| Third
Reich Variants
More Options
for Third
Reich and Great
Pacific War
By Steve Cabral
July 2013
Having loved the Avalon Hill Game Company’s
Third Reich, I looked forward to the
Avalanche Press version but did not start
playing it until recently. I’ve discovered
that the redesign of the classic is brilliant;
bad ideas are gone, replaced by great ideas.
To put some extra
icing on the cake I submit for your enjoyment
a few new variant rules of my own.
4.37 Sustained Headquarters Offensive Impulse
Chit (Cost: 8 BRPs)
This rule introduces a new, optional type
of impulse chit: Sustained Headquarters Offensive
(SHQ). Germany, the Soviet Union and the
Western Allies can purchase SHQ chits, which
you
can download here.
An SHQ chit acts just like a normal HQ Offensive
chit (4.1), except that it can activate any
one friendly HQ on the board of the owning
player’s choice, including (but not
limited to) an HQ that has already activated
this turn (it can activate again; this is
an exception to the rule that each unit can
only activate once per turn).
Britain, France and the U.S. have restrictions
on which HQ an SHQ chit can activate (see
below). Eligible friendly and allied units
within four hexes of an HQ activated by an
SHQ chit can activate and perform an HQ Offensive
action (4.32), including (but not limited
to) units that have already activated this
turn (they can activate again; this is an
exception to the rule that each unit can
only activate once per turn). When the impulse
is over, the owning player places the SHQ
chit on the impulse track in the second box
after the last chit placed (skip a box).
Britain, France and the U.S. have one SHQ
chit each, and can only use them when using
the optional
rules for Leaders from the Avalanche Press website (Germany
and the Soviet Union do not have this restriction).
The British SHQ chit can only activate a
British HQ that is stacked in the same hex
with Leader O’Connor at the time the
chit is drawn. The U.S. SHQ chit can only
activate an American HQ that is stacked in
the same hex with Leader Patton at the time
the chit is drawn. The French SHQ chit can
only activate an HQ that is stacked in the
same hex with Leader de Gaulle at the time
the chit is drawn, and cannot activate Vichy
units. If a British, French or American SHQ
chit is drawn and the required leader is
not stacked with a friendly HQ at the time,
no unit or HQ can activate and the drawing
player places the chit on the impulse track
as above and draws another.
Germany is limited as to how many SHQ chits
she can purchase per turn, as follows:
| Condition |
German SHQ Chits Available |
| Germany does not control Praha, Warsaw
or Paris |
0 |
| Germany controls Praha but not Warsaw
or Paris |
1 |
| Germany controls Praha and Warsaw but
not Paris |
2 |
| Germany controls Praha, Warsaw and
Paris |
3 |
Starting in Spring 1942, reduce the SHQ
chits Germany may purchase each turn by one
if she does not control either Moscow, Leningrad
or Stalingrad.
Starting in Spring 1943, reduce the SHQ
chits Germany may purchase each turn by two
if she does not control any two of these
three cities. The number of SHQ chits Germany
can purchase per turn cannot go below zero.
The Soviet Union may purchase up to one
SHQ chit per turn starting in Spring 1942,
and up to two SHQ chits per turn starting
in Spring 1943.
Players may not purchase SHQ chits when
playing Great Pacific War. They are available
for purchase in Third Reich and can be purchased
for the Europe cup (only) in Second World
War. All restrictions in section 4.22 apply
to SHQ chits (for example, a major power
that purchases a General Offensive chit may
not place any SHQ chits in the same cup with
it on the same turn).
9.45 Naval Evacuation
If a port hex is attacked in ground combat
and the defending ground units there conduct
a mandatory retreat (9.41) or do so voluntarily
(9.42), and if there are any LC or SURF factors
in the port hex with them at the time, then
the ground units may board the eligible naval
units and move to another port with them
per the forced displacement rules (6.71).
Normal capacity rules apply (10.11), so for
example a 4 SURF unit cannot evacuate ground
units. Air units cannot retreat via naval
evacuation. Naval units may perform evacuation
even if they activated previously this turn.
So, a player can use strategic redeployment
or a Naval or General Offensive impulse chit
to move LC and/or SURF units to a port, and
then evacuate ground units that retreat from
that port on the same turn.
22.46 More Weather
All Russian Winter rules apply to all hexes
of Poland and Sweden.
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