Advanced Third Reich - Land Warfare

Land Warfare

A new map was included, similar to the old but larger, and repainted by Charlie Kibler (albeit showing most land in a slightly odd desert yellow colour) and Soviet units (which the rules wrongly insist on calling "Russian", although the USSR is correctly labelled on the map) are now red rather than brown. Helsinki is now a port (removing the need for Germany to place a corps there at the open), and the map now includes Iraq (which Britain must garrison against a possible revolt) and Kuwait.

The order of setup has been amended, so Germany no longer sets up last and is thus no longer able to launch devastating and far-fetched attacks on France or even, say, Yugoslavia, in the opening turn.

The airbase rules were tidied up a little, to allow a player to "recycle" airbases already on the map by removing one each turn to place a new one.

Defence Modifiers (DMs) are now cumulative, so that a unit in mountains and behind a river is now quadrupled rather than simply tripled. Minor countries forces (except Finns and Swedes) now defend at -1 DM outside their homeland, making Romanian and Hungarian forces much weaker in the USSR. Infantry now defend against exploiting armour at -1 DM, ie. at face value in clear terrain, although units never defend at less than face value. Overruns - attacks during movement - are now allowed (odds of 6:1 are needed), at a cost of 2 movement points and with a 1 in 6 chance of an "Exchange" result. All of this increases the offensive capacity of attackers, especially the Germans against weak Allied forces in the early years (one of the French 5-factor air wings no longer joins her force pool until Summer 1940, making French defeat by then almost inevitable), but on the Eastern Front spring mud (preventing overrun and exploitation there) and the Russian Winter (an annual die roll which improves for the Germans over time) mean that Germany only has a two-season attack in the East.

During an Attrition Option a player may conduct "limited offensives", paying for small attacks as needed, up to a total value of 14 BRP-worth of attacking units.

Bridgeheads - unless close to enemy units - are removed if no longer needed for supply. This prevents the German player from keeping bridgeheads in Warsaw or Paris as excuses for overstacking defenders years after the initial cross-river attack.