Origins Of Third Reich

ORIGINS OF THIRD REICH By Robert Ott In the olden days, say around 1964-72, before the existence of 300+ games on every conceivable subject, it was popular to devise ways of blending your favorites AH games together to arrive at a more strategic viewpoint in fighting World War II. Success in your AFRIKA KORPS game improved your chances in a follow-up game of D-DAY and so on. Not much of that is done nowadays due to the availability of games utilizing a much larger scale— grand strategic monsters like THIRD REICH for example. But as Robert Ott demonstrates below, the concept of combining games to alter all too familiar circumstances is far from dead and still offers some intriguing variations of our old favorites. On September 1st, 1939, the Germans launched their blitzkrieg through Poland. Sixteen days later, the Russians invaded Poland from the east. When Poland capitulated at the end of the month, the western half of the country, including most of her mines and factories, went to Germany. The other half, along with her oil resources, went to the Russians. This is the situation at the beginning of a THIRD REICH game, but does it always have to be that way? In ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR II, the above is an example of a shared control of Poland between Germany and Russia. It has also set some rusty gears turning in this mind for a new THIRD REICH variant. The basis of this variant is to play a game of ORIGINS before your game of THIRD REICH. Some rather interesting situations can be determined by following the sugges tions below. Positioning of Control and Understanding counters could greatly influence your play in THIRD REICH. For each area in ORIGINS, the effects of Control and Understanding counters are as follows: Alsace-Lorraine—lf France alone has a Control counter, there is no effect. If France and Germany share control, France loses 10 BRP from her Base level. If Germany alone has control, France loses 20 BRP from her Base level. If there is no control. France loses 20 BRP from her BRP level for 1939 only. Austria—If the German does not have a Control counter, he loses 20 BRP from his Base BRP level, and may not set up in Austria (see the amended map). Austria becomes a minor neutral worth 20 BRP, with its capital at Vienna, and an army of three 13’s. Baltic States —if the Russian alone has a Control counter, there is no effect. If the German has sole control, he may set up in the Baltic States at the beginning of the game, and has 10 BRP added to his Base BRP level. If Germany and Russia share control. Russia may invade as usual, splitting the 10 BRP with Germany. If there is no control, the Baltic States are a minor neutral and may not be entered without a Declaration of War (DoW ) separate (for Russia) from the DoW for east Poland and Bessarabia (Rumania). Britain—If the French player has no Understanding with Britain, France loses 15 BRP from its Base BRP level. Czechoslovakia—If the German player has no Control, he loses one 4-6 armor unit from his ‘A t Start” forces, and 20 BRP from his Base BRP level. He may not set up in Czechoslovakia (see map). Czechos lovakia becomes a minor neutral with its capital at Prague, an army of one 2-5 armor and two 2-3 infantry units, and is worth 20 BRP. France—If the British player has no Understanding counter here, he loses 15 BRP from his Base level. Germany—If the Russian player has no Under standing counter here, he loses 15 BRP from his Base level. Italy—If Germany has no Understanding with Italy, Italy may not declare war on the Allies befor