Original game design by Larry Pinsky 1965. Published by Avalon Hill 1975 and 1985. Blitzkrieg came in the original package at three levels: Basic, Intermediate and Tournament. The Basic level was a simple knockout contest, with the losing counters in a battle being eliminated from the board. Troops supplied were armour, infantry, airborne, airborne armour(!), artillery and marines, who at this level did not have any amphibious capability. At the intermediate level Rangers, supply and naval rules were added, plus an abstract method of attritional combat for the five nameless minor countries, although the game was still fairly straightforward. Complexity was really added with the Tournament level, which supplied fighter, tactical support, medium- and heavy bombers and a host of air rules. Most importantly, it added a system of step reduction for units instead of complete annihilation. While this was more realistic, the way it was handled by the game system in practice led to a middle game of slugging attrition, the two sides lined up facing each other and making endless die rolls to inflict casualties. There were also some fairly reasonable rules for production of units and supply centres.
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