A World at War

A World at War, a wargaming masterpiece, brings together in one game all of the decisive elements of the Second World War. With roots tracing back to Avalon Hill's classic Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, and to its eventual successors--Advanced Third Reich and Empire of the Rising Sun--A World at War takes this popular gaming system even further, clearing up ambiguities and adding more detail to what was already a fine family of wargames.

1974, 1976
1981, 1984

1992

1995

2003, 2013

2015

Developed through a decade of design and playtesting, A World at War has it all: marines and paratroopers battling armor and infantry; submarines and carriers dueling cruisers and battlewagons; army planes and carrier planes crisscrossing the skies with bombers and interceptors and ultra-fast jets. Yet unlike in other games, in A World at War you get to decide which units to build the most of and where to deploy them. Will this corps go to Europe or the Pacific? Will those planes hunt the eastern front or the Med? Decide carefully.Armaments, however, don't constitute the only battlefield: the struggle extends into foreign parliaments, through diplomacy; into your own skunk works, through research; and even behind enemy lines, through partisans. So seize every advantage you can get--not just in drop tanks and detonators, but also in oil fields and fur-lined boots. And most of all, stay flexible. For when the worst happens and you find yourself outwitted and outgunned, you may need to surge-research the atomic bomb or to take the exigency--less risky and less glitzy--of barricading your beaches and erecting flak near your factories. (Self-recrimination can come later, like how you cracked too few encryptions, or gobbled too many island groups, or skimped too much on Murmansk.)

For this is A World a War, a game where winning never comes easily. Champion strategies are always interwoven, and good choices always anguished. But take heart: if you soldier on long enough and unleash the latest weapons in the shrewdist assaults, you just might knock those rivals to their knees!

A World at War, a game that has it all. Warfare not only on the land, under the sea, and in the air--but also on trucks and in treasuries, on the lab bench and in the diplomatic pouch. A battlefield vast, and a generalship grim. But if you master every sphere, if you weather every setback, you'll earn that rare chance to conquer armies and rule nations . . . even if they're only cardboard.

Contents of the Second Edition:

2800 full-color single-sided die-cut counters, in ten countersheets.
Four 22-inch x 30-inch full-color mapsheets, forming two large maps of the European and Pacific theaters.
A 236-page rulebook.
A 104-page status-sheet booklet.
A 24-page research & diplomacy booklet.
A 20-page scenario booklet.
Fifteen player aid cards.

Number

Color

Tables

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

4

2

2

olive
lt blue
blue
green
yellow
white
white
many
white
white

combat: attrition, CRT, air defense and combat, naval attack, nationality DRMs
naval: interception, search, surprise, construction, raider, sub attack, air range
strategic warfare: modifiers and combat, Pearl Harbor surprise, harbor attack
misc: winter, BRP costs, Commonwealth and minor country forces, naval activities
surrender: resistance modifiers, British concessions, U.S. elections
SoP, research results summary
historical charts: events, shipbuilding
naval status charts: TF displays
naval combat charts: CG tracking
conference maps of both theaters

Eight six-sided dice.
One deck of oil effect cards.

Air

Naval

Army

Economy

Construction

4

4

4

3

3

Four decks of Magic and Ultra cards.

Nation

Submarine

ASW

Tactical

Strategic

Combined

Blank

Wild

German
British
Japanese
American

2

0

2

2

0

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

1

1

1

1

5

5

6

3

0

0

0

1

One GMT counter tray.
One pack of ziplocking bags.
One promo sheet.
One box.