One of the major strengths of historical board games – be they classical wargames, political games or something in between – is that they let players experience the joy of “playing history”, of creating contra-factual situations based on historically accurate premises. Through exploration of the what if?-scenarios that most readers of history delight in, and by allowing for different versions and variants of these scenarios during each play session, historical board games offer a way of understanding and reflecting on history that is, in most cases, both interactive and entertaining.

The Weimar Republic presents players with a vibrant and spectacular period of history, for which the board game medium is very well suited. Germany in the 1920’s and 30’s was a hornet’s nest of ideological strife and political violence, made worse by severe economic crisis and the ever-present memory of the Great War. Not only had the country lost millions of her citizens in a conflict that turned out to be pointless; the survivors were also often brutalized or severely damaged, both physically and psychologically. They came back to a country changed almost beyond recognition by the poverty, social unrest, and hopelessness that four years of war had resulted in. It was very difficult for the proponents of democracy to create a functioning society out of the old monarchy’s rotting corpse, and in the end the Republic was unable to withstand the onslaught of totalitarianism.

Was this an unavaoidable consequence of the historical premises, or could things have taken another turn somewhere along the line? The Weimar Republic’s core mechanics are built around open-ended gameplay that offers players a chance to change the course of history during this seminal era of European history.

Area Control

The main currency in The Weimar Republic is influence – an abstraction of both popular opinion and links to powerful segments of society, but also of propaganda prowess and “street presence”. By dominating regions and cities though the placement of influence cubes, players may compete in elections, recruit fighting units, launch strikes, and stage violent coups to overthrow the democratic government.

A region’s importance is measured in population size and political value. While control of a large region generally yields more political value (i.e. both electoral power and an increased chance to succeed in coups and violent confrontations), it will require a substantial investment in influence to become and stay loyal. A big part of the strategy therefore consists in determining which regions to go for and how to build your power base, while at the same time disrupting the other factions’ plans. Needless to say, region control may change hands many times during a typical session. 

Initiative

The game employs a type of initiative mechanic called momentum. Reflecting the “drive” of a political movement and its ability to stay ahead of things, as well as its prominence in the public consciousness, momentum is achieved through offensive play (generally by playing more event cards than your opponents in a year) and grants several advantages.

For example, the momentum player decides the turn order each year and receives bonuses in elections and coups. The outcome of many event cards is also dependent on momentum, which makes robbing your opponents of the momentum pawn just as important as using it for your own purposes.

Event Cards and Actions

The Weimar Republic is a Card Driven Game. Like in most CDGs players use a hand of event cards to conduct actions, but in TWR there is no choice between actions and events; when a card is played for its action points, the event also takes place (with some rare exceptions).

While this might sound unforgiving, a basic allotment of action points each turn means that no player will be locked out due to a poor hand (you also have the option to pass and thereby  discard cards). Still, actively playing event cards will obviously provide more actions – and since the game is designed to reward offensive play there is also a penalty for each card held at the end of an era. Several cards tie into each other and there are potential chains of events that impact gameplay in various ways. 

This card system is meant to give an increased sense of historical context to the game, as well as to continually confront the players with harsh decisions: do I play that awful event in order to conduct multiple actions this turn, or do I hold back and spend my meager basic action point allotment instead? Will any of my opponents play the card that is required for this particular event, or am I better off discarding it? If I play this event, will any unfavorable follow-up card be played immediately afterwards?

Economical/Political Framework

The unstable economy of the Weimar Republic and the fickle political sympathies of its middle class are important factors in the game. The economy track, affected both by events and player actions, swings between inflation and unemployment (when one rises the other falls, and vice versa), making it harder for the Coalition during periods of high inflation and easier for the extremists when unemployment rises.

Middle class sympathies are represented by a pawn placement system, where player actions and events move pawns between a space on the board and the player areas – but never directly between player areas. This is meant to simulate the slow-moving, unstable, and unpredictable political stances of the Mittelstand, which have crucial importance in elections as well as in coups and certain player actions.      

Progress/Reaction

Broadly speaking, much of the political conflict in Weimar Germany stemmed from the fundamental difference between progressive and conservative ideals. The Social Democrats and their liberal allies wanted to reform Germany into a modern democracy, while large segments of society, including most of the financial and military elite, were violently opposed not only to these ambitions but to the Republic as a whole. Among conservatives and monarchists, the idea that Germany had lost the Great War due to a backstabbing betrayal at home (the infamous Dolschstoßlegende), and that the government was infiltrated by traitors and foreign elements – usually meaning Jews – was generally accepted as truth.

In game terms, this is modeled by the Progress/Reaction track; the Coalition wants to advance the Progress level, which allows the implementation of progressive reforms and eventually a fundamental remolding of society into a functioning liberal democracy. But a high Progress level also allows the Reaction level to rise, which opens up for more Radical Conservative and NSDAP options. This is meant to reflect the government’s “damned if you do, damned if don’t” dilemma; to keep their legitimacy and stay in power they need to fulfill their promises of radical reforms, but doing so will inevitably fuel reactionary sentiments that threaten the very existence of the Republic.

Combat

Since The Weimar Republic is not a wargame but a game of political struggle, the combat system is abstracted. Combat situations might be anything between street brawls and full military intervention, but from a game mechanics perspective they are basically treated the same: what matters is the quality of the units involved (basically, whether they are military, ex-military or militiamen), the political situation in the region in which combat takes place and, in the Coalition’s case, the units’ loyalty. The actual combat procedure is straightforward: players roll dice and add modifiers.

Usually though, political violence will have political effects – the attacked faction may gain popular support in the affected region, and the both the KPD and the NSDAP become more radical when attacked.

Also, because units are finite resources, and since they are used in coups as well as in open confrontations, players have to economize and plan their actions carefully. Coups especially are risky enterprises. Timing a coup perfectly is one of the hardest tasks in the game and the backlash can be devastating, but since the reward is instant victory, it just might be worth the risk.    

This reflects the general design ethos behind The Weimar Republic: players are given options based on risk versus reward and have to make crucial decisions based on information that is sometimes limited. In the end, the fate of the Republic will be sealed by the player who acts offensively, yet times his actions in a careful manner and adapts to the circumstances – due to the game’s emphasis on unknown and uncertain factors, even the best laid plans may have to change with short notice.

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