Review: Battle for Germany Deluxe- A Campaign Worth Refighting

By Mitch Reed

I can admit that I will probably never re-read many of the books in my collection. The same can be said for many of the wargames I own, after playing them a few times I have little interest in re-playing them. However, some games stand out as classics that you just have to keep in your collection and play over and over again.

Battle for Germany is one game that is a classic that not only I have played many times, I even have bought multiple copies of the game. If you love this game as I do, you will be excited that has released a deluxe version of the game that I recommend you pick up even if you already have a cherished copy. Battle for Germany first came out in 1975 in Strategy & Tactics magazine from SPI and covered the last few months of WWII in Europe. The game focuses on the final Allied and Soviet attacks and the race to beat the other to Berlin. What made this game interesting is that the two-player game is Allies vs Soviet, where the German’s are divided geographically and the Allied player plays the German forces fighting against the Soviets and the Germans in the west are controlled by the Soviet player.

This mechanic allows the game to be played with three or four players without any problems. The game also has a scenario where the Allies and Soviets fight it out after Germany is defeated. Another surprising feature is how well this game plays solo, the German moves can easily be “bot-ed” since they are never in a position to attack.
The game plays out at the operational level of warfare with a lot of injects from the over the strategic context of the war. The units are mostly Corps/Army sized units with the Soviets getting some “Front” sized units. All of the major and minor players are represented in the game such as Free/Communist Poles, Canada, France, Hungarians, Romanians, and Yugoslavia whose units play a special role since they are the only Soviet units that can fight in Yugoslavia.
Something I never realized from playing this game over the years is that the premise of the game does revolve around a major historical “what-if”. General Eisenhower never listed Berlin as a goal for the Allied armies and went for a broad front strategy.

In the game, you can make the same call, while Berlin is worth a lot of VPs (and is the only hex both open to the Allies/Soviets), you can focus on collecting a lot of smaller locations to win the game. The very mechanic that the game is Allies vs. Soviets is another big “what-if”. History often looks at the events covered in the game as a victory over fascism and not as much on who won the start of the Cold War.
Mechanics such as the attributes of the units, replacement rates for each of the armies, terrain, and differences in the victory points for certain locations makes each force play very differently, and having played both sides I can tell you they come with a unique set of challenges which makes the game very ripe for replay.
The game itself is very beer and pretzels. The rules are very basic and you can learn how to play in a few minutes without having to reference the rulebook over and over again. If you grew up playing SPI games you are really good to go. Despite this being an easy game to play it should not offend serious grognards, the game offers a challenge that is very unexpected based on the thin rulebook. Also, this game is fun, which is not a term I throw around loosely. This is why I feel that casual wargamers who wanting to get into the hobby will just love this game.
The new edition offers you a larger map that is mounted, larger counters from both the 1975 and 1994 versions of the game, and all the optional rules that came with the various editions of the game (and some new ones). I had the first edition of the game when it was released with a mounted map which I sadly got rid of right after college. I picked up the 1994 Decision Games edition about 10 years ago and still have it in my collection. When I heard that the game was being given the “Deluxe” treatment I just had to pick up a copy.
I often get asked to recommend the one game that someone just has to have in their collection. My response is often ‘Battle for Germany if you can find it”. Well now you can find it and I recommend getting this game before it inevitably sells out again.