Avalon Hill (1984, $18.00)
Designed by Keith Gross
Players 2 or 3
Playing Time 1.5-5 hours
Period World War II, ETO
Scale Strategic
Turn 4 months
Map approximately 300 km
Unit army, fleet, air force

Components
1 AH bookcase box
1 22”x16” mounted mapboard
520 die-cut counters
1 20-page rulebook
3 record cards (Allied, Soviet, Axis)
1 six-sided die
1 color AH catalog marked 11/86
1 Price List marked “June 15, 1987”
1 postage paid gummed order form
2 reply postcards attached in single perforated sheet.

Counter Manifest
288 yellow
72 black
70 red
60 brown
8 olive
7 light blue
3 orange
1 dark blue
1 blue
10 /olive/tan blanks

Avalon Hill says:

“[E]xamines the war in Europe at several levels. ‘Operation Barbarossa’ concentrates on the great ground struggle waged for four long years between Stalingrad and Berlin. ‘The Fall of Germany’ begins at the eve of the great amphibious invasion of France and expands the war into the West. The ‘War in Europe’ completes the picture with an examination of the entire six years of war in all of its ramifications.”

The reviewers say:

“The usual [AH] graphic treatment is used to good effect ... What the graphics and plentiful player aids subtly hide are a simple design ... The production phase is much more realistic than in other games of this complexity ... Combat is also simple, but ... greater tactical detail would be both inaccurate and needlessly complex. It is possible to mount a blitzkrieg, fortify Moscow, launch D-Day, invade neutrals and have wild armored melees in the North African desert ... Each side may attempt to win the war through technology, realizing that their advances may be stolen by the other side ... The depth of strategy is truly remarkable —the game rarely plays the same way twice.” Terry Lee Coleman in F&M 73.

“Hitler’s War is the single most satisfying game of its type and retains a level of playability such games as AH’s Third Reich and SPI’s Wehrmacht could never achieve. The game is ingenious in the extreme and deserves to be played widely.” The Grenadier 30.

Comments

Some wargame companies had a habit of repackaging small format, ziplock games into boxed editions. Generally speaking, the box was all your extra cash got you and typically the components were exactly the same in both editions. More often than not, the boxes for such games were way too big and way too empty.

When Hitler’s War grew into a full-sized bookcase boxed game, it only served to highlight how much MGC had managed to cram into its small package. The AH revision was not just the same components in a box that was too big or too empty. Indeed, it is unlikely that someone who is only familiar with the AH version would imagine that the game had ever been released on a smaller scale.

While no longer the same bargain, the improved components of the AH edition brought greater playability to what was already an eminently playable game.

Collector’s Notes

Hitler’s War was listed in AH catalogs up until the sale to Hasbro, so you should still be able to find new copies floating around. While I would normally expect reasonable prices on this game, beware of internet “johnny- come-lately” AH bidders on eBay who seem to have no clue about what they are bidding on and/or no care about how much they spend! Boone lists low/high/ average prices of 4/18/7.75 at auction and 5/25/10.86 for sale.

Other games by this designer

The Air Eaters Strike Back, The Dragons of Underearth, Ice War, Invasion of the Air Eaters, Lords of Underearth (all from Metagaming).

H is For Capsule Reviews

Introduction
H-Hour
Hell Hath No Fury
Hero
Hitler’s War (Metagaming)
Hitler’s War (AH)
Hougoumont
Hyper Battle