One aspect that sets Avalon Hill apart from other game manufacturers (with perhaps the exception of Game Designer's Workshop) is their dedication to revision and improvement of existing games. Whereas SPI serviced a topic cyclically with multiple generations of new games, AH will offer a new rulebook, or some variant counters, and maybe a new mapboard -- but the original game is still there, to be appreciated along with those many in-depth analyses of play contributed by authors over the years. Such is the case with Third Reich which, contrary to Don Greenwood's ominous rumblings, has received not so much a radical redesign as a well-deserved spring cleaning.

The revision package (which is now standard for all new TR printing) contains a new rulebook, mapboard and scenario cards. The rulebook has been shortened to 36 pages (it was 48), is written in Squad Leader legalese (in the same style type, too), divided into 55 major sections (as opposed to the original's 10), crossreferenced with a comprehensive index, and contains a new table of percentages for CRT results and a definitive sequence of play outline. The Designer's Notes, Battlefield Environment, and Tactics and Strategies of Play sections have been deleted.

The mapboard mainly features improved graphics, with finely drawn coastlines, city names attached to all city dots, and beach hexes that look like beaches; but there are also more mountains in the Balkans (a new range extends NW from Greece to northern Yugoslavia) and in Great Britain, a beach in Ireland, and a minor shuffling of poirt status among a few cities in the Mediterranean. And the scenario cards differ from the old in that there are now separate cards for the United States and France, on the backs of which are handy excerpts from the rules dealing with air and naval combat, intelligence efforts, and foreign aid.

The new components don't effect play much, if at all. What we have here is a physical improvement of product. Very few of the existing rules have been altered (only those sections dealing with air and naval combat, and operations in minor countries and territories); they are just better integrated, more accessible, and easier to understand, because now relevent rules are logically grouped together. Esthetically, the mapboard is more pleasing, but personally I'd have preferred that they'd removed those (expletive deleted ) tables off the mapboard to add more of the Middle East and North Africa. And it is nice to have separate cards for France and the U.S. (although I doubt if it would prove to be much of a game if the Germans can't knock off the French by the end of 1940), but they could have offered a few more variant counters to spice up play.

Well, you can't have everything, can you?

CHANGES TO THE RULES

Should you decide to buy the revision package (which you should, because for $9 you're geting your money's worth), a brief skimming of the rules will acquaint you with the fact that the greatest number of changes have occurred in the sections dealing with minor countries and territories, and only a few modifications to air and naval combat, and variant historical events.

Virtually every prominent minor country, territory, and fortress has a short paragraph in the rules detailing its influence on play. For instance. control of Gilbraltar allows naval strategic redeployment (NSR) into and out of the Mediterranean Sea by the occupying side. Should Great Britain lose "the Rock" she suffers a one-time-only penalty of 25 BRPs, and the supply capacity of the Egyptian ports is reduced to four ground units and four air/naval counters. Great Britain would also suffer the same type of BRP penalty were she to lose Alexandria and Suez City. Should both of these grievious losses occur and the Allies still control Malta, the island no longer can function as a limited supply source. These three clarifications go a long way towards making the Allies accutely aware of Britain's vulnerability in this area. Other sections dealing with Mediterranean operations include Axis Forces in Africa, Iraq, Spain and Spanish colonies, and Turkey.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact also receives a few revisions: Poland is now worth the entire 20 BRPs to Germany, while Eastern Europe (the Baltic States, Poland east of the partition line, and Bessarabia) is worth 25 BRPs to the Soviets as long as they occupy at least one of the cities in that area. Germany must maintain an Eastern Front (Finland, East Prussia, and Poland) garrison of 20 ground/air factors (not the previous 25 factors of any type), while the Soviet Union must expend 10 BRPs for a declaration of war and establish control over every city in their area.

The point is also made that since Finland has no port to allow NSR, a unit must be placed there as part of the German initial deployment if the Soviets are to be denied the opportunity to eliminate an important ally.

Italians and Germans

In addition, relationships between the Italians and the Germans, the western Allies and the Soviets, and among the,' French, British, and Americans are described in~etail. And to add a little spice to the game, sections dealing with intelligence efforts and foreign aid have been incorporated into the variant historical events process. By expending 5 BRPs for an intelligence effort, a player might discover information about his opponent's strategic warfare distributions, foreign aid allocations or variant counter.

Players can also attempt to influence minor countries with foreign aid (BRP allocations) and either maintain their neutrality or even win them over from the other side. Imagine the look on the Boche's face when Summer '41 rolls around and he discovers all his Balkan Allies have been "bought" by the British and the Soviets.

As the only change to the game's mechanics, air and naval combat have been modified from a simple exchange oriented system to one based on die-roll modifications (DRMs); the system now compares each side's modified die roll, with the higher number winning. Air combat DRMs are for nationality and excess factors (+1 to the larger side for each extra factor beyond a 1:1 ratio), while naval DRMs are for nationality and attainment of certain ratios (+1 to the larger side for attaining each step in a progression of ratios). In both procedures the losing side eliminates a number of factors equal to the difference between the two die rolls (in naval combat the loss will be further multiplied by the size of the force in multiples of nine), with the winner's casualties being half of this.

CHANGES IN PLAY

The biggest difference in play between TR and TR81 is the toning down of air and naval combat. No longer do whole fleets and air forces dramatically disappear as the result of one die roll and the whims of the victor (who used to be able to determine the level of losses). And as a result of modifications in the status of Eastern Europe, the Soviets have improved their budget, and, along with the French and British, have a chance to seriously disrupt the activation of Germany's minor allies. Otherwise play has not been altered to any significant degree, which is disappointing because the game is still weighted in the Axis' favor.

Third Reich Variants

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