I've never played the original version of WWII, in fact, I'd never even heard of it until TSR remade the game, But now I've at least seen both of them; they have one thing in common, the topic. In this version, there are two maps that combine to make a 34" x 44" playing area, This covers Europe from the Atlantic to the Caspian, Murmansk to North Africa. The fringes of the map are covered with charts, time lines, force pools, and status markers of the major powers. Included are 800 counters, including nations as minor as Ireland (but, as usual, the Swiss are inviolable). These are neatly printed in identifiable (if peculiar) colours with ship and plane silhouettes; infantry, armour and paratroop symbols; and medals for generals. In fact, there are so many counters that the one for HMS Revenge was forgotten. And then there are airbases and forts, and status markers, etc. And a counter tray is included, and trust me, it is possible to get them to fit.
To me, the most important question in this type of game is whether it is play-balanced or historic in approach (ie. am I playing Diplomacy or Europa). WWII is a little of both, some of the ships and planes are rather loosely rated, and ground unit strengths are obviously weighted for balance. Do you have to follow history's path'? No, in fact, Germany is free to make an enemy of Italy. There are consequences of your actions, both in the rules and in the latitude you give the enemy to react. So you must understand the implications of your decisions, and determine whether or not what you get is worth what the opponent(s) gain. Have contingence plans.You will do quite well to follow history's example. On the other hand, if you follow history to the letter, you already know the ending.
There are sixteen turns to the year, of two types. There are twelve (one per month) combat turns and four (one per season:) economic turns. And it is the economics that make the game so much fun. In the current seasonal turn, about half of your work will be felt in the following season, the rest trickles in over the coming year. So, if you build armour over the summer, its ready in time for the muddy fall season. If you don't build air units, and you lose your current ones in combat, you're looking forward to a whole season without any air cover (enjoy). Meanwhile, you have the combat turns to deal with. First, the weather. Where do the planes fly? Do lakes and rivers freeze over? Where do snow and mud slow the pace of warfare? Then you must consider strategic warfare; will it be surface raiders, U-boats, aerial bombardment, or attacking the German iron route from Scandinavia? You risk your units doing this, is it worth while? And then on to the naval and air phase, the side with the initiative gets to decide which side goes first.
It's like checkers, your pieces have to prevent his pieces from doing things, but you can't get too far from your lines or you'll lose everything. Then come the offensives, each side swapping turns to pelt the other. Some offensives involve minor operations, some can move a whole front. Then there is a movement phase for the unactivated units. And then end phase with the usual; check supply, enter replacements, return ships and planes to bases.
At the start of each year, the order of battle cards list additions to the various force pools. From this pool you "purchase" those units you want. As there is always more than you can build you have to choose wisely. Be thinking down the road a bit, BB's and CV's wont be seen for a whole year, make sure they'll be completed in time to be useful, and make sure you don't wait too long. Infantry is cheap (great adjective, says alot about 'em) but shows up when you put the money down. Everything else takes time. But wait, hang on, combat units aren't the only thing you have to buy. Airfields, forts, area transport points, air transport points, offensives, aid to partners, activation of minor partners, R&D for anti-sub equipment, fixing existing units, and more do their part to thin the wallet. Only two nations are ever going to have money to burn: the USA and the USSR (the one doesn't have much to buy, and the other has nothing worth buying).
Shooting up the enemy's economy is important, and should be fully exploited. The UK minus a few convoy routes is called a sitting duck. Germany with an iron route shortage is quickly losing the initiative. Alternately, you can just take over resource hexes, wiping a little of the enemy's out and adding a bit to your own. The more U-boats and Raiders the Germans put to sea, the more likely it is that the Royal Navy will strip the Med. or North Sea.
In the naval and air phase, its cat and mouse. The first player puts out forces the enemy won't engage to choke off certain moves. Other vulnerable-looking groups try to entice the enemy into fighting. The remainder is located to try and reinforce friendily groups. Then the second player pounces on the groups he thinks he can take, and runs the gauntlet where he feels he must. The carrier groups make this very difficult to get away with. Amphibious assaults are hard to pull off for two reasons. First there are the die penalties, making success possible only on lucky die rolls. Second, the troops must move in the naval phase to the target, making the transports eligible for interception, air attacks, and possible offensive movement to reinforce the beach before the troops hit it.
The air units are also crafty, only fighters get to fight in air combat, but don't fret it, bombers can play target. Only bombers can attack naval units and lend their strength to combat odds. Either unit type can gain the air superiority attack modifier. Fighter-bomber counters are poor at both missions, but don't have to choose their missions until its time to roll the die. It can be used to force the enemy to commit a better fighter to intercept it, leaving less available to stop your other aircraft.
How does this offensive work? On your turn, you mark the offensive off the track. Remember, you bought a certain number at the start of the season, the only way to get more is to pay double the cost, assuming you still have points to spend. Taking this offensive you designate a headquarters unit, which in turn activates any desired units within its command radius; or you can use the offensive to activate any single stack of units. These units are then free to move and attack normally during the month.
The number of attacks made is limited by the headquarters involved. The "offensive" is this whole chain of events. The teams take turns performing offensives, passing as often as they want. For extra points, several headquarters can be activated simultaneously to create the infamous combined offensive. The only limits are 1) you have to make your offensives last a whole season and 2) no unit can be activated more than one time on any given turn.
The actual offensive sequence is involved, and I suggest you always read through the entire sequence for each offensive. Don't forget steps or skip over anything if you want to avoid confusion and/or arguments. A little study of the attack tables is well worthwhile. For example, note that at 3-1 or less, an amphibious attack can not be totally destroyed (though it stands less chance of succeeding) while at 4 or 6 to 1 odds, you can lose everything. Odds are a wonderful thing to have, but die modifiers are much more encouraging. Getting a 7 at 1 to 1 is the same as getting a 4+ at 6 to 1. The higher your minimum roll is, the less likely you are to hurt yourself, the lower your maximum roll, the more likely damage becomes.
Study of the maps also provides insights on objectives.
As you become familiar with it, you discover that certain targets are just in/out of useful staging area ranges. For example, German bombers can reach Scapa Flow, home port of the Royal Navy, from the coast. But they have no escorts. However, fighter-bombers in Bergen, Norway, just reach Scapa, and otherwise endanger the whole North Sea. This can lead you to a nifty stepping stone offensive plan. If you can pick a good final block, you can work backwards in hops to your current status, and figure out your plan.
It is quite possible for France to beat off the Axis attack in the early years. Immediately there are two tricky ideas you can try. First, to hold Italy out of the war, you waste five infantry units. At your first opportunity, build forts to garrison the ports, or get British units to take over for you. Actually, a combination of these would be best, whoever winds up in control of Vichy France gets a bunch of premade forts. This brings your troops home early.
Second, and you'd better ask the Brits for an opinion on this, attack Spain. Why? You get the economic boost (oh, don't forget Portugal). And it can be done at an opportune time. Besides, once you get wiped out, what difference did it make. Gibralter? That's a British territory, not a French one. Don't punch Italy in the snout until the Germans have decided on a victim.
For Italy, starting started is the tough part. Until certain conditions are met, Italy must remain neutral. The usual scenario is the Allies realize the conditions are just about to be met, so they attack Italy s viciously as possible. Put him down and keep him down. Oh, sure, you can steam your fleet around theirs trying to pick a fight, that usually gets it sunk and Italy viciously attacked anyway. So you want to minimize the damage, don't show any chinks in the armour. If you want to look really inoffensive, don't buy any air units, and hope the Allies will just ignore you. On the other hand, you can poise to invade Greece; that slows the Allies down abit. Lastly, ship a unit to Cagliari in Sardinia and get 4 sea transport points. This move puts Gibralter in range and causes some peculiar reactions from the Allies.
Germany has a big choice to make, if not off the bat, then very soon. East or West. If we watch history, there seem to be several about faces made: Poland, flip, France, flip, Soviet Union, flip, back west. The reasoning for this is obvious, in game terms. Poland is a great source of extra income, France is the weakest link, the Soviets are getting to powerful, two to go for victory. You may want to consider the options of starting in one direction and continuing to the map edge before turning about. Avoid the two front war.
To the East, especially in the early years, the Soviets just don't have what it takes to stop you. The problem is that while your moving to Moscow, the Western Allies are taking up residence back in Germany. Jumping the Maginot without the low countries is total suicide. But, once you get started going west, don't stop till you get Gibralter. Losing the Med. convoy economy could be the first hinge for Sea Lion to work. Taking Ireland is also a surprise toward furthering Sea Lion why would the British guard Ireland from invasion.
For the Soviet Union, the beginning years are boring, quickly turning to frustrating. The solution to this is be aggressive, make the crumbs waste time watching your every move. If the German isn't cautious, all of Finland can fall in Winter War. From there you may want to grab up some of the rest of Scandinavia. The three Balkan nations will automatically join the Axis in '41, why not go to war with them just before they do. Turkey is not a temptation unless you are very bored. But I caution you, be prepared for the Axis attack, look up "thin red line" in the history books. Lastly, don't pass up the free shot to attack the Axis. If France holds them back, you might be just able to tip the balance, and end it quickly.
Great Britain is too perilously close to continental Europe for me. The bluff and counter-bluff of naval and air battles is interesting, challenging, and the British forte. Still, its the position I'm least attracted to (indeed, since the only game I've really played the UK is also the only time it was successfully invaded, my opinion is slightly biased). There is an apparent decision of Mediterranean or North Sea, of Germany or Italy, to make. The answer is both, in equal measures. With interest in both theatres, you need a good showing in both to get somewhere. An important point to mention is that the UK will lose lend-lease rights for attacking a neutral. Be sure to point out everyone you want to fight to France before she goes under so you can carry on the fight in her place.
And then comes the USA. What is really fun is that by this point, the war gets very predictable, The Western Allies will clean up the rough edges, then concentrate on Germany. So there are two outstanding scenarios the US has to contend with. First, the Red Horde is grinding the Axis war machine to powder, first team to Berlin wins. Second, somebody's missing. It could be a) the Soviets or b) the British. In the former case, its miracle time.
The Axis have a war machine that beat the majority of playing counters and are bringing it to the small part of Europe, and they have one massive industrial potential. The Brits have never had a really big army, and the USA isn't much better. In the latter case, where do you land. New York isn't on this map, and them Reds don't look too friendly either, and who's idea was this anyway? One thing you'll notice quickly, the USA can generate more air power than can possibly be used.
On the whole, you can tell, I like the game. But there are a few things I'm not so happy about. They are, for the most part, petty problems, so I will mention only two.
First, if an Ally attacks a neutral that Germany can not reach to support (notably Spain, Turkey and Greece), a neutral Italy is also prevented from helping that same nation, whereas, had Italy been part of the Axis, it could have helped. I've heard that the Italians were actually considering a plan to help Turkey in case of a Soviet invasion. So, I feel that a neutral Italy should be allowed to help a minor following the restrictions of case 38.1. If an Italian counter is attacked, Italy has the option to join the Axis and is no longer restricted to case 38.1 if it does.
The second point is the creation of Vichy France. All French are supposed to be removed, and the navy rolled for. Given this, there is little to stop a second invasion of France. Vichy France is a joke, which is somewhat true, but I believe the game should add a little impetus to avoid attacking the Vichy. So I suggest that when Vichy France is created, all counters in Vichy territory or colonies remain in place.
Naval stacks in the Med. rolling a 2 for disposition return to a Vichy port (instead of joining the British). When a Vichy counter is attacked for the first time, roll 1 die prior to figuring combat odds. On a 4-5, the counter takes 1 step loss, on a 6, it takes 2 step losses. The combat then continues as normal. Note that it is possible for a unit to move next to a Vichy counter, attack it, and have it disappear before resolving the attack.. Extra movement the counter would have had is lost, commitment of aircraft for the attack remains. This reflects the fact that the enemy is not very cohesive under fire.
Once the Vichy have been attacked, the deterioration roll should be made for all Vichy units. The Vichy force pool will be limited to the counters in Vichy France prior to invasion. Vichy France acts just like any other minor partner. If Lebanon-Syria activates as an Allied partner, the roll should be made for counters when it activates. All general and headquarter counters are automatically removed when Vichy France is first created.
All-in-all, it is an exciting game. It is filled with guess-work, plotting, planning, costly errors, broken timetables, etc. You have to work with what you've got, but what you've got is what you thought you'd need. There are so many things to do, so many options, so many consequences, it becomes a question of what should you do versus what could you do. And what is the opponent up to, what tricks does he have left to pull on you. Does your pet master plan stand a chance?
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© Copyright 1989 Hal Thinglum
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