Blitzkrieg!: Nippon Expansion
Blitzkrieg!: Nippon Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
New Units
Godzilla: Naturally enough, to invade German-held America, Japan has enlisted the help of an enormous prehistoric sea monster: Godzilla. Godzilla is a 4-strength unit considered as both an army and a navy. Generals and admirals ignore Godzilla.
Partisans: Partisans are considered an army. The unit has a strength of 1 if the battle marker is on the middle (red) space or on the player's own side of the battle track, and a strength of 3 if the battle marker is on the opponent's side of the track when played.
Inspired Leadership: You can place the Inspired Leadership unit token on any battle space of an active campaign. It has a strength of 1, but you perform the effect of the occupied battle space twice.
Note: The Partisans and Inspired Leadership special weapons tokens may also be used in the Blitzkrieg! core game.
Setting Up the Game
Remember to use the Nippon Expansion side of the game board.
The German player takes the grey Axis unit tokens from base game, and places them in their bag; the Japanese player takes the tan unit tokens and places them in their bag. All of the special weapon tokens, including the two new tokens from the Nippon Expansion, are shuffled and placed face down next to the game board. This is called the "research pile".
Place four battle markers on the middle (red) space of the following battle tracks: Honolulu, Seattle, Jacksonville, Boston. Only the battle spaces in these campaigns will be available for placing units at the beginning of the game. The fifth battle marker is not used in the Nippon Expansion.
The Japanese player will take the first turn.
Playing the Game
Gameplay proceeds as described in the Blitzkrieg! core game rules.
Theatres of operations, campaigns, and battle tracks
In the Nippon Expansion, each theatre of operations is composed of a single campaign. The last three spaces on each end of the battle tracks are marked with +1, +2, and +3 icons. Moving the battle marker onto any of these spaces will close the campaign and award the winner with a significant advantage on a connected campaign.
Each campaign is considered connected to another if there is a line joining both campaigns.
Closing and winning a campaign
A campaign can be closed in two different ways:
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When the last battle space of a campaign is occupied by a unit token.
Check whose side of the battle track the battle marker is currently on: that player immediately advances their war victory marker a number of spaces equal to the campaign victory points depicted next to the current campaign row. The active player (who has occupied the last available battle space) now chooses a connected campaign to become available and places the battle marker in the middle (red) space of the new campaign's battle track. If all the connected campaigns have already been closed, the active player chooses any campaign not yet opened on the board.
Example (diagram on the source page): the Boston battle track shows the battle marker on the +2 space, so the German player claims victory in the Boston campaign. They decide to open the adjacent New York campaign, and place the battle marker two spaces in their favour on the New York battle track.
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If, as a consequence of placing your unit token, you move the battle marker onto one of the three end spaces on your side of the battle track, you immediately close and win the theatre of operations. If this happens, carry out the effects of the unoccupied battle spaces and advance your war victory marker a number of spaces equal to the campaign victory points depicted next to the current campaign row. Then choose a connected campaign as above, but the battle marker is placed a number of spaces in your favour from the middle (red) space equal to the value reached by the battle marker (+1, +2, or +3).
Winning the War
The game ends if either of these conditions occur:
- A player has 25 or more war victory points at the end of their turn.
- If the Japanese player first reaches 25 war victory points, the German player gets one final turn, and the player with the most war victory points is the winner.
- If the German player first reaches 25 war victory points, they are the winner of the game.
- If both players are tied on 25 or more war victory points, the German player is the winner.
- At the beginning of their turn a player cannot place any unit tokens (they don't have any in their reserve, or the unit tokens in their reserve cannot be placed). The player's opponent is immediately declared the winner.