Advanced Third Reich
Advanced Third Reich Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- 1.0 Introduction
- 2.0 Victory Conditions
- 3.0 Unit Types
- 4.0 Terrain & the Map
- 5.0 Stacking
- 6.0 Hex Control
- 7.0 Zones of Control (ZOC)
- 8.0 Bridgeheads
- 9.0 The Year Start Sequence (YSS)
- 10.0 BRP Spending Limit
- 11.0 Sequence of Play
- 11.1 BRP-Level Determination & Order of Play
- 11.2 Declarations of War & Front Options
- 11.21 Option Determinants
- 11.3 Voluntary Destruction of Units
- 11.4 Movement Phase
- 11.5 Combat Phase
- 11.6 Unit Construction Phase
- 11.7 Strategic Redeployment (SR) Phase
- 11.74 Elimination of Unsupplied Units
- 11.75 Relocation of Unsupplied Airbases
- 11.76 Removal of Certain Bridgeheads
- 11.77 Elimination of Overstacked Units
- 11.8 Possible Russian Surrender
- The Second Player Turn
- 12.0 Ground Combat
- 12.3 Breakthrough & Exploitation
- 12.4 Attrition Combat
- 13.0 Declarations of War (DoW)
- 14.0 Minor-Country Operations
- 15.0 Intervention in Minor Countries
- 16.0 Conquest of Minor Countries
- 17.0 Minor-Allies
- 18.0 Major Powers
- 19.0 Supply
- 20.0 Air Warfare
- 20.1 Airbases
- 20.2 Movement
- 20.3 Employment
- 20.4 Offensive Air Missions
- 20.41 Ground Support
- 20.42 Counter-Air
- 20.43 DAS Interception
- 20.431 Offensive Air Attacks on Fleets at Sea
- 20.44 Air Combat
- 20.45 Air Attacks on Naval Bases
- 20.5 Defensive Air Missions
- 20.51 Defensive Air Support (DAS)
- 20.52 Defensive Air Attacks on Fleets at Sea
- 20.6 Partial Air Units
- 21.0 Naval Warfare
- 22.0 Replacements
- 23.0 Airborne
- 24.0 Lend-Lease
- 25.0 Murmansk Convoys
- 26.0 Anglo-French Cooperation
- 27.0 Russo-Allied Cooperation
- 28.0 The Russian Winter
- 29.0 Poland & Eastern Europe
- 30.0 German-Italian Cooperation
- 31.0 Axis Forces in Africa
- 32.0 Gibraltar
- 33.0 Malta
- 34.0 The Suez Canal
- 35.0 Vichy France
- 36.0 Turkey
- 37.0 Spain
- 38.0 Ireland
- 39.0 Switzerland
- 40.0 Iraq
1.0 Introduction
THIRD REICH PC is a faithful adaptation of The Avalon Hill Game Company's famous boardgame of World War II Grand Strategy. You may lead either the Axis or the Allies against a human or computer opponent.
Due to the complexity of the rules, each game term is not always defined at its first appearance. The new player is advised to first skim over the rules, then read them, then be prepared for several searches during the game. It will take several play sessions before a new player becomes completely familiar with the game.
One of the most important concepts in the game is Basic Resource Points (BRPs), which represent the economic/industrial capacities of the Major Powers involved and thus their war-effort potential. Each Major Power begins a game with a base amount of BRPs, which it may increase by economic growth when it has unused BRPs remaining at year's end, and which may be reduced by bombers and submarines (Strategic Warfare). This base amount is regenerated at the start of each year. A nation may also increase the BRPs available to it in the Year Start Sequence by occupying conquered countries and colonies. A nation spends its BRPs by declaring war, conducting offensives, constructing combat units, waging Strategic Warfare, and by granting BRPs to other nations. It may involuntarily lose BRPs by losing control of a country it occupied at Year Start, by the loss of a vital production area, or as a result of Strategic Warfare.
The game is played in Game Turns representing three months each. Each Game Turn contains two Player Turns, the side with the higher BRP Total usually moving first within the Game Turn. Player Turns are further sub-divided into Movement, Combat, Unit Construction, and Strategic Redeployment phases. There is a separate Year Start Sequence between each Winter and Spring Game Turn, during which Strategic-Warfare Resolution and Construction take place and BRP levels are calculated.
The map is divided into three separate Fronts — Western, Eastern and Mediterranean — by thick red lines. At the beginning of a side's Player Turn, each of its Major Powers selects, separately for each of the three Fronts, an Offensive, Attrition or Pass Option.
2.0 Victory Conditions
Depending on the scenario being played, victory is determined by the number of red-printed Objectives a side controls at the end of play, or by the number of Allied Major Powers that fall to the Axis, or by the turn on which the last Axis Major Power falls to the Allies. A Major Power is conquered when the enemy has captured its Capital and still controls it at the end of the opposing side's next Combat Phase [Exception: the U.S.S.R.; see 18.4].
Objectives in minor countries that were never at war are credited to neither side. If Italy or the U.S.S.R. remains neutral, all Objectives under that nation's control still count respectively towards Axis or Allied Objective totals. If the U.S.S.R. surrenders, all Objectives in its control at that time are counted in the Allied total.
There are a total of 42 Objectives in the game. Broken down by Front, they are:
- Western Front: Antwerp, Berlin, Birmingham, Bonn, Breslau, Budapest, Essen, Leipzig, London, Lyons, Manchester, Marseilles, Oslo, Paris (14 total)
- Eastern Front: Astrakhan, Dnepropetrovsk, Grozny, Kharkov, Krakow, Leningrad, Lvov, Maikop, Moscow, Riga, Smolensk, Stalingrad, Stockholm, Warsaw (14 total)
- Mediterranean Front: Alexandria, Athens, Belgrade, Genoa, Gibraltar, Istanbul, Madrid, Malta, Milan, Mosul, Ploesti, Rome, Suez, Tripoli (14 total)
2.1 1939 Scenario
| Result | Condition |
|---|---|
| Allied Decisive | 17 or more Objectives |
| Allied Tactical | 16 Objectives |
| Allied Marginal | 15 Objectives |
| Stalemate | 14 or less Objectives for the Allies and 24 or less Objectives for the Axis |
| Axis Marginal | 25 Objectives |
| Axis Tactical | 26 Objectives |
| Axis Decisive | 27 or more Objectives |
Or, if Free Siberian Transfer (11.253) is in effect:
| Result | Condition |
|---|---|
| Allied Decisive | 18 or more Objectives |
| Allied Tactical | 17 Objectives |
| Allied Marginal | 16 Objectives |
| Stalemate | 15 or less Objectives for the Allies and 24 or less Objectives for the Axis |
| Axis Marginal | 25 Objectives |
| Axis Tactical | 26 Objectives |
| Axis Decisive | 27 or more Objectives |
2.2 1942 Scenario
| Result | Condition |
|---|---|
| Allied Decisive | 28 or more Objectives |
| Allied Tactical | 27 Objectives |
| Allied Marginal | 26 Objectives |
| Stalemate | 25 or less Objectives for the Allies and 13 or less Objectives for the Axis |
| Axis Marginal | 14 Objectives |
| Axis Tactical | 15 Objectives |
| Axis Decisive | 16 or more Objectives |
Or, if Free Siberian Transfer (11.253) is in effect:
| Result | Condition |
|---|---|
| Allied Decisive | 29 or more Objectives |
| Allied Tactical | 28 Objectives |
| Allied Marginal | 27 Objectives |
| Stalemate | 26 or less Objectives for the Allies and 13 or less Objectives for the Axis |
| Axis Marginal | 14 Objectives |
| Axis Tactical | 15 Objectives |
| Axis Decisive | 16 or more Objectives |
2.3 1944 Scenario
| Result | Condition |
|---|---|
| Allied Decisive | Conquer Germany in/before Winter 1944 |
| Allied Tactical | Conquer Germany in Spring 1945 |
| Allied Marginal | Conquer Germany in Summer 1945 |
| (There is no Stalemate) | |
| Axis Marginal | Allies conquer Germany in Fall 1945 |
| Axis Tactical | Allies conquer Germany in Winter 1945 |
| Axis Decisive | Allies conquer Germany in Spring 1946 |
2.4 Campaign Game
| Result | Condition |
|---|---|
| Allied Decisive | Conquer Axis in/before Summer 1944 |
| Allied Tactical | Conquer Axis in Fall or Winter 1944 |
| Allied Marginal | Conquer Axis in Spring or Summer 1945 |
| Stalemate | If Axis is not conquered in/before Summer 1945 |
| Axis Marginal | Axis Controls at least 28 Objectives at end of Winter 1943 |
| Axis Tactical | Axis conquers two Allied Major Powers |
| Axis Decisive | Axis conquers three Allied Major Powers |
To fulfill their Campaign Game victory conditions, the Allies must capture both Berlin and Rome (or capture Berlin and force an Italian surrender).
The Campaign Game does not end immediately if the Axis fulfills its victory conditions. It continues until Germany and Italy have fallen or the final Game Turn of the scenario has been completed — whichever happens first.
Or, if Free Siberian Transfer (11.253) is in effect:
| Result | Condition |
|---|---|
| Allied Decisive | Conquer Axis in/before Spring 1944 |
| Allied Tactical | Conquer Axis in Summer or Fall 1944 |
| Allied Marginal | Conquer Axis in Winter 1944 or Spring 1945 |
| Stalemate | If Axis is not conquered in/before Spring 1945 |
| Axis Marginal | Axis Controls at least 28 Objectives at end of Winter 1943 |
| Axis Tactical | Axis conquers two Allied Major Powers |
| Axis Decisive | Axis conquers three Allied Major Powers |
3.0 Unit Types
A unit is any playing piece that can be moved (by any method) on/to/from the map. Ground and air units have a combat factor on the left and a movement factor on the right [Exception: Replacements, which cannot move, have only a combat factor]. Naval units have only a combat factor; their range is unlimited within their Front. For Bridgeheads, see also 8.0. For air units and airbases, see also 20.0; for partial air units, see also 20.6. For naval units, see also 21.0; for partial naval units, see also 21.7. For Replacements and airborne units, see also 22.0 and 23.0 respectively.
The unit types are: Infantry, Armor, and Airborne (Ground Units), Replacement (a ground-unit piece with only a combat factor), the Naval Unit, the Air Unit, the Bridgehead, and the Airbase. Ground and air unit counters show a combat factor on the left and a movement factor on the right; naval units show only a combat factor.
The green dot in the center of certain ocean hexes along the western edge of the map indicates that those hexes may be used for the movement of fleets to/from the U.S. Box during the Movement Phase.
4.0 Terrain & the Map
4.1 Grid Coordinates
Each hex of the hexgrid superimposed over the map may be located by a specific grid-coordinate reference. Each horizontal row of hexes (hexrow) has an individual letter designation, and each diagonal (from northwest to southeast) hexrow has an individual number designation. See the printed mapsheet.
Example: Lisbon is V8, Marrakech is EE2, Dublin is H22, Rome is Y22, Berlin is L31, Helsinki is D41, Moscow is H47, and Perma is D61.
4.2 Playable Hexes
National borders (thick black lines) and geographic features have been rationalized to conform to the hexagonal grid. Solid gray or black areas are not playable. Switzerland, for example, is impassable to all units — both ground and air. All other hexes not printed in gray are playable.
4.3 Land/Ocean Hexes
Land terrain is defined as any green, white, yellow, brown or "swamp-blue" area inside the black coastal shoreline that borders all bodies of water. The black shoreline alone is not considered sufficient area to allow ground movement or combat across a hexside. A hexside must contain land area on both sides to allow normal ground movement or combat across it.
Any completely black land mass is considered impassable to ground units. Thus, the islands east of Athens (hexes DD28 and CC28) do not exist for game purposes. Similarly, the extended northernmost peninsula on the Caspian Sea in W52 is non-existent for game purposes, and is included on the map only for aesthetic purposes. A ground unit in W52 would be considered on the southernmost peninsula. F33 (at the northern tip of Denmark) is not considered a one-hex island even though the G32 portion of the island is unplayable.
Ocean (and lake) hexsides are defined as any that contain blue on both sides, provided that "blue" is not attributable solely to a river. Naval movement is allowed only across ocean hexsides [Exception: The Suez Canal (hexsides LL30-LL31, MM30-LL31 and MM30-MM31), and the Gulf of Suez, where naval movement may only occur if the hexes adjacent to the canal are under friendly control].
Hexsides that are partially ocean and partially land may be considered both land and ocean for all purposes.
4.4 Fronts
Solid-red Front boundaries separate the map into three Fronts; Eastern, Western and Mediterranean. These boundaries are of significance in the choice of each side's Options (11.21) and naval capabilities.
4.5 Land Movement
Ground units are never slowed by terrain [Exception: they cannot cross a lake hexside, and can cross an ocean hexside only at a Crossing Arrow or with naval assistance]. See also 4.51.
Units are not adjacent for purposes of Pass-Option movement (11.232) and Strategic Redeployment (11.26) when they are separated by an all-ocean/lake hexside, even an all-ocean hexside that contains a Crossing Arrow — nor is a unit "adjacent to an enemy unit" if the enemy is a future enemy, not yet at war.
See also 7.0 Zones of Control.
4.51 Terrain Effects on Land Movement and Combat
The various terrain features on the map are illustrated in the Map Legend on the Reference Map. The effects of terrain on movement and combat are summarized in the Terrain Effects Chart below.
Each defending ground unit has its combat factor at least doubled in any terrain. It is quadrupled when in a Fortress hex. It is tripled when behind a river, or behind a Crossing Arrow, with all attackers on the opposite side; however, in this case an attacking ground (including an Airdropped) unit on the same side of it as the defender untriples that defense.
Each defending ground unit is also tripled when in a mountain or swamp hex, or in a beach hex when defending against Seaborne Invasion. A defender in a beach hex is not tripled if attacked by land only, but if Seaborne Invasion is being attempted, whether or not in conjunction with a land attack, nothing (not even an Airdrop) will untriple it. Defensive benefits are not cumulative; e.g., a unit on a mountain behind a river is only tripled.
Neither combat nor movement is allowed across an all-Qattara hexside (NN25-NN26, NN26-NN27, MM26-NN26 and MM27-NN26). Supply cannot be traced across a Qattara hexside.
Terrain Effects Chart
| Terrain | Effect on Combat | Effect on Movement |
|---|---|---|
| Beach | Defenders tripled against Seaborne Invasion. Otherwise doubled. | Ground units can be landed using Seaborne Invasion. |
| Capitals / Capital-port | Can't be selected for Attrition advance after combat. | None, other than use as an air base. |
| City | None | Can be used as an air base |
| Coastline | None | None |
| Crossing Arrow | Defenders are tripled vs attacks across a crossing arrow hexside. | Ground units may cross hexsides indicated in both directions. |
| Fortress | Defense is quadrupled. Can't be taken by Attrition or Isolation. | None, ZOC have no effect on Fortress hexes. |
| Front Boundary | Units crossing or attacking across must abide by restrictions of Option chosen on Front moved into or attacked. | |
| Lake | Movement or combat not allowed across all-water hexsides. | |
| Swamp | Defense is tripled. | None |
| Mountains | Defense is tripled | None |
| National Boundary Line | Cannot attack or move across while country is neutral. If neutral, a Declaration of War must be declared before crossing or attacking into it. If already at war or conquered there is no effect. | |
| Objective | Can't be selected for Attrition advance after combat. | Can be used as a base. |
| Ocean | Only special naval and air combat allowed. | Can be crossed only by fleets, and air units which can stage 8 hexes or less over it to another base. |
| Clear | Double Defense | None |
| Qattara Depression | No movement or combat allowed across completely Qattara hexsides. | |
| River | Defense is tripled against attacks from across river. | None |
4.6 Crossing Arrows
Red Crossing Arrows permit ground units to cross or have combat (either Offensive or Attrition) in either direction. They occur only in Denmark (on three hexsides), Scotland (one hexside), the Turkish Straits (two hexsides), the Crimea-Kerch Strait (one hexside), and the Strait of Messina (one hexside).
4.7 Cities
A Capital (any city designated by a star, even one in a colony) may not be selected for Attrition occupation. The Capital of a country serves as a supply source if that country has armed forces represented in the game. An Objective (any city printed in red) may not be selected for Attrition occupation. A port (any city designated by an open, non-solid black or red circle) may base naval units. Capital-ports (Athens and Stockholm) function as both a port and a Capital. Brindisi is on the east coast of AA25; fleets may enter/leave it only via the easternmost of the two ocean areas within the hex. Similarly, Plymouth is on the southern coast of its peninsula (K21). All other cities, designated by black dots, have no special significance except for their ability to base air units (20.1). Cities have no effect on defensive combat strength; doubling, etc., is determined by the other terrain in the hex. The terms "city" and "cities", wherever used in the rules, always include ports, Objectives and Capitals.
4.8 Fortresses
A Fortress hex is quadrupled against attack from any direction, even where all its hexsides do not show Fortification symbols. A Fortress hex serves as a limited supply source for all units in the Fortress hex, and only those units. It supplies all units that began their turn in that hex.
A Fortress hex may not be selected for occupation during an Attrition Option. Armor ZOC does not extend into, but does extend out of, a Fortress hex.
Malta and Gibraltar are always Fortress hexes. All other Fortress hexes lose their Fortress status permanently as soon as they are occupied by an enemy unit. Additionally, Maginot-Line Fortresses lose their status upon the fall of France. Maginot-Line hexes (Metz, Strasbourg and hex P25) are not treated as Fortress hexes in the 1942 and 1944 scenarios. The hexes that form the West Wall (Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Bonn, and Essen) become actual Fortress hexes only at the start of 1944, and only if under Axis control at that time. Sevastopol is considered a Fortress only while the U.S.S.R. controls another port on the Black Sea (which is itself in supply) and/or can trace a line of supply from Sevastopol to the east edge of the map (across the Crimea-Kerch Strait [hexside U40-U41] if necessary) at the start of his Player Turn.
Fortress symbols appear on the map only when the hex in question actually has Fortress status. For example, if Metz is occupied by the Axis, it loses its Fortress status and its Fortress symbols. Likewise, the West Wall hexes have no Fortress symbols prior to 1944.
4.9 Islands
An island that has a beach hex can be invaded only at that beach hex. One-hex islands (and Gibraltar) can be invaded if they do not have a port containing a 9-factor enemy fleet [Exception: any island that is composed of only black terrain (4.3) is unplayable and hence cannot be invaded]. Scapa Flow is considered a one-hex island for purposes of this rule. The northern tip of Denmark is not considered a one-hex island (4.3).
5.0 Stacking
The basic stacking limit is two ground units per hex, regardless of their combat strength. There are several exceptions to this rule:
- Three ground units may stack in London, but only if all three are British.
- Airborne units are never counted for stacking-limit purposes, and may be added to any legal stack.
- The defender may temporarily overstack if forced to do so when retreating due to Attrition Combat. He must remedy the overstacking during his own next Movement Phase; if unable to do so, he must eliminate excess units of his choice.
- Armor units may overstack in a Breakthrough hex. Such overstacking must be remedied by the end of the attacker's Strategic Redeployment Phase, or excess units of his choice will be eliminated.
- Five ground units may stack on a Bridgehead. There is no increase in the stacking capacity of a Bridgehead for being in London.
- If Paris is enemy-occupied but France has not yet fallen, all French units that would otherwise be eliminated for overstacking instead become part of the potential Vichy force pool and will be returned to play if Vichy France comes into being.
- See also 26.0 Anglo-French Cooperation and 27.0 Russo-Allied Cooperation.
Up to 36 naval factors may stack in one port. Two ports in a hex allow stacking up to 72 naval factors there. A maximum of 5 air factors may stack on each airbase or city (10 may stack in a double city or 15 in a double city with an airbase). The stacking of naval and air units is unlimited while at sea or in the air.
Stacking limits do not apply to ground units while moving — nor while embarked on naval units, but no unit may end its Combat Phase or its Player Turn so embarked.
6.0 Hex Control
Each land hex is controlled by the last nation to have a ground unit in it, or to pass a ground unit through it, while enemy controlled [Exception: when the hexes of a minor nation change control due to its initial conquest; 16.0].
Unless stated otherwise, each nation controls its own hexes and the hexes of all areas listed as under its control at the start of each scenario. To gain control of a hex as the result of combat, the attacker must advance a unit after combat into the defender's hex. A ground unit must enter a hex to change the control-status of that hex.
7.0 Zones of Control (ZOC)
Every ground unit exerts a Zone of Control (ZOC) on the hex it occupies. An armor unit, only, exerts an additional ZOC on the six hexes adjacent to the hex it occupies [Exception: armor ZOC does not extend across an all-ocean/lake hexside, nor across a hexside that contains a Crossing Arrow, nor into a Fortress hex — though it does extend out of Fortress hexes, and across rivers and the Suez Canal]. Armor ZOC adversely affects enemy movement by forcing a moving enemy ground unit to pay an extra two movement factors to leave a hex in the ZOC of the armor unit, and adversely affects the tracing of a supply line by preventing units from tracing through a hex that is adjacent to an enemy armor unit. Friendly units do not negate the effect of enemy ZOC.
8.0 Bridgeheads
A Bridgehead may be placed in a hex that meets either of the following conditions:
- The hex is successfully occupied by Seaborne Invasion.
- A tripled-defense river hex or a Crossing Arrow hex is successfully occupied by an Offensive-Option attack.
The attacker may place the Bridgehead immediately upon the post-combat advance of his first ground unit into such an eligible hex. He may then continue post-combat advance with other eligible units, up to the Bridgehead stacking limit. There is a limit to the number of Bridgeheads that a side can have in play at any one time: five for the Allied, and three for the Axis.
Up to five ground units (plus airborne) may occupy a Bridgehead. Although all five units may attack, a maximum of two units may attack out of each hexside during an Offensive Option [Exception: three ground units may attack if all three are British in London]. All five are counted for contact with the enemy during an Attrition Option. All five defend against an opponent's Offensive Option. All five counterattack when required. A Bridgehead hex may not be selected for occupation during an Attrition Option.
A Bridgehead may be removed from play whenever the player who placed it wishes to — even if just to switch it to another hex for use there. The player could even await the outcome of a Seaborne Invasion attack before deciding to move an existing Bridgehead to the Seaborne Invasion hex. A Bridgehead is automatically removed whenever its hex is occupied solely by one or more enemy ground units — or, under certain conditions (see 11.266), at the end of the Player Turn.
9.0 The Year Start Sequence (YSS)
The Year Start Sequence (YSS) consists of Strategic Warfare Resolution, BRP Calculation and Strategic Warfare Construction. It occurs immediately before the start of each Spring Game Turn [Exception: no YSS precedes the start of either the 1939 scenario or the Campaign Game; the 1942 and 1944 scenarios are preceded by Strategic Warfare Construction only].
9.1 Strategic Warfare (SW) Resolution
The Strategic Warfare (SW) factors of both sides [Exception: those allocated to the Murmansk Convoy Box; 25.0] are mutually eliminated in a one-for-one exchange (ASW for submarines; interceptors for SAC) until only one type of each pair (i.e., either ASW or submarines, and either interceptors or SAC) remains. In the 1943 YSS, each ASW factor can be exchanged for 1.5 submarine factors. In the 1944 YSS and thereafter, each ASW factor can be exchanged for 2 submarine factors. Fractional losses are resolved in favor of the Axis. The excess factors surviving these mutual eliminations remain "in play" to determine enemy BRP losses:
Each surviving submarine factor eliminates three BRPs from the remaining British and/or American BRPs. Each surviving SAC factor eliminates two BRPs from the remaining German BRPs. In addition, during any YSS in which SAC inflicts BRP losses, the German player must remove one of his 5-4 air units from the map in exchange for an additional five interceptor factors for use in Strategic Warfare. (These interceptor factors are in addition to any constructed using the 10% BRP SW limit.) The removed 5-4 air unit cannot be rebuilt (in essence it is subtracted from Germany's Allowable Builds). If no 5-4 is available to be removed, it must be built during the Spring Unit-Construction Phase and immediately transformed into interceptor factors. In any subsequent YSS that Germany again suffers SAC-inflicted BRP losses, yet another 5-4 is removed and exchanged in similar fashion. On the other hand, in any subsequent YSS in which Germany suffers no SAC-inflicted BRP losses, one 5-4 air unit is returned to Germany's Allowable Builds (to the maximum number of 5-4s it is permitted in the scenario).
9.11 SW Resolution in 1945-46
At the end of the Spring 1945 Game Turn, SW Resolution is conducted again. The BRP losses that result are quartered and deducted immediately from the respective BRP totals. The same BRP losses are inflicted again at the end of each Game Turn until the end of the game.
9.2 Basic Resource Point (BRP) Calculations
BRPs are calculated separately for each Major Power. Begin with a nation's Base determined in the previous YSS, or from the start of the scenario as appropriate. If a nation has unused BRPs remaining from the previous year, they are multiplied by the nation's Growth Rate, and the result (fractions rounded down) is added to the Base [Exception: no BRP Base growth occurs in the 1940 YSS; see below].
If, on the other hand, SW reduced a nation's BRPs below zero, the deficit will be subtracted from the Base. (If the nation was already below zero before SW losses [9.1], only that part of its deficit that resulted from SW will be subtracted.) SW losses below zero are the only way to reduce a BRP Base. The resulting figure is the nation's new BRP Base for the coming year.
Example: If a nation's current BRP level equals -3 and its SW losses were -6 BRPs, it will forfeit 9 BRPs from its BRP start this coming year, and 6 BRPs every year thereafter (although this ongoing loss may be reversed by subsequent growth).
The resulting figure is the nation's new BRP Base for the coming year [Exception: The 1940 BRP Base is always the same as the 1939 Base, because neither BRP-Base growth nor losses due to SW can occur in the 1940 YSS]. To this BRP Base is added the BRP value of: all active Minor-Allies; all attacked-but-unconquered Minors for which the country has Intervened; all conquered countries and colonies not already controlled by the nation at the start of the scenario; and (in the 1940 YSS only) the product of the nation's unused BRPs (remaining from 1939) multiplied by its Growth Rate. This sum represents the country's initial BRP Total.
A conquered Major Power yields to the conquering nation only half (rounded down) of the BRPs it began the scenario with. If a previously controlled country or colony was just captured from the nation during the last half of the Winter turn, its BRPs will still be added too; however, they will be immediately subtracted if the nation does not regain control of that country during the coming Spring turn. Whenever a Minor-Ally is activated, its BRPs are immediately added to those of the Major Power it is allied with (Germany or Britain), and will be continued to be added during each subsequent YSS as long as it is so allied. BRP Totals are always derived by adding conquests since the start of the scenario and Minor-Ally BRP totals to the existing BRP Base.
Germany gains an additional 15 BRPs each for controlling Leningrad/Moscow during the YSS (if the U.S.S.R. has not surrendered; 18.41). Similarly, the U.S.S.R. loses 15 BRPs each during any YSS in which it does not control them.
Example: Assume that in the 1940 YSS Germany has 50 BRPs remaining from 1939 and has also overrun Poland. The unused BRPs are multiplied by the German Growth Rate of 50%, yielding an additional 25 BRPs for 1940. (The other 25 BRPs are lost.) These 25 BRPs, plus the 20 conquered Polish BRPs, are added to Germany's 1939 BRP Base of 175 for a Total of 195 German BRPs for 1940.
In the 1941 YSS Germany has 30 unused BRPs left and has gained an additional 40 BRPs through the conquest of Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The unused BRPs are lost, but provide (via Germany's 50% Growth Rate) a BRP-Base growth of 15 BRPs in this and any following YSS. Germany's new BRP Base is thus 165. In addition, 40 BRPs are added to this due to the recent conquests, plus 20 BRPs for Poland which Germany still controls. The German 1941 Total will be 225.
In the 1942 YSS Germany has no unused BRPs left and has managed to gain only 25 additional BRPs by taking Eastern Europe from the U.S.S.R. There will be no BRP growth in 1942. Furthermore, because Germany has lost ten BRPs due to British SW during this YSS, Germany's new BRP Base drops to 155. To this Base is added the 85 "conquest" BRPs Germany now controls, for a sum of 240. To this is added the 45 BRPs of Germany's active Minor-Allies which became active in the preceding year. Germany will have a 1942-YSS BRP Total of 285, although its BRP Base will remain at 155.
In the 1943 YSS Germany has 10 unused BRPs remaining and has conquered Leningrad and Moscow for an additional 30 BRPs by way of territorial conquest, without losing any of her prior acquisitions. However, her SW losses have increased to 20 BRPs due to Allied bombing. The SW losses negate the German 10-BRP surplus and also reduce her BRP Base to 145 (155 — 10 = 145). To this figure is added Germany's 115 conquest BRPs plus 45 BRPs for her active Minor-Allies, for a 1943 BRP Total of 305.
9.3 Strategic Warfare Construction
Germany, Britain and (commencing in the 1942 YSS) the U.S.A. may now each spend up to 10% of its BRP Total to construct SW factors as follows:
- Germany may build interceptor aircraft (2 BRPs per factor) and/or submarines (2 BRPs per factor).
- Britain and the U.S.A. may each build ASW (3 BRPs per factor) and/or SAC (3 BRPs per factor).
New factors add to the total of each type surviving from YSS SW Resolution. During the year, submarine and ASW factors may be allocated to the Murmansk Convoy Box. If desired, they may be initially placed in that Box when constructed.
10.0 BRP Spending Limit
After SW Construction (9.3), each nation's remaining BRP Total is divided by two. This figure (fractions rounded down) is the maximum amount of BRPs that nation may spend during any one Player Turn in the forthcoming year. This half-of-total limit also applies in the initial year of each scenario.
11.0 Sequence of Play
11.1 BRP-Level Determination & Order of Play
Both sides' current BRP Totals are compared at the beginning of each Game Turn. The side with the higher Total is considered to have the Initiative, which means it has the first Player Turn in this Game Turn. Should BRP Totals be equal, the order of play from the previous turn prevails.
German and Italian BRP Totals are added together for the Axis Total. The French and British are added together for the Allies. American BRPs are included in the Allied Total beginning with the Summer 1942 turn. Russian BRPs are added to those of the Western Allies when the U.S.S.R. is at war with Germany.
11.2 Declarations of War & Front Options
Each Major Power must, at the start of its Player Turn, announce any Declarations of War (DoW) it is making that turn and pay their cost — 10 BRPs vs. a Minor country, 35 BRPs vs. a Major Power. See 13.0 for further details.
Each country of the Phasing Player's side which is at war [Exception: a minor country that a friendly Major Power has Intervened in; see 15.0] must next designate whether it is undertaking an Offensive, Attrition or Pass Option on each of the three Fronts, and if a Major Power must pay the 15 BRP cost for each Front it announces an Offensive Option for.
If a nation selects an Offensive or Attrition Option on a given Front, its allies must either join in that Offensive or Attrition Option, or Pass. A nation may not select an Attrition Option while an ally selects an Offensive Option on the same Front.
A player may select an Attrition Option even if none of his country's units will end the Movement Phase adjacent to an enemy unit on that Front. A player selecting an Offensive Option must either make at least one ground attack, or conduct one air or naval Offensive Mission (even if it is successfully Intercepted), on that Front or its Offensive-Option BRP cost is refunded.
11.21 Option Determinants
The hex that "receives the action" always determines what Option is required.
Example: Naval units in the Mediterranean could invade southern France, or land a Sea Transport Mission at Marseilles, even though their nation was taking a Pass or Attrition Option on the Mediterranean Front. Similarly, air units in northern Italy could attack southern France. All these actions would require an Offensive Option only on the Western Front, since in each case the land portion of the hex "receiving the action" is on the Western — not the Mediterranean — Front.
Example: Naval units in the Mediterranean could not land a Sea Transport Mission at Genoa in the above example, even if the Transported units proceeded to move by land and attack a Western-Front hex.
Example: Ground units in Turin and hex U21 could attack adjacent units in France during a Western-Front Offensive Option even if an Attrition or Pass Option was used on the Mediterranean Front. Similarly, the Western-Front units could be counted as part of a Western-Front Attrition even if an Offensive or Pass Option was used on the Mediterranean Front. In both of the foregoing, the units in Italy could ignore the restrictions on Pass-Option movement in moving to the border.
A unit at a Front boundary cannot take part in Offensive attacks on both Fronts, nor in Attrition on one Front and an Offensive attack on another. It could, however, Exploit from one Front into an Offensive- or Attrition-attack situation on another Front.
Combat is not a requirement of an Attrition Option. Attrition can be used simply to traverse uncontrolled territory, thereby controlling it.
11.3 Voluntary Destruction of Units
A side may voluntarily destroy any of its own units and return them to its Allowable Builds. [Exceptions: French before 1942, and airbases]. An airborne unit destroyed under this rule is eligible to be rebuilt only if it was in direct supply (i.e., not behind enemy lines). A unit that is voluntarily destroyed cannot be reconstructed during the same Game Turn.
11.4 Movement Phase
11.41 Offensive-/Attrition-Option Movement
The movement rules for an Offensive Option and an Attrition Option are identical. A player may move all, some or none of his in-supply units. Ground units may move up to the limit of their movement factor. Naval units may change ports (but may not move to another Front in so doing), and air units may stage. German air/naval units and SW submarine factors may move into or out of the Murmansk Convoy Box [Exception: sub factors may move out of that Box only during an Axis pre-1945 Spring turn; 25.0].
Terrain does not affect movement except for certain impassable hexsides. Otherwise, all land movement costs one movement factor per unit per hex traversed. The ZOC of an enemy armor unit does affect movement: it costs two extra movement factors to exit a hex that is in the ZOC of enemy armor, or to move from one such hex to another. There is no extra cost to enter an armor ZOC. Armor ZOC has no effect on the movement of air and naval units.
A ground unit may never move into or through a hex that is occupied by an enemy ground unit. An airborne unit may Airdrop onto one or more enemy ground units, however (23.1).
A ground/air unit moving from one Front to another must abide by all rules pertaining to the Option being employed on the Front it is entering. If a unit moves up to a Front boundary to attack (by Offensive or Attrition combat) an enemy unit across that Front boundary, it is moved according to the Option employed on the Front it is attacking.
A naval unit that changes ports during the Movement Phase is potentially subject to Interception (20.52; 21.5). The Phasing Player designates all port changes his fleets will attempt before the Non-Phasing Player makes his Interception decisions. Port changes are made before any movement of air and ground units.
After the movement and Interception of all fleets is finished, the Phasing Player designates which (if any) of his fleets he will use for sea supply (19.31) during the Game Turn. Note that if it is the second Player Turn of the Game Turn, a fleet that Intercepted during the opponent's turn cannot be so designated. Any fleets used become active again at the end of the Game Turn.
11.42 Pass-Option Movement
All movement rules for Offensive and Attrition Options apply during the Pass Option, with the following exceptions:
A moving ground unit may enter only hexes that are already friendly controlled (even if the hex in question is vacant and lies within the ZOC of a friendly armor unit). If the moving unit is adjacent to any enemy unit (even one on another Front), it cannot move; see also 4.5. Its move cannot begin in, end in or pass through any hex adjacent to an enemy unit. Units of a nation taking a Pass Option may enter hexes captured by an ally during the same Movement Phase if no other restrictions apply.
Air units may stage only over already-controlled and/or all-water hexes. Naval units may change port only if the enemy has no fleets on the Front and has no air units within four hexes of the course taken. This is true even if those enemy fleet/air units are ineligible to Intercept.
A ground or air unit that changes Fronts during movement, or that attacks an enemy unit across a Front boundary, is not bound by these restrictions if it enters or attacks a non-Pass-Option Front hex. The Front entered/attacked governs. Similarly, during the Combat Phase a naval unit may move through a Pass-Option Front to Bombard or Invade another Front, or to land a Sea Transport unit in a debarkation port on another Front. (However, the Sea Transported unit could not land in a Pass-Option-Front port, even if the unit proceeded to move farther by land and enter or attack a hex on another Front. The port of debarkation is the hex that "receives the action" [11.211] of this Naval Mission.)
11.5 Combat Phase
11.51 Offensive-Option Combat
During the Combat Phase of an Offensive Option the following sequence of actions applies (the rule numbers given below refer to Sequence-of-Play steps in the Operations Manual):
- The Phasing Player conducts all desired Naval/Air Offensive Missions (except DAS Interceptions, and Missions that will take place during Exploitation). (5.46b)
- All Counter-Air Missions are resolved. (5.46c)
- The Non-Phasing Player conducts all DAS, and all air/naval Interception attempts vs. the Phasing Player's Naval Offensive Missions. (5.46d)
- The Phasing Player conducts all DAS-Interceptions, and all air/naval Counter-Interception attempts, vs. the Non-Phasing Player's Intercepting fleets. These are resolved, and then the Non-Phasing Player's naval Interceptions are resolved. (5.46e)
- The Phasing Player may make Airdrops. (5.46g)
- The Phasing Player designates and resolves each ground attack he desires to make, in whatever order he chooses. He resolves each attack (including post-combat advance, and the movement to Breakthrough hexes of armor units) before designating his next attack. (5.46h)
- The Phasing Player may conduct air attacks on enemy naval bases (i.e., vs. the Non-Phasing Player's fleets in port). (5.46i)
- The Phasing Player may conduct Exploitation movement. (5.46j)
- Offensive and Defensive air (but not naval) Missions may be conducted by uncommitted units. (5.46k-5.46m)
- The Phasing Player may make Exploitation Airdrops. (5.46n)
- The Phasing Player may designate and resolve his Exploitation attacks. (5.46o)
For the specific rules governing Offensive-Option combat, see 12.1-12.32.
11.52 Attrition-Option Combat
After movement, the Phasing Player's ground factors (if any) in contact with adjacent enemy ground units on the Front are totalled. Units on another Front, but in contact with enemy ground units on the Attritioned Front, may be included provided they do not participate in Attrition- or Offensive-Option combat on their own Front. Units in contact with enemy units only on another Front are not counted, nor are units in contact only across all-ocean/lake hexsides (unless a Crossing Arrow is present). See 12.4 for more details.
Example: If it is the German Player Turn, unit "A" could participate in Attrition combat on either Front, but not on both. If it is the Soviet Player Turn, unit "B" could participate in Attrition combat only on the Eastern Front.
11.6 Unit Construction Phase
During the Unit-Construction Phase, the Phasing Player may construct available units and/or make BRP Grants to other nations, provided his BRP expenditures do not exceed the spending country's limit.
BRP Cost Chart
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| To declare war on a major power | 35 BRPs |
| To declare war on a minor power | 10 BRPs |
| To conduct an Offensive Option | 15 BRPs |
| To Build: | Cost Per Factor: |
|---|---|
| Air Force | 3 BRPs |
| Armor | 2 BRPs |
| ASW | 3 BRPs |
| Infantry | 1 BRP |
| Interceptor/Flak | 2 BRPs |
| Naval | 3 BRPs |
| Paratroops | 3 BRPs |
| Partisans | 2 BRPs |
| Replacements | 1 BRP |
| SAC | 3 BRPs |
| Submarines | 2 BRPs |
| Intelligence Effort | 5 BRPs |
11.61 Air-Unit Construction
A nation may never have more air factors in play than are allowed by its Force Pool. Subject to this limitation, a player may construct air units.
11.62 Naval-Unit Construction
A player may construct only 9-factor fleets, at a cost of 27 BRPs each; partial fleets cannot be constructed. A player may construct his "Allowable Builds" 9-factor fleets in the normal manner — but each 9-factor fleet that he rebuilds after its elimination in combat appears on the map as an unuseable gray fleet unit until one full year after its BRP construction costs have been paid. If that fleet's port becomes enemy-controlled at any time during that year, that fleet and the BRPs spent for it are lost.
Turkey, Spain, Vichy France, Sweden and the Free French may never rebuild a fleet, even if they become active Minor-Allies.
11.63 Free Siberian Transfer
In the Winter 1941 turn the Allied player may opt to select, at no BRP cost, any four ground units currently available in his Force Pool for placement on the map during unit construction. In the Spring 1942 turn he may select an additional three units without cost, plus two more in Summer 1942 and one in Fall 1942.
He may choose only non-airborne ground units, and the number of armor units he chooses cannot exceed the number of infantry units chosen in the same turn. Free-Siberian-Transfer opportunities not taken in any turn are forfeited.
Each unit so selected must be placed initially in a Russian-controlled city in the U.S.S.R. that has a supply line to the east edge of the map.
The use of Free Siberian Transfer is an option available only to the Allied player. If he uses it, the Allied victory conditions for the scenario (except the 1944 scenario) will change; see 2.1, 2.2 and 2.4.
11.64 Placement of Constructed Units
Each constructed unit must be placed initially in its home country, in a supplied, controlled hex not in enemy ZOC [Exception: a unit cannot be constructed in a hex that its country did not control at the beginning of the current Game Turn; U.S. units are automatically placed in the U.S. Box in the upper left-hand corner of the map]. Where not yet at war, units may be placed at a border despite the ZOC of a future enemy's armor unit there. East Prussia is considered part of Germany for this rule, as is Ulster part of Britain and Sicily part of Italy. However, France may not build units in Corsica, nor Italy in Sardinia, etc. The U.S.S.R. may not build units in Eastern Europe after its occupation.
11.7 Strategic Redeployment (SR) Phase
The side whose Player Turn it is may now Strategically Redeploy (SR) units and/or make BRP Grants.
11.71 BRP Grants
Major Powers may make BRP Grants to their allied Major Powers. A Major Power may not Grant more than 40 BRPs to another in one turn. The Western Allies together may not Grant more than 40 BRPs to the U.S.S.R. in one turn. No Major Power may spend more than half of its total yearly BRP allotment (after SW Construction) on BRP Grants during that year. Once Granted, BRPs count against this limit even if subsequently lost on the Murmansk Convoy route. Once a Major Power Grants BRPs, the recipient may not Grant BRPs to that Granting nation for the remainder of the game. The U.S.S.R. may not Grant BRPs at all — and may not receive a BRP Grant until it is at war with Germany. Neither France nor the U.S. may Grant BRPs before Spring 1942.
The Allied player may also make BRP Grants utilizing Lend-Lease (24.0) and/or Murmansk Convoys (25.0) at this time. If he chooses the latter, he may also send ASW factors to the Murmansk Convoy Box. In any Spring turn in which he already has ASW factors in the Murmansk Convoy Box, he may choose to move some/all of them out of it.
11.72 SRing Units
The side whose Player Turn it is may now Strategically Redeploy (SR) a number of its supplied units, moving them any distance, subject to the following limits on number of units moved: U.S.A., 10; Germany, 9; Britain, 7; U.S.S.R., 6; Italy, 5; France, 5. SR is not transferable from one nation to another, and cannot be accumulated from one turn to the next. Units redeployed by SR are not subject to interception in any manner.
Units SR'd by land may move only over controlled, supplied hexes (including hexes controlled by an ally). No SR'd unit may ever be, nor pass adjacent to, any enemy unit at the start, end, or any point of, its SR. (see also 4.5.)
A fleet may not be SR'd across more than one Front boundary [Exception: a fleet performing Sea Escort may not cross a Front boundary]. It may pass through the Strait of Gibraltar only if Gibraltar is controlled by its side; enemy forces in any other hex(es) adjacent to the strait (including hexes AA9 and BB8) do not prevent SR through Gibraltar. Naval SR may not pass through the Turkish Straits if any of the four hexes adjacent to the Crossing Arrows is controlled by enemy/neutral forces. A fleet cannot be SR'd if it has performed Sea Escort or provided sea supply during the current Game Turn (21.3; 24.0-25.0).
An air unit may be SR'd across an all-ocean/lake hexside only via Sea Escort or by tracing a path of no more than eight hexes from its base to another friendly-controlled base on the far shore. It may cross more than eight ocean/lake hexes total in this manner by using a chain of bases no more than eight hexes apart. An air unit may be SR'd over a combination land-ocean hex if the land therein is friendly or neutral, but not if it is enemy-controlled.
Each Grant of 20 BRPs (or fraction thereof) to another nation counts as one SR against the Granting nation's limit. BRPs travel from Capital to Capital, and thus may not be SR'd if the Capital of either country is adjacent to an enemy unit [Exception: the U.S.S.R. may receive BRPs as long as she has neither surrendered nor been conquered, without regard to the status of Moscow].
Most non-air/fleet SRs across an all-ocean/lake hexside (Crossing Arrows excepted) must use Sea Escort; see 21.6.
11.73 Special Rules for Units in the U.S. Box
SRs from the U.S. Box — called "Initial Deployments" — are limited to 6 per turn. Each 20-BRP Grant (or fraction thereof) to an Ally counts against this Initial Deployment limit, whether via Murmansk Convoy, Lend-Lease (as applicable to the first turn of the two-turn Lend-Lease process), or simply across the Atlantic.
Each Initially Deploying unit must end its SR as follows:
- If France has been conquered but Britain has not: in Britain (including Ulster).
- If Britain has been conquered but France has not: in France, using a Western-Front port.
- If neither Britain nor France has been conquered: in either of those countries, using a Western-Front port.
- If both Britain and France have been conquered: in any hex reachable through a friendly port, in or bordering on, the Western Front. If no such friendly port exists, Initial Deployment may be made only by invading in any hex in (or bordering on) the Western Front.
Air and naval units may perform Defensive Missions in the Game Turn that they arrive in Britain (or France) if they were constructed in an earlier Game Turn or were "At Start" units. No Sea Escort is required for an SR from the U.S. Box to Britain (or France), but U.S.-based Sea Escort is required for each such SR to any other Ally.
If Britain is conquered, American Initial Deployments are limited to 4 per turn. Should the Allies recapture London, Initial Deployments would return to 6. In Seaborne-Invasion Initial Deployment, only the units aboard the invasion fleet would count against the Deployment limit; the fleets themselves would not, since they do not deploy but rather perform a Mission from the U.S. Box and then return there.
The U.S.A./Britain may assign additional fleets to protect Sea Escorted BRPs in Murmansk Convoys by moving them to the Murmansk Box. Each fleet so assigned counts as one SR; it may be based anywhere in the Atlantic, including the U.S.A. See 25.0.
11.74 Elimination of Unsupplied Units
All units that were unsupplied at the start of the Player Turn and remain unsupplied at the end of it (even if they were in supply at some intermediate point in it) are now eliminated, regardless of the Option employed, and returned to their Force Pool(s). (Note that supply fleets can be designated at this time; 19.31.)
11.75 Relocation of Unsupplied Airbases
Each Airbase of the Phasing Player's side that is currently unsupplied is relocated to the capital of its home country (or is eliminated) as per 20.1.
11.76 Removal of Certain Bridgeheads
Each Bridgehead belonging to the Phasing Player's side that is no longer required for supply purposes (i.e., all units previously supplied through that Bridgehead can trace supply by other means) and is at least five hexes away from all enemy ground units by land is removed from the map (but remains available for future use).
11.77 Elimination of Overstacked Units
All units left overstacked by the removal of Bridgeheads as per 11.266, and all units overstacked in Breakthrough hexes, are now eliminated as well (owner's choice of units to be eliminated).
11.8 Possible Russian Surrender
At the end of an Allied Player Turn in which the U.S.S.R. is at war with the Axis, has less than 50 factors of ground and air units on the map, and the combined Axis strength inside Russia's original boundaries exceeds the Russian total by at least a 3:2 ratio, Russia will make a one-time offer to surrender. See 18.41.
The Second Player Turn
The sides now reverse roles and repeat the phases of the First Player Turn. See also 9.11.
12.0 Ground Combat
12.1 Offensive-Option Ground Combat
The Phasing Player may attack with all, some or none of his ground units that are adjacent to (or on top of, in the case of airborne units) one or more enemy ground units [Exception: Replacements, even when adjacent to the enemy, may not attack except as a part of a Counterattack; 22.0]. The Phasing Player is never forced to attack [Exception: a unit that Airdrops onto an enemy unit must attack it; 23.1]. Certain exceptions to these rules also apply to Seaborne Invasions; see 21.43.
Combat factors of attacking units are always basic. Defending ground-unit combat factors are generally doubled, tripled or quadrupled; see 4.51.
All defending ground units in a hex must be attacked collectively, with their combat factors added together as if they were one unit. They cannot be attacked separately. Conversely, units in a given hex need not all attack the same hex; one unit could attack in a northeasterly direction while another attacks to the southeast or opts not to attack at all. All attacking units must be adjacent to (or on top of) all the defending units they are attacking. In such an attack, any air units conducting Ground Support or Defensive Air Support (DAS) may be placed in any of the hexes being attacked. No ground unit may ever "split" its combat factors; all must be applied to one attack. A unit may not be attacked more than once per Player Turn except as a result of subsequent Exploitation combat.
When all preparations for attack and defense are complete, each attack is resolved as follows:
- The factors of the attacking force, including any factors from Ground-Support and/or Shore Bombardment, are totalled;
- The defender's combat factors, including any from DAS and/or the multiplicative value from terrain, are totalled;
- The attacker's total factors are compared to the defender's total factors as a ratio (fractions are ignored), and the appropriate odds row of the Combat Results Table is consulted. (Attacks stronger than 5:1 are treated as 5:1; attacks weaker than 1:4 automatically result in elimination of the attacker.)
Offensive Combat Results Table
| Roll | 1-4 | 1-3 | 1-2 | 1-1 | 2-1 | 3-1 | 4-1 | 5-1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ex | Ex | Ex | Ex | Ex | Ex | Ex | Ex |
| 2 | A | Ex | Ex | CA | CA2 | CA2 | CA3 | D |
| 3 | A | A | CA | CA | CA2 | CA3 | D | D |
| 4 | A | A | A | Ex | CA1 | D | D | D |
| 5 | A | A | A | A | D | D | D | D |
| 6 | A | A | A | D | D | D | D | D |
12.2 Offensive-Option Combat Results
- A: All attacking units, including air but not naval, are eliminated and returned to the Force Pool.
- D: All defending units, including air, are eliminated and returned to the Force Pool.
- EX (Exchange): The side with fewer combat factors loses its entire force. The larger side removes at least an equal number of factors. The attacker must match the doubled, tripled or quadrupled value of the defender's units, unless the defender rolled the Exchange while Counterattacking.
- CA (Counterattack): All of the defender's units must immediately attack all units that originally attacked them. All factors are basic when the defender Counterattacks; neither side's units are doubled, tripled or quadrupled. However, if the defender rolls a "CA" too, forcing the original attacker to attack again, the defender's units resume their original value and the attack begins again at the original odds. When the defender Counterattacks, an "A" result eliminates the original defending unit(s) while a "D" result eliminates the original attacking unit(s). If the defender's Counterattack would be at less than 1:4 odds, his units are automatically eliminated.
- CA1: The defender must Counterattack as above, but on the 1:1 odds column (regardless of the factors involved).
- CA2, CA3: Identical to "CA1", but using the 1:2 or 1:3 odds column respectively.
Note: No battle may end with a "CA" result; each must ultimately end with an "A", "D" or "EX".
12.21 Advance After Combat
Whenever an Offensive-Option attack causes the elimination of all the originally defending ground units, the surviving originally attacking ground units adjacent to the defender's vacated hex may advance into that hex, up to the stacking limit, immediately after combat [Exception: units that were unsupplied at the start of — and airborne units that dropped during — their turn cannot advance; Exploiting units may not be able to advance]. The attacker may place a Bridgehead if allowed (see 8.0). The defender may never advance, not even when he eliminates the attacker through a Counterattack.
12.3 Breakthrough & Exploitation
12.31 Details of Breakthrough & Exploitation
Whenever an Offensive-Option attack includes at least one armor unit, and any ground unit participating in that attack survives and advances (12.21) into the defender's hex, a Breakthrough results. The defender's hex becomes the "Breakthrough hex".
Each friendly, in-supply armor unit that made no attack during combat, but that was adjacent to or stacked with any unit that did attack the Breakthrough hex, may now be placed on the Breakthrough hex. This placement is free; movement factors and stacking limits are ignored. Units so placed are the "Exploiting units". The unit(s) that survived the original attack and advanced into the Breakthrough hex is not an Exploiting unit and may neither move nor attack during Exploitation (not even to participate in a defender-generated "CA").
After all normal ground combat has been resolved and all post-combat advances have been made, Exploitation movement may be made from each Breakthrough hex as follows: the first Exploiting unit may only move up to two hexes from the Breakthrough hex. Each subsequently Exploiting unit may either move up to two hexes from the Breakthrough hex, or duplicate exactly the move of a previously Exploiting unit and then move up to two additional hexes of its own. In no case may a unit exceed its movement factor, which is counted from the Breakthrough hex and is limited normally by the ZOC of any enemy armor in adjacent hexes.
Exploiting units must obey all rules of normal movement. They could enter a Pass-Option Front only over hexes that were friendly-controlled at the start of the turn, and could not pass adjacent to an enemy unit therein. If entering an Attrition-Option Front whose Attrition Combat has not yet been resolved, they could conceivably add their factors to the Attrition total there. If Exploiting up to but not across a Front boundary, Exploiting units could attack across the boundary only if an Offensive Option had been announced on that other Front; they could also participate in Attrition Combat across the boundary if Attrition had been announced for that other Front.
After completing all Exploitation movement, the Phasing Player may make any Airdrop(s) and/or perform any Ground-Support Mission(s) he desires in conjunction with his Exploitation attack(s). The Non-Phasing Player may commit DAS, the Phasing Player may Intercept it, and Exploitation combat is then resolved on the CRT. Only Exploiting armor, airborne units that dropped during Exploitation, and their air support may make Exploitation attacks.
Some or all Exploiting units may remain in the Breakthrough hex, and all that do so may attack from there, even if "overstacked". But if the hex is still overstacked at the end of the SR Phase, the overstacked unit(s) will be eliminated (5.0).
Each Exploiting unit that survives its Exploitation attack may advance to occupy the vacant hex, unless such an advance would break the required every-other-hex chain of Exploiting units. Such an advance does not constitute a new Breakthrough hex.
Example (Figure 1: Attack): Three German infantry units and one armor unit attack the center Russian infantry unit at 13:6 (2:1), eliminating it.
Example (Figure 2: Breakthrough): After advancing one German infantry unit into the vacant hex (which is now a Breakthrough hex), the German player moves, at no movement cost, his other three armor units (which did not participate in the original attack but were adjacent to units that did) into that hex as well.
Example (Figure 3: Exploitation): The three German armor units use Exploitation movement and move to hexes A, B and C. Exploitation movement restricts an armor unit from moving more than two hexes from the previous armor unit, so a chain of armor units is formed. Note that the exploitation could have been directed in the opposite direction but would have had to stop in hex D due to the cost of exiting enemy ZOCs (+3 MPs).
12.32 "Vacant-Hex" Attack
Breakthrough (and thus possibly Exploitation) may also occur without a defender being eliminated. During an Offensive Option, a supplied, non-Exploiting armor unit that has not yet attacked may designate an "attack" vs. a vacant (i.e., devoid of enemy infantry, armor and airborne units) but enemy-controlled hex. (The "attack" can even include any other units that have not yet attacked and are adjacent to the "attacked" hex.) The "attacking" armor unit advances into the "attacked" enemy hex, thereby creating a Breakthrough hex from where other armor units, if eligible, may Exploit. Exploitation from such a "vacant" Breakthrough hex is not allowed if that hex is adjacent to an enemy ground unit, or if a supply line cannot be traced to it at the moment of combat.
12.4 Attrition Combat
After totaling the number of factors that will be used to attrition the enemy, the computer determines the results of Attrition Combat based on the Quarterly Attrition Resolution Table. The results indicate the number of Non-Phasing-Player units ("#C" in the table above) that must be eliminated, and the number of hexes ("#H") that the Non-Phasing Player must vacate.
Quarterly Attrition Resolution Table (Ground Factors in Contact)
| Die Roll | 1–10 | 11–20 | 21–30 | 31–40 | 41–50 | 51–60 | 61+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1C | 2C/1H | 3C/2H | 4C/3H | 5C/4H | 6C/4H | 7C/4H |
| 2 | 1C | 2C | 3C/1H | 4C/2H | 5C/3H | 6C/3H | 7C/3H |
| 3 | — | 1C/1H | 3C | 4C/1H | 5C/2H | 6C/2H | 7C/2H |
| 4 | — | 1C | 2C/1H | 3C/1H | 4C/1H | 5C/2H | 6C/2H |
| 5 | — | 1C | 2C | 3C | 3C/1H | 4C/1H | 5C/2H |
| 6 | — | — | 1C | 2C | 3C | 4C/1H | 4C/2H |
The Non-Phasing Player first chooses which units he will lose, and they are returned to their Force Pool. These units may be taken from anywhere on the Attritioned Front. The "defending country" is any that is at war with any nation participating in the attack.
The Phasing Player may now select one hex (if entitled by the Attrition results) for occupation. He may not select a Fortress, Capital, Objective or Bridgehead hex [Exception: he may select Luxembourg unless a Bridgehead is in it], nor one that can be occupied only via a hexside containing a Crossing Arrow. Each hex chosen must currently contain an enemy ground unit, and must be adjacent to one of the Phasing Player's ground units eligible to advance into it. (Replacements and units unsupplied at the start of their turn are not eligible to advance.) The Phasing Player will be required to advance at least one adjacent ground unit into each such hex; if unable or unwilling to do so, he cannot require the Non-Phasing Player to vacate it. Note that the Phasing Player is not required to select all, or any, hexes for occupation when Attrition Combat allows his units to take a hex. He may elect to keep them in their present positions.
Once the Phasing Player has designated the hex that he wishes to occupy, the Non-Phasing Player must retreat all of his occupying ground units from that hex — even overstacking if forced to do so. He may retreat into enemy ZOC, or into a vacant enemy-controlled hex, if forced to do so. He may not, however, retreat into any hex that is occupied by an enemy ground, air, naval or airbase unit.
Once the Non-Phasing Player has vacated the hex, the Phasing Player must occupy that hex. Repeat this procedure for all hexes gained by the Attrition Table.
If the Non-Phasing Player overstacks when retreating, he has until the end of his next Movement Phase to meet stacking limits. If he does not, he must destroy the excess units of his choice (5.0). Each unit that must retreat but has no legal hex to retreat to (e.g., if it is totally surrounded by enemy units and/or impassable hexsides) is eliminated instead.
Each naval/air unit that must retreat due to Attrition automatically redeploys to the nearest friendly base. If no such port exists on that Front, the naval unit would be eliminated; an air unit would be eliminated only if no other friendly city/airbase exists within eight hexes, regardless of Front boundaries. In no case may basing capacities be exceeded.
13.0 Declarations of War (DoW)
Each side may make one or more Declarations of War (DoW) at the beginning of each friendly Player Turn. Each costs 35 BRPs if made vs. a Major Power, or 10 vs. a minor country. Neither side may attack the forces of another country unless at war with it, nor may a side violate its territory (or fly over it), including its colonies and conquests, unless allied with it. No nation may declare war on Switzerland.
One DoW places the declaring nation at war with all allies of the nation it declares against (including its colonies), and creates an alliance with all countries that oppose that nation. No additional BRP cost is incurred save the one for the DoW, no matter how many nations are involved. However, any nation that declares war on a colony or minor country must, if such action will automatically result in war with a Major Power, pay 35 BRPs instead of 10 for that DoW.
A Major Power that declares war on a minor must, on the turn of declaration, either move forces into that minor or conduct an Offensive or Attrition Option attack against that minor's forces. If a nation finds itself unable to comply with this rule, its DoW is revoked and the BRPs lost. The minor is at peace with that country, and may not be attacked in the future without a new 10-BRP DoW expenditure.
13.1 Special Cases for Certain Major Powers
Germany and Italy may not declare war on the same minor country until Italy is at war with the Western Allies.
The U.S.S.R. and the Western Allies may not declare war on the same minor country until Russia is at war with Germany and/or Italy.
The U.S.S.R. may neither declare war on Germany or Italy, nor take any action that would automatically result in war with Germany, until the Fall 1941 turn [Exception: if Germany fails to keep 20 factors on the Eastern Front or remains east of the Polish Partition Line after the fall of Poland; see 29.0].
Until the U.S.S.R. is at war with Germany and/or Italy, she may declare war only on bordering minor countries. She may not declare war on any Axis Minor-Ally (active or not) that is Garrisoned (17.4) by at least one German ground factor (even a Replacement unit). If the U.S.S.R. has conquered a minor country, she may on a subsequent turn declare war on one or more other minor countries that border the conquered minor. (Should Germany neglect to Garrison Finland, and the U.S.S.R. conquer it, Russia would border Sweden and Norway off the north edge of the map, and could declare war on one or both of those countries in anticipation of making a Seaborne Invasion.) The U.S.S.R. may not attack a Vichy colony until she is at war with Germany and/or Italy, and would have to declare war on Vichy France to do so.
No DoW may be made which would result in a state of war between Germany and Italy, nor between any combination of Britain, France, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.
No nation may declare war on the U.S.A.
For the consequences of an Axis DoW on Spain, see 37.0.
14.0 Minor-Country Operations
When war is declared on a minor country, the opposing side sets up the minor country's forces within that minor's borders, with at least one ground unit in its Capital. That side continues to move and control the minor country's forces as long as they survive, and selects which Options they employ.
The ground units of a minor country (even one that is allied with a Major Power) may not leave, and its air and naval units may not base outside of, their home country: its ground units can attack adjacent units across their border, but may not advance into the cross-border hex after combat; its air and naval units may operate freely from their in-country bases, the one restriction being that on the Player Turn of invasion they may operate only against those enemy units that are actually attacking their home country. [Exception: active Minor-Allies; 17.0.] Minor-country units may be supplied from their own Capital, or from any supply source controlled by a Major Power already at war with their attacker (even if Intervention has not yet occurred). Such a Major Power may supply the minor's forces by sea.
Minor-country units, when eliminated, are lost permanently; they cannot be reconstructed [Exception: active Minor-Allies; 17.0].
15.0 Intervention in Minor Countries
If a minor country is not conquered on the turn of DoW, a Major Power may Intervene by sending ground, naval and/or air units to the minor country during that Major Power's own Movement, Combat and/or SR Phase. The Intervening Power, if not already at war with the attacker, must declare war at the start of its own turn in order to Intervene. Intervention results in the minor country's becoming allied (and taking its turn in unison, including sharing Front options) with the Intervening Power — and, if the invader does not capture the minor's Capital, will deliver its BRPs to the Intervening Power(s) in the next YSS. Intervening units may stack with the minor country's units. For Intervention in a Minor-Ally, see 17.2.
Conducting a Naval/Air Mission in a hex of, or Intercepting a Seaborne Invasion bound for, the minor country is insufficient to constitute Intervention.
16.0 Conquest of Minor Countries
A minor country is conquered when a hostile unit occupies its Capital. It does not get one turn to try to retake it. All of that minor's units are removed permanently from play at the end of the attacker's Combat Phase. Minor-Allies are not excepted. (By recapturing its Minor-Ally's Capital immediately, its allied Major Power would avert losing the Minor-Ally's BRPs, but the latter's units would still be permanently out of the game.)
Upon its initial conquest, all hexes of the minor country become controlled by the conqueror at the end of the Combat Phase. [Exception: If one or more hostile Major-Power ground units are in the minor country when it falls to a friendly force, and those hostile units can still trace a line of supply at the end of the conqueror's Combat Phase, the hexes they are in and the hexes of their supply line do not pass to the conqueror's control. The program chooses the hex(es) that will be their supply route(s); the latter must be as few and as short as possible and must go to the nearest port or controlled friendly border. The conqueror controls all other hexes, but may not SR armor adjacent to those supply route hexes until a later turn.]
A conquered minor country yields its entire BRP value to the Major Power that controls its Capital during each Year Start Sequence the nation is held. If, after such a YSS, an opponent gains control of the Capital, the ejected owner has one turn in which to drive out the opponent and re-establish control of the Capital. If he fails to do so in his next Player Turn, he immediately (during the Combat Phase such failure occurs) loses the BRPs derived from the country. If control is lost during the second half of a Winter turn the losing Power does receive the BRPs during the YSS, but they must be deducted immediately if it fails to regain control during its Spring turn. The opponent who physically occupied the Capital would also receive BRPs for the country during the YSS in such a case pending a final decision on who controls it. Even though one side must eventually lose these BRPs, both sides may include them in their YSS BRP totals to determine the various maximum spending limits derived from such totals.
Control of, and any BRPs derived from, conquered colonies are treated in the same manner except that a nation must establish control over all cities in a colony in order to receive BRPs for it at YSS. This is true even if the colony has a star symbol for its Capital city. Once such control has been established, and withstood the enemy's one-turn chance to retake a city, the nation continues to receive BRPs at YSS as long as it controls any one city. BRPs are deducted only when the nation loses control of all cities and then fails to re-establish control over any one city in its next Combat phase.
A nation cannot derive BRPs from a country or colony controlled by its side at the beginning of a scenario, nor may it lose BRPs from the loss of such territory [Exception: Minor-Allies in the 1942 and 1944 scenarios are added to the beginning total, and are lost when their Capital is lost].
A nation does not lose BRPs when it loses a country or colony for which it did not receive BRPs during the YSS of the current year [Exception: Minor-Allies, when their BRPs were received during a year rather than at YSS].
17.0 Minor-Allies
17.1 Activation
In addition to the various provisions in the rules for Minor Country Operations and the Conquest of Minor Countries, a number of other special rules apply to Minor-Allies.
Spain and Turkey become active Minor-Allies of whichever Major Power Intervenes in their behalf after war is declared on them.
Finland, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria are Axis (normally German) Minor-Allies, and are automatically activated at the start of the Summer 1941 turn — unless an Allied attack plus Axis Intervention activates one or more of them earlier. Vichy France may be activated as a German Minor-Ally only by German success on a Vichy activation die roll (35.1).
Whenever a German (e.g.) Minor-Ally is activated, its BRPs are immediately added to the German total and continue to be added during each subsequent YSS as long as it is controlled by Germany. Its units may be moved by German SR (counting against the German SR limit), and can be rebuilt when eliminated [Exception: if a Minor-Ally is activated by Allied attack and Axis Intervention (or vice-versa), any units it lost before that Intervention are permanently out of the game]. In all scenarios, Germany receives the BRPs of her Minor-Allies in addition to her own BRP Base, and loses BRPs for them when they fall to Allied conquest [Exception: even if activated as a German Minor-Ally, Vichy France yields no such BRPs].
An inactive Minor-Ally whose Capital falls to the Allies cannot thereafter be activated, and whether inactive or active it does not get one turn to attempt to retake its Capital. If either Germany or Italy declares war on a potential Minor-Ally, that country cannot later be activated as an Axis Minor-Ally.
When activated, a Minor-Ally is instantly at war with the enemies of its allied Major Power; no DoW cost is paid. All forces of an active Minor-Ally are automatically and permanently eliminated when its allied Major-Power is conquered.
If the Allies declare war on Vichy France at a time when any Axis unit is in any Vichy territory, or if they declare war on Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria or Finland when a German unit is therein, German Intervention is considered automatic and immediate.
Axis Intervention itself never activates Vichy France; only a Vichy activation die roll (35.1) can.
Intervention in Spain or Turkey automatically activates that nation as a Minor-Ally of the Intervening Power.
If, at the time an Axis Minor-Ally is due to automatically activate, it has been attacked but not yet conquered by the U.S.S.R., Russian forces are within that Minor-Ally's borders, and the U.S.S.R. and Germany are not yet at war, then Germany must Intervene if she wishes to activate that Minor-Ally. Since Germany must declare war on the U.S.S.R. in order to Intervene, activation would in this rare instance occur during the DoW Phase, not at the beginning of the Player Turn.
17.2 Intervention in Minor-Allies
If an inactive Minor Ally is subjected to a DoW, Germany may choose to Intervene (see 15.0). If Germany does not Intervene, no German units may enter that Minor-Ally, its units do not become controlled by Germany (and cannot be replaced if lost), Germany does not receive that Minor-Ally's BRPs, and that Minor-Ally may choose its own Front Options in the same manner as any other attacked, unallied minor neutral. If Italy Intervenes instead of Germany in an inactive Minor-Ally, that minor is activated as an Italian (rather than German) Minor-Ally.
If an inactive Axis Minor-Ally is not actually invaded (i.e., has no enemy unit inside its borders at the end of its attacker's turn), Germany may send forces into the country without Intervening or declaring war. Such action constitutes a Garrison (17.4), revokes the attacker's DoW, and prohibits that attacking country from making further attacks on that Minor. This process in itself, however, does not activate that Minor-Ally.
17.3 Unit Placement/Movement Restrictions
Upon activation, Minor-Ally units are placed in any hex(es) of their home country, with at least one ground unit in the Capital, from whence they can be moved and SR'd normally. Rebuilt combat losses must also be placed in any supplied, controlled hex(es) of their home country, but not in enemy ZOC. At the start of the 1942 and 1944 scenarios, Axis Minor-Ally units may be set up in any Axis-controlled hexes that satisfy the following restrictions:
- Bulgarian units may start only in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece and/or European Turkey.
- Finnish units may start the 1942 scenario only in Finland and/or hexes A47 and B46. In the 1944 scenario they may start only in Finland. Finnish units may never move farther than six hexes from the Finnish border or coast line.
- Hungarian units may start only in Hungary, Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe, Poland and/or the U.S.S.R.
- Rumanian units may start only in Rumania, Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe and/or the U.S.S.R. Rumanian units may start in Bessarabia (the Eastern Front portion of Rumania) if the U.S.S.R. has not occupied Eastern Europe, or if the Axis has already reconquered that portion of it.
- Spanish and Turkish units may start only on the Mediterranean Front. Turkish units may enter Russia. Spanish ground and air units may enter Eastern Europe and Russia, and may SR through the Western Front.
Germany treats her four inactive Axis-Minors (Finland, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria) as controlled territory and may freely move, SR and trace supply through them, and may launch attacks from their territory. Germany has the same privileges in Vichy French territory, but exercising them has adverse effects on the possibility of Vichy activation [Exception: Germany can trace supply through Vichy without penalty].
Active Minor-Allies must conform to the Option being used on each Front by their controlling nation. That controller also pays the reconstruction cost for their eliminated units.
Allied units may make cross-border attacks on Axis units at the border of an Axis Minor-Ally (or vice-versa), but could not advance after combat, use air support in the attack, or in any other way violate the territory of that Minor unless at war with it.
17.4 German Garrisons
Until Fall 1941, the U.S.S.R., unless already at war with Germany, cannot declare war on any German Minor-Ally that contains a Garrison (i.e., at least one German ground combat factor — even a Replacement). Prior to their activation, Germany may have Garrisons totalling no more than 20 German factors (ground and air only) in Finland, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria as a group. Of these 20, no more than five may be in Finland. Note that, since Finland has no ports or beaches, a German failure to Garrison that country on opening setup can be rectified later only by dropping her airborne unit there. Germany may not place a Garrison in Bessarabia without declaring war on the U.S.S.R.
18.0 Major Powers
18.1 General
The U.S.A. cannot be conquered.
Germany, Italy and Britain may be conquered by controlling their Capital. The conquering Power must maintain control of the Capital for one opposition turn. Conquest occurs immediately after the conquered Power fails to regain control of the Capital during its Combat Phase. Units that move to counterattack their Capital must be in supply from some source other than their Capital at the start of their turn. Immediately upon conquest (at the end of the Combat Phase of the conquered nation) or surrender, all units of the conquered country and its active Minor-Allies (if any) are removed from the game.
In each subsequent YSS the Major Power controlling the conquered Capital receives half (rounded down) of the BRPs the conquered nation began the scenario with. Should a Major-Power Capital be occupied on the last half of a Winter turn, the conqueror does not receive the half-BRPs during the ensuing YSS because the conquest is not complete until the occupied nation has had a chance to retake its Capital. A normal YSS calculation is made for the nation with the occupied Capital.
All hexes in the Major Power become controlled by the conqueror at the end of the Combat Phase in which the conquered nation fails to retake its Capital. [Exception: If one or more hostile Major-Power ground units are in the conquered Major Power when it is conquered by a friendly force, and those hostile units can still trace a line of supply at the end of the conqueror's Combat Phase, the hexes they are in and the hexes of their supply line do not pass to the conqueror's control.]
Non-French colonies, active Minor-Allies, and all conquests of the conquered Power are controlled by no one, and belong to the first country to occupy them. Note that such occupation may not be done during a Pass Option, since the hexes are not controlled. All forces of an active Minor-Ally are automatically and permanently eliminated when its allied Major Power is conquered.
18.2 Italy
A special surrender situation can apply to Italy. Italy surrenders if all of the following conditions are met:
- In Spring 1943 or thereafter the Allies have a supplied, non-airborne unit in mainland Italy at the end of the Axis Combat Phase (an Allied presence in Sicily does not count);
- There are no Axis forces (other than unactivated Vichy units) in Africa (including all of Egypt);
- The Allies control every hex of Sicily, or every hex of both Sardinia and Corsica; and,
- The Allies hold the Initiative (i.e., they moved first in the current Game Turn).
If Italy surrenders as a result of this rule, all Italian-controlled hexes pass to German control. All Italian units are removed from play, and Germany will receive half (rounded down) of the BRPs that Italy started the scenario with during each subsequent YSS in which she controls Rome. The surrender is treated as a conquest for all other purposes.
At the end of the Combat Phase in which Italy surrenders or is conquered, the program makes a die roll and adds two to the result. The total is the number of Italian naval factors (up to the amount that existed when Italy fell) that Germany may retain to use as her own. The German player may select any mix of Italian partial fleets to meet this number, and may place them in any supplied, German-controlled port(s) on the same Front. Neither these nor other Italian naval units may be reconstructed for the duration of the game. If engaged in naval combat, these naval factors retain their Italian nationality DRM.
18.3 France
The following special rules apply to the occupation of Paris and the conquest of France, and supersede any rules previously mentioned:
While Paris is occupied by enemy units, French attacks are under the following restrictions:
- Only attacks against Paris or hexes adjacent to Paris are allowed.
- Only attacks at odds 1:2 or better are allowed.
- Attacks against Paris must include at least one supplied unit. Attacks adjacent to Paris must include at least one armor unit, at least one supplied unit, and there must be another armor unit (French or British) in supply and available for Exploitation.
Although British ground units in a separate hex could participate in the attack, they are ineligible to advance into Paris. It is possible, however, for a British unit to recapture a vacant, Axis-controlled Paris by moving through it (26.0).
If France lacks sufficient BRPs to take an Offensive Option on the Western Front, French attacks may not be made and the units that would have provided the necessary DAS may not undertake other Air Missions in that Game Turn. Even in this event, however, France is not considered conquered until after the Allied Combat Phase.
While Paris is enemy-occupied, French units may not be moved from France to outside of European France, France may not use an Attrition Option on any Front, may use an Offensive Option only on the Western Front, may not make naval Interceptions, may not make a DoW, and French units in Europe may trace supply only from London (or from the U.S. Box, but only if London is Axis-occupied or isolated) or a captured Capital. While Paris is enemy-occupied, French air units may fly Counter-Air Missions only against those Axis air units that are in position to use DAS vs. legal French ground attacks, French air attacks on enemy fleets (either in port or at sea) may not be made during the Allied Player Turn, and certain special overstacking rules apply to French units (see 5.0).
If French units do re-occupy Paris, those French units on the Western Front that have not yet attacked may do so without restriction during the remainder of the same Combat Phase. No air/naval units may undertake Missions they could not have done at the start of the Combat Phase. Air units may, if otherwise able, fly Ground Support or DAS Interception in connection with a post-reoccupation Exploitation attack.
Should France be conquered, the rules for Vichy France immediately come into play; see 35.0-35.1.
18.4 The U.S.S.R.
The U.S.S.R. is not conquered just because her Capital is lost to the Axis.
The Axis conquest of Moscow or Leningrad results in an immediate Axis gain of 15 BRPs for each city and a Russian loss of 15 BRPs for each. This is a one-time event; if their control seesaws back and forth, there is no BRP loss/gain upon second and subsequent Axis captures. But during each YSS that the Axis controls either city, 15 BRPs per each are added to the Axis, and subtracted from the Russian, totals. Russia does not get one turn to attempt recapture before these adjustments are made.
18.41 Russian Surrender
If at the end of an Allied Player Turn the U.S.S.R. has less than 50 factors of ground/air factors on the map, and the combined Axis ground/air strength inside Russia's original boundaries exceeds the Russian total by at least a 3:2 ratio, Russia must make a one-time offer to surrender.
If the Axis accepts the surrender, each Objective not yet in Axis control has a Russian unit placed on it; these Objectives count towards Russian/Allied victory conditions at the end of the scenario. The Axis receives, during each subsequent YSS, half of the BRPs that the U.S.S.R. started the scenario with — but ceases to receive any BRPs for Moscow/Leningrad. The Axis must maintain a 45-factor Occupation Force within Russia's original borders, at least 30 factors of which must be ground units, until the end of the scenario. Air and naval units that comprise part of the 45 factors may conduct Missions from their Russian bases; the 45-factor limit applies at the end of each Axis Movement Phase and Player Turn subsequent to the Russian surrender. The Axis may not declare war on the U.S.S.R. again later in order to capture more Objectives.
If the Axis player rejects the surrender in order to capture more Russian Objectives, he may not change his mind later. The U.S.S.R. remains in the game until the instant her last combat factor inside her original borders is eliminated. The Axis does not receive Russian half-BRPs until said last factor is eliminated, but can continue to receive any BRPs for Moscow/Leningrad in the interim. As above, the Axis must maintain a 45-factor Occupation Force (30 of which must be ground) in the U.S.S.R. until the end of the scenario, even after eliminating the last Russian unit.
If the Axis falls short of the required 45-factor Occupation Force at the end of either its Movement Phase or Player Turn, it must permanently concede one Axis-controlled Russian Objective of its choice to the U.S.S.R. and pay a 15 BRP penalty. Furthermore, until the 45 factors have been reinstated, the Axis may use SR only to correct the Occupation-Force shortage. This penalty can be assessed each time the Occupation Force does not meet its requirements, or until the Axis controls no Russian Objective at all — but only once per turn.
19.0 Supply
19.1 Supply-Status Checks
Supply status is determined during the Movement Phase, after the movement of naval units but before the movement of any other unit. Supply status is checked again at the end of each Player Turn in order to eliminate out-of-supply units.
19.2 Supply Sources
The Capital of each Major Power, and of each minor country that has its own armed forces, is a supply source for the side that controls that Capital (e.g., neither Lisbon nor Jerusalem qualifies). The following exceptions apply, however:
- Any friendly-controlled port can be used to receive supply from a designated supply fleet.
- All Fortress hexes supply units in the Fortress hex, and only those units; units outside a Fortress hex may never trace a supply line thereto. [Exception: Malta supplies Allied units in Malta only if the Allies control Gibraltar, Alexandria and Suez city. Sevastopol supplies Russian units in Sevastopol as long as the U.S.S.R. controls another port on the Black Sea and/or has a line of supply from Sevastopol to the east edge of the map — across the Crimea-Kerch Strait if necessary — at the start of the Allied Player Turn.]
- All ports in Libya are supply sources for Axis units only, and all ports in Egypt are supply sources for Allied units only. These supply sources are contingent on other eventualities; see 31.0 and 32.0 respectively.
- Tunis and Beirut are sources of supply for French units, but this supply cannot be shared with other nationalities. After these ports become Free French or Vichy they can supply only Free French or Vichy units respectively.
- Moscow is a supply source for Russian units only, as is the entire east edge of the map as far south as hex Z53 (inclusive).
- The U.S.A. is a supply source only if both London and Paris are Axis-occupied or isolated. This is true whether or not the U.S. has declared war. Units in the U.S. Box are always automatically in supply.
- Greek units on Greek islands are automatically in supply.
- Tangiers is a supply source for Spanish (only) units in Spanish Morocco.
- Konigsberg and Durazzo are, at the start of the 1939 and Campaign scenarios, supply sources for German (only) and Italian (only) units respectively. They lose this status as soon as a normal land supply line is opened to those areas.
Note: Each supply source may supply an unlimited number of units unless specified otherwise.
19.3 Supply Lines
A unit is in supply if it can trace a line of friendly-controlled hexes, free of enemy ZOC, between itself and a supply source. Enemy ZOC over the unit and/or the source does not block this supply line as long as all hexes in the supply line between the unit and the source are free of enemy ZOC. A unit adjacent to a supply source is always in supply unless both the supply source and the adjacent unit are in the ZOC of the same enemy unit. Supply lines, like ground units, may cross water without naval assistance at a Crossing Arrow. The controlled hexes may be hexes controlled by the Major Power tracing the supply line and/or hexes controlled by allies of the tracing Power.
The following exceptions apply to the general supply rules:
- Naval and air units are always in supply.
- Armor units that Exploit are in supply for one turn after Exploitation. Airborne units that Airdrop are in supply for one turn after they drop. However, armor or airborne units that are moved by SR in the same Player Turn following their Exploitation or Airdrop lose the advantages of automatically being in supply for Exploiting or Airdropping.
- Units of the Western Allies may not trace supply from the U.S.S.R. or Russian-controlled sources, or vice-versa. However, they could trace supply across hexes controlled by the U.S.S.R. to their own source of supply and vice-versa.
- French units in Europe may trace supply only from Paris until 1942. If Paris is Axis-occupied, they may trace supply only from London (or from the U.S. Box, but only if London is Axis-occupied or isolated) or a captured Capital.
- British units in France when France falls may trace no part of their supply line through Vichy France.
- See also 31.0 Axis Forces in Africa.
Example: The German player has just finished his turn, leaving all the Russian units out of supply except for the 3-3 in the red-colored hex. This 3-3, although it is in a German ZOC, is not surrounded by them and so can draw supply through hex(es) X and/or Y (since supply can be drawn into a ZOC but never through it). The shaded area shows the ZOCs of the German armor units.
19.31 Sea Supply
To trace supply across ocean, a fleet must be designated (either during the Movement Phase or after the SR Phase) to carry the supply and a land route must be traceable from the supply source to the fleet's port. The fleet may perform no Naval Mission during the Game Turn in which it carries supply. It may, however, change port during movement/SR and then be designated as a supply fleet. Each naval factor may supply one ground unit (or airbase); thus a 9-factor fleet can supply nine ground units, while a partial fleet can supply an appropriately lesser number. Within this limit, one fleet can provide supply to more than one port/Bridgehead.
A sea supply line is traced by land from the supply source to the port of the designated fleet, thence across water to a port or Bridgehead (or to one or more one-hex islands), and then by land to the intended unit(s). Both land portions of the line must be composed of friendly-controlled hexes and free of enemy ZOC.
ZOC ends at the water's edge. Hostile armor in Calais or Harwich, for example, would not prevent tracing a sea supply line through the English Channel.
Although Gibraltar itself may not supply units outside Gibraltar, a supply line can be traced from London through Gibraltar to a Mediterranean port or Bridgehead. This would require two designated fleets: one to carry supply from England (or elsewhere) to Gibraltar, and one at Gibraltar to carry it onward in the Mediterranean. Similarly, supply could be traced from a Mediterranean source to a port/Bridgehead in the Atlantic, provided two fleets were used. Supply may be traced similarly through Kiel and Istanbul in either direction. A fleet in a two-Front port can provide supply to ports/Bridgeheads in either or both Fronts.
19.4 Consequences to Unsupplied Units
Unsupplied units retain their full combat factor. They may attack during an Offensive Option, and are counted when in contact with the enemy during an Attrition Option.
Unsupplied units can use neither normal nor Exploitation movement (including Airdrop), cannot advance after combat, cannot be moved to a Breakthrough hex, cannot advance to occupy an Attrition-gained hex, and cannot be SR'd.
Units are eliminated if unsupplied at the end of their Player Turn. Such elimination occurs at the end of the Player Turn, after unit Unit Construction.
20.0 Air Warfare
20.1 Airbases
Each city (including Capitals, Objectives and ports) may base up to five air factors. A hex containing two cities may therefore base up to ten factors.
Each Major Power is also provided three moveable airbases. Each may be initially placed in any friendly-controlled, supplied hex — even one in the ZOC of enemy armor — at any point in the friendly Player Turn. All, some or none may be placed as part of that country's initial setup. No more than one airbase may be placed in the same hex. After initial placement, airbases may be moved only by SR. They count against SR limits and require Sea Escort to cross an all-ocean/lake hex.
An airbase increases the basing capacity of its hex by five air factors. Placed on a non-city hex it may base five factors; on a city hex, 10; on a two-city hex, 15.
British air units may not use French airbases, and vice-versa, before 1942. Russian air units may not use airbases of the Western Allies, and vice-versa. During the Player Turn in which it is placed on the map, an airbase may be used only by the air(borne) units of the same nationality as that airbase [Exception: Italian air(borne) units can use such German airbases].
If an airbase becomes enemy-occupied or out of supply, it is relocated to its own country's Capital. This occurs immediately if it is enemy-occupied, but if out of supply it is relocated at the end of its side's SR Phase (and does not count against SR limits). Should more than one airbase be placed on the Capital in this manner, that Capital can still base no more than 10 air factors. [Exceptions: should the Capital be enemy-occupied or -controlled when the airbase is overrun, it is eliminated and cannot be returned to play; If Moscow is enemy-controlled, the program places her overrun or isolated airbases in Russian-controlled hexes along the eastern edge of the map. The program places overrun or isolated U.S. airbases in the U.S. Box.]
If the SR of an airbase reduces basing capacity in a hex below the number of air factors present, the excess factors must also be SR'd (separately) or eliminated.
20.2 Movement
An air unit may stage (change bases) up to eight hexes during its Movement Phase. The new base need not be on the same Front as the old base, but must have been controlled by the staging side at the start of its turn. Staging cannot be intercepted.
Each of the Phasing Player's air units may fly up to four hexes from its base to perform an Offensive Air Mission during the Combat Phase of an Offensive Option. (Note that this is in addition to staging; an air unit may stage eight hexes during the Movement Phase, then perform an Air Mission up to four hexes away during the Combat Phase.) Air units must abide by the Option picked for a Front when changing Fronts. The Non-Phasing Player's air units may fly up to four hexes to perform Defensive Air Missions. Surviving factors always return to the same base they began the Combat Phase in; should the enemy have occupied their base while they are "in the air", the following rules apply:
An air unit on a base that becomes enemy-occupied is not destroyed. It is automatically moved to the nearest friendly-controlled base that has room to base it. Such movement cannot be intercepted. Should two such bases be equidistant, the owning player chooses. Should no such base exist within eight hexes, then the air unit is eliminated. An air unit forced to move in this manner may still perform a Mission from its new base (unless Counter-Aired). Should an airbase be captured while its air units are absent on a Defensive Air Mission, those air units (that survive their Mission) return to a new base at the end of the Combat Phase just as if they had been at their former base when it was captured.
Neither staging, Combat-Phase flight nor defensive flight may pass over any hex that contains any neutral land. Air units moving by SR may cross hexes that are part ocean, part neutral land.
20.3 Employment
During any given Game Turn, an air unit may perform only one Mission, be it Offensive or Defensive. The defending survivor(s) of a Counter-Air Mission may perform no Mission, Offensive or Defensive, for the remainder of the Game Turn (Exception: If the Non-Phasing Player had the larger force in Counter-Air Air Combat and was the winner, his surviving factors are available for further use). A newly constructed air unit may perform no Mission, Offensive or Defensive, during the Game Turn of its construction.
20.4 Offensive Air Missions
A nation's Offensive Air Missions (Ground Support, Counter-Air, DAS Interception, and Air Attacks on Naval Bases) are conducted during the Combat Phase of that nation's Offensive Option [Exception: attacks against the Non-Phasing Player's Intercepting fleets at sea; 20.431].
20.41 Ground Support
One or more of the Phasing Player's air units within four hexes of a hex that he will subject to a ground attack may fly to that hex, and their combat factors will be added to that of the attacking ground unit(s). Ground Support may be performed for Exploitation attacks in the same manner. The total number of air factors that can be counted for Ground Support purposes in any one hex may not exceed three times the total ground factors attacking that hex. Once Ground Support has been placed, that hex must be attacked during normal (or Exploitation) combat at legal odds or the air units are eliminated. They cannot be withdrawn without making a legal attack.
Air units performing Ground Support are eliminated by an "A" result in the ground combat. If the attacker suffers an "EX" result, he may elect to take his losses from air and/or ground in any combination, as long as he eliminates sufficient factors.
20.42 Counter-Air
One or more of the Phasing Player's air units within four hexes of an enemy city/airbase may fly to that hex and attack the enemy air unit(s) therein. Defending air factors that have already performed a Mission in the current Game Turn may not participate in the ensuing Air Combat (20.44).
An air unit based in Malta may always opt to decline combat when Counter-Aired. However, it is considered to have performed a Mission that turn if it so declines.
20.43 DAS Interception
Whenever the Non-Phasing Player has committed air units to DAS Missions (20.51), the Phasing Player may be able to use his own air units to Intercept that DAS.
DAS Interception must take place at the hex where the Non-Phasing Player has placed his DAS. The Intercepting air must be based within four hexes of that hex and must have, during the current Game Turn, neither performed a Mission nor been successfully Counter-Aired. The Phasing Player may Intercept with a force of any size; it need not equal the enemy's force (though a numerically inferior force is less likely to succeed in the resulting Air Combat). DAS Interception is resolved as per 20.44.
20.431 Offensive Air Attacks on Fleets at Sea
If the Non-Phasing Player attempts Naval Interception (21.5) with any fleet(s) whose course takes them within four hexes of one or more eligible enemy air units that have not yet performed a Mission during the Game Turn, those air units may attempt to Counter-Intercept those fleets, regardless of the Option in effect. Combat is identical to that in Attacks on Naval Bases (20.45) [Exception: at sea, a roll of "1" eliminates a naval factor, a "2" through "5" has no effect, and a "6" eliminates the attacking air factor].
20.44 Air Combat
To resolve Air Combat (i.e., air-vs.-air combat for Counter-Air and DAS Interception attacks), the computer rolls a die for each side. Each die roll is subject to modification as per the Air Combat DRM Chart. The larger side (i.e., the one with the higher air-factor total) receives a +1 DRM (Die Roll Modifier) for each factor in excess of the smaller side, and a nationality DRM is applied to each side. The lowest modifier is used when a side consists of nationalities with different DRMs.
The side with the lower modified Air-Combat die roll loses participating air factors equal to the difference between the modified die rolls. If the difference is greater than the loser's participating air factors, the program automatically eliminates sufficient non-participating air factors in the hex to equal the difference between the modified die rolls. If, after eliminating all friendly (to the loser) air factors present in the hex, the difference has not been reached, there is no further penalty.
Air Combat DRMs
The higher Air factor total receives a +1 DRM for each factor in excess of the smaller side.
Air Force Nationality DRM Chart
| DRM | Nationality |
|---|---|
| 0 | Germany, U.S., Britain |
| –1 | Russia, Italy, France |
| –2 | All Others |
The winner then loses half as many (fractions rounded down) air factors present in the hex as were actually removed by the loser.
Ties are resolved as drawn battles. A third die roll is made; each side loses that number of air factors, but neither side loses more factors than were present in the smaller force.
Surviving factors of both sides return to their bases and may not be used for the remainder of the Game Turn. [Exception: If the Non-Phasing Player had the larger force (in factors) in Counter-Air Air Combat and was the winner, his surviving factors are available for further use (as per 20.5-.52) during the Game Turn; no restrictions on Counter-Aired units elsewhere in the rules apply to such factors. If the Non-Phasing Player had the larger force in DAS-Interception Air Combat and was the winner, his surviving factors may continue their DAS Mission or return to base at his option (in both cases they are still considered to have performed a Mission this turn).]
If the Phasing Player has Counter-Aired a hex whose air factors have all performed a Mission earlier in the Game Turn, the Non-Phasing Player is considered to have zero factors to participate in that Air Combat. The die rolls are made, and losses are extracted accordingly. No nationality modification is made to the Non-Phasing Player's die roll.
20.45 Air Attacks on Naval Bases
One or more of the Phasing Player's air units within four hexes of an enemy port may attack any fleet(s) therein. The attack is resolved after the resolution of all ground combat.
All enemy air units in the attacked hex that have not yet performed a Mission during the Game Turn are attacked first by Counter-Air and must be defeated. If they are not, the fleet(s) cannot be attacked. The Non-Phasing Player's air units near, but not in, the port hex may not fly defensively — the Phasing Player need concern himself only with air units in the port hex itself. [Exception: air units in Malta may decline Counter-Air combat (20.42), in which event the Phasing Player's entire force would be free to attack the fleet(s) in Malta.]
Attacking air factors that were not used for Counter-Air then attack the fleet(s). A die is rolled for each attacking air factor; a roll of "1" or "2" eliminates a naval factor, a "3" or "4" has no effect, and a "5" or "6" eliminates the attacking air factor.
If one or more fleets in port are designated as the target of an air attack but are displaced by a successful ground attack before that air attack is resolved, the air attack does not occur but the attempt still counts as an Offensive Air Mission.
20.5 Defensive Air Missions
A nation's Defensive Air Missions comprise Defensive Air Support, and Defensive Air Attacks on Fleets at Sea.
20.51 Defensive Air Support (DAS)
During the Combat Phase of an enemy Offensive Option, after the Phasing Player has allocated his Ground Support, the Non-Phasing Player's air units that have not yet performed a Mission during the Game Turn, and that are within four hexes of any hex under potential ground attack (including by Seaborne Invasion and/or Airdrop), may fly to that hex. Their factors are added to those of the defending ground units in determining the odds of ground combat. These added air factors remain basic; they are not multiplied by terrain as are defending ground factors.
The Non-Phasing Player may similarly commit air units that have not yet performed a Mission in the Game Turn to DAS vs. potential Exploitation attacks.
DAS can be provided to ground units only, and the total number of such factors that can be counted for combat purposes may not exceed three times the basic number of ground factors defending in that hex. Air units committed to DAS are vulnerable to Interception by uncommitted enemy air units (20.43).
If the Phasing Player commits Ground Support (but no DAS Interception) and the Non-Phasing Player commits DAS to the same ground attack, there is no Air Combat; i.e., each side simply adds its factors to those of its ground units.
Air factors used for DAS can be eliminated by adverse results in ground combat. (An air unit that is based in an attacked hex but not committed to DAS is not so affected; it is merely displaced if the attacker advances into its hex after combat.) Should an "EX" leave the Non-Phasing Player with any DAS factors surviving, he may elect to take his losses from either air or ground units or both, in any combination, so long as he eliminates sufficient factors.
Air units committed to DAS are considered to have performed a Mission even if the Phasing Player does not attack their hex.
20.52 Defensive Air Attacks on Fleets at Sea
During the Movement and/or Combat Phase of an Offensive Option, and during the Movement Phase of an Attrition Option, any fleet(s) moving at sea may be Intercepted by one or more eligible enemy air units that have not yet performed an Air Mission during the Game Turn, and that are within four hexes of them. The moving fleet(s) may be Intercepted in their base hex (since they enter the water portion of it as soon as they leave port), in their destination hex, or in any intermediate hex(es). Each attack is resolved as per 20.431.
20.6 Partial Air Units
Each air unit may be broken down into partial (i.e., lower-factor) units at any time during its owner's Player Turn. He may also recombine two partial air units into a larger one at any time. All units involved must be of the same nationality. A country may never have more air factors in play than are provided in its Force Pool.
Partial air units count as one unit each for all purposes, including SR, even if stacked together. (However, a player could combine, for example, two 1-4s on the same airbase into a 2-4 just before SR.)
Minor-country (including Vichy French) air units are not considered partial units, and may be reconstructed if that country was an active Minor-Ally at the time of their loss.
For constructing partial air units, see 11.251.
21.0 Naval Warfare
21.1 Naval Bases
Each port can base up to 36 naval factors [Exception: Malta (33.0), Suda Bay (on Crete), and Famagusta (on Cyprus) can base only up to 9 naval factors]. A hex containing two ports may base up to 72 factors. A fleet is considered based on the Front that contains the ocean area on which its port abuts, even though the actual port may be on an adjacent Front.
Kiel is a two-Front port for all purposes; a fleet based there may conduct a Mission on either the Eastern or Western Front. A fleet based on the Eastern Front may move to Kiel during movement, then during combat perform a Mission on, the Western Front, or vice-versa.
Gibraltar is also a two-Front port for all purposes, and is capable of sustaining Missions on either the Western or Mediterranean Front and has all the other advantages of a two Front port. Fleets at Gibraltar may escape to either the Western or the Mediterranean Front if their hex is occupied by an enemy ground unit.
Istanbul is a two-Front port for all purposes, and is capable of sustaining Missions in either the Mediterranean or Black Sea and has all the other advantages of a two-Front port except that supply and passage into or from the Mediterranean outside the Turkish Straits is allowed only if hexes Z33, Z34, AA31 and BB31 are controlled by friendly forces.
Russian fleets based in the Black Sea may SR to the Mediterranean if the U.S.S.R. controls a Mediterranean port and both Crossing Arrows in the Turkish Straits are under friendly control.
When France falls, all French fleets are automatically moved to Marseilles and undergo the usual Vichy halving process (35.0). Germany may subsequently base Vichy fleets in Vichy colonies, Marseilles and/or Corsica; if Vichy becomes an active German Minor-Ally, Vichy fleets may be based with no restrictions.
A fleet at a port that becomes enemy-controlled is not eliminated. It is displaced to the nearest friendly-controlled port on the same Front that has room for it (but may not go from the Black Sea to the Baltic, or vice-versa). Should two such ports be equidistant, the fleet's owner chooses. Should no such port exist on the same Front, the fleet is eliminated. A fleet in a two-Front port may escape to either Front; the fleet's owner chooses the Front (even if a base in the non-chosen Front is nearer) but must place the fleet in the closest controlled port on the chosen Front.
If a French fleet is displaced but no legal French port exists on its Front, it displaces to the nearest French-controlled port that has room for it, regardless of Front. If no such port exists, the fleet is eliminated.
21.11 Fleets in the U.S. Box
Fleets based in the U.S. Box have special restrictions. They may perform Shore-Bombardment/Seaborne-Invasion only if no friendly port exists on the Western Front. They may perform Sea Transport only if all friendly Western-Front ports are ineligible to receive SR because of Axis units being adjacent. They may Intercept (after the U.S.A. enters the war), but are considered to be at maximum range on the Interception Table. They may carry supply only if both London and Paris are controlled or isolated by the Axis; for purposes of this rule, isolation is defined as no supply line traceable from that Capital to an Atlantic port and seaward. French and British fleets may change base (or SR) to the U.S. Box and perform this function even before the U.S.A. enters the war (thus they would be able to supply a British counterattack against occupied London).
21.2 Movement
A fleet may change base during the Movement Phase of an Offensive or Attrition Option. It may change base during a Pass Option only if certain restrictions do not apply; see below. The new base must be on the same Front as the old base, and must have been controlled by the friendly side at the start of its Player Turn. Base changes are made before any movement of air and ground units, and are vulnerable to Interception (21.5) by eligible enemy naval/air units.
A fleet has unlimited range on the Front in which it is based, during both the Movement and the Combat Phases, but may move out of that Front only by SR.
After the Movement Phase, a fleet may not change base again until the SR Phase. A fleet that leaves its base during the Combat Phase returns to the same port, as does a fleet that Intercepts during the Movement Phase. In the course of any one Combat Phase, a given fleet may not return to its base and leave again, nor enter any other port more than once (except to debark units, in the case of an aborted Mission), nor enter the ocean portion of more than one target hex (unless an alternate route to its destination is unavailable) even if it takes no action there. A fleet that leaves a port during the Movement Phase may return to the same port during that same phase only if it was involved in an Interception.
A newly constructed fleet may perform none of the above functions during the Game Turn it is placed on the map.
A fleet carrying supply may leave its base only to change ports during the Movement or SR Phase. A fleet being used to supply units cannot use its surplus factors for any other purpose.
A fleet may cross any (partially) ocean hexside. Neither enemy-controlled land, neutral land, nor presence of enemy units are an obstacle to such movement, with the following exceptions:
A fleet may change base during a Pass Option only if no enemy fleet is based on its Front, and if the course to its new port does not pass within four hexes of an enemy air unit (even if the enemy fleet/air unit is not eligible to Intercept). A fleet may not move through a strait that contains a Crossing Arrow if either/both land sides of the arrow are under enemy/neutral control; it may move into such a strait to carry out a Mission in the strait hex if it exits the same side it entered from and does not pass through the strait. A fleet may cross the Front boundary near Gibraltar only during SR, and only if Gibraltar is not enemy-controlled. No fleet may enter any river [Exception: the Suez Canal; 34.0]. A fleet may neither change base nor SR directly from the Black Sea to the Baltic (or vice-versa).
Each U.S. fleet may initially leave the U.S. Box only by SRing as an Initially Deploying unit (11.263). One that has not yet been Initially Deployed will always appear in the lower-left-hand corner of the U.S. Box. With this one exception, U.S. and Allied fleets may freely move to and from the U.S. Box during both movement and SR. Fleets so moving enter/exit the map at any west-edge hex from E18 to EE1 (inclusive; see 4.3), and while in the U.S. Box will always appear in its lower-right-hand corner.
21.3 Employment
During any full Game Turn, a fleet may do any one of the following:
- Carry supply; or,
- Conduct an Offensive Mission (Shore Bombardment, Sea Transport, or Seaborne Invasion) during an Offensive-Option Combat Phase [Exception: the unused portion of a fleet engaged in a Seaborne Invasion may lend Shore Bombardment support to that Invasion]; or,
- Intercept enemy fleets (during either Player Turn); or,
- Perform Sea Escort during the SR Phase (requires a 9-factor fleet); or,
- Escort a Murmansk Convoy during the SR Phase (requires a 9-factor fleet).
- Transportation of Lend Lease BRPs through Sea Escort during the SR phase (requires a 9-factor fleet).
A fleet may change base during the Movement Phase and still perform one of the above functions. A fleet that has performed one of these functions [Exception: Sea Escort, Lend Lease Escort, Murmansk Escort] may still be SR'd during the SR Phase.
21.4 Offensive Naval Missions
A nation's Offensive Naval Missions (Shore Bombardment, Sea Transport, and Seaborne Invasions) are conducted during the Combat Phase of that nation's Offensive Option.
21.41 Shore Bombardment
During the Phasing Player's Offensive-Option Combat Phase, he may move any eligible fleet(s) to the ocean portion of a coastal hex that contains one or more enemy ground units that will be attacked by Seaborne Invasion. For each three naval factors not used to carry a ground unit, one naval factor will be added to the strength of the attacker's ground units when determining the odds of the ground combat.
Shore Bombardment may not be used in support of an Exploitation attack, or in any attack against a hex that is not under attack by Seaborne Invasion [Exception: Shore Bombardment may be used in support of non-Exploiting ground units attacking any coastal Fortress or one-hex island]. Unless otherwise prohibited, Shore Bombardment may be used in combination with Ground Support.
A Bombarding fleet is not affected by ground combat results.
21.42 Sea Transport
During the Phasing Player's Offensive-Option Combat Phase, he may move any eligible fleet(s) from one controlled port to another on the same Front, carrying one or more ground/air units. Each two naval factors may Sea-Transport one ground or air combat factor.
The fleet need not be based at the ground/air unit's port of embarkation. It may move from its base to that port, thence to the port of debarkation, thence back to its original base. Both the ports of embarkation and of debarkation must have been under friendly control, and the ground unit must have been supplied, at the start of the Player Turn. There may be more than one port of embarkation for one Sea Transport Mission, but there may not be two ports of debarkation; the latter would require two separate Missions.
Ground/air units may move up to their full normal movement during the Combat Phase in which they are Sea Transported. It costs them no movement factors to embark, but one factor to disembark. Enemy armor adjacent to a port of embarkation reduces land movement accordingly — ground units embarking in a port in enemy ZOC would pay two MF to embark, not zero. This applies even if both the ground unit and the fleet that is to carry it begin their turn in the same port hex. Although Sea Transport takes place during the Combat Phase, units being Sea Transported may not move twice; they move during the Combat Phase only.
An air unit that will be Sea Transported must begin the Player Turn in its port of embarkation; the port of debarkation is then treated as its new airbase. It may not perform any mission that phase.
Ground units that use Sea Transport may engage in Offensive-Option combat after debarkation. Sea Transport may be used to land forces on a Bridgehead only if the Bridgehead hex also contains a port. Air units which have been sea transported may not perform an air mission until the Exploitation Phase of the current player turn.
21.43 Seaborne Invasions
During the Phasing Player's Offensive-Option Combat Phase, he may direct a Seaborne Invasion against any beach hex, Gibraltar, and/or playable one-hex island (4.9). Copenhagen and hex I31 can be Invaded only by a fleet based in a Baltic-Sea port (including Kiel).
If the hex being Invaded contains a 9-factor fleet, Seaborne Invasion cannot be attempted there [Exception: if no enemy ground unit is in the hex, an Airdrop there will displace the fleet and permit Invasion]. If the Invasion hex contains naval factors but no 9-factor fleet, thus allowing a Seaborne Invasion, those factors are displaced to the nearest friendly port on the same Front (from where they may attempt to Intercept the Invasion if otherwise eligible to do so).
For a Seaborne Invasion, three naval factors are needed to carry one ground factor. Air may not be carried. Any number of units may be carried, up to the capacity of the invading fleet(s), but only two units (plus any Airdrop) may attack the target hex. The attacking units may receive Shore Bombardment factors from any excess naval factors not engaged in carrying ground units; they may also receive Ground Support from any air units in range. A ground unit defending against Seaborne Invasion is tripled, even if simultaneously attacked from an adjacent land hex and/or by Airdrop.
Invading units must start their turn in supply, in a port. Unlike Sea Transport, they may not move to reach their port of embarkation. The embarkation port must be the base of the fleet that carries them, although fleets on the same Front could change base to that port during their Movement Phase.
Provided that at least one initially attacking unit is armor, that at least one initially attacking ground unit survives to occupy the target hex, and that more armor is in reserve aboard the Invasion fleet, Breakthrough and Exploitation may be achieved. If the attacker also has ground units adjacent to the beach but not participating in the invasion, such units could participate in any resulting Exploitation only if the Invasion hex was also attacked by land in combination with the Invasion. The armor unit that must attack the beach hex to create a Breakthrough can come from either the Seaborne Invasion force or the adjacent land units.
The Phasing Player may not take "EX" losses from Invasion units that did not participate in the Invasion attack. Fleets are not affected by combat result; neither are those ground units that did not participate in the Invasion attack.
If any Invading attacking ground unit survives the attack and occupies the hex, the Phasing Player may place a Bridgehead there. A Bridgehead hex that does not contain a port cannot be reinforced by SR or Sea Transport. The Phasing Player could reinforce it only by conducting subsequent "Invasions" against that hex until he captures a port.
21.5 Naval Interception & Counter-Interception
Once the Phasing Player has moved his fleets during the Movement Phase of an Offensive or Attrition Option, or during the Combat Phase of an Offensive Option, the enemy may attempt to Intercept with any of their eligible fleets based on the same Front. A fleet that is carrying supply, performing Sea Escort or SRing cannot be Intercepted.
Whenever the Non-Phasing Player wishes to Intercept, the exact course of hexes taken by each moving fleet is displayed. He then chooses a hex at which he will Intercept. He may choose the hex where the Phasing Player's fleets are based (since they enter the water portion of that hex as soon as they leave port), the destination hex, or any intermediate hex.
Naval Interception may be attempted in only one hex along the moving fleet's course (though the Non-Phasing Player's air units may attack that fleet at one or more points; 20.52).
All naval units at a given base must attempt Interception against the same target. If the Axis were moving two Interceptable Missions in the Mediterranean, four Allied fleets at Gibraltar could attempt to Intercept one Mission while fleets from other ports attempt to Intercept the other. If fleets from more than one base attempt to Intercept the same enemy Mission, they must select a common hex at which Interception will be attempted.
After the Non-Phasing Player designates his Interceptions, the Phasing Player may use one or more uncommitted friendly fleets to Counter-Intercept the enemy Intercepting fleets in the same manner. (Theoretically, the Non-Phasing Player could then Counter-Intercept the attacker's Counter-Intercepting fleets — as could then the Phasing Player, and so on, until both have no more uncommitted fleets.) Both sides' fleets may also (or instead) be attacked by the other's uncommitted air, if in range (20.431; 20.52).
(Counter-) Interception attempts are resolved in reverse order, with the fleets sailing last resolving their attempts first. The success of each attempt is determined using the Interception Table (for each base individually). Units that fail to (Counter-) Intercept are not considered to have performed a Mission, and may be used for other purposes during the remainder of the Game Turn — but may not try again to (Counter-) Intercept during the current Player Turn. Fleets based in the U.S. Box are considered to be at a distance of "30+" for all (Counter-) Interception attempts.
Interception Table
| Distance From Base | Interception Possible With |
|---|---|
| 1 | Automatic |
| 2-10 | 1,2,3,4,5 |
| 11-18 | 1,2,3,4 |
| 19-24 | 1,2,3 |
| 25-30 | 1,2 |
| 30+ | 1 |
21.51 Naval Combat
If Interception succeeds, the computer makes a die roll for both sides to resolve Naval (i.e., fleet-vs.-fleet) Combat, with the side rolling the higher number being the winner. (Ties are won by the Intercepting force.)
Each side's Naval Combat die roll is subject to modification due to nationality. The larger force in Naval Combat is also entitled to a favorable DRM if it has at least a third more naval factors than its opponent. The amount of each DRM is determined by the Naval-Combat DRM Chart:
The loser of a naval battle must eliminate naval factors equal to the difference between the two modified die rolls. If the losing side has 18 or more naval factors involved in the battle, his losses are multiplied by the number of 9-factor fleets (or their equivalent) that he employed in the battle. The winner of the naval battle then eliminates half (fractions rounded down) as many of his own naval factors as lost by the loser.
The loser of a naval battle immediately returns to port; any Mission it may have been on and not yet accomplished is cancelled for that turn.
An Intercepting fleet (but never a Transport, Invasion, or Bombardment fleet, or a fleet changing bases) may, before combat is resolved, elect to break off combat. In such a case it automatically loses the battle, but its losses are halved (fractions rounded down) from what they would normally be, and may in no case exceed half of its factor strength. The winner's losses are also reduced correspondingly. If the loser should then "win" the modified die roll, neither side loses any factors.
After combat resolution, Interception survivors return to their original base. An Intercepted force that wins the battle may continue on its original Mission (or base change), or may choose to abort and return to its base(s). Should it choose to abort, any ground/air units being carried must be landed at the port of embarkation.
If Interception combat losses reduce a Sea Transport or Invasion fleet to the point where it lacks the naval factors required to carry its ground or air units, these units are immediately eliminated as necessary (air units can be broken down to accept losses) to meet the fleet's reduced carrying capacity. The units cannot be saved by aborting the Mission, even if the Interception takes place in a port of embarkation or target hex.
Naval Advantage Chart (Ratio of naval factors to opponent's naval factors)
| Ratio | 1.33:1 | 1.67:1 | 2:1 | 3:1 | 4+:1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DRM | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 |
Naval Nationality DRMs
| DRM | Nation |
|---|---|
| +2 | Germany |
| +1 | United States, Britain, Sweden |
| 0 | French (including Vichy & Free French) |
| —1 | Italy (if battle in or south of row N) |
| —2 | Russia, Turkey, Spain, Italy |
21.6 Sea Escort
During the SR Phase, a 9-factor fleet must provide Sea Escort in order for a ground/airbase unit or BRP Grant (or in some circumstances, an air unit; 11.26) to cross an ocean hex [Exception: via a Crossing Arrow (11.26); U.S. Initial Deployment (11.263)].
A 9-factor fleet may Sea Escort one unit of any size, or up to 20 BRPs. Lesser fleets may not perform Sea Escort. The unit or BRPs must be able to trace a path of friendly-controlled land hexes to the Escorting fleet's base [Exception: A unit may be SR'd, by a fleet based elsewhere on that Front, into or out of a friendly-controlled one-hex island that is not connected to another body of land by a Crossing Arrow].
A fleet used for Sea Escort must have a friendly-controlled port (or one-hex island) as its destination; however, the unit it is Escorting may continue its SR overland from that point if otherwise allowed.
A fleet used for Sea Escort must end the SR Phase in the same port it began the phase in, and cannot be used for any other purpose during the Game Turn (though it could have changed base during the Movement Phase). A fleet itself being moved by SR may not also provide Sea Escort during the same turn (not even for a unit going to the same destination).
A fleet using Sea Escort may not leave its Front; however, a chain of Sea Escort is possible. One fleet may Sea Escort a unit from an Atlantic-Ocean port to Gibraltar, where a Gibraltar-based fleet may then escort it onward in the Mediterranean. The reverse route is equally possible. The Sea Escorted unit is counted only once against SR limits even though two fleets took part in its SR. Kiel and Istanbul may similarly serve as Front-to-Front transfer points.
Hostile units in Cadiz or any other hex adjacent to Gibraltar do not obstruct the SR/Sea-Escort of units through, into or out of Gibraltar. Naval units, whether performing Sea Escort or being themselves moved by SR, may not pass through the Turkish Straits unless both sides of both Crossing Arrows there are under friendly control. In order to SR fleets from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea (or vice-versa), either Kiel or both I32 and I33 must be under friendly control. Otherwise, hostile adjacent ground units do not bar sea passage except through Crossing Arrows, although they would prohibit the landing of such units in an adjacent hex.
21.7 Partial Naval Units
Unlike air units, naval units cannot be voluntarily broken down into smaller units to perform separate tasks. Fleets are replaced by partial fleets only when combat losses occur. A fleet taking losses is reduced to the fewest possible partial units. If not enough partial fleets are available to "make correct change" when naval losses are suffered, more factors are lost than otherwise would have been. Partial fleets of the same nationality may be combined together when at the same base. Two 6-factor fleets could be replaced by a 9-, a 2- and a 1-factor fleet. Two smaller partial fleets could be combined into a larger one just before SR, if the correct partial fleets are available. Each partial fleet is one unit for SR purposes. Partial fleets cannot be reconstructed (11.252).
22.0 Replacements
Replacements represent training organizations feeding new levies into combat units. Their main function is to provide players with cheap units that they can eliminate when subjected to Attrition combat. The U.S.S.R. has no Replacements.
A Replacement, once placed, may be moved only by SR or when required to retreat by an opponent's Attrition hex selection.
A Replacement has one combat factor, and defends accordingly against enemy Offensive-Option attacks. It may attack only as part of a Non-Phasing Player's Counterattack when so required during an enemy Offensive Option. It may not attack during its own side's Offensive Option, even if adjacent to the enemy. It is not counted for Attrition if in contact with the enemy, and may not advance to occupy an Attrition-gained hex.
23.0 Airborne
An airborne unit ignores all stacking limits, and is never counted in determining the number of units in a stack. It may both attack and defend in situations where another unit would be overstacked. This rule applies even if the airborne unit is moved and used like infantry. It does not apply to Seaborne-Invasion combat if the airborne unit is embarked on a naval unit; only two embarked ground units may attack and this cannot be increased to three by using the airborne.
23.1 Airdrops
To make an Airdrop, an airborne unit must begin the friendly Player Turn already in a supplied airbase (or city) hex not in enemy ZOC. (It may not move and then drop later in the turn, nor may it drop during a turn in which it is moved by Sea Transport or Seaborne Invasion. Placing an airbase in an airborne unit's hex at the start of the turn does not constitute the unit's beginning its turn on an airbase.) From there it may be Airdropped immediately prior to normal (or Exploitation) combat resolution during an Offensive Option. It may drop on any hex within six hexes of its airbase/city hex — but, like an air unit, may not cross a hex that contains any neutral land to do so.
An airborne unit may Airdrop on a hex that contains one or more enemy units. If it does, it must — either alone or in conjunction with other attacking units — attack them and no other adjacent units. If not dropped on an enemy unit it may attack the enemy unit(s) adjacent to its drop hex. An Airdrop can untriple certain defenses; see 4.51.
An airborne unit may not voluntarily move from the hex it drops on, except by SR if possible, until the following Game Turn. If dropped, it may not advance after combat. It is automatically in supply on the Game Turn following its drop [Exception: It loses its automatic in-supply status if it is SR'd during the Player Turn in which it drops], but may Airdrop in that Game Turn only if at the beginning of its Player Turn it is again able to trace a normal supply line to a source other than the hex it dropped on in the previous turn and meets all other Airdrop requirements.
An Airdropped unit that is eliminated before the end of the following Game Turn is removed from the game permanently and may not be reconstructed — unless in that Combat Phase it was able to trace a normal supply line to a source other than the hex on which it was dropped, and/or was adjacent to or stacked with a friendly ground unit (other than another Airdropped unit). An airborne unit that met the latter condition would not be permanently removed even if the friendly ground unit was eliminated in the same Combat Phase or was itself unsupplied.
24.0 Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease is a method of conducting BRP Grants from the West to the U.S.S.R. via Persia, in addition to or in place of Murmansk Convoys. To activate the route, a Western Allied nation must pay 25 BRPs the first time it attempts Lend-Lease. (This represents the cost of opening and improving the transportation facilities through Persia and the exertion of political pressure.) Allied units may, but need not, enter Persia; the Allied action places all Persian hexes under Allied control. Russian units may enter Persia only with the concurrence of the nation that paid the BRP cost. The Axis need not pay a DoW cost if it subsequently enters Persia.
The Allies may Lend-Lease no more than 20 BRPs to the U.S.S.R. per Game Turn. Lend-Lease BRPs require two turns to reach their destination. During SR (beginning in the same turn in which they activate the route), the Allies may SR BRPs to the Lend-Lease Box, providing U.S.- or British-based Sea Escort as appropriate. In the following Allied Player Turn's SR Phase, the BRPs "arrive in" the U.S.S.R. — no Sea Escort is required, but the BRP movement is charged against the SR limits of whichever nation moved the BRPs to the Lend-Lease Box. BRPs in the Lend-Lease Box are not subject to growth or reduction during a YSS, but do count as part of the lender's total BRPs when determining Initiative. BRPs may remain in the Lend-Lease Box indefinitely, but no more than 20 may accumulate there.
The Axis may cut the Lend-Lease route by capturing either Tabriz and Sarab or Grozny, Astrakhan and Krasnovodsk. The Allies reopen the route (without any additional BRP expenditure) if they recapture any one city, provided they then control at least one city of each group. Any BRPs in transit at the time of Axis capture remain where they are (awaiting possible Allied recapture) or may be returned to the West during an Allied SR Phase.
If the Allies control some/all of Turkey and can trace a land route from a Mediterranean port to a current Russian supply source, they may use it for Lend-Lease without paying any activation cost. Such a route may not pass through Iraq, and BRP Grants still require the same two-turn process as the Persian route. Two Sea-Escort fleets (one in the U.S. Box or Britain and one in Gibraltar) are required for the first turn; none for the second. The Axis may cut such a route either by actually interposing their forces/ZOC outside of the U.S.S.R. or by capturing Grozny and Astrakhan. The BRPs are considered to have reached the Mediterranean port at the end of the first turn. They are destroyed if the Axis occupies this port before they move onward; they may not move to Russia if the Axis blocks the intended route.
Lend-Lease activation costs may not be paid prior to the existence of a state of war between the U.S.S.R. and Germany. If the nation that paid the 25 BRPs to activate the Lend-Lease route is subsequently conquered, the route is closed until another Western Allied nation pays another 25 BRPs to open it again.
25.0 Murmansk Convoys
The Western Allies may Grant BRPs to the U.S.S.R. by means of Murmansk Convoys. This method is not subject to the two-turn delay of the Lend-Lease route, but may be subjected to Axis opposition.
The Granting Allied nation(s) assigns BRPs (no more than 40) to a Murmansk Convoy, then assigns Sea Escort fleets (one for each 20 BRPs). One or more additional fleets (above the minimum required for Sea Escort) may be assigned for convoy protection if desired; each fleet so assigned counts as an additional SR. The actual Sea Escort fleet(s) must be based in the U.S. Box or in Britain (as appropriate, depending on the source of the BRPs), but additional convoy protection may be based anywhere on the Western Front. These additional convoy-protection fleets are themselves considered to be performing Sea Escort and may perform no other function during the Game Turn.
The Allies may also assign available ASW factors to the Murmansk Box for convoy protection. These do not count against SR limits, but the factors so moved must remain in the Murmansk Box until at least the next Allied Spring turn SR Phase.
If no German air, fleet or SW submarine factor is presently assigned to the Murmansk Box, the convoy is unopposed and 100% of its BRPs are added to the Russian total.
The Axis may oppose a Murmansk Convoy only if Germany has assigned one or more air and/or fleet units (and/or submarine factors) to the Murmansk Box. Germany may assign air/fleet units to the Murmansk Box only if she controls the city of Bergen in Norway. If Germany controls Bergen, she may move naval/air units that are already in Norway to the Murmansk Box (and/or vice-versa) at the start of each Axis Movement Phase.
The German player may also (or instead) assign available submarine factors to the Murmansk Box at the start of his Movement Phase — but he may move them "back from" (i.e., out of) the Murmansk Box only in an Axis Spring turn Movement Phase and only prior to the 1945 YSS. Axis control of Bergen is not necessary for the assignment of sub factors to the Murmansk Box.
German movement to/from the Murmansk Box cannot be intercepted, and may occur regardless of the Option chosen. Italian and Axis Minor-Ally forces are never allowed in the Murmansk Box.
To resolve Murmansk-Convoy fleet-vs.-fleet combat, Axis fleet strength opposing the convoy is compared to Allied fleet strength. (The latter includes the units Sea Escorting the BRPs as well as any extra convoy-protection fleets.) If the Axis-to-Allied naval ratio is less than 1:3, there is no effect on the Allies. If the Axis-to-Allied naval ratio is 1:3 or higher the computer will resolve the engagement by randomly selecting a number from one to six.
Murmansk Convoy Fleet vs. Fleet Combat Results:
- 1:3 — On a "1" the Axis fleets sortie and the convoy scatters.
- 1:2 — On a "2" or less, the Axis fleets sortie and the convoy scatters. The convoy loses 10% (fractions rounded down) of its BRPs.
- 1:1 — On a "3" or less, the Axis fleets sortie and the convoy scatters. The convoy loses 20% (fractions rounded down) of its BRPs.
- 3:2 — On a "4" or less, the Axis fleets sortie and the convoy scatters. The convoy loses 30% (fractions rounded down) of its BRPs.
Any ratio of greater than 3:2 is treated as 3:2. Die rolls not mentioned equal "no effect". The percentage BRP loss (if any) is determined before any further BRP deductions are made (as explained below) for successful air/submarine opposition.
If the Axis fleets sortie, the computer rolls a die for both sides to determine if Naval Combat will occur. The side with the higher die roll may decide whether or not to join battle (the Axis player wins ties). If battle is joined, fleet losses are taken in the normal manner (21.51). Regardless of these losses (if any), the percentage BRP loss is not affected.
The computer next rolls a die for each air factor in the Murmansk Box, with the modified result equalling the number of BRPs lost from the convoy. There is a +1 DRM if the convoy scattered; and, if the convoy did not scatter, a –1 DRM for every Allied 9-factor fleet beyond the one(s) needed to "carry" the BRPs.
After each air factor "attacks", another die is rolled to see if that air factor survives. The air factor survives on a modified die roll of less than "6". If the convoy did not scatter, a +1 DRM applies for every accompanying 9-factor fleet providing convoy protection (i.e., not needed for "carrying" the BRPs).
For each submarine factor in excess of escorting ASW factors, 3 BRPs (4 BRPs if the convoy scattered) are lost from the convoy [Exception: if Germany does not control Bergen, each sub factor eliminates one less BRP from the convoy than it would otherwise]. Submarine and ASW factors are mutually eliminated as in SW Resolution (9.1), in whatever ratio applied during the YSS of the current year.
BRPs that survive German opposition are added to the Russian total.
After resolution, all German fleet and air units remain in the Murmansk Box until moved out during the Movement Phase of a subsequent Axis turn. Allied fleets return to their base(s) immediately. Surviving Allied ASW or German submarines remain in the Murmansk box; they may not be moved out of it before the next Spring turn.
German fleet/air units withdrawn from the Murmansk Box must reappear at Bergen, Oslo, or an airbase in Norway (air only). [Exception: If an Allied conquest of Norway traps German fleet/air units in the Murmansk Box, they must be moved to Germany during the next Axis Movement Phase, and may not oppose Allied convoys in the interim. If Bergen, but not Oslo, is Allied-controlled, fleets must be withdrawn but air units need not be and may continue to oppose convoys.]
The Murmansk Convoy route is closed if the Axis has both Leningrad and Vologda controlled or isolated. The two cities are not isolated if they can trace a supply line free of enemy ZOC to the east edge of the map (hexrows A-Z inclusive) or to Moscow. Supply traced from any other source (e.g., a Russian-controlled Helsinki), does not break this isolation for purposes of this rule only.
26.0 Anglo-French Cooperation
Prior to the Allied Player Turn that follows the fall of France, or prior to 1942 — whichever occurs first — no British unit may stop in the Maginot Line (Metz, Strasbourg and hex P25), Paris, Marseilles or the city of Vichy. It may pass through one or more of these hexes during movement or SR, but may not stop therein at any point in the turn. If forced to retreat into such a prohibited hex, it is eliminated. [Exception: Once a Maginot Line hex is occupied by Axis forces, British forces may enter it, even before the fall of France.]
The following apply prior to 1942:
- British and French units may not stack together under any circumstances.
- No French unit may end its movement in Britain or a British colony (including Gibraltar). [Exception: If a British colony has been occupied by the Axis, the French can participate in its attempted reconquest.]
- A British fleet may neither carry nor Sea Escort a French unit.
- A British air unit may provide Ground Support for a French ground unit only if the attacked unit is not in a hex prohibited to the British. A British air unit may not provide DAS to the French, because it cannot stack with a French unit.
- British armor may not Exploit a French Breakthrough. If British and French units in separate hexes attack the same hex, resulting in a Breakthrough, the armor of whichever nation advances into the Breakthrough hex may Exploit (even if that armor was adjacent only to participating attackers of the other nationality) — in this case there would be no Anglo-French combined stack.
- British air may base in a French city only if no French unit (including airbase) is in the hex. The same applies to a British fleet basing in a French port. No British air unit may base on, nor may a British ground unit stack with, a French airbase.
- The reverse of the above are equally true: no French fleet may carry a British unit, etc.
- British and French air units and fleets may not combine to perform any Mission.
Units may pass over each other freely during movement, flight, etc. French/British fleets may carry supply for each other's units. There are never any restrictions on combined stacks of, or cooperation between, British/U.S. and Free French units.
27.0 Russo-Allied Cooperation
All pre-1942 Anglo-French-Cooperation stacking restrictions apply equally to stacking Russian and Western Allied (including, for purposes of this rule, Polish) units together. Additionally:
- The U.S.S.R. may not provide air/naval support to any Western Allied ground combat or naval/air Mission, and vice-versa.
- Russian and Western Allied ground units may not combine to attack the same hex. Should they both wish to attack the same hex, the larger force attacks first, and if that attack fails, the other force may then attack.
- Russian controlled-sources/fleets may not provide (sea) supply lines for the Western Allies, and vice versa. Russian air/naval units may not base at Western Allied bases, and vice-versa. Russian air units may not SR over water via Western Allied bases, and vice-versa.
- No more than ten Western Allied factors may ever be placed in the U.S.S.R.
28.0 The Russian Winter
On the first Winter Game Turn following a DoW between the U.S.S.R. and Germany, all Axis forces (except Finns) east of the original Russian border are not doubled on defense (units behind rivers, in swamp or mountain hexes, etc., are still tripled). The Axis may not use an Offensive Option on the Eastern Front during the first Winter turn of war between the U.S.S.R. and Germany.
The U.S.S.R. may elect to postpone the effect of this rule until the second Winter, provided there are currently fewer non-Finnish Axis ground units east of the original Russian border than the total rolled by four dice. The choice must be announced at the beginning of the first Winter Game Turn, after the four-dice roll.
If the U.S.S.R. declares war on the Axis in a Winter turn, that turn is the first Winter (even if the Axis have already conducted their own Winter Player Turn) and Russia may not elect to postpone first-Winter effects.
In the 1942 and 1944 scenarios the first Winter is assumed to have already occurred, and this rule does not apply.
29.0 Poland & Eastern Europe
The 1939 and Campaign scenarios begin with Germany at war with France, Britain and Poland; none of these Major Powers pay DoW costs except to declare war on additional countries. Germany must begin with an Offensive Option on the Eastern Front (this Option is free, Germany does not pay 15 BRPs for it) and must make at least one ground attack on Polish ground units. Germany must continue to attack Polish forces on subsequent turns, with either Offensive- or Attrition-Option combats, until Poland is conquered.
Germany must, on opening setup, place at least 20 ground and/or air combat factors on the Eastern Front. (For opening setup only, units on the Western Front but adjacent to the Polish border may be counted as part of the 20 factors.) Thereafter, at the end of each Axis Movement Phase and Axis Player Turn until Germany and the U.S.S.R. are at war, Germany must have a total of at least 20 factors in Eastern-Front hexes. Losses to this force incurred during the Allied turn do not cause Germany to default on this requirement, provided that at least 20 factors are in this area after the next Axis Movement Phase. (Italian and Axis Minor-Ally units do not count, nor do units in Rumania or Turkey.) Failure to comply with this requirement releases the U.S.S.R. from the ban on a DoW vs. Germany or any of her Garrisoned Minor-Allies prior to Fall 1941. Air units comprising part of the 20 factors may conduct Missions from their Eastern-Front bases. It is permissible for Germany to move units into the Eastern Front, thereby releasing other units to leave the East during the same Movement (or SR) Phase.
The Polish Partition Line: The red line running north-south in Poland at the start of the 1939 and Campaign scenarios is the Polish Partition Line (which was agreed to in the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939). German units may cross this line in their attack on Poland, but will be eliminated if still there at the end of their Fall 1939 turn.
Eastern Europe: Eastern Europe is created at the end of the Axis Fall 1939 player turn and comprises the Baltic States, Poland east of the Partition Line, and Bessarabia (the part of Rumania east of the Eastern-Front boundary). Eastern Europe's BRP value is 25 and this does not in any way lower the BRP value of Poland or Rumania. Poland east of the Partition Line and Bessarabia are no longer considered part of Poland and Rumania. Eastern Europe remains an entity throughout the game (i.e., the eastern part of Poland never reverts back to Poland, Bessarabia never becomes a part of Rumania, and the Baltic States will always be just a part of Eastern Europe). Germany is prohibited from declaring war on Eastern Europe until 1940. The U.S.S.R. can declare war on Eastern Europe at anytime starting with the Allied Fall, 1939 turn. Eastern Europe acts as a normal country in all senses, except it is conquered in the same way as a colony (you must hold all the cities). To enter Eastern Europe you must declare war on it (10 BRPs). Note that Germany may not setup in Bessarabia in Fall 1939.
Poland: If Poland is unconquered it receives its own turn, unless Germany and U.S.S.R. are at war. In this case, Poland is considered allied with Britain, takes whatever Front Options that Britain takes and takes its turn with the rest of the Allies. Polish and Russian units are considered allied and may stack and attack together.
30.0 German-Italian Cooperation
Until Germany and Italy are allied (both at war against the same Major Power), their units may not enter each other's controlled territory, and naval units may not embark the other's units. Once allied, German and Italian units may always stack together.
30.1 Lent Italian Forces
As soon as Germany and Italy are allied, Italian units may be lent to Germany during SR Phases. The total under German control at any one time cannot exceed ten factors. Airbases cannot be lent. Each unit so lent counts as one SR (which may be charged against either nation's SR limit) on the turn in which it is transferred, whether or not it is moved on the map. A unit may be lent (or reclaimed) even if out of supply and/or adjacent to the enemy, but it could not also be SR'd. A lent unit must meet the usual criteria for SR.
Germany controls lent units as if they were her own, paying for Offensive Options in which they participate. If lost in combat they return to the Italian Force Pool; Italy must pay their BRP cost to rebuild them; they are then again under Italian control until again lent during a SR Phase. Hexes gained by lent units are controlled by Germany, not Italy. Italy may reclaim her units during any Axis SR Phase, each unit again costing one SR. If Italy is conquered or surrenders, lent units are removed from play immediately. If Germany is conquered, lent Italian units remain in play and revert to Italian control.
31.0 Axis Forces in Africa
No more than 18 German combat factors (of all types) may be supplied from any Libyan source, or by sea through any North African port west of the Suez Canal, or in any combination thereof, as long as the Allies control Malta. Each Allied naval or air factor based at Malta reduces this 18-factor limit by one [Exception: due to the size of the Allied base on Malta, the limit can never fall below 4].
German units already in North Africa may not be eliminated by an increase in Allied strength on Malta, but only that amount of factors within the current limit is in supply and allowed to move during the Movement/Combat Phase. An armor unit that has just Exploited, or an airborne unit that has just dropped, is not exempted from this limit by its automatically-in-supply status. The German player determines which units are to be considered unsupplied. Once he makes that decision, however, he may not change it until the start of his next Player Turn, even if the units designated as supplied are subsequently eliminated or removed from the affected area.
Such unsupplied units may be counted in Attrition totals. Units unsupplied due solely to this rule are not eliminated at the end of their turn and can be SR'd. Italian units (whether lent to Germany or not) and Spanish units never count towards the limit. German Minor-Ally units, including activated Vichy French, do count towards the limit even if they are in a Vichy colony when activated and remain there.
An Axis sea-supply line through the port(s) of Antioch, Beirut, Haifa, and/or Port Said would also be limited to a maximum of 18 factors, and this limit would include Italian and Spanish units as well. The 18-factor limit does not apply to factors that can trace an overland supply line to any non-Libyan port source (i.e., through Turkey or Persia to some source of supply). The Allies can decrease this maximum limit in a similar manner to which Malta acts on Libyan supply sources if they have an air unit in Cyprus, Crete and/or Rhodes, or more naval factors stationed in the Mediterranean east of the Suez Canal than the Axis. Should the above situation arise, the amount of supply the German could draw through one or more of the above ports is limited to the 18-factor limit minus one factor for each Allied air factor on Cyprus, Crete and/or Rhodes or within four hexes of the Axis port, and minus one factor for each Allied naval factor based east of the Suez Canal. Note that if the Allies base two 9-factor fleets in the Mediterranean east of the Suez Canal, no Axis unit can be supplied through the port.
Note that Axis units are never automatically in supply solely because they are within the limits of this rule. Supply must still be provided by Axis fleets to the respective ports.
All Allied and Axis naval and air factors involved in these supply determinations are simultaneously capable of normal functions. German units in excess of their current supply capabilities (as detailed above) may not be moved into Africa or the area east of the Suez Canal by any means.
32.0 Gibraltar
Only the side that controls Gibraltar may SR (by Sea Escort) units into, out of or through Gibraltar, regardless of the presence of enemy units in any adjacent hex(es). The converse is not true; e.g., units may not SR into/out-of hex Z8 if enemy units are in Gibraltar.
Gibraltar, as a two-Front port, may be invaded by both Mediterranean- and Western-Front fleets (requiring an Offensive Option only for the Mediterranean; 11.211) — if no 9-factor fleet is present in Gibraltar (4.9).
The loss of Gibraltar immediately costs Britain 25 BRPs. If the British have previously suffered a 25-BRP loss for Gibraltar, they do not lose any more for losing Gibraltar again. Should this result in a BRP deficit, Britain may make no further BRP expenditures during that year, and the deficit would be subtracted from the next YSS.
33.0 Malta
Malta may base only up to nine naval and five air factors. Naval and air units in Malta inhibit German forces in Africa; see 31.0. Air units in Malta may decline Counter-Air combat; see 20.42. If Britain loses Gibraltar, Alexandria and Suez city, Malta ceases to be even a limited supply source (19.2).
34.0 The Suez Canal
The Suez Canal (hexsides LL30-LL31, MM30-LL31 and MM30-MM31) is treated as a river for all purposes [Exception: fleets may enter them if all four land hexes adjacent to the canal are friendly-controlled]. The Gulf of Suez is considered ocean.
If the Axis controls both Suez city and Alexandria, Britain immediately loses 25 BRPs. If the British previously suffered a 25-BRP loss for this area they do not again lose 25 BRPs, but they could suffer a 25-BRP loss for this area in addition to a 25-BRP loss for the loss of Gibraltar.
If the Axis controls any hex adjacent to the Suez Canal and the Allies fail to recapture it in their next Player Turn, the canal becomes unusable by both sides. Being made unusable does not activate the 25-BRP penalty for the British. The canal does not again become usable until one side has controlled all canal-side hexes for two complete Game Turns. Thereafter, the side that controls the canal may move/SR/Sea-Escort through it. [Exception: The Western Allies can prevent Axis SR/Sea-Escort through the canal by removing any one 9-factor fleet from play to "blockade" it; this costs one SR. The blockading fleet may perform no other function while in blockade position. The two-turns-to-repair rule is effective whenever the canal subsequently changes hands.]
SRs from Egypt via the Suez Canal, off the map around South Africa and back onto the map in the Atlantic, are allowed — but each unit thus moved counts as two SRs instead of one. The reverse route is also allowed at double SR cost, even if Gibraltar remains in Allied hands. Two fleets may be needed if the Sea-Escorted unit is to move into the Mediterranean by sea from Suez city (in this case Suez acts as of two-Front port); a Suez-based fleet must provide the Mediterranean portion of the Sea Escort. Sea Escort is required for any non-naval unit thus SR'd, but is doubled only if the unit moves to and away from Suez in the same SR.
35.0 Vichy France
The following actions occur immediately when France is conquered (i.e., following the Allied Combat Phase when a counterattack on Paris fails; 18.3):
- Vichy France is created in European France. All hexes in Vichy France (and Corsica) become controlled by Vichy, while the remaining hexes of European France become controlled by France's conqueror.
- Half (rounded up) of each type of French unit, including airbases, in European France become Vichy French. (Naval and air factors existing there are each totalled and halved to determine the surviving half.) The survivors are removed from play, but go into the Vichy French Force Pool and become available for setup in European France in the next Axis turn. The remaining half are permanently eliminated.
- A die roll is made once for Lebanon-Syria and once for Tunisia-Algeria-Morocco. If it is "even", that colony and all French units in it become Vichy French; if "odd", they become Free French. (These die rolls do not change the status of any colony already controlled by the Axis as a conquest.) Such units remain in their colony; they are not removed from play like units in European France.
- All French conquests and other French-controlled hexes become Axis [Exception: controlled hexes that can trace supply to a Free French colony remain in Free French control unless they are closer to European France or a Vichy French colony].
- All British units in Vichy territory are eliminated.
Vichy France's initial status is that of an inactive German Minor-Ally, with two differences:
- An Allied DoW on Vichy plus German Intervention is insufficient to activate Vichy (17.2) — only the Vichy activation die roll (35.1) can do this;
- Vichy, whether active or inactive, never yields BRPs to Germany.
Vichy city functions as the Capital of Vichy France between the fall of France and the conquest (or deactivation; 35.1) of Vichy France. It is treated as an ordinary city at all other times.
German units may freely move and SR through, or remain in, Vichy territory (though doing so reduces the chance of Vichy activation; 35.1).
Britain receives BRPs for Free French colonies in each YSS that they remain out of Axis control. Free French units function as British in all respects; if eliminated, they may be reconstructed in Britain.
If Britain is conquered, existing Free French units remain in play (but those destroyed before the U.S.A. enters the war would be permanently out of the game). After U.S. entry, they would then function as American in all respects and the BRPs of Free French colonies would go to the U.S.A. in the next YSS. Such units could take Offensive Options prior to American entry at no BRP cost.
Objectives and territory controlled by Free French units count as British- (or U.S.-) controlled.
Marseilles and Lyons count as Axis-held Objectives while under Vichy control. The Axis receives BRPs for Vichy colonies only if they are conquered either before the fall of France or by the Allies and later reconquered by the Axis.
All Vichy units destroyed in combat before Vichy France becomes an active Minor-Ally are removed from play permanently and cannot be reconstructed. All Vichy units destroyed after her activation may be reconstructed by Germany in the same manner as any other active Axis Minor-Ally, but must be built in a continental-Europe Vichy hex.
Whether active or inactive, all Vichy units are removed from the game at the end of the Combat Phase in which the city of Vichy is solely occupied, or controlled, by Allied forces. Control of any hexes in Vichy France not yet occupied by the Allies reverts to Germany; any remaining Vichy colonies are controlled by no one. All Vichy units are also removed from the game at the end of the Axis Combat Phase in which the Axis fails to retake an Allied-controlled Paris.
35.1 Vichy (De)activation
During any German Unit-Construction Phase beginning with the Player Turn after the fall of France, Germany may spend five BRPs to make a Vichy activation die roll. If the modified die roll is "6" or more, Vichy becomes an active German Minor-Ally and all Vichy controlled hexes pass to German control.
During any British Unit-Construction Phase beginning two Game Turns after the fall of France, Britain may spend five BRPs to make a Vichy deactivation die roll. If this modified die roll is "1" or less, Vichy ceases to exist as a political entity (becoming again merely a part of France). All Vichy forces that may be on the map are permanently eliminated from the game. The hexes of European Vichy France and Corsica pass to German control except for those that are already Allied-controlled. Vichy colonies are controlled by no one. The first side to gain control of all cities in a former Vichy colony, gains control of that colony.
Britain and Germany may each make only one Vichy (de)activation die roll per Player Turn. Once either nation succeeds, no further rolls on the table are made.
The following DRMs are applicable to the Vichy die roll:
| DRM | Condition |
|---|---|
| +1 | If Britain does not control Malta. |
| +2 | If the Allies declare war on Vichy France. |
| +2 | If Britain does not control Suez city and/or Alexandria. |
| +2 | If Britain does not control Gibraltar. |
| —1 | If all French colonies are Free French and/or under Allied control. |
| —1 | If no Axis units are in Africa (including Egypt east of the Nile). |
| —1 | If Axis forces have crossed Vichy territory, except on the first Axis Player Turn after the fall of France. This penalty does not apply if Axis forces Intervene in Vichy territory after an Allied attack on Vichy. |
| —1 | If U.S./British non-airborne forces are in a Bridgehead, or control a port, on the European continent. (Gibraltar and Norway do not count, nor does Sicily or any other island.) |
| —1 | If the U.S.A. has declared war on the Axis. |
| —2 | If the Axis has declared war on Spain. |
36.0 Turkey
If Turkey is attacked by a Major Power, it becomes an active Minor-Ally of whichever opposing Major Power (if any) Intervenes.
37.0 Spain
Spanish Morocco and the Balearic Islands are integral parts of Spain. They pass to the control of the first Major Power to conquer Spain. Spain may not construct units in Spanish Morocco or the Balearic Islands, although it may place them there when initially invaded. Tangiers is a supply source for Spanish (only) ground units in Spanish Morocco.
If Spain is attacked by a Major Power, it becomes an active Minor-Ally of whichever opposing Major Power (if any) Intervenes.
38.0 Ireland
Northern Ireland (Ulster) is treated as an integral part of Great Britain for all purposes (though units therein must still be supplied by sea). The remainder of Ireland is a minor-neutral country.
39.0 Switzerland
No nation may declare war on Switzerland. No Swiss hex may be entered by a ground unit or overflown by an air unit.
40.0 Iraq
Iraq is a British colony.