Axis dice total 16

The totals are a tie:  16 to 16.

Ties are broken by Suit.  A German Cross beats Blue Star and Red Star cards, Blue Star and Red Star cards beat Fascist Symbol cards (and any card beats a Double Agent with the Phasing Player winning a tie if both sides play a Double Agent).

The Axis played a German Cross card, which beats the Allies Red Starred card.

Victory to the Axis

-f.  Consequences of Victory

• The Axis places a control marker in Leningrad
• The Allies lost the combat. The Event (Zhukov) they played is marked with an * – which means if they win they can keep it, but they did not, so they lose the Zhukov Event – it is returned to the Allied Event Deck/Array for potential future acquisition.
• The Axis won the conflict. The Events they used are marked with a * which means they retain those events if victorious.
• Leningrad is marked with a Star – it is Production Center.
• The loss of a Production Center reduces the Hand Size of its original owner by one. Move the Allied Marker on the Hand Size track on the map down one.
• The loss of a Production Center also triggers a penalty discard: The Allies must discard one card of their choice from their hand.  This must be a Red Star or Double Agent if available (10.1).

-g.  Replenish.

– Each side now draws the top card from their deck to replenish their hand

Chapter Two.  Success Action

-When a player’s First Action is successful, he has the option to take a Second Action, This is known as a “Success Bonus” (7.6).   That Action can be any of those allowed in a turn:  Attack, Reinforce (place a Fleet Modification Marker, Fortify Marker, or seek to acquire a “Big Push” Marker), contest for an Event, or Reorganize.  The Axis player can take that Action now OR since he gained an area with a Star, elect to immediately take a Production Center Bonus Event Action.  The Axis Player also has the option of launching a Blitzkrieg Attack from the newly captured Land Area… but more on that later.

A Production Center Bonus Event Action is limited to an attempt to contest for an Event.  It is purely optional:  the player may elect to take the Production Center Bonus Event Action or may elect to forego it and continue on to the Second Action instead.

The Axis Player carefully mulls this decision over, for if a Production Center Bonus Event Action contest is successful, the Axis may continue on to take his Second Action.  If the contest is NOT successful, however, his turn will immediately come to an end and he will forfeit his Second Action.

The Axis player feels lucky.   Furthermore, the Card he has available is a decent one. He therefore decides to take the Production Center Bonus Event Action.

 

Chapter Three.  Production Center Bonus Action: Contest for an Event

The Axis player decides he will try to get Desperate Gamble.

-The Allies have the Enigma Event.  They could have used this Event Card for the Land Attack on Leningrad, but the odds did not seem favorable… besides, the Allied Player knew that whatever Card the Axis would play would be worth “1” due to his playing the Saboteur.

That’s not the situation now.  The Allies play Enigma to require the Axis to show the card they are playing face up, BEFORE the Allies play a card.

– The Axis plays a Fascist Symbol card, value of 10

– The Allies, therefore, decide to play a Blue Starred Admiral.

Note that the Allies are compelled to play a Red Star (or Saboteur) for a Soviet Russian-involved Land Attack, but they’re free to play any card suit to resolve an Event Conflict.

• Both sides roll three dice:
  • The Axis rolls: 4-5-6
  • The Allies roll: 1-5-5

• The Admiral allows the Allies to re-roll one die of their choosing. They re-roll the “1” – and get a lousy “2” (grumble, grumble intones the Allied Player) – the Allies roll is thus:  2-5-5

• The Axis roll totals 15. The Fascist Symbolled10 is worth 10, so the Axis total is 25.

• The Allies roll totals 12. The Blue Star Admiral is worth 11, so the Allies total is 23.

• Victory to the Axis

Consequences of Victory:

• The Axis won the contest for the Event, and takes Desperate Gamble
• The Allies lost. Enigma is marked with an * and a #.  The asterisk means if they win the contest they keep the Event, although the Event Table # symbol means they need to make a die roll to do so.   Unfortunately for the Allies, they lost the conflict, so they lose Enigma.  It is returned to their Event Deck/Array for potential future acquisition.

This concludes Part 1 of this example. Part 2 can be found here.