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. Players take on the roles of major powers—Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States—from 1939 to 1946.
The game was popular because of the balance between economics, politics, and land, sea, air and strategic warfare. Players can try alternate history strategies (e.g., a German invasion of Spain or the United Kingdom). The game is complex and can take many hours to complete.
Revised editions of the game were published in the 1980s. A further redesign of the game, Advanced Third Reich, was published in 1992, followed by a Pacific theater counterpart, Empire of the Rising Sun, in 1995. In 2003, yet another redesign of these two games was published by GMT Games as A World at War. In 2001, Avalanche Press released a separate new version, more closely resembling the original game, known as John Prados' Third Reich.
Gameplay The game normally starts in Fall 1939, although scenarios are provided for starting in 1942 and 1944 (the latter is recommended for learning purposes). Each quarterly turn (Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter) represents three months of real time.
Economics Each major power has a pool of Basic Resource Points (BRPs – sometimes pronounced "burps"),Gamers' Guide to Third Reich, 1986, pp2-6 to represent economic power, and used to build units, declare war (35 BRPs to declare war on a major power, 10 to declare war on a minor power), or offensives (15 BRPs). The side with more BRPs moves first, so by economizing the previous season, a player may gain a "flip-flop" and make two consecutive moves, possibly allowing a devastating offensive. A Double Turn across winter 1939/40 is common: Germany moves first in Fall 1939, reduces her BRP total by building lots of units, so moves second in Winter, then first again in Spring 1940 as her BRP level refreshes, allowing a spectacular German offensive in the West. Italy's BRPs are included with Germany's even when still neutral, but US and Soviet BRPs are not included until they join the Allies, requiring careful play around the initiative change in the mid-war.
The annual Year Start Sequence ("YSS") begins with strategic warfare in an off-map box. German U-boats fight Allied Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) factors – ASW become more effective later in the war. Allied bombers, which are not as cheap or effective as U-boats, fight German interceptors, or German air factors withdrawn from the map. Excess bombers or U-boats eliminate enemy BRPs. After Strategic Warfare each power receives BRPs equal to its economic base, which may increase or decrease by a percentage of the unused BRPs at year-end (the growth rates are 60% for USA, 50% for Germany, 40% for Britain, 30% for the USSR and 20% for Italy – any extra are lost, so saving BRPs to increase the base is not sensible for Italy). Extra BRPs are received for minor countries controlled; a conquered major power (France or Italy after surrender) is treated as a minor worth half her BRP base. Germany, Britain and the USA may then spend up to 10% of their totals on strategic warfare for next year. Each major power's per-turn spending limit is half the total remaining after Strategic Warfare. Britain has a base of 125 BRPs, but as any BRP deficit from Strategic Warfare reduces the base, she often has to set aside half her BRPs to absorb U-boat losses in mid-war. Germany begins with a base of 150 BRPs, but in mid-war will often have 300 or more BRPs including conquests, and after building all her forces may have enough of a surplus to see her base increase sharply.
Countries may transfer BRPs to one another (Italy may give her spare BRPs to Germany for the high growth rate). Allied aid to the USSR, usually sorely needed, must go via Murmansk (the Germans may oppose these transfers with naval, air and U-boat battles in an off-map box), or via Persia (certain to arrive, but taking an extra turn to reach the USSR, with an initial one-off payment need to open up the pipeline).
Land movement and combat Most counters in the game represent corps, or Soviet armies roughly the size of other countries' corps. In general two counters may stack in a hexagon, or five on a bridgehead (a bridgehead provides unlimited supply for the first post-combat supply phase, and supply may be traced to it in subsequent turns as if it were a port). Only armor units have a Zone of Control, which costs an extra two movement points to pass through (German and US armor have 6 movement points per turn, enabling them to move through two zones of control, other countries' armor units only 5; US armor units, and the two German SS Panzer corps added in 1943, also have 5 strength points rather than the usual 4). British and US infantry have 4 movement points rather than 3, reflecting their higher degree of motorization. Units remain the same throughout the game, as both sides copied one another's technological advances throughout the war.
Combat is completely voluntary. Units are always at least doubled on defense (exception: German units in the first winter after their attack on Russia). Terrain, which has no effect on movement, triples units on defense, while fortresses (Maginot Line, Westwall, Gibraltar, Malta, Leningrad and Sevastopol) quadruple them. Each combat may result in the complete elimination of either side, or an exchange, or a compulsory counterattack, either at face value (i.e. ignoring terrain effects) or at odds dictated by the table. A 2:1 attack is almost certain to succeed (albeit with some risk of an exchange), with only a 1 in 36 chance of an "attacker eliminated" – the dreaded roll of 4, followed by 6.a roll of 4 at 2:1 odds requires a counterattack at 1:1 odds; a roll of 6 at 1:1 eliminates the defender (i.e. the original attacker in this case) An attack at odds of 3:1 or greater is guaranteed to succeed, the only uncertainty being whether or not the defender will be eliminated outright or inflict some exchange losses.
If the defender is eliminated, victorious attacking units may advance after combat into the hex. Provided at least one attacking unit was armor, any other armor unit which did not attack, but which was adjacent to an attacking unit, may now be placed on the newly gained hex (the "breakthrough hex"). These armored units may then "exploit", i.e. move again, provided they keep to a chain with no more than one empty hex between each unit, and then attack – a key tactic in surrounding enemy units. There is no limit to the number of armor units which may stack on or attack from the original breakthrough hex, provided the overstack is rectified by the end of the turn. Breakthrough against an empty enemy-controlled hex is not allowed, but a key position can be attacked by obtaining an overstacked armored breakthrough against a weakly held hex adjacent to it.
An alternative type of combat is "attrition". The attacker totals the land factors in contact with the enemy (air units play no part). The die roll may require the enemy to lose counters (major countries have replacement units – immobile single-factor infantry units – used to garrison remote areas or to remove to fill attrition losses, apart from the USSR which has many cheap single-factor infantry armies) or hexes – the attacker may not choose a capital, red objective city or bridgehead. The defender may eliminate units from a hex to prevent it being chosen for attrition occupation. There are three fronts (East, West and Mediterranean) on the map; in a multi-player game, attrition may only be selected if all players of one side choose that option for that front – if one player wants to take an offensive, their allies must do the same or else pass (neither movement into enemy-controlled hexes nor combat allowed).
Logistics Each country has a prescribed "forcepool", which lists "allowable builds" as well as forces initially on the map (around a quarter of Germany's forces start the game on the map – for other countries the proportion is much higher). Units built each turn appear at once in the home country (except a rebuilt 9-factor fleet – see below). Infantry costs 1 BRP per factor, armor 2 BRPs per factor, and air, naval and paratroop units 3 BRPs per factor (e.g. 15 BRPs for a whole air unit). In Winter 1941 and the early turns of 1942 the USSR may – for a stiffening in her victory conditions – build some units for free (the "Siberian Transfer", only half of which may be armor) representing transfer of troops from the Manchurian garrison after Japan goes to war with the USA. Most countries add a few new units to their force pool in 1942. The USSR's forces are initially feeble, but she adds more powerful infantry and armor units in 1942. Germany adds some new armor and infantry units in 1943 and 1944.
After construction each country may strategically redeploy a certain number of units. SR is not permitted adjacent to enemy units, so a 3-hex corridor is needed. SR from Britain into the Mediterranean requires either two fleets (via Gibraltar – one of the fleets must be based there) or else 2 SRs and a one-turn delay (via the Cape of Good Hope). The USA also has an Initial Deployment Limit, which restricts how many units may be moved by SR each turn from the USA (shown as a box in the top-left of the map) to its main base in Europe (normally Britain). Germany's SR limit (9), although large, is not enough to cope with war on three fronts from 1944 – rebuilt Hungarian units can take a year to walk back to the Eastern Front – and can be a key factor in her collapse in the late game.
Supply may not be traced through zones of control, even if the hexes in question are occupied by friendly units. Unsupplied units cannot move, and are eliminated after the construction phase, and cannot be rebuilt in the same turn in which they are lost (unless the owning player deliberately loses them in poor-odds attacks).
Air warfare Paratroops do not count for stacking, and negate the effect of rivers, but are lost permanently if not adjacent to a friendly unit when eliminated. They may also drop during armored exploitation. For the first half of the game the German Fallschirmjäger Corps is the only paratroop unit on the map. Britain and Italy each add a paratroop corps to their forcepools in 1942 (the USSR adds two slightly weaker ones); the USA also has a paratroop corps in her forcepool.
Up to five air factors may base at a city, or at an airbase counter (each major power has three of these, one of which may be placed each turn – once placed it can only be moved by SR or relocated to the country's capital if out of supply). Initially Germany has 6 air units and Italy 2 (i.e. 40 factors), against three British and two French (i.e. 25 factors). By the end of the war 5 German air units (i.e. 25 air factors, assuming some have been transferred to fight Allied bombers) might be facing 5 US, 4 British and 3 Soviet (i.e. 60 air factors). Air units may be voluntarily split up, and single factors may be rebuilt provided they are combined by SR to form a complete air unit.