II World War 1939 - 1945

II World War 1939 - 1945 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Components

Each copy of II World War includes:

A hard cardboard board with the political map of Europe according to its 1939 borders.
Three sheets of die-cut counters.
Plastic bags to store the counters once punched out.
Four 6-sided dice (two of each colour).
This instruction book.
A history book.
One NAC History Joker card.

The Board

The board is a political map of Europe and North Africa as configured in 1939.

AXIS POWERS (in shades of grey): Germany (which includes Czechoslovakia, Austria and its possession in East Prussia), Italy (plus its possessions in Sicily, Sardinia, Rhodes, Libya and Albania), Finland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. They form the Axis side.

WESTERN ALLIES (in shades of green): USA, United Kingdom (and its possessions: Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine and Jordan), France (plus Corsica, French Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon and Syria), Norway, Holland, Belgium, Greece (plus its possession of Crete) and Denmark. They are part of the Allied side.

SOVIET UNION (in shades of red): For game purposes this bloc also includes Poland and Yugoslavia, which for proximity have been associated with this faction. Special territories such as the Baltic States, Eastern Poland and Bessarabia are also included, although they have no armies. They are part of the Allied side.

NEUTRALS (in shades of yellow): Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Iraq, Arabia and Turkey. They will defend themselves if attacked and will enter the war fighting as allies of the opposing side.

Some additional remarks:

The USA, although its territory does not appear on the map, intervenes from a certain date alongside the Western Allies.
Some nations such as Ireland, Arabia or Denmark have no troops of any kind.
For the purposes of some rules, the main nations are Germany and Italy (Axis faction), France, United Kingdom and USA (Western Allies faction) and the USSR (Soviet faction).
When a main nation is mentioned, its overseas possessions, allies and colonies are also included.

The counters move through the hexagons that make up the map. Most hexagons are land or sea, but there are also some special hexagons and edges (sides of hexagons):

Capitals of main nations: a white star surrounded by a white circle, with the name of the city on a heraldic banner. Possession of all of them plus some other objective cities (represented by a star of the nation's colour inside a white circle) can allow an automatic victory. They grant Victory Points and combat bonuses to the defender.
Objective Cities: capitals of territories, islands or colonies and important cities that grant Victory Points. Represented by stars without circles or by a star of the nation's colour inside a white circle. They grant combat bonuses to the defender.
Other Cities: represented by a white dot. Controlling them is necessary to conquer the country, island or territory. They grant combat bonuses to the defender.
Lakes: blue areas enclosed within land territory. They cannot be occupied or crossed by land forces.
Mountains: mountain hexagons are represented by an icon and a darker background colour. They grant combat bonuses to the defender and penalize movement. On the map you will find the names of some of the most relevant mountain zones.
Coastline: thin blue lines. When there is doubt whether a given hexagon is land or sea, it is considered to be both, so land and naval units may move and/or occupy those hexagons.
Borders: white lines separating a country, colony or territory from others. Crossing the borders of neutral countries or territories has consequences.
Rivers: blue lines following the outline of hexagon sides. They penalize attack and movement when crossed. Each river has its name associated.

ATTENTION: Incomplete hexagons are not taken into account for game purposes. It is as if they did not exist.

Note: although historical fidelity is a maxim of this line of games, for playability reasons some liberties have been taken with various elements of the board.

The Counters

Each cardboard counter corresponds to a military entity of a given nation. Nations are identified by the colour of the counter plus a flag of the nation. They also have a symbol of the main nation they are associated with, simply by affinity and/or alliance. There are three types of units:

Land units (movement factor 6, combat factor 1): with a military helmet symbol of their army, the flag of their country and a symbol of the associated main nation. Each counter corresponds to the military concept of Army or Army Corps, that is, a grouping of divisions and other smaller units containing forces of all types and specialities. Each of these counters represents roughly 80,000 to 150,000 men.
Naval units (movement factor 36, combat factor 1): with a ship symbol in addition to the flag of their country and a symbol of the associated main nation. Each counter corresponds to a naval combat grouping, equivalent to a large fleet, containing everything from ships of the line to patrol boats, including destroyers, minesweepers, submarines, troop transports, etc.
Air units (movement factor 12, combat factor 1): with a typical aircraft symbol of the country in addition to the flag of their country and a symbol of the associated main nation. Each counter equals the concept of an air fleet, a large unit of thousands of aircraft including fighters, bombers, attack aircraft, reconnaissance, transports, etc.

All counters in this game have two characteristics that are identical for all of them according to their type: the combat factor and the movement factor. Since every counter, regardless of side and nation, has combat factor 1, the counters show only their movement factor.

Combat factor: the operational capacity of the unit, that is, the maximum firepower it can concentrate in combat. Each combat factor grants 1 combat die. To understand how the combat factor is used, a basic distinction must be made between surface units (naval and land) and air units. Surface units use their combat factor to attack other surface units. Air units do the same against air and naval units. When combat takes place between air and land units, we speak of "combat with air support", which follows different special rules. With each point of combat factor the unit rolls 1 die.

Movement factor: each movement factor grants 1 movement point. It is the maximum distance a unit can travel on the board in a given turn. The value represents the maximum number of hexagons it can move per game turn, although it may move fewer or simply not move. Each hexagon generally consumes 1 movement point, except for exceptions we will see later.

The Dice

They are used to resolve combats and represent the luck factor present in any conflict. They determine who wins a combat and thus eliminate enemy counters. They are 6-sided dice, but note that in this game the NAC face counts as value 5 instead of value 6. Therefore there are two faces of value 5.

Number of Players

The game is designed for an ideal number of three players, although it easily admits two contenders.

In reality, the Axis nations faced the rest of the belligerent countries. This is maintained in the game; however, when playing with three players it is essential that one plays the Axis, another what we have called the Western Allies, and another the forces of the Soviet Union and its associated nations, since although all those who faced the Axis were allies, the interests of Westerners and Soviets did not always coincide. Western Allies and Soviet Union (together called "Allies") form one side, and the Axis the other. Players on the Allied side cannot attack each other.

Game Length and Order of Play

The game is played in rounds. Each round comprises one turn for each of the contenders, that is, the movement and resolution of combats of each of them. The order of each round is determined as follows:

During the first eight rounds (1 to 8), the order of play is always: first the Axis, then the Soviet, and lastly the Western Allies. Therefore the Axis player starts the game.
During the next five rounds (9 to 13), the order is always: first the Soviet, then the Western Allies, and lastly the Axis.
In the last five rounds (14 to 18), the order is always: first the Western Allies, then the Soviet, and lastly the Axis.

On the round track of the board the order of play is indicated in rounds 1, 9 and 14, where it changes.

The length of each game is therefore 18 rounds, and each corresponds approximately to four months of war, starting at the end of 1939 and ending around mid-1945.

On the reinforcement-receipt template at the side of the board you will also find the calendar of the round track. Each time a full round is completed, the round marker is advanced one space.

Who Wins the Game?

Victory can be achieved by all the Allies together (if there is a single player with Soviets and Western Allies) or by each faction separately (Soviets, Western Allies and Axis). In historical terms a separate victory by one of the allies is not possible, both would win; but in game terms it will be known which of them carried more weight in the defeat of the Axis according to the objective cities each holds.

Victory can be achieved in the following ways:

Whoever achieves the surrender of the enemy before the end of round 18. If the Axis player surrenders, the opposing side wins, and of these, the one who holds more objective cities. If only one of the Allied players surrenders, he hands all his territorial possessions to the Axis, which will keep fighting the other Allied player.
If at the end of any round the Allies together or the Axis have three times more counters than their opponent. In this case the game is won immediately.
If one of the sides manages to eliminate all the units of its rivals, that is, annihilate them totally, it wins immediately.
At the end of any round, if one of the sides controls the following objective cities and capitals: London, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, Rome, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Suez, Tripoli and Ploesti, it has won the game at that moment. In case of an Allied victory in 3-player games, the faction controlling more of these cities wins. In case of a tie, the one controlling more objective cities.
If at the end of round 18 no one has won, the faction controlling more objective cities of the following 45 on the map marked with a star wins: London, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, Rome, Stalingrad, Leningrad, Suez, Tripoli, Ploesti, Tirana, Helsinki, Gibraltar, Kiev, Malta, Copenhagen, Oslo, Athens, Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Konisberg, Vienna, Prague, Belgrade, Warsaw, Brussels, Amsterdam, Algiers, Casablanca, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Ankara, Istanbul, Stockholm, Jerusalem, Tunis, Riga, Rostov, Damascus, Milan, Sevastopol, Baku and Kursk.

If, once the game has ended in round 18, no one has achieved victory in any of these ways, there are two possibilities: a) establish a cessation of hostilities with a draw; b) continue the war and go on until the conditions necessary to declare a winner are met.

How to Play

Each game round follows exactly the same sequence. First, following the order of play explained above, all players, one by one, place their reinforcements.

Then, again according to the order of play, each player performs:

Movement of their units
Resolution of combats
Return to controlled cities of the defender's air units used in defensive support
Repositioning of all their aircraft on the map, which must return to a controlled city space

Example: it is round 10. The Soviet places his reinforcements, then the Western Allies, and lastly the Axis. Then the Soviet performs the complete play sequence. At the end of his turn, the Western ally does so. Lastly the Axis player does. The round then ends.

Initial Deployment of the Counters

The table on the board indicates for each main nation the forces received each turn as well as the initial troops at the start of the game (Round 1). The remaining countries (neutrals and minor allies of each player) receive no reinforcements during the game.

At the start of the game the initial troops must be placed as follows:

Minor allies, who place their land troops in their capital: Norway, Greece, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Finland.
Neutral countries: one land troop of each of those countries is placed in the capitals (and the second Spanish unit in Barcelona, and the Turkish one in Istanbul).
Main nations: each side places the number of units indicated in the table, in round 1. They do so in the established order (Axis, Soviet, Western Allies).

As explained, minor allies and neutrals place their forces in their respective capitals and cities indicated above. As for neutral countries, their troops remain immobilized until the country in question enters the war, if that happens.

The armies of the main nations must be placed at the start of the game in their territory (nation, island or colony). Land counters in any land hexagon within these territories; naval ones on any coastal point of the same territories and air ones in cities of their territory. It is also possible, during initial deployment, to place a land troop in the same hexagon as a naval or air one if it is going to move by air or naval transport.

Each of the Western Allied and Axis nations must place its forces in territories of its own nation (the British in their territories, the French in theirs, etc.) except in the case of the USA, as we will see later.

Reinforcements

In each round, placing reinforcements is the first step each player must carry out in the corresponding turn order.

The quantity of reinforcements, as well as their type (land, naval or air), is indicated in the table on the game board. To place these reinforcements, players must take the following into account:

Reinforcement counters that cannot be placed at this moment for some reason are lost. They cannot be saved for later.
In the first turn only, each unit of the main nations must be placed in its country, islands or territories it controls (note the different tones on the map that indicate this).
Placement of reinforcements in later turns of the Axis and the Western Allies can be made in any own or allied territory that was controlled at the start of the game and is still under their control (for example, it is possible to place German troops in Axis-controlled territory in Libya, which is an Italian colony in North Africa).
Of the troops a main nation receives each round, a single land unit out of all those received as reinforcement may be placed in a city under its control even in originally enemy territory (for example, if Germany is attacking France and controls Marseille, it could place a land unit there).

Placement of the defender's reinforcements in a territory that is being invaded: when enemy units are invading a territory of another nation (that is, there are enemy units that have crossed the borders of a specific territory or control at least one city there), the player defending that territory can no longer place units in any hexagon of that territory; he can only do so, as long as the above holds, in his own controlled cities and hexagons adjacent to cities.

Additional reinforcements for conquest: when players conquer certain hexagons for the first time (and only that once), they may receive additional reinforcements. The hexagons that grant reinforcements for conquest are marked with a special symbol, and are:

For the Axis player:

In the round after the Axis captures Suez, Italy receives 1 extra land unit.
In the round after the Axis captures Stalingrad, Germany receives 2 extra land units.

For the Western Allies player:

In the round after the Western Allies (United Kingdom, USA and/or France) capture Rome, they receive 1 extra land unit from one of those countries (the player decides which one).
In the round after the Western Allies (United Kingdom, USA and/or France) capture Berlin, they receive 1 extra land unit from one of those countries (the player decides which one).

For the Soviet player:

In the round after the Soviets capture Rome, they receive 1 extra land unit.
In the round after the Soviets capture Berlin, they receive 1 extra land unit.

Example: it is round 11 and the Soviets have captured Berlin. The Axis has conquered Suez. In round 12, the Soviet player will have an extra land troop as reinforcement. The Axis player will have another one for Italy.

Movement

The movement of each counter is given by its movement factor. Each counter will have, in each turn, as many movement points as its movement factor. That will be the maximum distance in hexagons it can move.

When moving, each counter must respect the following rules:

Moving is not mandatory, but in each turn each counter may move only once. When a counter moves, you may rotate it 45 degrees to indicate that it has already moved that turn.
It is not allowed to move, stop to attack, and then continue moving. Each counter must finish its movement before another begins to move, with the exception of troops performing transport (see later).
Each hexagon can contain only one counter of any type (with the exception of transports). A surface counter is allowed to pass over another surface counter of its faction, but never over enemy surface counters.
If a counter enters an enemy Zone of Control, it must stop.
Naval units can only move through sea and/or coast hexagons.
Air units can move through any type of hexagon on the map, but must always end the turn stationed in a controlled city hexagon or they will be destroyed.

When moving land units, there are certain hexagons that consume more movement points or through which they cannot move:

Mountains: entering a mountain hexagon costs 2 movement points. Example: the Allied land unit uses 5 of its 6 movement points because entering the two mountain hexagons cost it 4, and it must stop upon entering the Axis unit's zone of control.
Rivers: crossing a hexagon by its river side costs 1 additional movement point. Example: the Soviet land unit wants to approach Rostov without passing through the zone of control of the Axis unit, so it is forced to cross the Dnieper 3 times, its 6 movement points taking it only 3 hexagons.
Lakes: units cannot enter lake hexagons. Example: the Axis unit is in Helsinki and wants to attack Leningrad, but has to make a big detour because it cannot enter lake hexagons.

Zone of Control of a Counter (ZoC)

The Zone of Control (ZoC) of surface units is the 6 hexagons surrounding it.

When a counter enters the ZoC of an enemy counter, it must stop if it was moving.
When a counter enters the ZoC of two or more counters, it must stop and may attack one of them in combat.

Example: the Allied unit enters Spain towards Madrid, but must stop upon entering the zone of control of the two neutral units that are under the control of the Axis side. As it has entered the zone of control of both, it chooses which of the two to attack.

ZoC of land units over naval units: because of the zone of control, a land unit may be placed on the coast or in a strait zone and thus control the passage of naval units through it, since if naval units pass they are forced to check whether they have to stop or not.

In these cases a die roll must be made to see whether the naval unit is forced to stop its movement. Roll a die and if you get a 4 or 5 you may continue moving. If you get a 1, 2 or 3 you are forced to stop your movement, deciding afterwards whether or not you want to fight it.

Example: an Axis land troop is exerting ZoC in the English Channel. An English battleship tries to cross through the zone. It rolls the die and gets a 4. It decides it is better to continue moving and reach its destination, to liberate the Danish coast.

Combat

After the player whose turn it is has finished moving all the units he wants to, all the combats that are going to be generated are resolved, in whatever order the player wishes.

When 2 enemy counters are in adjacent hexagons, a combat may take place. Combats are resolved as indicated below. Each combat factor of a counter allows the roll of one die.

Who Can Attack Whom?

The three types of counters in the game (land, naval and air) have certain restrictions when attacking enemy counters, depending on their type:

Surface units (land and naval) can attack other enemy surface units.
Land units can only attack naval units that are on the coast, and vice versa.
Land units that, during movement or advance after combat, enter an enemy city hexagon where an air unit is alone, destroy it directly.
Naval units can attack air units that are in coastal cities (they are considered to be in the airfields).
Air units can attack other air units or naval units. They can also attack land units by means of combat with air support.
Although they are part of the same side, units of the Western Allies and the Soviets can never attack jointly (even in 2-player games where one player controls both factions).

Joint attack: several of your own counters can attack a single adjacent enemy counter, but you must always indicate who participates in the attack before rolling any die. If there are penalties, they are applied to the best result. Defenders, on the other hand, do not benefit from being adjacent to each other.

Combat Modifiers

In this game, terrain plays a decisive role in the combats of land units. Depending on where a combat takes place, the defender may have some bonuses to his die roll, the attacker may have some penalties, or both circumstances may occur. Before resolving each combat, the following must be taken into account:

The defender's land units in a mountain hexagon gain +1 to their die roll.
The defender's land units in a normal city hexagon gain +1 to their die roll.
The defender's land units in an objective city hexagon add 1 to their combat factor (roll 1 extra die).
The defender's land units in a capital city hexagon add 1 to their combat factor (roll 1 extra die) and also gain +1 to their die rolls.
The attacker's land units that make their attack through a blue hexagon side (hexagon with a river side) subtract -1 from their die roll (in joint attacks the penalty applies to the specific roll of the units attacking across the river).

The different modifiers can be cumulative (for example, a normal city on a mountain would give +2 to the defender).

Combat with air support: air units can add other additional modifiers (see the air units section later).

Example: in this example, the Allies are going to launch an attack to take control of Marseille. Western Allies and Soviets cannot make a joint attack, so the Western Allies add their combat factor of two dice for the land unit and the naval unit adjacent to Marseille. As Marseille is on a mountain and is a normal city, the defender would roll one die and add +2 to the result, while the Western Allies would keep the highest result of their two dice.

The British and French set out to liberate Rome from the Italian fascists. Being in a main Capital, the defenders have an additional combat factor of 1 (they roll 1 more die) and also have +1 to their best roll. The Western Allies launch their joint attack. The French, attacking across a river, suffer -1 to their roll, but the British does not. The example continues on the next page.

Resolution of a Combat

Combats are resolved with dice, which represent the luck factor present in any conflict. Each combat is resolved completely separately before starting the next, following this procedure:

When engaging in combat, the attacking player rolls one 6-sided die for each unit that is attacking (or put another way, 1 die for each combat factor involved).
The defending player does the same, rolling one die for each combat factor involved in the defence.
After all dice have been rolled, only the best result is considered, after applying all bonuses or penalties. Therefore, compare the highest results obtained on a single die by each player to determine the winner. The loser must eliminate his unit.

In case of a tie in the roll to determine the winner of the combat, rolls are not repeated, and all counters remain in play with no winner in the combat for this round.

Advance after combat: if the winner of the combat is the attacker and he eliminates the enemy defending unit, he may occupy that hexagon with any of his own land units that took part in that combat.

Example (continuation): the Western Allies proceed to attack and roll 2 dice, to which they must apply a penalty of -1 to the French roll because it is crossing a river. They get a 5 and a NAC result (which also counts as 5). Therefore, their final result for the combat is 5 (the penalty makes the other 5 obtained by the French a 4). The Italians also roll 2 dice and have a bonus of +1. They get a 3 and a 2. Their best final result is 4. Therefore, this combat ends in an Allied victory, and they advance to Rome. Bad news for Mussolini!

Wave attack: if the attacker is attacking with several units at once, and loses the combat, and therefore an attacking unit is eliminated, he may choose to keep fighting, maintaining any air support he had, as long as he still has land units adjacent to the victorious defending unit (now that he has lost a unit, he can attack, but will have 1 die fewer). This can be repeated as many times as the attacker wants, as long as he has at least one land unit available.

Example: the Axis attacks Warsaw with 3 units, one of them with -1 because it does so across the Vistula. The Soviets defend with an extra die for being an objective city. The Axis loses the combat and eliminates the unit shown. Now it attacks again in a wave, without penalty, finally achieving victory.

Air Units

Air units, due to their characteristics, have a series of specific rules explained below:

A land unit can never attack an enemy air unit by itself, although it will automatically destroy it if it finds it alone in a hexagon when taking a city.
A naval unit can only attack an air unit located in a coastal city.
An air unit can attack other air units or naval units following the normal combat rules.

Very important: if an enemy land unit arrives at a hexagon in which there is an air unit, then the air unit is immediately eliminated, without this causing a combat.

Air Units Against Naval Units

An air unit can fight a naval unit in 2 different ways:

According to the normal combat rules, using its combat factor when attacking naval units, or likewise using its combat factor when defending in coastal cities.
In a combat with air support of its own naval unit that is attacking an enemy naval unit or defending against it.

Air Units Against Land Units

An air unit cannot fight land units by itself. Only in air support combat can an air unit take part in an attack or defence combat against land units.

Combat with Air Support

An air unit can only attack a land unit if it attacks jointly with one of its own land units. This is the so-called support combat. This type of combat can also help in the defence of a friendly land unit.

In each land or naval combat, both players may send a single supporting air unit to take part in the combat:

In each combat, first the attacker decides whether he wants to send an air unit. Then the defender decides.
The air units sent must have movement range from the hexagon they are taken from.
The air units sent are placed on the defender's hexagon, to indicate they are supporting.
Each player who has air support gains +1 to his die roll for that combat (in addition to any other modifier that may apply).

Example: the Red Army attacks Bremen. As it has an air unit in Ploesti that is within range (11 hexagons of the 12 the unit can move), it decides to call air support from there. The player controlling the Axis also has an air unit in Munich, which he could decide at that moment to use to support the defence.

Combat in the skies: if both players send air units to support, before giving support the aircraft face each other: each player rolls 1 die. With a result of 5, the enemy aircraft is shot down and eliminated. 3 situations can occur:

Both players lose their aircraft and therefore the combat will not have air support.
Neither player loses his aircraft, and therefore both rivals will receive air support.
One player eliminates the rival's aircraft, being the only one who will receive air support.

If only one player sends air units to support, then only he receives the +1 for support.

Anti-aircraft defences: if a player (attacker or defender) has air support and loses the combat, the rival rolls 1 die at the end of the combat and with a result of 5 the attacking aircraft are also eliminated. With any other result, they will try to return to an air base.

Example: despite having had air support, the Soviets lose the fight for Bremen. The player controlling the Axis can use his anti-aircraft defences and, with a 5, the Russian aircraft is destroyed.

Repositioning Air Units

After all combats on the map have been carried out, the defender's air units that took part in support combats must now return to the city they came from.

Then, the player whose turn it is may move all his air units from wherever they are (in cities if they have not moved, or in any other hexagon because they took part in combat or air transport) to any city hexagon he controls, thus allowing him to reposition his aircraft. If after these movements an air unit cannot, using its movement factor, land in a controlled city, it is eliminated (it has run out of fuel). Aircraft moving back to cities have 12 movement points again; they do not have to count the steps they spent getting to where they are now.

Example: the Axis aircraft that came to the combat from Munich has several cities available to go to. It decides that Cologne is the right place to be able to take part in combats further north on the map.

Transport

Naval and air units have, in addition to a combat function, a transport function: they can be used to move land units quickly and, moreover, over greater distances.

Naval Transport

Naval units can transport up to two land units at a time. They must pick them up in any coastal hexagon and also unload them in a coastal hexagon, although it does not have to be in the same turn.

While being transported, the land counter loses its mobility and its combat capacity for all purposes. If the transporting unit is destroyed, the transported unit is also destroyed.

Landing: unloading land units is free, but a land unit that lands on a coast can no longer keep moving that round. The naval unit can continue moving if it still has unspent movement remaining. It is not allowed to land units in hexagons occupied by other counters (friendly or enemy).

Example: the Western Allies use naval transport to move troops from Algiers to Sicily. As after the landing the naval unit still has a lot of movement left, it continues its advance to Malta.

Ferries: naval units located in a strait act as a bridge for land units, thus allowing the passage of up to two counters per round without this being considered a landing (so those land units can keep moving normally and even start an attack).

Example: the Axis land unit makes use of the naval unit at Gibraltar to cross the strait towards Algeria.

Air Transport

Any air unit can transport one land unit. To do so it must load it in any controlled city, and drop it in any other controlled city within range of its movement factor.

To board an air transport, the land unit must be adjacent to the city where the air unit is. It then boards the aircraft, which must then move to the destination city where both units end their movement. Finally, the transported land unit must be placed in a hexagon adjacent to that city and not in enemy ZoC.

Example: the aircraft stays in the destination city and the land unit is placed adjacent, outside the ZoC of the German unit.

Conquests

To conquer a country, the rival side must capture with its land units all the cities that make up that country. When a city is captured, the player places one of his hexagonal control markers on it.

Note that in this game the concept of conquest is differentiated for each country, territory, island or colony (for example, metropolitan France may have been occupied and conquered in its entirety and yet French troops may remain in the colonies fighting against the Axis, as happened in reality).

A country, territory, island or colony is considered conquered when all its cities are captured by the rival side. To capture a city, it is enough for a land unit to pass over that city hexagon. Air or naval units cannot capture cities.

Within the Allied side, take the following into account: Soviets and Western Allies cannot attack each other, but it is possible to "take" cities from the other if they are empty and a unit of one faction passes over a city controlled by the other faction.

Conquered: at the end of a round in which all the cities are conquered by the rival, that country, territory, island or colony is considered totally conquered and no more reinforcements can be received in that territory until it is liberated.

When a country has been conquered, the defeated units of that country still remaining in that territory are forced to surrender and are eliminated from the map.

Units that were in colonies or other territories or islands do not surrender and can keep fighting as usual.

If there were units of other countries in the zone, they do not have to surrender and can continue the fight (for example, if France is conquered but there are British units in French territory).

Units of the surrendering country are not eliminated if they were outside their home territory (for example, if the Romanian unit was in Bulgaria when Romania falls).

Example: by taking control of Ploesti and Bucharest, the Soviets have completely conquered Romania and the Romanian units in that territory are eliminated. If when Romania falls the Bulgarian unit was in the country, the Bulgarian land unit is not eliminated although the Romanian unit will be.

When a country does not control at least one territory of its own, it cannot receive reinforcements until it controls at least one of them again. They do not accumulate for later rounds.

Liberated: a country, territory, island or colony is considered liberated (and therefore has reinforcements again) from the round after the one in which its faction has recaptured at least one city in that country, territory, island or colony.

When a conquered country is liberated, it receives reinforcements again if the reinforcement table so provides. Those not received while it was conquered are lost (see later USA).

Example: France has been liberated in round 9, recovering control of Strasbourg, although it has lost the reinforcements it should have received this turn since it did not control any territory of its own either; it will be able to receive those of upcoming rounds if it remains liberated.

War! War! War!

As happened historically, there were nations that did not enter the war immediately after its outbreak in September 1939. Attacking units of another nation or crossing its borders is considered an aggression that can provoke war. In the game, this is represented as follows:

Soviet Union (USSR): it is an enemy of the Axis, but cannot enter the war or attack it until round 6, unless the Axis attacks the USSR before. In that case, the USSR enters the war immediately.
United States (USA): they enter the war in round 9, so before that round there can be no American counters on the map. US units can be placed as reinforcements in any original Western Allied territory still controlled by them, following the usual reinforcement placement rules.
Neutrals: neutral countries, although referred to as a whole, take part in the game individually; they do not enter the war unless they are attacked (their territory invaded and/or their units attacked). Any neutral country joins the Axis side if attacked by the Allies (Western Allies or Soviets). Any neutral country joins the Western Allies faction if attacked by the Axis, with the exception of Turkey and Iraq, which would join the Soviet faction.

Neutral units, while this status lasts, do not maintain a zone of control, so any counter of a side that passes next to a neutral one does not cause a combat unless it invades the neutral country by crossing its borders.

Optional Rules

By mutual agreement, players may choose to use some or all of the following optional rules. This increases the complexity of the game a little, but also the strategic possibilities.

The Bear Hug

If this optional rule is not used, consider Poland as a whole as a single territory and the Baltic States and Bessarabia as countries of the Soviet side without units of their own.

If you play with this optional rule, the USSR may invade, even before entering the war, the following territories: Baltic States, Bessarabia and the hexagons of Eastern Poland. This will allow it to position its troops for the coming war and advance its border, moving its capital away from the front against the Axis. During rounds 1 and 2 the Axis cannot enter the territories of Eastern Poland or the Baltic States, giving the USSR the opportunity to take control of those territories, integrating them as one more extension of the USSR's territory. From round 3, if they have not been integrated as part of the USSR, they may be occupied by the Axis without triggering an attack on the USSR.

Bessarabia works in the same way except that the Axis may fight for this territory during rounds 1 and 2 exclusively with the Romanian unit for control of this territory if it wishes.

Conquest of France by Installing Vichy France

France is a special case that must be explained.

If the Axis player prefers, he can surrender France in the normal way like any other country in the game, but he can also do so by installing Vichy as indicated below.

Unlike the rest of the countries, the Axis player may surrender Metropolitan France the first time Axis troops take Paris. This will take place at the end of the round in play. If you do so, you take control of all of mainland France and Corsica at the end of your game turn without having to control each French city. It is understood that you install the Vichy state after an armistice and this is represented as follows:

Remove from the game all French units in Metropolitan France (including Corsica). If there are French units in the territories of Tunisia, Morocco or Algeria they must be repositioned in the territory of Syria or Lebanon.
Add in Algiers a Vichy French unit that will remain there as a neutral unit until Tunisia, Algeria and/or Morocco are attacked. Vichy France, which will control only those 3 territories, becomes a neutral.
Add an allied French land unit in Damascus.

Behaviour of the Vichy France unit: if the Axis player installs Vichy France, then the French territories of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia become neutral and the Vichy land unit is received in Algiers. That unit behaves as a neutral unit for all purposes. If only Allied units of the USA or France (not other allies) fight against the Vichy unit, before the combat rolls are made the Allied player rolls a die and if he gets a 4 or more the Vichy unit surrenders and is eliminated from the game without fighting. This represents their switching to the Allied side.

The Blue Division

In round 8, if Spain is not an enemy of the Axis, Germany places as an extra reinforcement, in a controlled Soviet city, the special German counter that has a Spanish flag to represent the inclusion in that German counter of the Blue Division of Spanish volunteers. If by this round the Axis does not have a Soviet city under its control, then it is not possible to place this counter. If the Blue Division counter is eliminated, it is eliminated permanently; it cannot enter the game again.

Cooperating with Poles and Yugoslavs

For all combat purposes, Western Allied units cannot fight alongside Soviet units or their associates for any reason. Even if a single player controls both factions, they must attack separately. However, if this rule is used, Polish and Yugoslav units are allowed to attack alongside the Western Allies if the occasion arises.

Lend-Lease Act

Although the USA did not officially enter the war until December 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, it had been preparing its entry for months. With this law, war material was sent first to the Western Allies and later even to the Soviets before American troops landed on the continent.

To represent this, in round 7, one American naval unit and one American air unit may be deployed in England, as if they were United Kingdom units. The usual reinforcement placement rules are followed. The Soviet may do exactly the same in round 7 but to receive one air unit and one land unit. As soon as the Americans officially enter the war in round 9, those American units are automatically replaced by United Kingdom and/or USSR units if they are still in play.

Rudeltaktik - Wolf Packs of the Kriegsmarine

German submarines were a real nightmare for the Allies. Their maximum destructive power was shown after the fall of France, when the Germans gained access to the Atlantic bases. To represent this, from the time France is conquered (whether Vichy is installed or not), the following is taken into account:

Germany is considered to control one submarine for each French city facing the Atlantic (Brest and Bordeaux, that is, up to 2 submarines).
Once per round and submarine, when a naval unit of the Allied side moves through any hexagon of the Atlantic Ocean (considering these to be all the sea or coast hexagons from the Strait of Gibraltar, south of Spain, to the Baltic Sea (which washes the coasts of Finland, Norway, Denmark, etc.)), the Axis player may say "Halt!" at any moment during that movement. He then rolls 1 die. If he gets the NAC result, the naval unit is immediately destroyed.
The German submarines are immediately eliminated from the game if the Axis player loses control of Brest and/or Bordeaux (he loses one submarine for each city he loses). Retaking control of these cities does not give the Axis player submarines again. They also cease to have effect in the game from turn 14 regardless of control of those cities.

Combat with Artillery Support

Attacking land units can receive artillery support. Designate a maximum of 1 land unit adjacent to one of your attacking land units as artillery support. For a unit to be designated as artillery support it must not be in the Zone of Control of an enemy unit. The artillery unit provides +1 to the result of the attacker's combat rolls. If the combat is lost, the attacker does not lose the unit designated as artillery. If the attacker is victorious, the unit designated as artillery stays in place; it cannot advance after the combat with the attacking unit.

Combat with Naval Artillery Support

Naval units in coast hexagons can bombard coastal cities that are being attacked. The attacking player may designate a maximum of 1 of his own naval units adjacent to the coastal city he is attacking to provide naval artillery fire. The designated unit must not be in enemy naval ZoC. In that combat, naval artillery fire cancels one of the bonuses the defender may have (the +1 to the die roll, or the extra die).

Great Offensives and Famous Operations

If you decide to use this optional rule, you must do so by adding all the rules listed below. From Round 3 to Round 17, players must take into account the rules explained below, which take effect only during that round, for the faction indicated. When combat bonuses are added, they are in addition to those that may apply according to the usual rules.

Editor's note: we have taken certain liberties for the sake of playability so that no more than one operation occurs in the same round, even if the date is not entirely precise. We have tried to represent what actually happened without this implying an abrupt modification of the rules.

Round 3 - Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), 1940. Only during this round, attacking German land troops ignore the combat penalty for crossing the Rhine river. After a successful combat in the Netherlands or Belgium, they are allowed to advance 2 hexagons instead of moving into the attacked hexagon. They may move ignoring enemy ZoC but cannot provoke another combat.

Round 4 - Fall Rot (Case Red), 1940. Only during this round, up to two German land units that attack units belonging to France and in original territory of continental France have +1 as a combat bonus.

Round 5 - Operation Barbarossa, 1941. Only during this round, German air support provides +2 instead of the usual +1 (both in combat in the skies and on land) when attacking Soviet units in Soviet territories or those of their allies. The USSR enters the war.

Round 6 - Operation Merkur, 1941. Only during this round, the Axis player's air support provides a bonus of +2 at Heraklion (2823) or any hexagon adjacent to Heraklion (instead of the usual +1). If at the end of the round Heraklion is empty, a German land unit from the supply is placed in that city, automatically conquering it.

Round 7 - Soviet Winter Counteroffensive, 1941. Only during this round, all Soviet land units that are a maximum of 3 hexagons from Moscow have a +1 combat bonus when attacking Axis land troops.

Round 8 - Operation Theseus / Battle of Gazala, 1942. Only during this round, Axis land units have a +1 bonus when attacking or defending in the British colony territory of North Africa (Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Libya).

Round 9 - Operation Fall Blau (Case Blue), 1942. Only during this round, Axis land units ignore the movement penalty for mountainous terrain in all hexagons in original Soviet territory between Baku and the Black Sea (Caucasus). If Rostov is under Axis control, in addition a single German land unit may re-roll one die roll in combat in any of those hexagons.

Round 10 - Operation Torch, 1942. Only during this round, Western Allied land units have +1 when attacking in the French colony territory of North Africa. It is essential that at least one US unit be present in this territory (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) or on its coasts.

Round 11 - Operation Citadel / Battle of Kursk, 1943. Only during this round, the Soviet faction may repeat combats that end in a tie at Kursk or in hexagons up to 2 away from Kursk.

Round 12 - Operation Husky, 1943. Only during this round, Western Allied naval units in the Mediterranean Sea have +1 when attacking or defending against Axis naval units.

Round 13 - Operation Advent, 1943. Only during this round and if the Soviets control Kiev, Axis land units that attack Kiev or hexagons up to 2 away from Kiev have +1 in combat when attacking Soviet land troops.

Round 14 - Operation Bagration, 1944. Only during this round, Soviet land units that attack German units in the territory of the Baltic Republics, Western and Eastern Poland or Bessarabia have +1 in combat.

Round 15 - Operation Overlord / Normandy Landing, 1944. Only during this round, Western Allied land units that land on the northern French coast (0716, 0816, 0916, 1015) may fight upon landing. The landing troops are placed on top of the enemy troops, if there are any. In combat, they will have a +1 bonus to their roll.

Round 16 - Operation Solstice, 1945. Only during this round, a German land unit that carries out a combat in any of the hexagons between the Vistula river and the Oder river (1811, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 2012, 2013) may re-roll one die roll.

Round 17 - Operation Valkyrie, 1945. At the start of the round, the Allied side player rolls a die (in 3-player games, any Allied player rolls it). On 1 to 5 nothing happens: the attempt on Hitler has failed. If the result obtained is NAC, then the Axis player must roll a die for each German land unit that is in original territory of continental Germany (East Prussia and Germany). For each NAC result obtained, that unit is removed from the game.

The "Joker NAC History" Card

The Axis player begins the game with this powerful card in his hand. Its use allows the rewriting of the fate of a die roll by re-rolling it... but all power has a price: after using it, the card passes to a rival player, who can take advantage of that same opportunity.

Choose how you want history to remember this moment:

Strategic Option. The Axis player may invoke the Joker to re-roll one of his own rolls, altering the course of events at a critical moment. But time does not stop. If the card has not been used before the USSR enters the war, it automatically changes hands, passing to the USSR player. If the USSR player uses it, it reverts to the Axis player, who in turn when playing it returns it, this time to his rival the Western Allies player. Once both sides have resorted to this extraordinary resource 2 times as indicated, the card disappears.

(If only 2 players play, the Allied player must take care to use the card with the appropriate Allied group when he has it.)

Push Your Luck Option. Here, war becomes a constant game of risk and opportunity. Each time a player uses the Joker, he immediately hands it to the rival, creating a continuous flow of tense, calculated decisions. There are no time limits: the card may be used at any time. However, each player may only use it once per turn. In this mode, the Joker never leaves the battlefield. Luck changes hands... but never disappears.