Secret Weapons of the Third Reich Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Cards Overview
  • Project Cards
  • Technology Cards
  • Event Cards
  • Weapon Color Codes
  • Card Symbols
• Setting Up the Game
• Game Overview
• Map, Tracks and Tables Overview
• Sequence of Play
• 1. Drafting Event Cards
• 2. Funding
• 3. Planning
  • Deals
• 4. Actions
  • Requisition
  • Research
  • Recruit
  • Move
  • Play Event
  • Production
  • Develop
• 5. Bombardments & Advances
  • Bombardments
  • Advances
• 6. Cleanup & Order of Play
  • Refill Technology Track
  • Redeployments
  • New Order of Play
• Ending the Game
  • Determining the Winner
  • End-Game Variant: Turncoat
• Solitaire Rules
  • Setting up the game
  • Drafting Event cards
  • Funding
  • Planning
  • Actions
  • Bombardments
  • Advances
  • Cleanup
  • Ending the Game (Solitaire)
• Variants
  • Balanced Game Setup
  • Restricted Co-operation
  • Projekt Amerika
  • Expert Logistician

Components

Each copy of Secret Weapons of the Third Reich includes the following:

• 1 18x18" mounted board
• 80 small Resource cubes (20 each in green, yellow, orange and purple)
• 8 large Player cubes (2 per color, used to mark VPs and Order of Play)
• 3 large black cubes
• 12 small white Weapon cubes
• 1 large white Weapons Production cube
• 40 Scientist cylinders (10 each in green, yellow, orange and purple)
• 4 tan Common Benefit chips. Apply Common Benefit stickers to white chips as follows: a Mission "1" sticker, a Mission "2+" sticker, two Elektroboote stickers, and a "Weapons Production Goal fulfilled" sticker.
• 6 blue Allied Control chips, 6 red Soviet Control chips and 1 black German Control chip. Apply Allied Control stickers to blue chips, Soviet Control stickers to red chips and the German Control sticker to the black chip. Apply the Forbidden Area stickers (1938, 1938-39 and 1938-40) to the rear side of some red or blue chips.
• 24 Project Plant chips (6 each in green, yellow, orange and purple). Apply Numbered Project Plant stickers to the chips of matching colors.
• this Rules Booklet
• 4 player aid cards
• 86 game cards (Ahnenerbe expansion included): 20 Projects, 21 Technologies, 44 Events, 1 Ahnenerbe rule card
• 1 6-sided die

Cards Overview

Players each control one or more public Project Cards. A Project Card describes an overall Project that a player attempts to complete. Each Project employs one or more Technology Cards. In their lifetime Projects move through the following stages: Proposed to Approved to Completed Lvl-1 to Completed Lvl-2 (for some Projects only) to Finished. Every Project has its own set of requirements needed for Approval. After Approval, a player completes a Project when its Technology requirements are met and he fully expends the project's cost in cubes and cylinders. Players also hold secret Event Cards, some of which may be Approved Projects. The features of each card type are explained below.

Project Cards

• A. Project Name, Type and Weapon color
• B. Researcher Name, Loyalty value, "Provides" initial bonus, Funding (rear)
• C. Approval Requirements (front)
• D. Development stage completion costs & requirements (rear)
• E. Project Effects

Technology Cards

• F. Technology Name
• G. Technology Type and Weapon color
• H. Improve Cost & Requirements
• I. Additional Move Cost
• J. Weapon produced automatically when Technology is Improved

Event Cards

• K. Entry Year of Event
• L. Event Name and conditions (red color)
• M. Event Effects
• N. Bombardment symbol

Weapon Color Codes

• Green: Disruptor
• Light purple: Rocket
• Light blue: Airship
• Dark blue: Submarine
• Brown: Mission (no Weapon)

Card Symbols

Project Types: Rocket, Airplane, U-Boat, Mission, Ray Gun, Flying Saucer, Atomic Bomb, Improved version of Technology.

Technology Types: Theory, Electric Generator, Gravitational Generator, Accelerator, Transformer, Nuclear Reactor, Liquid Oxygen Propeller, Gasoline Propeller, Gyroscope, Control system, Fuselage, Satellite.

Project Effects:

• Project Plant is not placed on the map when the Project is Approved.
• When the Project is Completed, no Weapon can be produced.
• When the Project is Completed, the Project Plant is not removed.
• When the Project is Completed, Weapon can be produced.

Setting Up the Game

0. Place the board on the table.

1. Each player takes all of the player cubes and cylinders of a single color and places one large cube in the bottom box of the VP Track. Place the large white cube there as well.

2. Place one large black cube in the top left box (Turn 1, 1938) of the Game Turn Track and another one in the Start position box of the Himmler's Favor Track; place the third one aside for later use as explained on page 16.

3. Place one of each player's large cubes in an opaque cup and draw them out randomly to determine the initial Order of Play. Record this by placing the cubes in the order they are drawn from top to bottom in the unnumbered boxes on the left side of the Order of Play Track.

4. Shuffle the Project Cards to form a deck. Following the initial Order of Play, the first player draws a Project Card from either the top of or the bottom of the deck (and then reveals it to all). The player cannot examine the bottom of the deck. If he draws from the bottom, the player may either keep the card or refuse it. If he refuses, he places the Project Card on top of the deck and draws another from the bottom, then he must keep this card and he cannot refuse another card during the Set Up.

   The next player then does the same, and so on. This procedure is continued until every player has taken:

   • 2 Project Cards in a 3- or 4-player game, or
   • 3 Project Cards in a 2-player game.

   Players lay out their Project Cards with the Proposed (not-Approved) side showing. For each card players take its "Provides" initial bonus, placing it on the card.

5. Shuffle the Technology Cards together with the remaining Project Cards – with all cards having the Proposed (not-Approved) side up – to form the Technology Deck. Place the Deck in its designated board area.

Example: The Green player draws Expedition to Tibet and decides to keep it because it is easy to accomplish. Then the rest of the players draw their Project Cards. On the Green player's turn, his second draw is the Orbital Solar Gun; he decides to refuse such a difficult Project, so the card is placed on top of the deck and a second is drawn from the bottom. This time it is the German Nuclear Plan. The Green player cannot refuse the card. He places the two cards in front of him and deploys the "Provides" initial bonus: one Scientist cylinder on the German Nuclear Plan and one Resource cube on the Expedition to Tibet. When all players have finished drawing Project Cards, the remaining Project Cards are shuffled with the Technology Cards. After the Technology Deck is shuffled, cards are drawn from the top to fill the Technology Track. In order these are Long-range Batteries, Elektroboote, Cascade Accelerator and Space Mirror. The Space Mirror creates an interruption. As the card instructs, the players find the Orbital Solar Gun in the deck, place it over the Space Mirror and reshuffle. The new top card is Nuclear Fission. This card instructs that it should be assigned to the German Nuclear Plan. So Nuclear Fission is placed near the German Nuclear Plan of the Green player. The top space of the Technology Track is then filled by the Beam Transformer. The Green player distributes his starting Scientists and Resources as follows: 1 cylinder and 1 cube to the Expedition to Tibet (so he can Approve and complete the Project in the very first turn) and the remaining 2 cubes to the German Nuclear Plan. As it should be easy to acquire the Cascade Accelerator he should be able to get the Project to Approved status.

Game Overview

In Secret Weapons of the Third Reich, each player controls one or more research groups, each working on a secret weapon Project. The goal of each player is to develop his own Projects, bringing them to completion, and then to produce Weapons. Completing Projects and producing weapons both generate Victory Points. To pursue their goals, players essentially follow the normal course of a scientific project using a worker placement Actions system: Research a Project and any required Technology, Recruit staff (Scientists and Resources) and potentially hinder your opponents with Requisitions, Develop the Project to get it Approved and establish its base (Plant) in a Research site, Develop the Project to Complete it, and finally Move the Project to a Factory site and Produce the Weapon.

Each Research Group has a leading Researcher, who provides an initial bonus (expressed in Resource cubes or Scientist cylinders) when the Project is assigned. The Researcher has a Regime Loyalty value, that measures both the ability to make Requisition attempts (to steal Projects, Technologies and Tokens) and the ability to resist opposing attempts.

A player tries to get his Projects Approved and then Completed. These development steps always have Requirements (Resource cubes and/or Scientist cylinders and Technologies attached to Projects) and Costs (Resource cubes and/or Scientist cylinders to be expended). Each turn Approved Projects generate specific amounts of Resource cubes as Funding. Completed Projects award Victory Points (VPs) and allow, in most cases, Weapon production. Produced Weapons award additional VPs to the owning player and are needed to achieve a cooperative goal for all players. In fact, if together the players fail to reach a certain number of Weapons produced by the end of the game, they all lose. The Weapons Production Goal varies depending on the number of players.

Play begins in 1938, one year before the outbreak of World War II. At the start, players can only place Project Plants in the portion of the map representing Germany and Austria. In 1939 and later, the conquests of Nazi Germany allow players to deploy their Project Plants in occupied European territories. But players must pay attention to the various locations, because some areas allow only research & development, others only Weapon production, and still others only research and development for U-Boat Projects.

Also, players must operate in a "state of warfare". This means that as time goes on they are more and more subject to enemy Bombardments that can cause a great loss of resources and technologies. In addition, as starting in 1943 Allied and Soviet advances on Berlin make the map progressively smaller, players must face logistical issues never encountered during the early years of the war.

Should a Completed Project or produced Weapon fall into Allied hands, players not only lose Victory Points, but the Weapons Production Goal recedes as well! Thus a certain amount of player cooperation is a must. Each player must balance his personal interests with the common need to share technologies and resources in order to fulfill the common goal.

Last, but not least, via Events (variant) one player may secretly become the Turncoat, working in the shadows to help the enemy, and winning the game if all players would otherwise lose.

Map, Tracks and Tables Overview

The Board contains the map of Central Europe, some tables and tracks and a set of boxes used by players to plan their actions.

The map is composed of several circular Areas. Areas are connected to each other by thick black lines. These connections are used during the game to perform movement of Project Plants or to redeploy resources or technologies. Areas are identified by Name, Type, Occupation Status, Entry Year (for German Occupied Areas) and Allied/Soviet Occupation Year (if any). The following examples give an overview of the main map elements.

• Telemark is a Research site (Type, see background picture), it belongs to German Occupied Europe (Occupation Status is indicated by the green background color of Name box) and can be used by players in 1940 (Entry Year) and later turns.
• Breslau is a Factory site (Type, see background picture), it belongs to Germany (Occupation Status is indicated by the dark grey background color of Name box) and is conquered by the Soviets (see color of round flare) in 1945 (Soviet Occupation Year, see map, the Area is near the red arrow of Soviet Advance of 1945).
• Kiel is a U-Boat base (Type, see background picture), it belongs to Germany and, like Telemark, is not conquered by the Allies or the Soviets.
• Wewelsburg (the Head-quarter of SS) and Berlin are special Areas. They cannot be used to settle Project Plants, but are used by Event Cards. The two Areas are respectively conquered by the Allies and by the Soviets in 1945.
• A bunker symbol (e.g. 1/2) is displayed near every Area (with the exception of Berlin and Wewelsburg). The number on the left indicates the Bunker value of the Area (used during Bombardments). The number on the right indicates the Stacking Limit, i.e. the maximum number of Project Plants that can be located in the Area. No Bunker value is present in Bratislava and Belgrade because the two Areas are outside the Bombardment range. In fact, the map is covered by three circle sectors that represent the range of enemy Bombardments in 1940, 1941-42 and 1943-45.

The left side of the Board contains the Victory Point (VP) Track, the Order of Play Track and the Game Turn Track, plus the Bombardment Table and the Sequence of Play. The VP Track also indicates the Weapons Production Goal in 2, 3 and 4-player games. The Game Turn Track indicates when enemy Bombardments and Advances begin and when to add cards and the Turncoat (that has a random Entry Value) and reshuffle the Event Card Deck. The Common Benefits box is near the central part of the Board, Common Benefit chips are placed there when required by the Completed Projects or Events. The right and bottom of the board contains the large metal strip that players use to plan their Actions: Requisition, Research / Recruit, Move, Play Event, Production, Develop. Each Action space indicates the requirement or cost for performing the Action. In particular, the Requisition Action space also contains the Requisition Table and Himmler's Favor Track, both used to resolve Requisition Actions.

Sequence of Play

Each turn consists of six stages, conducted in this order:

1. Drafting Event Cards
2. Funding
3. Planning
4. Actions
5. Bombardments & Advances
6. Cleanup & Order of Play

Important disclaimer: the following chapters are the base set of rules for the first few games. Players are strongly recommended to use the Variants listed in page 17 as soon as they master all game mechanics.

1. Drafting Event Cards

Add Events to the deck (in turns 1940-1944) and draft Event Cards (following the Order of Play).

Check the Game Turn Track. In each turn in the period 1940-1944, add the cards for the year into the Event Card Deck. If the Turncoat is to be included in the game, during Turns 4-7 (1941-44) roll a die; if the result is greater than or equal to the Entry Value of the Turncoat, add also the Turncoat Event Card. Finally, shuffle the Event Card Deck with the discard pile.

Deal a number of Event Cards equal to the number of players plus one. Players take turns, picking up and examining the cards, secretly taking one into hand, and passing the rest to the next player, as per the Order of Play. After each player has taken a card, reveal the remaining one and if either of the following appears, place the card near the Board for future resolution (otherwise it is discarded):

• Mandatory Events are to be resolved by the first player as the card instructs;
• For cards marked by the Bombardment box, if the Game Turn Track indicates Bombardments have begun, the first player must perform an additional Bombardment (during the appropriate step).

2. Funding

All players receive Funding for their Projects and may convert Resource cubes into Scientist cylinders and vice versa. This step can be performed simultaneously.

Funding is always placed on the Project Cards that actually receive it. The following table indicates in which states Projects receive Funding:

State	Funding?
In Event Card	Never
Proposed (not yet Approved)	No
Approved	Yes
Completed (with Plant on the map) *	Yes
Finished (with no Plant on the map) **	No

* This happens when any development stage is Completed but no Weapon has been produced (when allowed). Example: V-2 Rockets Project always produces Funding after Approval because its Plant is not removed after Weapon production.

** Project Plants are not used for Approved Mission Projects, so such Projects still generate Funding until the last development stage is Completed. Example: the Neuschwabenland Mission Project receives Funding until Lvl-2 is Completed.

Ad hoc Funding: after Funding is received, all players check how many cylinders and cubes they have. If they have no Scientist cylinders then they take one. If they have fewer than 3 Resource cubes, then they increase up to three. This special Funding can be always deployed on any Project(s) controlled by the player.

Conversions: at the end of the Funding step, players may convert 3 Resource cubes into 1 Scientist cylinder, or vice versa, an unlimited number of times. Conversions never generate any redistribution of cubes and cylinders among Projects. Such redistributions can only take place when resolving the Move Action or during the Cleanup step.

The number of cubes and cylinders is limited to the counter mix. When instructed to receive Tokens but not enough are available, the player simply does not receive them. When a cylinder is required to mark VPs and no cylinder is available, the player must take a cylinder from any of his own Projects.

Example of Funding: Green player controls the V-2 Rockets Project, currently Completed at Lvl-1 stage. It has produced a Weapon and deployed a Project Plant (in the case of this Project, the Plant is not removed after Weapon production), so the Project receives 2 Resource cubes. The Green player also controls the Haunebu Project, currently Completed to Lvl-1. It produced a Weapon, which removed the Project Plant from the map, so the Project receives no Funding. The Yellow player controls the Neuschwabenland Project, currently Completed to Lvl-1. Being a Mission Project, it does not require the placement of a Project Plant, so it still receives one Resource cube in Funding. The Yellow player controls also the Vril Project, which is currently only Approved. The Project has a Plant and receives one Resource cube in Funding. The Orange player controls the V-1 Flying Bombs and Horten Ho 229 Projects. Both Projects are Complete, but only V-1 Flying Bombs produced a Weapon. So the Project Plant of Horten Ho 229 is still on the map and only that Project receives Funding. The Purple player controls Elektroboote, Cargo U-Boats and Expedition to Tibet. All projects are Complete. The U-Boat Projects do not produce Weapons (as indicated on cards), so they have no Project Plant. The Purple player receives no Funding from his Projects, although he may get the Ad hoc Funding of up to three Resource cubes and one Scientist cylinder, provided he has fewer than 3 cubes and/or no cylinder.

3. Planning

In player order, declare Actions, one at a time, by placing cubes and cylinders. Players can arrange deals to achieve a common strategy.

Perform the following procedure for each Action type in the order indicated on the board (1 - Requisition, 2 – Research / Recruit, etc.):

Each player, one-by-one, in play order declares whether he will perform the Action or not. If he does, he places the required number of cubes and/or cylinders on the appropriate Action space. Tokens are always taken from the Project Pools.

When all players have completed their allocations proceed to next Action type. Important: no Requisition Action can be planned in the very first turn (1938).

Research / Recruit Actions: the purpose of Research is the acquisition of a Project or Technology Card; that of Recruit to gain more cubes and/or cylinders. This Action type is conducted over two rounds. A player who passes in the first round can still plan during the second one. The player specifies whether the Action is to be Research or Recruit. Each position of the Technology Track allows at most one Research and one Recruit Action.

Research Actions:

• Require a variable set of cubes and/or cylinders, depending on the Technology Track position.
• Can only be planned on Technology Track positions that contain a card.

Recruit Actions:

• Require a Resource cube, placed on the lower part of the corresponding position on the Technology Track (after the dotted line, see the example in page 11).
• Allowed only if the corresponding position of the Technology Track is empty (no card in place), or when a Research Action has been previously planned for the corresponding position on the Technology Track.

Cubes and cylinders used for Research / Recruit and Develop Actions represent requirements. That means they are returned to the players after the Action is resolved. Players are advised to pay attention to further cube and cylinder requirements or costs during the Action resolution, especially Develop, because they are not allowed to use the Tokens that have been allocated to plan the Action to meet the requirements or cost of Projects and Technology developments!

Cubes used for Requisition, Move, Play Event and Production Actions represent costs. This means they are expended and returned to the Token Reserve after the Action is resolved.

Deals

At any time during the Planning step, players are permitted to negotiate the exchange of Resource cubes, Scientist cylinders, unplayed Event cards and promises to give Technology Cards. Project Cards can be never traded.

Players may trade cubes and cylinders, Technology Cards and unplayed Event Cards immediately, or they may simply promise part or all of the trade to be executed during the following Actions step. Players are not required to follow through on their promises.

Trades involving Tokens and/or Technology Cards require that Project Plants of all source and target Projects are connected by a path through exclusively German-controlled Areas. If no such path can be traced due to interruptions by Allied, Soviet or other Areas the trade is not allowed. Event Card trades do not require any path.

Mission Projects (with no Plant) and Projects in the Proposed status are considered to be located in Berlin or Wewelsburg (if German-controlled) for the purpose of such trades.

When trades occur, the player giving Tokens must move the traded Tokens from his Project Pool(s) to his Token Reserve and the receiving player moves the Tokens from his Token Reserve to his Project cards.

Players can give only Technology Cards whose Weapon color matches that of a target Project.

4. Actions

In player order, all players resolve Actions, one at a time.

Players must now resolve planned Actions in order of Action type and within each type, in Order of Play. Depending on the Action type players either pay the required costs or get back the requirement Tokens.

It is also in this phase that players can follow through on any promises to transfer cubes, cylinders, Technology Cards and Event Cards to opponents. Important: players are not allowed to trade away Technology Cards on the same turn they have been received.

Research Actions are all resolved – from the top of the Technology Track to the bottom – before Recruit Actions are.

Players are never forced to perform Move or Play Event or Production Actions; they may withdraw any such planned Action, but the cubes paid are nevertheless returned to the Token Reserve.

Requisition

With this Action the player attempts to steal an opponent's Tokens or Technologies.

The acting player designates one of his Projects as acting and an opponent's Project as the target. These Projects may only be in not-Finished state. An Approved non-Mission Project without an on-map Plant cannot be selected. Missions can be selected only as a target Project and not as an acting Project. Projects in Event Cards cannot be selected.

To resolve the attempt the acting player rolls a die, modifies the result as follows and reads the result on the Requisition Table (below):

• +/- ? the difference in Loyalty (acting Project Researcher rating minus target Project Researcher rating);
• +/- ? Himmler's Favor difference: if the acting Project Type is closer to Himmler's Favor Marker than the target Project type is, add the number of boxes between the target Project Type and Himmler's Favor Marker; otherwise subtract the number of boxes between the acting Project Type and Himmler's Favor Marker;
• +? for Events, as specified on the individual Event cards.

Requisition Table:

Note that in all cases, when there is a choice of what to take, the acting player decides. When Tokens are taken the target player returns them to his Token Reserve and the acting player takes the corresponding Tokens from his Token Reserve and adds them to his Project Pool.

• 10-12: The acting player takes the target Project and one of its Technology Cards. If the cards have Weapon cubes (more details on Weapons production can be found in pages 12 and 13), update the VP Track accordingly. Important: cylinders used to mark VPs are kept on the Project Card so that no VPs are lost. The targeted player redistributes the Project's remaining Resource cubes, Scientist cylinders and Technology Cards. Tokens and cards can be redistributed onto other Projects provided the Weapon colors match (for Technology Cards) and a path can be traced as in trading (for Tokens and Technology Cards). Technology Cards, only, can even be given to another player in the same way, provided the recipient agrees; remember to update the VP Track if the cards have Weapon cubes. Tokens that cannot be redistributed are returned to the Token Reserve. Cards that cannot be redistributed must be placed on empty positions of Technology Track (chosen by the target player). When the Technology Track is full, cards are discarded to the bottom of the Technology Deck. If a Technology Card holding a Weapon cube is discarded to the bottom of the Technology Deck, the Weapon is lost, the target player loses 1 VP and must update the VP Track and the position of the Weapons Production Marker accordingly.
• 6-9: The acting Project takes one of the target Project's Technology Cards (Weapon colors must match and a path must be traced as in trading). If the card has a Weapon cube, the target player loses 1 VP and the acting player earns 1 VP; update the VP Track accordingly.
• 4-5: The acting Project takes one Scientist cylinder from the target Project (no path need be traced). Important: cylinders used to mark VPs can never be taken, no VPs can be lost in this way.
• 3: The acting Project takes two Resource cubes from the target Project ( path need be traced).

When the required result cannot be applied because the target Project Pool lacks the required cubes or cylinders, the result is ignored and the acting player tries to apply the effect above; and so on, until he can fully apply one effect or exhausts all options. Exception: If the required result is 6-9 and it cannot be applied because no transferable Technology Card is present (no path can be traced or no matching color), do not apply the result 10-12, the acting Project takes instead any combination of two Tokens, cylinder(s) and/or cube(s) (VP cylinders cannot be taken) from the target Project (no path need be traced).

After the Action is resolved, the cube used to plan the Action is expended and returned to the Token Reserve.

Example of Requisition Action: The Yellow player controls the Haunebu Project, its Researcher is Richard Miethe. The Project is Approved, so the Loyalty value of Miethe is 3. The Yellow player performs a Requisition attempt against the Elektroboote Project of the Orange player, its Researcher is Hellmuth Walter. The target Project is Approved (so the Loyalty value of Walter is 2), and the Coler Converter Technology is assigned to it. The current position of Himmler's Favor Marker is the Ray Gun Project Type. Therefore the die roll is modified by +1 for the Loyalty differential (3-2) and +1 for the number of boxes between the Submarine Project Type and the position of Himmler's Favor Marker, because the acting player's Project Type is closer to Himmler's Favor than the target player's is.

The die roll result is 2, modified to 4. This means a cylinder must be given by the Orange player, but no cylinder is in the Project Pool, so the Yellow player takes the Coler Converter and assigns it to the Haunebu Project (the Weapon color matches).

The Orange player then tries to get back the Coler Converter, but the modifiers are negative: -1 for the Loyalty differential (2-3) and -1 for Himmler's Favor difference (target Project Type is closer than the acting Project Type). More examples are displayed on the Player Aids.

Research

The purpose of this Action is to take the card (or the cards) from a single Technology Track position.

The player takes the card(s) in the Technology Track position for this Action. If the card is a Project Card, then he places the card on the table in front of himself. He immediately takes the "Provides" bonus of the Project's Researcher (cubes or cylinders) and places these Tokens on the Project Card.

If the card is instead a Technology Card, the card must be immediately assigned to any of the player's Projects, provided the Weapons color of each card matches that of its new Project.

Note: If later for some reason (i.e.: because of a Requisition) the Weapon color no longer matches, the owner must either leave the card in place or discard it to the bottom of the Technology Deck, at his choice. If a Technology Card holding a Weapon cube is discarded, the Weapon is lost; update the position of the Weapons Production Marker accordingly.

When a player receives a Technology Card holding a Weapon cube, he earns 1 VP, update the VP Track accordingly.

After the Action is resolved, the cubes and/or cylinders used to plan the Action are returned to the player for assignment to any one of his Projects; no path need be traced.

Recruit

With this Action a player adds Resource cubes and/or Scientist cylinders to his Project Pool(s).

The player takes cubes and/or cylinders as specified on the Technology Track position for this Action.

In addition, the player may discard any one of his Technology Cards (not Projects!) and place it on the Technology Track in the location corresponding to the planned Action. If he does this then he receives one more Token, chosen from among those already received. If a Technology Card holding a Weapon cube is moved to the Technology Track, the player loses 1 VP.

Received Tokens are assigned to any of acting player's Project(s); no path need be traced.

Example of Research and Recruit Actions: Following the set-up example on 4, during the Planning and Actions steps of a 3-player game, the first player (Green) controls the German Nuclear Plan and the second player (Purple) controls the Death Ray.

The Green player plans a Research Action for the Cascade Accelerator. Therefore he takes one Scientist cylinder from any one of his Project Pools and places it on position 3 of the Technology Track.

The Purple player secures the Beam Transformer placing two cylinders in position 1. His Death Ray Project needs an electric generator and a transformer to become Approved, so the Beam Transformer enables him to fulfill 50% of its requirements.

The Orange player plans a Research Action for the Elektroboote Project, placing two cubes in position 4.

The Green player opens the second round of planning with a Recruit Action for position 1. This provides two cylinders.

The Purple player plans a Recruit Action too, in position 3. This gives three cubes.

The Orange player plans one more Research Action – this time in position 5 – for the Long-range Batteries.

During the Actions step the players receive in order, the following:

• Purple: the Beam Transformer
• Green: the Cascade Accelerator
• Orange: the Elektroboote Project and the Long-range Batteries
• Green: two cylinders (plus the planning cube)
• Purple: three cubes (plus the planning cube)

The Green player assigns the Cascade Accelerator and all received Tokens to the German Nuclear Plan Project. Similarly, the Purple player assigns the Beam Transformer and all received Tokens to the Death Ray Project. Finally, the Orange player places the Elektroboote Project in front of him and assigns the Longrange Batteries and all received Tokens to the Elektroboote.

After the Action is resolved, the planning cube is returned to its owner for assignment to any one of his Projects; no path need be traced.

Move

The purpose of this Action is to move any number of Project Plants, Technologies, Resource cubes and/or Scientist cylinders on the map.

The cube used to plan this Action is a cost, but it allows its owner to perform as many moves as desired. During movement, the acting player can cross any number of Areas, provided every Area and the destination are controlled by Germany.

Areas not controlled by Germany (e.g. Prague before 1939 or any area controlled by Soviets or Allies) cannot be traversed.

Moving Entire Projects

When moving a Project Plant, the acting player selects a new destination Area, respecting the printed Stacking Limit. Berlin and Wewelsburg can be crossed, if German-controlled, but cannot be selected as destinations. Otherwise, any Area can be selected as the destination.

The Area's Type determines when the Develop or Production Actions can be performed.

Examples: a U-Boat Base is reached by a non U-Boat Project Plant, but no Develop or Production Actions can be performed there. A Research or Factory site is reached by a U-Boat Project Plant, but no Develop Action can be performed there.

An Approved Project is moved to a Factory site, but no Develop Action can be performed there.

Moving Tokens and Technologies

When moving Tokens or Technologies, the destination is a Project. Technology Cards can be moved to other Projects only if the Weapon color matches.

Moving some Improved Technology Cards (alone or within a Project move) entails additional costs (indicated on the card). In this case the player pays the required number of Resources, which are removed from either the source or the destination Project and placed in the Token Reserve. Important: a Technology Card whose Additional Move Cost is "NA" cannot be moved at all; neither can the Project Plant for the Project it is assigned to!

After the Move Action is resolved, the planning cube is expended and returned to the Token Reserve.

Examples of Move Actions:

First example – At the beginning of turn 7 (1943), the German Nuclear Plan Project Plant is in Paris (the Eperlecques Blockhaus Event was played in 1942 to threaten the Green player). So it would be a good idea to evacuate to a more secure Area. The Green player chooses Linz, a Research site where he can continue developing the Project. All Areas can be traversed because German control prevails throughout.

Second example – During the last turn (1945), the Purple player has three Project Plants. Plant #1 is in Peenemünde – the Haunebu Project. Plant #2 is in Linz – the Vril Project. Plant #3 is in Kiel – the Elektroboote Project. The Haunebu Project seems far from Completion, but has the Coler Converter; the player wishes to move that Technology to the Vril Project as it would complete it.

The improved side of the Coler Converter card is the Foo-Fighter, a gravitational generator. The Vril Project has the Magnetstromapparat, another gravitational generator, and a Control system; two such generators would allow the Purple player to fulfill all of its technological requirements.

But Wewelsburg has been conquered by the Allies in 1944 via the "Allied Breakthrough" Event. Prague is controlled by the Soviets, conquered in the same year via the "Soviet Breakthrough" Event. So the Purple player is unable to trace any path from Peenemünde to Linz and decides to move the Coler Converter to Plant #3 (where the Weapon color also matches), thus fulfilling its requirements.

Play Event

The purpose of this Action is to play Event Cards.

The cube used to plan this Action is a cost, but it allows the acting player to play as many Event Cards as he wishes.

Some Events are marked as Free Action. Unless otherwise indicated on the card, they can be played when resolving this step, but at no cost. That means the player does not have to plan this Action with a Resource cube and no cube is expended.

Some Events are marked as Mandatory, usually also Free Actions. Unless otherwise indicated on the card, they must be played when resolving this step in the same way as above.

Players must always respect the conditions indicated on the card to play Events (red color), if any. If conditions and requirements are not met, the Event cannot enter play.

Every time the acting player plays an Event Card marked with the Bombardment symbol, the card is placed in front of him. The player will have to resolve a Bombardment during the corresponding step. Also, that player must co-operate with all players and similarly all players will have to co-operate with him during the resolution of Develop Actions.

Every time the acting player plays an Event Card marked as Approved Project, proceed as per Develop Action described below, i.e. he must immediately deploy a Project Plant and update the Himmler's Favor Track. If no placement area (of any Type) can be designated, the Event cannot enter play.

Important: when the Event's effects require a Project to be designated, the player can choose his own or an opponent's Project.

The effects of Events always take precedence over the rules, even when they are contradictory. Examples: The "Wilhelm Reich" card enables a Requisition attempt to be performed also during the first turn of play; the "Goering's Arrogance" card enables the Space Mirror Station to be moved; the "Polish Resistance discovers V-2 Rockets" card enables the Project Plant of V-2 Rockets to also be bombarded in Belgrade or Bratislava (no Bunker modifier is applied in these Areas). The only exception is that Bombardments can never occur before 1940, even when determined by an Event.

After the Action is resolved, the cube used to plan the Action is expended and returned to the Token Reserve.

Production

The purpose of this Action is to make Completed Projects produce Weapons.

The cube used to plan this Action is a cost, but it enables as many Weapons to be produced as the acting player wishes and as allowed by his Completed Projects.

This Action can be performed only on Completed Projects whose Plants are currently located at a Factory site, and cannot be performed on Projects that do not allow the production of Weapons. The acting player takes an unused Weapon cube and places it on the Project Card. 1 VP is immediately awarded to him and the VP Track and the position of the Weapons Production Marker are updated accordingly.

The Project is now Finished. No further Develop Action can be performed for it. The acting player must remove the Project Plant from the map and may redeploy any Token from the Finished Project Card only at the end of the Bombardments & Advances step; the procedure is described in page 15. Exception: this is not valid for V-2 Rockets, which are a special case; this Project enables more than one Weapon to be produced. After the Action is resolved, the cube used to plan the Action is expended and returned to the Token Reserve.

Develop

This Action represents the core mechanic of the game. The purpose of this Action is to change Projects from Proposed to Approved status, upgrade or downgrade Technologies, and complete Project stages. Very Important: Such operations can be performed in any number and in any order.

This Action can be performed only on Proposed Projects or on Approved or Completed (but not Finished) Projects whose Plants are currently located at a Research site. U-Boat Projects can be developed only at U-Boat bases.

Every time such an operation requires a particular Technology, the acting player must check that the appropriate Technology is among those assigned to the Project. Important: improved Technology Types always count also as the corresponding non-Improved Types for the sake of these requirements.

Every time such an operation requires a particular Project to be Completed, the acting player can either designate one of his own Completed Project or any Project in the Common Benefits* box, or ask an opponent if he grants him access to one of his Completed Project. Important: Lvl-2 Completed Projects always count also as Lvl-1 for the sake of these requirements. If the other player agrees, then co-operation takes place. Players that have played Event Cards with a Bombardment symbol in front of them must always co-operate and every other player must always co-operate with them.

*Common Benefits: when Completed, Mission and U-Boat Projects can become available to all players for other Projects' Completion or Technology Improvement requirements.

Upgrading Technologies – this operation allows players to flip a Technology Card to the improved (darker) side. The acting player must pay the required cost (from the Project Pool to the Token Reserve) and meet any requirement printed on the card. The card is then flipped, ignoring Weapon color matching towards the Project the Technology Card is currently assigned to. If the flipped side contains a Weapon, a Weapon cube is placed on the card and 1 VP is awarded to the player; then update accordingly the VP Track and the position of the Weapons Production Marker. Also, move the Himmler's Favor Marker by one space towards the Weapon type.

Downgrading Technologies – this operation allows players to flip a Technology Card from the improved (darker) side back to the non-Improved (lighter) side, ignoring Weapon color matching towards the Project the Technology Card is currently assigned to. No cost need be paid and no requirement need to be met. If the improved side contained a Weapon cube, the acting player loses 1 VP and the Weapon is lost; update the VP Track and the position of the Weapons Production Marker accordingly.

Approving Projects – this operation allows players to flip a Project Card to the Approved side. No cost need be paid, only some requirements need to be met as indicated on the card. The acting player must then designate one available friendly controlled Area and place there the Project Plant (not for Missions), respecting Stacking Limits. Also, the position of Himmler's Favor Marker is moved one space towards the Project Type on the Himmler's Favor Track. If no Project Plant chip is available, the operation cannot be performed.

Completing Projects – this operation allows players to complete a development stage. For Projects with two development stages, if the Resource cost and Technology requirements are met then a player may skip the Lvl-1 stage and immediately complete the Lvl-2 stage. Important: It is permitted to Complete a Project in the same turn (i.e. with the same operation) when the Project is Approved. The acting player must pay the cost (from the Project Pool to the Token Reserve) and meet any requirement printed on the card. Then a cylinder must be placed in the VP box of the just Completed development stage; the cylinder is taken from the Token Reserve, or moved to the Lvl-2 box if already in the Lvl-1 box, unless the player's cylinder does not match because the Project (Completed at Lvl-1) was taken by another player after a successful Requisition attempt. Then, the printed VP amount is awarded to the player (or the difference between Lvl-1 and Lvl-2 if Lvl-1 was already completed by the same player) and the VP Track is updated accordingly. Cylinders used to mark VP can never be used for any other purpose, they must remain in place. Place any Common Benefit chip on the board if enabled by the just Completed development stage. Finally, if no Production of Weapons and no further development stage are allowed, the Project is Finished, its Plant must be removed from the map and any Token on its card may be redeployed only at the end of the Bombardments & Advances step as per the Production Action; the procedure is described on page 15.

After the Action is resolved, the planning cylinder is returned to its owner for assignment to any one of his Projects; no path need be traced.

Example of Develop Action: The Orange player first completes the Shauberger's Repulsin Event Project, expends the two cubes, places a cylinder on the VP box and assigns the Event Card to the Haunebu Project. Then he expends one cube from the Haunebu Project Pool to flip the Coler Converter card to its improved side (Magnetstromapparat), provided the Expedition to Tibet Mission was accomplished by another player; so he expends the cylinder thus completing the Project. A cylinder is used to mark the VP box and the Orange player earns 6 VPs. The Project Plant will not be removed because a Weapon can be produced.

5. Bombardments & Advances

Bombardments

This step is resolved from Turn 3 (1940) onward to simulate the destructive effects of enemy bombardments. Before 1940 this step is skipped.

The first player (in Order of Play) must resolve one Bombardment plus the Bombardment of the not-Drafted Event card (if any, see page 6), then all players (still in Order of Play) must resolve any additional Bombardment displayed on Event Cards currently played in front of them. Every time a Bombardment is to be resolved, the responsible player must designate a target Area, chosen from among those that can be reached by the current range of enemy Bombardments. Also, the target Area must contain at least one Project Plant; no empty Area can be designated.

After the target Area is determined, the responsible player must roll a die for every Project Plant in the Area and modify its result as follows:

• • ? the Bunker value of target Area;
• -1 in 1940;
• +1 in 1943;
• +2 in 1944;
• +3 in 1945;
• • ? for Events.

The modified die roll is applied on the Bombardment Table:

• 7-9: one Technology Card (chosen by the player who rolled the die, see below for details).
• 5-6: one Scientist cylinder (from the Project Pool) is returned to the Token Reserve.
• 3-4: two Resource cubes (from the Project Pool) are returned to the Token Reserve.
• 0-2: no effect.

When the required effect cannot be applied because the target Project Pool has not enough cubes or cylinders, that effect is ignored and the acting player must try to apply the effect above; and so on, until he can fully apply one effect.

If the top effect cannot be applied, because no Technology Card is assigned to the Project, the target player must roll a die: if the result is odd, the Project is removed from play (read below for details); if the result is even, all Resource cubes and Scientist cylinders are removed from the Project Pool and returned to the Token Reserve.

When a Project is removed from play, any cylinder used to mark VPs is returned to the Token Reserve, the player loses the corresponding amount of VPs and updates the VP Track accordingly. In addition, if any Weapon cube is on the Project Card, the Weapon is lost, the target player loses additional VP(s) and updates the VP Track and the position of the Weapons Production Marker accordingly. Finally, Resource cubes and Scientist cylinders are returned to the Token Reserve, the Project Card is removed from the game and the Project Plant is removed from the map. Any Technology Card assigned to the Project Card is lost, see below.

When a Technology Card is lost, if a Weapon cube is on the card, the target player loses 1 VP, removes the card from the game and the Weapon is lost; update the VP Track and the Weapons Production Marker accordingly. Otherwise, the lost Technology Card can be either deployed on any empty position of the Technology Track or discarded to the bottom of the Technology Deck, at the target player's choice.

When all Bombardments are resolved, players may proceed to the next step.

Example of Bombardments: During turn 7 (1944), the Orange player is first in Order of Play, the Allied Breakthrough is the not-drafted Event, and the Orange player has played no Events marked by a Bombardment symbol. So the Orange player must resolve two Bombardments. For the first one, he decides to target Peenemünde, where the Purple player has the Project Plant #1: V-2 Rockets. The Bunker value of Peenemünde is 1. Also, the Purple player has used the Rocket Ramps Event. The die roll is thus modified by +2 for the year, -1 for the Bunker value and -1 for the Rocket Ramps. The die roll result is 2, not changed by modifiers, so no effect. The Orange player now rolls for the second Bombardment again in Peenemünde. This time he gets a 3, so the Purple player must lose two cubes. But only one cube and one cylinder are currently in V-2 Rocket's Project Pool, so the cylinder is returned to the Token Reserve. The next player in Order of Play is the Purple player. So he must resolve a Bombardment as per the Rocket Ramps Event and he returns the favor to the Orange player by bombarding Linz, whose Bunker value is 1. The die roll result is 4, modified to 5 (+2 for the year and -1 for the Bunker value). Thus the Project Plant #2 of the Orange player (Haunebu) must lose one cylinder.

Advances

This step is resolved from Turn 6 (1943) onward to simulate the effects of enemy advances into German territory. Before Turn 6, only remove the Plants of Finished Projects as described on page 15.

The first player (in Order of Play) must resolve all enemy Advances, checking the red and blue colored arrows displayed on the map. In 1943, U-Boat Base 2 and the Paris Area are conquered by the Allies. In 1944, Garda is conquered by the Allies, Bratislava and Vienna by the Soviets. In 1945, Wewelsburg and Nurenberg by the Allies, Berlin, Breslau and Belgrade by the Soviets.

In addition, players must first apply the effects of any Mandatory Events in play such as the Allied Breakthrough or Soviet Breakthrough, and then the effects of any played Event such as the German Counter-offensive or German Resistance.

Furthermore, if the Death Ray Project has been completed during the current turn, the player owning that Project may negate one Allied or Soviet Advance as allowed by the German Resistance Event (the Area will be conquered by the enemy on the next turn, immediately before the Bombardments step).

Every time an Area is conquered by the enemy after an Advance, a red or blue chip is placed in the Area (the color matching with that of the arrow) and any Project Plant currently stacked in the Area is removed from the map, with the corresponding Project(s) removed from the game and its Technologies lost, resolve this as described in Bombardments rules above.

Example of enemy Advance: At the end of 1944 Bratislava, Vienna and Prague (because of Soviet Breakthrough) are conquered by the Soviets, and Garda by the Allies. The first player (Orange) must apply the effects of the Allied Breakthrough. He should place an Allied Control chip on Wewelsburg or Linz. In the latter case his Project Plant #2 would be removed. He designates Linz and applies the effects of the German Counteroffensive Event, so that the Area is not conquered by the Allies; a German Control chip is placed instead. 1 VP and one Weapon are lost, but the Haunebu Project is safe, and will also be in 1945.

Removal of Finished Project's Plants – at the end of this step players must remove the Plants of Finished Projects (that survived the enemy Bombardments and Advances) as required by the Production and Develop Actions above. Exception: this is not done for V-2 Rockets, which are a special case; this Project enables more than one Weapon to be produced. After removing the Plant, redistribute any Tokens currently on the Project Card and any Technology Cards assigned to that Project. Tokens and cards can be redistributed by the owning player onto his not-Finished Projects, provided the Weapon colors match (for Technology Cards) and a path can be traced as in Deals (for Tokens and Technology Cards). Technology Cards can be passed to opponents in the same way, if the receiving player agrees. Tokens that cannot be redistributed are returned to the Token Reserve. Cards that cannot be redistributed must be placed on empty positions of the Technology Track (chosen by the acting player). When the Technology Track is full, cards are discarded to the bottom of the Technology Deck. If a Technology Card holding a Weapon cube is thus discarded to the bottom of the Technology Deck, the Weapon is lost, the target player loses 1 VP and must update the VP Track and the position of the Weapons Production Marker accordingly.

6. Cleanup & Order of Play

This step concludes the Sequence of Play for each turn. This step is resolved in three phases, executed in order: 1. Refill Technology Track; 2. Redeployments; 3. New Order of Play.

Ignore this step and proceed to Victory determination during the last turn of play (1945).

Refill Technology Track

The last player (in Order of Play) takes the card currently located in the bottom position of the Technology Track, unless it is empty, in which case he takes no card.

If the card taken is a Project Card then it is placed in front of the player and the "Provides" initial bonus is immediately placed on the card.

If it is a Technology Card, the player must designate a Project whose Weapon color matches the Technology. If no such Project is available, the card must be discarded to the bottom of the Technology Deck. If a Weapon cube is on the card, the Weapon is lost; update the position of the Weapons Production Marker accordingly.

All cards are then moved down to the bottom and new cards are drawn from the Technology Deck to fill in the remaining empty positions of the Technology Track.

When all positions are filled or the Technology Deck is empty, players may proceed to next phase.

Redeployments

Players can now freely redeploy Resource cubes, Scientist cylinders and Technology Cards among their Projects. Projects cannot be redeployed during this step; this operation is allowed only by Move action. Players must respect the same rules described for movement (crossing of friendly controlled Areas, payment of Additional Move Costs, matching of Weapon colors). When all players have finished redeployments, they may proceed to next phase.

New Order of Play

Players must now determine the Order of Play for the next turn. The procedure is executed as follows. Starting from the last player (in Order of Play) and proceeding from bottom to top (first player), each player chooses one empty position in the right section of the Order of Play by moving his colored cube from the left section to the chosen position on the right. When the procedure is finished, all cubes are moved back to the left section, each one in the new position as chosen by corresponding player.

Ending the Game

The game is over at the end of the Bombardments & Advances step of the last turn of play (1945). During turn 8, the Cleanup step is not performed; players immediately determine the winner.

The game can end early due to an Automatic Victory. This occurs when:

• a player has successfully completed the German Nuclear Plan Project (the game ends immediately when this occurs and that player is declared the winner);
• a players has successfully completed the Orbital Solar Gun Project (the game ends immediately when this occurs and that player is declared the winner);
• a player has 14 or more VPs at the end of a game turn and the Weapons Production Goal has been fulfilled.

In the latter case, when a player has more than 14 VP, he marks the additional amount of VP using Resource cubes.

Determining the Winner

If the game is over at the end of last turn or at the end of a turn when one or more players achieve the 14+ VP Automatic Victory, players must first check whether the Weapons Production Goal has been fulfilled. If it has then the player with the highest Victory Points total wins. If the Weapons Production Goal has not been fulfilled then all players lose.

In case of a player victory, ties are resolved by counting the number of Weapon cubes controlled by every tied player, the player with the most Weapon cubes is the winner. If one or more players share the highest number of Weapon cubes, then count the number of Completed Projects (ignore those removed from the game). The player with the most Completed Projects is the winner. If one or more players share the highest number of Completed Projects then they also share the victory: the game is a draw!

End-Game Variant: Turncoat

During the last step of game setup procedure, players must decide if this Event Card is to be included in the game. This Event Card can enter the game during Turns 4-7 (1941-44).

When drawn during the Drafting Event Cards step, the first player in Order of Play must always pick this card. The Turncoat Event significantly alters the end game victory determination, because it introduces a secret identity that allows an additional victory opportunity. The Turncoat player wins the game at the end of the last turn of play (1945) if the Weapons Production Goal has not been fulfilled and the players have lost at least 8 VPs because of Bombardments or Advances (lost Projects and Weapons; use the large black cube on the VP Track to mark the lost VPs). This alternative victory condition take precedence over the other ones.

Turncoat Event Card text: "The drafting player must always pick this card. You are now a Turncoat. You cannot give away this card and you can reveal your secret identity only at the end of the game. When the game is over at the end of the last turn of play (1945), you win if the players have not fulfilled the Weapons Production Goal and they have lost at least 8 VPs during Bombardments and Advances. Otherwise you win as per the normal rules."

Examples: Playing the last turn of play (1945), only 3 Weapons have been produced and 8 VPs have been captured by the Allies and Soviets. The Green player has received six cubes from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, so he has enough Tokens to upgrade Nuclear Fission to the Moderated Nuclear Reactor (5) and to complete the German Nuclear Plan (4 cubes and 4 cylinders left after the upgrade). In fact, he used the Allied Breakthrough Event, which has the Bombardment symbol. Therefore he can use a Lvl-1 Rocket Project completed by an opponent and close the game with an automatic victory!

The Orange player has collected 14 VPs, but the automatic victory of the Green player was determined before.

Now, suppose the die roll of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute is not so lucky and the Weapons Production Goal has not been fulfilled by any ODESSA or Moon Base Mission; the Orange player does not win. But a Turncoat player reveals his secret identity and claims the victory!

Solitaire Rules

Secret Weapons of the Third Reich can be played in solitaire mode with a few changes to the above rules.

Setting up the game

The player sets up a game as for 4 players, from now on called Factions. He determines the initial Order of Play and deals 2 Project Cards to every Faction. The Turncoat is not used in solitaire mode, put this card out of play. Dealt cards are drawn from the top of the draw pile and can never be refused.

The Setup procedure is followed as per the normal rules. The player can distribute the starting allowance (one cylinder and three cubes) of each Faction as he wishes among each Faction's Project Pools.

The German Control chip is used to mark the Leading Faction and is placed near the first Faction in Order of Play.

Drafting Event cards

The player draws five Event Cards and deals one card to each Faction in Order of Play. The player cannot examine drawn cards before dealing them to Factions, so cards are always dealt randomly.

After all cards have been dealt, the player must flip them face up. Flipped cards are kept horizontally (tapped) near the Projects of the corresponding Faction; this indicates that the Event has not yet been played. The card that was not dealt is discarded or played as per normal rules.

Funding

This step is resolved as per the normal rules, the player can distribute the Ad hoc Funding, when provided, as he wishes among each Faction's Project Pools.

Planning

This step is resolved as per the normal rules, the player can plan the actions of every Faction in Order of Play as he wishes.

The player cannot arrange or perform any Deal between Factions. Tokens and Technologies can be never traded.

Actions

The player resolves all actions planned during the previous step as per the normal rules with some exceptions as follows.

Requisitions – Every time a Requisition Attempt is successful (Tokens or cards are given), the player must move the Leading Faction chip to the target Faction, provided the German Control chip is currently not deployed on the map after the play of German Counter-offensive Event. When the Requisition Attempt determines the loss of a Project, the target Faction cannot redistribute Tokens or Technologies to other Factions.

Play Event – when played, Event Cards are discarded or removed from play or kept in place and moved to the vertical position (untapped) as per the instructions printed on the card. The German Counter-offensive Event is considered as Mandatory; when played, the Leading Faction chip is removed and used as the German Control marker on the map.

Develop – co-operation can take place only through played Events with the Bombardment symbol. In addition, Factions with any Event in play with the Bombardment symbol must always co-operate with them (unless they also have an Event with the Bombardment symbol). Important: Completing the Orbital Solar Gun or German Nuclear Plan is allowed only in Turn 8 (1945).

Bombardments

This step is resolved as per the normal rules; the player must resolve all Bombardments designating targets in the following order of priority: first the Leading Faction (if any), then all other Factions in Order of Play. This order of priority is modified by one space for every subsequent Bombardment.

Example: three Bombardments must be resolved, and the Leading Faction is in play. For the first Bombardment the player must first check if he can designate the Leading Faction (second position in Order of Play); he cannot target that Faction, so he designates a Project Plant of the first Faction in Order of Play. For the second Bombardment, the player must first check the third Faction in Order of Play (the second position is skipped because it is the Leading Faction, already checked during the first Bombardment), but no Project Plant can be targeted. Thus the Bombardment strikes a Project Plant of the fourth Faction. The third and last Bombardment again strikes the first Faction in order of play. In fact, the player first checks the Leading Faction, which has no Project Plant that can be reached by Bombardments, then the first Faction is struck again.

Advances

This step is resolved as per the normal rules. The player can resolve as he wishes any effects of played Events such as the Allied Breakthrough, Soviet Breakthrough, German Resistance or German Counter-offensive.

At the end of the Advances step, when removing the Plant for a Finished Project, the owning Faction cannot redistribute Tokens or Technologies to other Factions.

Cleanup

The player resolves all phases of this step as per the normal rules with the following exceptions.

Refill Technology Track – the last faction (in Order of Play) does not receive the card currently located in the bottom position of the Technology Track, the card is instead discarded to the bottom of the Technology Deck.

New Order of Play – the procedure is resolved as follows. Starting from the last Faction (in Order of Play) and proceeding from bottom to top (first Faction), the player must roll a die for each Faction. When the die roll result is odd, the Faction takes the highest empty space in the right section of the Order of Play. When the die roll result is even, the Faction takes the lowest empty space in the right section of the Order of Play. After all position have been assigned, the cubes are moved to the left section as per the normal rules; the new Order of Play has thus been determined. Now, if the Leading Faction chip is in play (not deployed on the map as a German Control marker) and it matches with the first Faction (in Order of Play), then the Leading Faction chip is assigned to the last Faction (in Order of Play) provided that it does not have the highest VP ranking. Otherwise, the Leading Faction Chip is assigned to the first Faction (in Order of Play) provided that it does not have the highest VP ranking. In all other cases, the Leading Faction Chip remains where it was.

Ending the Game (Solitaire)

A) If the Leading Faction chip is in play, the game ends and the player wins if the Leading Faction is the actual winner as per the normal rules, Automatic Victory conditions included (Orbital Solar Gun and German Nuclear Plan can be completed only in 1945).

B) If the Leading Faction chip is not in play – because it is currently deployed on the map as German Control marker – the game is over at the end of the last turn (1945) and the player wins if the Weapons Production Goal (calculated on a 4-player basis) has been successfully fulfilled. For the sake of such victory determination, any bonus provided by the Moon Base and Neuschwabenland Mission Projects or by the ODESSA Event Card is ignored. That means the player can win only by reaching the required amount of produced Weapons! Otherwise the player wins if any Faction has fulfilled the Automatic Victory by completing the Orbital Solar Gun or the German Nuclear Plan (both can be completed only in 1945). That means the 14 or more VP Automatic Victory condition is ignored!

Very Important: for all of the above cases, the player must use the Projekt Amerika variant described below to fulfill the Automatic Victory condition of the German Nuclear Plan.

Variants

Experienced players are strongly recommended to use the following Variants that introduce more challenging gameplay and better balanced starting positions.

Balanced Game Setup

Step 4 of the Game Setup is resolved as follows. Shuffle all Project Cards and deal 8 cards (only 6 with 2-3 players) face up on the table. Each player receives 3 cubes and 1 cylinder. Now, respecting the initial Order of Play, players resolve one or more bidding rounds using the Tokens received. Each player places a bid on a single Project or near the Order of Play Track for the first turn order determination. Every bid on a Project must be higher than any previous bid (where a cylinder is equivalent to 3 cubes), the exceeded bid is returned to its player. Bids for the first turn order determination are not required to be higher than any previous bids, which are kept in place; ties will be resolved using the initial Order of Play. When all players have expended all their Tokens, the bidding procedure is over, each Project is assigned to the player who has made the highest bid and the Order of Play track is updated to reflect the new first turn order (ties are resolved using the initial Order of Play). Unassigned Projects are added to Technology Deck, and cubes and cylinders used for bidding are returned to the Token Reserves. Finally, the "Provides" initial bonus is received as per the normal rules.

Restricted Co-operation

When Developing Technologies and Projects, players with any Event in front of them marked by the Bombardment symbol must always co-operate with their opponents, but the other players are not forced to co-operate with them (unless they also have an Event with the Bombardment symbol).

Projekt Amerika

Add +1 to the number of Resource cubes and Scientist cylinders required to complete the German Nuclear Plan. Also, the required Project is Rocket Lvl-2 / Flying Saucer Lvl-2 instead of Lvl-1.

Expert Logistician

When setting up the game, players must assign all Project Plants to their Projects and deploy them on the map, one at a time in Order of Play. This activity is performed after the Technology Track has been filled. No Plants are assigned for Mission Projects.

The Develop Action is allowed for not yet Approved Projects only if their Plant (when deployed on the map) is currently located at a Research site (or a U-Boat base for Elektroboote and Cargo U-Boats).

When the Elektroboote or Cargo U-Boats Project is Completed, the corresponding Common Benefit chip is placed on the map over the Area currently containing the Plant, whose chip is removed. Then, the Common Benefit chip is considered as being a Project Plant, with the following consequences. When checking any Completed Project requirement during the Develop Action, the Common Benefit chip is considered as being in the Common Benefits box, but the acting player must successfully trace a path to the Area currently containing the Common Benefit chip. No Project Plant can be placed in the Area as long the Common Benefit chip remains in place (the Stacking Limit of all U-Boat bases is 1). The Common Benefit chip can be moved to another Area with a Move Action; target Area must be an U-Boat base. The Common Benefit chip cannot be targeted by Bombardments. Important: when the Area is conquered by the Allies or by the Soviets, the U-Boat Project is considered as captured, it is removed from the game and its Technologies are lost, resolve this as described in Bombardments rules above.

When the acting player must deploy a Plant for a just Approved Project and no Plant chip is available, he must take one from a not yet Approved Project, if any is available. As soon as a Plant chip becomes available, the corresponding player must use it for a not yet Approved Project with no Plant (ignore Missions), if present.