Conflict in Hitler’s Reich: A Card Conquest System Game, henceforth referred to as Hitler’s Reich,  is resolved much like the classic card game “War” – but with dice and event cards added in.    The principal deck has four suits, but instead of Spades, Clubs, Diamonds and Hearts, the suits are Iron Crosses, Fasces, Soviet Russian Red Stars and American/British etc. White Stars.    The first two suits plus a Double Agent (the “Joker”) make up the Axis deck.  The other two suits plus a Double Agent make up the Allied deck.  The cards range in value from 1 (the “Ace”) to 13 (the “King”).   Players are dealt a number of cards from their deck equal to their economic power – which is referred to as “Hand Size.”   The Axis begin the game with Eight Cards, the Allies with Six. In addition, the Axis initial draw is “seeded” with more of the higher ranking cards to show their initial advantage at the start of the game – which begins during the Spring of 1941, just before the Axis invaded the Balkans and Rommel went to North Africa.

Early Playtest versions of the Hitler’s Reich German War Cards.

In a battle (conflict) for territory or for an Event Card (such as Convoys, War Production, Jet Fighters etc.: which can increase their economies or add bonuses in military, diplomatic or economic conflict)  each player places one card from his hand face down.  After revealing the two cards, they then roll three dice and add the total to the value of the card they played.   The three highest ranking cards (11-12-13) as indicated below, allow the player to re-roll one, two or all three of those dice.   Cards 2-10 do not have any re-roll ability.   Card 1 – the Saboteur (which corresponds to the “Ace” in a deck) has a special ability that reduces the opponent’s card value to a One – although the opponent would retain any re-rolls from a high card.  The Double Agents (the Jokers in the deck) are worth 10, but require the other player forfeit any non-event card re-rolls.  Double Agents always lose ties – and go to the opponent’s discard pile if they do.

In addition to their “War” card and dice, when resolving a battle on land or sea, players may also throw down Event Cards (which include Generals like Patton, Rommel, Montgomery and Chuikov, as well as weapons and tactics like Tiger Taniks, Allied Artillery, Stukas and Reserves, just to name a few).   These may add a die, add a reroll or two, or allow a player to convert one of his dice to a “4” or “5,” or otherwise modify the dice and cards in the conflict.  The Event Decks will be covered in a subsequent entry in InsideGMT.

Playtest version of Hitler’s Reich Italian (Fasces) cards

To show the varying capabilities of the Axis, the Iron Crosses cards (i.e. the “Spades” of a Poker or Bridge deck) win ties to reflect the German Wehrmacht’s considerable capabilities;  the Fasces (the “Clubs”) lose ties.  Thus the Axis player has to make a decision not only about how strong a card to play, but whether to commit his better “German” cards or his weaker “Italian” Cards (which also represent the lesser Axis powers).    The Allies also have two suits.  When defending a territory marked with a Russian control symbol or block, or when attacking from a Russian territory, the Allies must play a card from the Red Star suit if they have one.  No such restrictions apply when defending or attacking from a Western Allied territory.   This subtly shows the comparative weakness of the Soviet Union, its reliance upon the West for aid, and helps mirror the ups and downs of the Eastern Front, where in one battle the Red Army would amass overwhelming forces, yet in another suffer catastrophic defeats.  An Allied player whose only Red Star cards are weak has to think long and hard before launching an attack on the Eastern Front.   Always playing your best and strongest card is not always the ideal move, as Hitler’s Reich is a battle of wits and bluff and sacrifice, where often drawing out the opponent’s best card to intentionally lose one battle might just win them the next – or the war.

Author: Mark McLaughlin