Mini WWII Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components Overview
  • Home, Ally, & Opponent
  • Map
  • Stack
  • Control & Damage
  • Supply
• Game Setup
• Game Play
  • Strategic Stage (skip this stage in the 1st round)
  • Action Stage
  • Victory Stage
• Operation
  • Build (3 OPs)
  • Attack (3 OPs)
  • Move (2 OPs)
  • Launch
• Technology
  • Tech Tree
• Event
  • Diplomacy Event
• Allies Join War
  • Lend-Lease
  • Axis Invasion
• 2 & 3 Players Game
• Victory
  • Control VPs
  • Diplomacy VPs
  • Tech VPs
• Example of Play

Game Components Overview

Every country uses a specific color for its home areas, event cards, and units.

Home, Ally, & Opponent

There are 2 teams: U.K. and U.S.S.R. (Allies) vs. Germany and Japan (Axis). All other areas not controlled by either team are Neutrals. Any area with your color is called a Home Area. Your units are referred to as Friendly Units. Countries on the same team are Teammates, while countries from different teams are Opponents. Opponent units are also called Enemy Units.

Map

The map is an abstract world map with the North Pole in the center surrounded by a string of areas (squares, circles, and octagons). Squares represent Land. Circles represent Islands. Octagons represent Coastal Land.

Adjacent areas are connected by a sea link (blue), land link (brown), or a flag link. Units can move to adjacent areas using these links, though there are some restrictions based on the link type. (see Move) Starred areas with tank or/and ship icon can build the corresponding unit (army and navy) for their home country. (see Build) Wooden tank and ship represents army and navy. A country receives a fixed number of army and navy and no more are available.

Example 1: The Balkans are adjacent to not only Italy and Austria, but also Hungary and Romania due to the connecting flags.

Stack

A stack refers to a group of units in the same area. Only units from one country can be in a particular area; hence units from different countries cannot stack together. In addition, stacks must follow the capacity limit for their location: Areas with less than 3-stars (standard capacity): Land: 2 armies, Island: 2 navies, Coastal Land: 2 units (armies or navies); 3-Starred Areas: 2 x standard capacity.

Example 2: Japan is a 3-starred coastal land. Player can stack 4 units here.

Control & Damage

Control of a starred area gives the player 1 VP per Star. Control of a non-starred area gives 1 VP. It takes two units to control an opponent 3-starred area, and one unit to control all other areas. Home areas without units are still controlled by the home player.

Players immediately get or lose VPs based on changes in control. When an area with less than 3-stars changes control, the invading player immediately gets VPs (and their opponent loses VPs). For 3-star areas, a player loses control (and 3 VPs) when the 1st enemy unit enters their area. However, the invading player only gets 3 VPs when he has moved in the 2nd enemy unit. Your teammate cannot control your home areas.

When enemy units take control of your home starred area that is capable of building units, put a damage marker in that area to indicate it is unable to build units. The marker will remain there until the start of a round where it is no longer controlled by enemy units.

Example 3: Germany moved one navy to the U.K., which is a 3-starred area, causing the U.K. to lose 3 VPs. However, Germany has yet to gain control. To do so, Germany then moves an army to the U.K. gaining 3 VPs and adding a damage marker.

Supply

A unit is in-supply when you can trace a path consisting of adjacent areas under your control from the unit to your home area. An out-of-supply unit (OOS) cannot attack or move. Players cannot let their own units become OOS voluntarily. As part of a move action, units can move through as many in-supply areas as desired.

Example 4: The U.S.S.R. army is OOS and the German army is in-supply. Germany attacks the U.S.S.R. army and eliminates it. However, the German army cannot move forward, since that will change it to OOS.

Game Setup

There are two sides of the game board. Choose your preferred language and place the game board in the center of the table. Each player chooses a different country according to the Player Assignment Chart based on the number of players and sits in the position matching each country's color.

Player Assignment Chart (Player1 / Player2 / Player3 / Player4):

• 2 Players: Germany + Japan / U.K. + U.S.S.R.
• 3 Players: Germany + Japan / U.K. + U.S.S.R. / (none)
• 3 Players (alternative): Germany / Japan / U.K. + U.S.S.R.
• 4 Players: Germany / Japan / U.K. / U.S.S.R.

(Chart read from the printed flag icons on the setup page.)

1. Put one round marker and two Allies Join War (AJW) markers in the first (leftmost) box of the Round track and each of the AJW tracks, respectively. Place all Damage markers aside.
2. Put the VP markers on the VP track matching each country's color.
3. Each player takes the player aid that matches their color.
4. Each player chooses where to place the indicated number of starting units in their home area in this order:
   • U.K. (yellow): 4 units
   • U.S.S.R. (red): 4 units
   • Germany (black): 6 units
   • Japan (white): 6 units
   • U.S. (green): 1 navy on Hawaii/Philippine, 1 army on West USA/East USA
   • China (blue): 2 armies on China
   • Neutral (tan): 1 army on 2-starred tan areas and 1 navy in Malaya
5. Find the 4 green United States (U.S.) cards and the 2 blue China cards. Shuffle U.S. and China cards separately to form the U.S. and the China decks, then place them at the bottom of the game board. Reshuffle all the other strategy cards to form a draw deck and place it at the top of the game board.
6. Germany draws 4 strategy cards and all other countries draw 3 strategy cards. Each player may discard 1 strategy card and then redraw another one.

Notice: The central expansion map is from the "Arctic War" postcard.

Game Play

Every round represents one year. The colors on the round track indicate the initial country for each specific round. The numbers at the bottom of the round track represent the number of cards to draw in that round. The country with the flag on that round will draw one extra card (flag bonus).

Example 5: In the 3rd round (1941), Japan is the initial player. Japan can draw 5 cards (flag bonus) and every other country draws 4 cards.

Strategic Stage (skip this stage in the 1st round)

1. Draw 1 U.S. or China card if U.K. or U.S.S.R. progresses the AJW marker on the respective track. (see Lend-Lease) Check if US or China reaches the end of the track and joins the Allies.
2. Draw the number of cards indicated in the current round (3-5 cards + 1 extra card if the country flag is shown). If an opponent controls a player's 3-starred area, that player needs to discard 1 card.
3. Remove damage markers on your home starred areas that are no longer controlled by your enemy. (see Control and Damage)
4. Turn all the technology cards developed last round face up. Rotate the used Rocketry card 90 degrees back. (see Launch)
5. Every country may discard 1 card and redraw another. Countries that have developed a certain tech (shown only as an icon in the manual) may discard 2 cards and redraw 2 cards. Countries that have the tech shown by the second icon (the same icon the Launch rule uses for seeing 3 cards) may choose an opponent and see 3 cards randomly.

(The tech icons in step 5 are pictures in the manual and are not identified in its text.)

Action Stage

Starting from the initial country and in clockwise order, every country plays 1 strategy card to perform one of the following actions:

1. Operation: Play one card and use its OP value to build, attack, or move. Alternatively, play one card to launch a rocket card.
2. Technology: Play one card face down to develop one technology. (Each country may do this at most once per round) (see Technology)
3. Event: Play one card and resolve its event. (see Event)
4. Lend-Lease: U.K. and U.S.S.R. may discard one card and progress the AJW marker once. (Both U.K. and U.S.S.R. may do this once per round)
5. Pass: A player may pass when (s)he has no cards or doesn't want to play any more cards this round. Between rounds, players can keep at most 1 card in hand and must discard all extra cards. When a player opts to pass, (s)he may not perform any more action in that round.

Used cards are moved to the discard deck. If the draw deck is empty, reshuffle the discard deck to form the new draw deck. Repeat the action stage until all countries choose to Pass.

Victory Stage

1. Remove all the preserved 1 OP cards and Tactics event cards.
2. Sum the VPs of each team. Check if any team has won the game.
3. If not, progress the round marker one box and start the next round.

Operation

The number on the left of the strategy card is the operation points (OPs). Players can use OPs to attack, build, move, or launch. If all OPs in one card cannot be spent, the card can be rotated 90 degrees clockwise to preserve exactly 1 OP. This 1 OP can be added to the OPs of any other strategy cards used in the same round. Remove all unused 1 OP cards in the Victory stage of the round they have been rotated.

Build (3 OPs)

Spend 3 OPs to receive 1 friendly unit from the pool and put it on one of your home starred areas without damage marker. The unit type must match the tank or/and ship icon on that area.

Attack (3 OPs)

Spend 3 OPs to remove 1 enemy unit. The unit must be in your home area or adjacent to one of your in-supply friendly units.

Move (2 OPs)

Spend 2 OPs to move 1 in-supply friendly unit through adjacent areas without enemy to an area without units from other countries. The unit should be in-supply after the movement. The 1st unit moving across the sea (blue) link to a coastal land of other countries must be a navy and same for an army through the land (brown) link.

Launch

Players choose this action when they develop rocketry tech. Depending on the level of your rocketry tech, play a card with at least 4/5/6 OPs and choose 1 opponent to remove 1/2/3 cards from his/her hand randomly. If you have the tech shown by an icon here, you can see 3 cards in the hand of one opponent and then decide which one to remove. Finally rotate your rocketry card 90 degrees to mark it as used. At the start of the next round (strategic stage), you will be able to rotate it back and use its power again.

Example 6: U.S.S.R. owns the LV.1 rocketry tech (icon), she plays a 4 OPs card and removes 1 card from Germany. Then she rotates the rocketry card 90 degrees.

Technology

The tech icon is on the top of the strategy card. To develop a tech, play one card face down tucked under the game board. Each player can play only one tech card per round. During the next strategy stage, reveal all tech cards and they become active for the remainder of the game. There are 5 different types of techs: Army-Green, Navy-Blue, Rocketry-Red, Electronics-Black, & Logistics-Brown.

Tech Tree

Each level of technology is identified by a color: white-LV.1, pink-LV.2, yellow-LV.3. Players must follow the tech tree to develop techs in sequence.

Example 7: For army tech, you must develop the three LV.1 army-related techs (icons) before developing the LV.2 army tech. For rocketry tech, you must develop one of the two LV.1 rocketry-related techs (icons) before developing LV.2 rocketry, and you must develop LV.2 before developing LV.3. (The exact icons are shown only in the tech tree diagram, which has LV.1, LV.2, LV.3 columns for the Army, Navy and Rocketry lines.)

Event

The event icon is at the bottom of strategy cards. A player may play an event card if his/her country color matches the card. Note U.K. may play U.S. events and U.S.S.R. may play Chinese events even before those countries have joined the Allies team. There are four types of events: Tactics, Operation, Logistics, and Diplomacy.

Example 8: U.S.S.R. draws 3 cards in the 2nd round and already has 1 red card. If she uses the red card, she will get 1 extra OP for each of the remaining 2 cards.

Diplomacy Event

Diplomacy cards feature a nation flag and VPs. Players may play a diplomacy card as an event to score points immediately. Whenever a diplomacy card (latter) is played and there already is one (former) on the table with the same flag, compare the VPs of the two cards:

• if the former VPs < latter VPs, remove the former card
• if the latter VPs <= former VPs, remove both cards from the table

Example 9: U.S.S.R. plays a Spain 2 VPs card on the table. Germany plays a Spain 3 VPs card and thus removes the Spain 2 VPs card from U.S.S.R. If in the following rounds, U.S.S.R. draws the Spain 2 VPs card again and plays it, both cards are removed from the table.

Allies Join War

Both U.S. and China are neutral countries in the beginning. U.S. will join U.K. and China will join U.S.S.R. if the AJW marker reaches the last box on each of their respective AJW tracks. When U.S. joins U.K., U.K. can use U.S. units and U.S. home areas become U.K. home areas. When China joins U.S.S.R., U.S.S.R. can use China units and China home areas become U.S.S.R. home areas. There are 2 ways to progress the AJW:

Lend-Lease

Every round, U.K. can discard only 1 card to progress the U.S. AJW marker one box and get 1 U.S. card in the next strategic stage. Every round, U.S.S.R. can discard only 1 card to progress China AJW marker one box and get 1 China card in the next strategic stage.

Example 10: U.K. discards 1 card and progresses the AJW marker once. In the next strategic stage, U.S. joins U.K. and U.K. can draw the last U.S. card.

Axis Invasion

Whenever the Axis team attacks a U.S. or China unit or moves 1 unit into or through a U.S. or China home area, the AJW marker will progress one box on the track. However, neither the U.K. nor U.S.S.R. gets a bonus card. Instead, draw 1 US/China card and shuffle it into the draw deck.

Example 11: Japan attacks 1 China army, and moves 1 navy to the U.S. Philippine. During the strategic stage of the next round, she draws 1 China and 1 U.S. cards and shuffles them into the draw deck. (The last clause is cut off on the printed page; it is completed here from the Axis Invasion rule above.)

2 & 3 Players Game

In a 2-players game, each player plays both countries of one team and draws strategy cards equal to the total of both countries - 1. Each player can use any strategy card for either country's action, but must develop technologies separately for each country.

In a 3-players game, one player plays both countries of one team, while the two other players play one country each. All players use cards and develop technology cards separately for each country (the player covering two countries will manage two separate hands of cards).

Example 12: In the 1st round of the 2-players game, the Allies player draws 5 cards and Axis player draws 6 cards. In the 1st round of the 3-players game, the Allies player plays 2 countries and draws two sets of 3 cards, one set for U.K. and the other for U.S.S.R. Germany draws 4 cards and Japan draws 3 cards.

Victory

Players use VP marker to record the victory points of each country. In any victory phase, the team that has scored at least 32 VPs wins. If U.S. and / or China joined the Allies team, the Allies team needs to score at least 36 VPs to win. If both teams reach or exceed their targets, the Allies win the tie. Else if no one has met their targets by the end of the 7th round, compare the total VPs of both groups. The team that has scored most VPs wins the game. Axis wins the tie.

Control VPs

Players get VPs by controlling an area. Every 3-starred area controlled by your team provides 3 VPs. Every 2-starred area controlled by your team provides 2 VPs. Every other area provides 1 VP.

Diplomacy VPs

Players get VPs by playing diplomacy event cards. Every diplomacy card on table provides 1 to 3 VPs.

Tech VPs

Players get VPs by playing technology cards of different types. Two different types of technologies earn you 1 VP. Three different types of technologies earn 2 VPs. Four different types of technologies earn 3 VPs. Five different types of technologies earn 4 VPs.

Example 13: At game end, Germany controls one 3-starred area, three 2-starred areas, and four other areas for a total of 13 VPs. He has one Spain diplomacy card for 3 VPs and three different types of techs, including Army-Green, Rocketry-Red, and Logistics-Brown for 2 VPs. He gets a total of 18 VPs.

Example of Play

1. Germany plays one 5 OPs card for operation action. He moves 1 army (2 OPs) from Austria to Hungary and moves 1 army (2 OPs) from Italy to Tunisia. Then he rotates the card 90 degrees to preserve 1 OP (5-2-2=1) for the future.
2. U.K. plays one card face down for a tech action. He places the card beside the game board. At the start of the next round, he will flip the card face up to gain the navy tech.
3. Japan plays one -1 OP card for tactics event. She chooses to put the card in front of U.S.S.R. Now all U.S.S.R. operation action will be one less OP.
4. U.S.S.R. discards one card for lend-lease and progresses the China AJW marker one box. She can get a bonus China card next round.
5. Germany plays one black 3 VPs card for the diplomacy event. He puts the card face-up in front of himself.
6. U.K. discards one card for lend-lease and progresses the U.S. AJW marker one box. He can get a bonus U.S. card next round.
7. Japan plays one card face down for a technology action. She places the card beside the game board. She can turn the card face up during the next round to gain the rocketry technology.
8. U.S.S.R. plays a red 5 OPs card for its 6 OPs operation event, effectively changing this to a 6 OPs card. However, the 6 OPs is reduced to 5 OPs because of the Japanese -1 OP tactic card. She attacks (3 OPs) 1 army in Romania and moves (2 OPs) 1 army from U.S.S.R. to Romania, spending all the OPs.