Rise and Decline of the Third Reich

See Nazi Germany for the period of history.

Avalon Hill 3rd Edition cover

Rise and Decline of the Third Reich or more commonly Third Reich is a grand strategy wargame covering the European theater of World War II designed by John Prados, and released in 1974 by Avalon Hill. Huge in scope, it allows players to take on the roles of all the major national powers (Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States) and simulate the entire war effort from 1939 until the end (which often isn't until 1946).

The game was a favorite of many because of an excellent balance between economics, politics, and military might. The game gives players a chance to try things that did not happen historically to see if they might have worked better (e.g., a German invasion of Spain). Definitely not for the novice gamer, the rules are intricate and there are many factors for players to deal with: resources, unit production, negotiation, and of course strategic warfare. Due to this complexity, games were known to take many hours to complete.

At Origins 1975, Rise and Decline of the Third Reich won the Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Professional Game of 1974.

In 2001, Avalanche Press released a new version of Third Reich known as John Prados' Third Reich.

Gameplay

Each turn represents a season: spring, summer, fall, and winter. Central to the game is the novel development of an economic system for creation of new units, reconstitution of lost units, ability to declare war, and ability to conduct a strategic offensive, using the Basic Resource Point (BRP), informally called "burp", as the generic representation of industry and economic power. BRPs automatically refresh at year end based on the economic capacity, which might increase or decrease by conquest or loss, or increase by accruing interest on unused BRPs at year end calculation. Since the side with more BRPs moves first, by foregoing offensives or purchases the previous seasons, a player could gain a shift in initiative, which can mean a flip-flop whereby the opposing side does not move when expected and the side with more BRPs gains two consecutive seasons moving.

A new power entering the war can cause a shift in initiative by sudden inclusion of BRPs in Allied or Axis totals. The game uses an interesting strategic cap on maximum military capacity in terms of number of manipulable units/counters of a particular military, loosely based on historical data like available manpower and the number of divisions actually fielded and their organization, giving a realistic feel for what is strategically possible and what is not, in that units cannot be endlessly piled up once an advantage is achieved, only more easily reconstituted due to economic strength. An insight into the sort of thinking that went into the design of the game is that despite historical technological and organizational advances in war, unit capability remains the same throughout the game, which the designers rationalized by noting that technological and organizational advances were systematically adopted by all sides as the war progressed.

History

Rise and Decline of the Third Reich saw four editions, which cleaned up inaccuracies and ambiguities in the units (2nd edition), map (3rd edition), and rules (4th edition). Because some elements were not changed in some editions, the labels did not always match; the 4th edition was labeled on the box as 3rd edition despite having 4th edition rules.

Over the years, Third Reich was a frequent subject in Avalon Hill's magazine, The General, and a favorite at conventions. Many variants and additional rules were developed to extend the game. Advanced Third Reich, designed by Bruce Harper, brought these together in 1992 adding diplomacy and other rules, along with revised maps and units. Empire of the Rising Sun was developed as a Pacific theater counterpart to Advanced Third Reich, and included Research rules as well as rules to combine the games to simulate the whole of World War II around the globe.

After this, a new version that fused everything in Advanced Third Reich and Empire of the Rising Sun, initially designated "Global War 2000", began development. Rules and components were posted online, publicly available for anyone who might want to be a playtester and might offer feedback. In 2003, three years after the planned date, it was published by GMT Games as A World At War. The game's development continues, with updated rules and components available online.

At the same time, Avalanche Press was developing a variation known as John Prados' Third Reich. Designed by Brian L. Knipple and published by Avalanche Press, it has distinctly different mechanics from Rise and Decline of the Third Reich.

See also

• Advanced Third Reich
• Empire of the Rising Sun
• A World at War

External links

• Rise and Decline of the Third Reich at BoardGameGeek