Player’s Guide: John Prado’s Third Reich/Great Pacific War
From: Avalanche Press
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
Player’s Guide: John Prado’s Third Reich/Great Pacific War is a new war game supplement from Avalanche Press.
Not having the games this supplement pertains to makes it difficult to review. However, I will at least review it for content.
From the back cover:
“A long-awaited guidebook to the latest edition of the world’s most popular World War II board game.”
The Player’s Guide: John Prado’s Third Reich/Great Pacific War is just that – a player’s guide with extra units, scenarios, and strategy hints for the classic John Prados’ Third Reich released in 2001, as well as the follow-up production covering the Pacific Theater, Great Pacific War released in 2003. Both have the same game system and are at the same scale.
There are are several scenarios in this book. Most are variations of a “what if” possibility dreamed up by some of the game designers and players at Avalanche Press. It opens with pre-war variant options, including changing the focus of production of certain sides prior to the war, development of certain technologies prior to 1940 like V1 rockets, and other possible political changes that could have affected the war on one side or the other. These include Italian and Polish re-armament, the German Z-Plan, Japanese tank development, a Republican Spain, Belgium waffling its alliance, hard-fighting Austrians, Soviet naval development and Czechoslovakia entering as a minor neutral. These can be either rolled or chosen ahead of time by the players. There are also new Political Markers used to simulate other random political events, including a V1 rockets marker, Nazi atomic bomb and advanced subs development political markers, and several variant markers that effect troop production.
Following the opening chapter, there are several variant scenarios to the game including “What if the Poles surrendered Danzig to the Nazi invaders?”, “What if the Italians developed their jets earlier?” or a rules modification to allow for a strong influence of sea power especially in the War in the Pacific. There are also two realistic “what-if” scenarios of events that never occurred: a 1936 war between France and the Soviet Union following the Nazi occupation of the Rhineland and a 1946 war between East and West (Very cool!) as well as two smaller scenarios that concentrate on the Spanish Civil War and the Japanese invasion of China.
From the back cover:
“Strategy articles, variant rules, new scenarios … increase the fun involved.”
Other variations include rules for Spain and Turkey as separate players, as well as advancements in the jet fighter rules that require the major powers build their jets once the science becomes available, rather than receiving an instant upgrade, and the technology can be captured. Included are new jet fighter counters for Germany, Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, Italy and Japan. Throughout the book are essays written as strategic articles advising players who take on certain roles like the Soviet Union, France, Japan and a particularly long essay on Germany’s war agenda. There are also essays on important concepts of the games like economic warfare and several notes on key strategic aspects that many people miss in an article called Analecta. The book also comes with 120 die-cut counters. As mentioned, there are V1 and V2 unit counters, as well as several jet counters.
In conclusion, this is an interesting book with very little organization but with lots of stuff. You hop from one scenario to a strategy article without really knowing that you are doing so. I would have rather had the articles divided out into sections so I knew what to look for. Obviously, if you spent the $65 per game for Third Reich and Great Pacific War, then the price for this book should not make you blink. There are, however, some great and very well-thought out ideas within the pages of this book. It does give me some ideas for the other WWII games I play. These guys know their WWII history. I am impressed by the content, although the layout left a little to be desired.
For more details on Avalanche Press and their new War Game Supplement “Player’s Guide: John Prado’s Third Reich/Great Pacific War” check them out at their website http://www.avalanchepress.com, and at all of your local game stores.
Player’s Guide: John Prado’s Third Reich/Great Pacific War
From: Avalanche Press
Type of Game: War Game Supplement
Written by: John David Herrington, William Joseph Sariego, Peggy Gordon, Terry Moore Strickland, Brien J. Miller, Brian L. Knipple, Mike Bennighof
Game Design by: John Prados
Number of Pages: 64
Game Components Included: One softback book
Game Components Not Included: Copies of John Prado’s Third Reich and/or Great Pacific War
Retail Price: $ 24.99 (US)
Item Number: 0807
ISBN: 193209122-X
Website: www.avalanchepress.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung