In the not too distant past we would often see variants to AH's BLITZKRIEG game. Usually they had such titles as "Let's put the 'Blitz' back into BLITZKRIEG". Recently AH has tried its own hand at putting their own "Blitz" into the game by publishing a new set of rules as designed by veteran wargamer Dave Roberts.

First, let's see what we have. The revision packet consists of a new rules booklet and a slightly revised CRT. The same minor country reduction table is used, but we are presented with a new air combat table and a new barage and bombardment table. The rules feature such goodies as: the special ability of armor to move through infantry ZOC, strategic movement, expanded airplane missions, inland ports, new stacking limitations, expanded capabilities of artillery and rangers, and critical resources rules. Many of the older rules have also been reworded and modified.

Overall it shows heavy influence from SPI's BLITZKRIEG MODULAR SYSTEM and from LUFTWAFFE. The rules are divided into four levels of complexity, the Basic Game, Basic Game with options, Tournament Game, and Tournament Game with Optionals. One level builds on another so the uninitiated player should start with the Basic Game.

We first tried the Tournament Game (no optionals) and this left us with a rather bad taste. The former strategic considerations are gone. One of the most exciting options in old BK was the bold thrust to cut your opponent's supply line and force him to remove units for lack of supply. In old B K an attack to capture lightly defended rear area cities, if successful, could force your opponent to remove many factors.

Also a thrust to encircle a portion of his army could be decisive due to the fact he had only one turn to extricate his units. The game generally boiled down to thrust and parry until one player was caught off balance and vulnerable to an attack against his supplies, In new BK these types of attacks will yield little advantage since units are never eliminated due to lack of supply and you need hold only one home city for full combat supply.

Side Effect of Supply

A side effect of the supply rules is to make the capture of territory unnecessary until late in the game. Even an amphibious invasion is pointless and nearly impossible due to vulnerability to armored attack. In the old BK the players attempted to hold as many cities as possible in order to supply more units. In new BK a smart player will let his opponent come to him and be the "aggressor" in all the minor countries.

Now I am sure some people will argue how the wonders and virtures of the critical industry rule will change all this. The "greater historical realism" will be touted and this is the big way you will cripple your opponent. But they ignore several things.

First, each game should be able to stand on its basic merits, not those complexities added for the sake of the nuts. Who wants always to play the full blown Marathon version? It is hard enough to figure out anyway. Who says the critical industry rule is historical or realistic? In most nations vast amounts of industry are in the countryside. In the old game the loss of one home country city is not the end of the game. It took the loss of vast amounts of countryside,' and then your units died, they still move around at 1/2 MP.

Now the loss of one or two particular cities is going to cripple the entire army. It almost doesn't matter which two as every city has some unique function. Really, why impose this overly complex rule in place of the simpler, much more manageable concept for just a little added "realism" and the hope that maybe this would substitute for the loss of a strategic option?

What the game is supposed to represent is a fictionalized version of the Blitzkrieg concept. The very name "Blitzkrieg" connotes a sense of recreation of the conditions conducive to its conduct. First amongst these is surprise and in a game of unlimited tactical intelligence and consecutive movement the only real surprise is strategic surprise.

But the highly structured nature of the new game, and the gross complexity in some places, and dubious rules in others have combined to destroy strategic surprise and cause a certain unplayability at higher levels. Only a small tactical surprise might be retained but only in the sense that there are so many rules no one can remember them all. Many new rules have been written but we feel only those in the Basic Game will stand the test of time.

Rules Lacking In...

The rules themselves have not been assembled so very well. Most noticeable is the lack of specific examples of play. None exists. With all these new rules you would think there would be a sequence of play flowchart. With the fighters in the Optional Rules phases go into sub- phases. Look what happens in rules 32.72 and 32.74. You can forget PBM with fighters. The little pictures included as a mnemonic device is a good idea. I wish we would see more of it.

There are some pluses to the new rules. The new desert rule opens a formerly unused attack corridor. I commend Mr. Roberts for his innovation here. The new ranger functions are good, adding manageable realism. Strategic movement is good too but there should be only limited numbers of units doing it every turn. The new stacking rule and artillery bombardment have long been discussed and are most welcome additions. So if you take the rules individually you will find much good stuff. Of course you don't have to play every rule and variant under the sun. I would say a slightly souped-up Basic Game would be a most satisfying garne.

In sum, despite the drawbacks, if you already have BLITZKRIEG, go out and get the new rules. The Basic Game with Options is worth it. The Tournament Game is not and it with the Tournament Optionals should be scrapped to provide a few more optionals for the Basic game. If you don't have BK then don't waste your money here. There are plenty of cheaper games available just as good as BLITZKRIEG Basic.

Incidentally, the July-August '75 issue of the General contains an excellent variant to the new BK concerning naval power, a big gap in today's rules. This of course is rather complex, but if you are playing the whole show you will want these anyway.