Hitler’s Reich is World War Two in two+ hours – and sometimes less.   One of the reasons this game plays so fast, once players become familiar with the rules, cards and their interplay on the map, is that all conflict in Hitler’s Reich is resolved through the play of cards.   Each player has a designated War Deck of Axis or Allied cards to draw from to fill their hand (see prior “InsideGMT” Hitler’s Reich War Deck article regarding these cards).

To resolve combat on the map, each player selects one card from their hand and places it face down in front of them.  Both players then simultaneously reveal their cards and each then rolls three dice, adding the total to the value shown on the War Deck card.   Some cards allow for or prevent re-rolls of one, two or three dice, or change the value of the opponent’s card, while other cards determine which side wins ties.  There are also cards and map positioning which can add dice to the roll… to a maximum of five dice.  (No “buckets of dice” here to those familiar with my GMT “Nappy” design games: The Napoleonic Wars, Wellington, and Kutuzov.)

Mark’s Hand-drawn playtest version of the Hitler’s Reich map

The War Deck, however, is not the only deck of cards in Hitler’s Reich.  A second Event Deck is also included.  Some Event Cards provide generals, tactics (including weapons with which to build your Schwerpunckt for those blitzkrieg dashes across the map) or technological advantages that may be used when battling for territory or sea zones. Others can bring neutrals into play, cause minor nations to change sides, increase or decrease economic power, add wonder weapons or provide intelligence to nastily surprise your opponent. While the War Deck provides the drama of combat, the Event Deck adds spice and further uncertainty to that drama.  The cards of the Event Deck also allow players to battle it out on the strategic economic and political fronts that were so vital to the building up – and tearing down – of Hitler’s Reich.

Three Decks in One:  Axis, Allied and Axis and/or Allied

The Event Deck is composed of three smaller decks: one for the Axis, one for the Allies, and one that both players can go to to get an Event.  Although some cards are dealt out at the start of the game and at the start of each year of the war, most are not free, and must be battled for using the War Deck.   Also, unlike the War Deck, which is dealt at random, during the course of play the cards of the Event Deck can be inspected and selected, so that players know what they are fighting over.

There are several basic types of Hitler’s Reich Event Deck cards:

• Cards which can increase your hand size.
• Cards which decrease your opponent’s hand size (and force discard by choice or random selection of a card from your opponent’s hand).
• Event cards which are immediately discarded into the cards available pool once when played.
• Event cards, those which influence battles, which can be retained as long as they’re successfully used. Lose a battle with these and they go back into the “cards available” pool.  Some of these cards are specific to offense or defense.  Others can be used for either.

An exception to choosing your Event cards occurs at the conclusion of each year of play, when both the Axis and Allies get “free” Events randomly chosen from a select pool of reusable cards to prepare for the upcoming year of conflagration.

The Allied Event Deck

The Allied Event Deck has 22 cards.  These include famous fighting generals like Patton, Montgomery, Zhukov and Chuikov, who add or modify a die in land combat.  Only a single general may be used to resolve a conflict.  Eisenhower is also included, but not as fighting general – he helps the Allies get Event Cards.  There are tactics and weapons unique to the Allies in the deck, including Shermans & T-34s, Mustangs, Allied Artillery & Partisans, Fleet Carriers and Higgins Boats (which allow amphibious invasions).   Other events, notably Strategic Bombing, can be used to knock down the Axis economy while successfully gained Convoys can build up the Allied hand.  There are also political cards like Turncoats and Vichy Defects which can dramatically change the face of the map. Red Ball Express, Murmansk Run and Mother Russia each give the Allies other unique bonuses and Enigma, a powerful intelligence card, lets the Allied Player see the Axis War Deck card being played for a conflict before choosing their own card rounds out the Allied Event Deck.

The Axis Event Deck

At 21 cards, the Axis Event Deck is one card smaller than that of the Allies, and while its cards mirror many of those on the Allied side, many are just as unique to the Axis as some in the opposing deck are to the Allies.

The Axis have their combat generals:  Rommel, Von Manstein and Von Rundstedt who add or modify or re-roll a die.  Guderian is unique, he does not modify combat; he gives a victorious Axis Player a free “Blitzkrieg” – a bonus attack to keep an offensive going and driving deeper into enemy territory.   There are weapons and tactics to help with that, such as Stukas, Tiger Tanks and the dreaded Waffen SS (also known as Panzer Tactics).  The Bismarck can help the Axis to stop an Allied Convoy Event or win a fight at sea.  Jet Fighters can similarly help defend against Allied Strategic Bombing.  Wolfpacks  and V-Rockets  reduce the number of War Cards the Allies can hold in their hand, while Synthetic Fuel and Swedish Trade increase the Axis hand size. The Axis can also launch amphibious assaults with an event, although their Landing Craft card is not a “keeper” like the Allied Higgins Boats, and thus must be won again and again for additional landings.   Franco can bring Spain into the war on the Axis side, and the Iraqi Revolt can flip control of that key map area to the Axis.  Albert Speer and Desperate Gamble, which simulates the drawing down on reserves to launch an all-or-nothing Battle of the Bulge type offensive or a major defensive effort, round out the Axis Event Deck.

The Shared Axis/Allied Event Deck

Eleven Events are up for grabs by either player.  The Axis or Allied player can try to get one of three War Production cards to increase the number of cards they can hold in their hand from the War Deck, bring Turkey into the war on their side or go for Outfoxed or Master Spy to help manipulate or find out in advance what card the other side will play from their War Deck.   They can also contest for Reserves, Counterattack, Paratroops, Maximum Effort or Air Superiority to help win a fight on the map.  The last of these is unique in more ways than one.  While in all other contests for Events, either the player who is seeking to get it gains the card or does not, in Air Superiority, a player who seeks and fails to gain it gives it to the other side.

Event Cards Come, Event Cards Go, Event Cards Come Back Again

As previously noted, some Event Cards are one-use only (Franco, Vichy etc.), and are removed from the game once played.  Others when played are returned to the deck and can be sought after on another turn, while still others are set aside (V-Rockets, Convoys etc.), and can be incrementally returned to the deck only through a draw at the end of each game year.  Still others (notably generals like Rommel and tactics and weapons such as Stukas and Shermans & T34s) can be used once a turn – either on attack or defense – and are retained as long as the player is victorious (or with a die roll).  If the event is played and player loses the contest, it goes back to the Event Deck Pool.  This constant refreshment of the Event Decks keeps the game quite lively, as players struggle to ensure the rise or fall of Hitler’s Reich.

The next InsideGMT Hitler’s Reich article will focus on the game map and a brief After Action Report of a recent play-test game when Hitler’s Reich Game Developer Fred Schachter visited New York for a day of gaming with his “Rockland Guys” buddies (of more years than warrants telling).

Author: Mark McLaughlin