From: "Thomas A. Meier" Subject: Battle for Germany AAR consim-l Hi All, Three of us played DG's updated Battle for Germany this last weekend and had a blast. The following is a recap. I was the W-Allies, Eric was the Russians, and Don was the Germans. Don and I had never played before and Eric had played the old version many times, but not for a long time. We found the comments by William Sariego on grognards quite useful, although the set we used has the 3-7-5 Mtn unit both in the rules and on the counter now. The first game turned into a learning game of about 3.5 turns as a combination of incredibly successful (read lucky) Allied and Russian attacks and truly unlucky German counter attacks left only 4 units on the Russian northern plain and W-Allies across the Rhine in the north and exploiting out of the southern siegfried line, and cleared two hexes in Italy line. The Russian and W-Ally were counting open hexes to Berlin to see who would win in the next couple of turns. Being the first playing for Don and I we all agreed to restart. The second game was very close. On the western front, the allies were on historical timeline as did not get across Rhine until turn 6. However, they did get across N & S at same time and had US Armor making an end run. Italy also was tough nut to crack, even with 1-1 and 1-2 attacks every turn. The new 4-9-4 paratroop unit allows repositioning of German units that free up some to head to other fronts. The East front was bloody for both sides with lots of exchanges. The Germans were able to only give up two hexes a turn at most with large stacks preventing high odds attacks and lots of DR's. Starting the 8th turn the Russians were still west of Berlin and the river and thinking they might not make it due to German trading units for time. I as the W-Ally had been frustrated at the Rhine all this time and thinking the Russian would win and now realized the Germans might hold onto Berlin!! W-Ally now runs his southern armor and mech up through mtns to attack just south of Berlin to try and help Russians. US clears hex south of Berlin. Russia gains next 2 hexes east of Berlin. Bad news is the German 4-11-4 parachute unit from the west front has retreated all the way to berlin and now there is 16 defense points there. In desperation, the Ger attacks at 1-2 odds one Russian stack and the US stack adjacent to Berlin to prevent even 1-1 attacks against Berlin next turn. The attack against Russia fails and the one against US succeeds. This clears another adjacent hex west of Berlin which the US player moves into and has two stack to get a 1-1 attack against Berlin. The attack succeeds on the 9th turn, US enters Berlin and Wins. We were all surprised at the ending. This game truly is every bit as fun as people have said. I recommend the 3 player game based on the great fun we had. The few rules and units make for a quick playing game. We did both games in less than 7 hours total, which included a lunch break and socializing. Tom Meier