Total War
Designers: R.J. Hlavnicka and Dennis P. O’Leary
Developer: Michael A. Trdan
Published 1978 by Excalibre Games, Inc.
Players 2 or more
Playing time 2 to 3 hours
Era WW2 in Central Europe, 1939
Scale Operational Time 2 days/turn (15 turns/game)
Units Divisions & Corps
Map uncertain

Components
1 17"x22" unmounted 2-color map
1 4-page booklet of Series rules
1 4-page booklet of specific rules
210 single-sided diecut counters
1 3-color cover sheet (llustrated above)
1 ziploc bag

Component Manifest

Germany (black on khaki)

3 13-8 Armored Divisions
3 12-8 Armored Divisons
1 8-8 Kampf Armored Brigade
3 6-4 Mountain Infantry Divisions
4 7-6 Reconnaissance Divisions
2 6-4 Artillery Corps
4 8-8 Panzer Grenadier Divisions
37 6-4 Infantry Divisions
1 3-6 Cavalry Brigade
1 3-8 Engineer Brigade
4 2-4 Infantry Brigades
37 4-4 Infantry Substitute units
2 3-4 Artillery Substitute units
3 3-4 Mountain Substitute units
4 4-8 Panzer Grenadier Substitute units
3 7-8 Armor Substitute units
3 6-8 Armor Substitute units
4 3-6 Reconnaissance Substitute units

Soviet Union (black on red)

2 9-3 Infantry Corps
3 9-6 Reconnaissance Corps

Poland (black on maroon)

25 5-4 Infantry Divisions
3 4-4 Infantry Divisions
3 3-4 Infantry Brigades
25 3-4 Infantry Substitute units
3 2-4 Infantry Substitute units
2 5-4 Mountain Divisions
2 3-4 Mountain Substitute units
2 4-3 Static Divisions
12 4-6 Cavalry Brigades
2 3-6 Cavalry Brigades
1 6-7 Reconnaissance Brigade
1 3-7 Reconnaissance Substitute unit
2 3-4 Artillery Corps
1 2-5 Engineer Brigade

Turn Marker (black on maroon)

Note

This game should not be confused with another game of the same name, designed by Jeff Siadek and published by the Gamesmiths in 1992. This later version of Total War is an abstract, Risk-type game of global conquest for two to six players.

What the Designers say:

Total War is the fifth game in the Panzer [Battles] and Sieges Series by Excalibre Games, Inc. ... The game is a recreation of the first blitzkrieg campaign, Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. ...

Each of our new Panzer Battles and Sieges games was designed for maximum efficiency and utilization.

The wargame industry, currently, has a profusion of games with maps that are too large and inefficient, e.g., the actual real-playing area [A.R.P.A.] involves a small percentage of the overall map. Panzer Battles & Sieges were designed using A.R.P.A. as the basic unit of map design.

In addition, we were seriously concerned with current trends is “standardized” map design. Granted, they are easily mass produced and lower in production costs, but the loss in realism and geographic/historical flavor is too much to forego. Panzer Battles & Sieges maps were designed to put back the historical flavor and realism into map design. Towns, rivers, mountains, etc. have names once more!

Game flow is a new term introduced to describe the immediate situation you will find yourself in when you begin to play one of the Panzer Battles & Sieges games. The challenge begins turn one, you do not have time to maneuver for five turns and then attack, combat is immediate and deadly. Game flow is a concept that lets the gamer be fully involved in the game from turn one. Game flow provides the challenge, victory rests entirely in your abilities is [sic] commander.

What the Reviewers say:

“This is the fifth game in Excalibre’s Panzer Battles and Sieges series. (The others are: Caen, Crimea, Cassino and Sidi Rezegh.) ... Total War shares with the other games of this series a common set of basic rules ... Zones of control stop movement, but combat is optional. A step reduction system is used.” -- Don Lowry in Campaign 89.

“The German player may enjoy the first couple of turns as he runs roughshod over his opponent, but shooting fish in a barrel does get tedious after a short while. The poor Poles have almost no counterattack capability and possess only a single mechanized unit. Most of this is fairly accurate, but makes for a dull game. ... Some of the ideas work quite well, for instance, the rules for city fighting and for isolation. But aside from a few such good points, Total War is truly a tragically funny Polish joke.” --Pete Belli in F&M 22.

“Total War has little to recommend it. To no one’s surprise, it has vanished in the mists of time.” --F&M 63 Eastern Front Anthology

Player’s Value

The first four games in the Panzer Battles & Sieges series received positive reviews from Don Lowry in Campaign 82:

“[Caen / Cassino / Crimea / Sidi Rezegh] should find favor with most experienced, hard core wargamers, it being a fast-moving game with traditional boardgame mechanics and adequate components and graphics on a WWII land battle ... It will require much less time to learn and set up than most new games -- if you are an experienced boardgamer. Beginners will find the rules to be too vague and poorly written and probably miss at least one important concept somewhere. But experienced players will appreciate the brevity and simplicity of the rules”

The first four games in the series were released in 1977, along with an unrelated scifi game Quazar. Total War, the fifth game in the series, came out a year later, with many hallmarks of an incomplete and poorly thought-out sequel. For one thing, the topic is not well-balanced, and would have made a more interesting solitaire game. For another, shoehorning a blitzkrieg campaign into a game system that abstracts aircraft effects is a bit daft.

Two issues that seemed to be very important to the designers were game maps, and the new concept of game flow. Quite frankly, the Total War map is very heavy-handed and uninformative, and no comparison to, for example, GDW’s contemporary Operation Crusader maps. On the other hand, Excalibre’s use of a black border around each counter helps compensate for inaccurate diecutting, and makes the counters easier to see on the map. Unfortunately, they’re half-inch counters, and so there’s not much room left for data.

As for the concept of game flow, on the theory that the less said the better, then saying nothing must be best of all.

Collector’s Value

Boone quotes low, high and average prices of 4/10/7.20 at auction and 9/30/ 14.75 for sale.

Other Games of this Type

Case White (GDW, 1977); Poland 1939 (Das Schwarze Korps, 1967; American Designers Assoc., 1972; JagdPanther Pubs, 1973); Poland ‘39 (Tactics & Variants, 1969; XTR, 1992).

Other Games by these Designers

Battle of the Crater (La Vivendiere, 1974) Battle of Thermopylae (La Vivendiere, 1974) Ancient Conquest (Excalibre, 1975) Atlantis - 12,500 BC (Excalibre, 1976) Crete 1941 (Excalibre, 1976) Edgehill 1642 (Excalibre, 1976) Tunisia 1943 (Excalibre, 1976) Venerable Destruction (Excalibre, 1976) Caen 1944 (Excalibre, 1977) Cassino 1944 (Excalibre, 1977) Crimea 1941-42 (Excalibre, 1977) Quazar (Excalibre, 1977) Sidi Rezegh 1941 (Excalibre, 1977) Adventures in Fantasy (Excalibre, 1978) Ancient Conquest II (Excalibre, 1978) Cyborg (Excalibre, 1978) the Golden Horde (Excalibre, 1978).