Couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Victor Catalá, a Barcelona-based designer, working for doit games. He intrigued me with the idea of light wargames they were developing and preparing for the launch on Kickstrater. There were two titles: Downfall of Empire (about World War I) and Downfall of the Third Reich (World War II themed). The materials looked pretty great and today I would like to present to the Dear Readers some facts about both games in the so called Downfall Series. Also, I encourage you to go and check more on the Kisctarter page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doitgames-downfalls/downfall-the-wargames-series

Downfall of the Third Reich (2022)

Downfall of the Third Reich is a strategic game of World War II, in the European Theater, for two or three players. The objective of the game is to faithfully simulate World War II in the European Theater, with simple rules, in exciting games of short duration (3-5 hours).

Counters explanation

At start, we have following factions in / or close to a state of war:

  • Axis (Germany and Finland)
  • Allies (United Kingdom and France)
  • Soviet Union

Other major and minor countries will join the war later on in the game. Each player controls one side. With two players, one player leads the Allies and the Soviet Union.

Close-up on the Eastern Front

Twenty-two three-month turns are played, starting in winter 1940, when Germany is preparing to invade France (having started World War II by invading Poland) and the Soviet Union has already attacked inland.

Player can do several actions in each turn:
1. Supply
2. Reinforcements (Major Powers)
3. Armor Production
4. Air Missions
5. Submarine Missions (Axis only)
6. Development
7. Lend Lease (Allies only)

The whole map plus main features explained

Moving and attacking do not spend any action but players need to have enough supply (action 1) to do them. Players can also perform Submarine Warfare and Strategic Bombing if they have enough Air and Submarine Missions (actions 4 and 5). By spending one action, players can “do an investment” like Aviation, Maneuver, etc. to use it later in the game.

This really looks like a game who can bring a lot of new adepts to our hobby and I will be keeping fingers crossed for this campaign!

Downfall of Empires (2021)

This game was initially published in 2021, but new will be released again, together with the newest title in the series.

Downfall of Empires is an army level World War I strategy simulation wargame designed with the goal of creating a fluid, historical and fast game. This is a game with only 4 pages of rules that works perfectly as an introductory wargame, lasts 18 turns, can be played from 2 to 4 players (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Allies and Russia) and can be completed in less than 3 hours.

A Close-up on French border

Each turn, each player has 2 or 3 actions (depending on which side he controls) that he can use to move or attack with his armies, build trenches, do diplomacy with non-aligned countries, reinforce his armies or develop technologies in secret (that I like most!). At the end of the game you win by victory points obtained by controlling the key areas on the map. The German and Franco-British Powers have three actions per turn. The Russians and Austro-Hungarians have two actions per turn.

Available actions are:

  1. Recruit: Create new units or reinforce reduced units at full strength
  2. Activation: Move units and attack
  3. Research: Develop new technologies.
  4. Entrench: Build a trench in an area.
  5. Diplomacy: Increase markers in the political track to make neutral countries to join the war.
  6. Missions: Create Air missions and Tank missions to help you in attack.

With the exception of Activation, actions can only be played once per turn. The Recruit action can only be played as the first action. Conquering enemy cities will give you Victory Points, at the end of the game the side/player with most Victory points is the winner.

Again, the game looks fantastic, has enough replayability and twists (those hidden technologies!) to give long hours of joy. And looks perfect for bringing more players to the hobby!

PS. Should you like to learn more about the Downfall Series, I suggest reaching to the publisher webpage: https://doitgames.com/downfall-series/. Enjoy!