Against the Odds

Commemorative 50th Issue

Die Atombombe

The Reich’s Bid to Build the Bomb

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The Commemorative Fiftieth Issue is Die Atombombe, The Reich’s Bid to Build the Bomb during World War II. This is the 50th Issue of this excellent magazine which first began publishing in 2002. Throughout the past 19 years, this magazine has won all kinds of awards and has kept to its high publishing standards. The magazine has covered subjects from Hegemon in 339-338 BCE, to Napoleonics, to World War II, to Vietnam, to the Modern Era. In each issue of the magazine are provided with articles to read on the subject matter as well as other articles that historians and gamers will find interesting. Each issue also contains a game or historical simulation based on the main subject of that issue of the Magazine.

Order of Appearance

After the Table of Contents the first section is the Order of Appearance which is a Retrospective. Here you see the Publisher, Steve Rawlings taking a short look back at the magazine. Also, you are introduced to a new addition of the ATO staff, Russ Lockwood, who will be a developer taking over for Lembit Tohver. Finally in OoA you are given a brief look at Operation Ichi-Go (Number One) which will be released in Issue 52.

Building the Bomb by Steven Cunliffe

The Uranverein in Fact, Fiction and the World in Between

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Building the Bomb or: The Uranverein in Fact, Fiction and the World in Between is the title of the feature article in this issue of the magazine by Steven Cunliffe. This article begins to detail the failings of Nazi Germany in pursuit of the atom bomb during World War II. What’s scary is that I believe many may not realize, is that when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 that both the United States and Germany were roughly at the same level of progress in the development of the Atomic Bomb. The Allies were lulled into believing the myth of Nazi superiority in all things military. However, the Nazi upper echelons were disdainful of science and with their antisemitism drove many of their best scientists out of Germany. The worst problems were the Nazi inclinations for mistrust, paranoia and the corrupt government. Finally, had the German research proceeded at a more steady pace, they would have gotten around to building such a bomb which would have made the outcome of World War II quite different.

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The next section of the article shows the steps that scientists were undertaking to build the bomb. The graphic below shows these steps. It all began, 10 months before the start of World War II and the invasion of Poland, when it was proved that nuclear fission was possible. This was the start of a nuclear world.

The Uranverein

The German nuclear weapons program was the unsuccessful scientific work, led by Germany to research and develop atomic weapons during World War II. The following are the Departments and people who were responsible and had significant parts in Germany’s research effort.

Heereswaffenamt Karl Bheinrich

Emil Becker

General Emil Leeb

Reichsindustrie Albert Speer
Reichsforschungsrat Rudolf Mentzel
Reichspost Wilhelm Ohnesorge
The Schutzstaffel Wilhelm Ohnesorge

Then there were those German Scientists who worked for the Uranverein who had the insight, drive and political connections to lead on of the research institutes. The Uranverein was in no way a cohesive project with the directors below all acting like feudal dictators. The Directors of the various institutions were;

Doctor Klaus Clusius Director of the University of Munich
Doctor Rudolf Fleischmann Director of the University of Strasburg
Doctor Nikolous Riehl Director of the Auergesellschaft
Baron Manfred von Ardenne The Research Laboratory for Electron Physics
Doctor Hans Kopfermann Director of the University of Gottingen
Professor Otto Hahn Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry
Doctor Paul Harteck Director of the University of Hamurg
Doctor Kurt Diebner Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics
Professor Werner Heisenberg Director of the University of Leipzip

All of these people in one way or another contributed to Germanys War effort. You can only imagine all of the infighting that was happening with each person trying to get financial and physical support for their project. After the war, ten prominent scientists were sent to Farm Hall where their every word was recorded. Heisenberg spoke at length that his real intention regarding nuclear energy was for peaceful purposes. The reality of Heisenberg’s intention will never be known but through the game included with this issue of Against the Odds you can succeed where Germanys greatest minds failed.

On Guards by Andy Nunez

Nazi Weird Science

Hans Kammler PhotoThis article takes a quick glimpse at all the strange technology that Nazi Germany investigated during World War II. A majority of this research was into guided weapons, either acoustic, wire-guided or infrared homing. Weapons such as massive airborne recoilless rifles, rocket-assisted artillery shells, and jet and rocket planes of all types are only a few of the weapons that are mentioned in this section.

Much of this research and/or construction was under the auspicious of Hans Kammler. Kammler had his fingers on a number of these production buttons feeding thousands of prisoners into the industrial plants and research facilities. Quite a number of these research projects were on the verge of being successful and were used by the victors after the war. Throughout this section of the magazine, you are presented with different types of theories and weapons, many of which were theoretical and reads like the stuff of science fiction. A few examples of this are;

  • A circular aircraft
  • D-6000 a ramjet-powered missile, the “Interkontinentalflugorper”
  • Plasma Balls
  • Coal Dust

The final paragraphs of this article detail how you could portray these weapons in boardgame terms. It is here that you really begin to think a little bit like a game designer into how you would include these theoretical weapons into a game design.

Lastly, there is a nicely detailed reference section providing sources that you could refer to, to gain a further insight into the German Super Weapons of World War II.

And The Data Shows by Ed Heinsman

They Also Fissioned

This article begin, “Alamogordo, New Mexico, 16 July 1945 5:29:45 a.m.: although the world would not know it for another 24 days, the United States, with able assistance from British and refugee scientists and technicians, had won the race to build an atomic bomb.” Here, the author looks at the major nations of the world, from the early years until 1945, to understand how far along they were in their research towards a nuclear bomb. The countries looked at are;

  • The British
  • The French
  • The Russians
  • The Japanese
  • The Italians
  • The Germans

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Finally, it is concluded that “The Data Shows” that the development of the first atomic bomb required a massive prioritization and commitment of money, equipment, infrastructure, man power, brain power, and persistence to achieve the goal.”

Screaming Butterflies! By J.D. Webster

Germany Blunts the Allied Air Offensive, Summer 1945

This article creates a “Hypothetical Situation” where the Allied War with Germany in 1944 takes a turn for the worse. Here, the supposition is that Germany’s objectives during the Battle of the Bulge proved successful which halted the Allied drive towards Berlin. Also, in the East, Hitler abandoned his last-stand strategies and lets his Generals retreat in a timely and orderly manner. Coinciding with this, the Russians advance too fast and overstretch their supply lines and a counter offensive on the Polish frontier drives the Russians back gaining the Germans and additional year or two reprieve.

EMW C2 Wasserfall

Now the final item the Germans need to do is to stop and Allied “reign of terror” from the skies. It is at this point that the Germans begin to unleash their super-weapons on the Allied air formations. While the aforementioned scenarios were thankfully fantasy, they could just as easily have become reality if things had been different.

Henschel Hs 117 Schmetterling

Following the brief “What If” scenario, you begin to look at Germany’s “Guided Anti-Aircraft Rocket Program”. The German Air Ministry (RLM) was tasked with the responsibility of developing flak defenses. This department authorized limited research on these projects but was more interested in the tried and true science of fighter planes, search lights and anti-aircraft guns. These were the mainstay weapons that a majority of the military and civilian population understood.

Messerschmitt Enzian E.1

There were four functional designs completed before the conclusion of World War II. These weapons were;

  • Henschel Hs 117 Schmetterling (The Butterfly)
  • Messerschmitt Enzian E.1 (Gentian Flower)
  • Rheinmetall-Borsig Rheintochter R.III (Rhein-Daughter)
  • EMW C2 Wasserfall (Waterfall)

Thankfully, none of these weapons were not completed during the war but, the German research, especially on the V2 brought forth dramatic returns during the Cold War.

Revolt Against the Masses by Darin Leviloff

Kornilov in 1917

From September 9-12 1917, in the middle of the First World War, the Commander-in-Chie of the Russian Army launched an insurrection against the Provisional government of his nation. General Lavr Kornilov led a revolt to replace the leadership of Alexander Kerensky and replace it with a right wing dictatorship. Following this failed revolt, the Bolshevik revolution led by Vladimir Lenin toppled the isolated regime and began an era of communist government that would last 70 years.

This 5 page article takes a quick look at the history of this unique event. You are provided with a brief background of Kornilov and how he rose through the ranks to become a General. Initial tensions between Kornilov and Kerensky are discussed, as well as the Moscow Conference which was a failure. At the end of this very interesting article, you see that Kornilov and Kerensky both failed which led to the communist government rule for the next 74 years.

More Miracles at the Marne by Paul Rohrbaugh

Variant Rules for Fateful Days

Fateful Days was a postcard game which was given away as a free game in issues of Against the Odds magazine as well as to anyone who requested the latest postcard game of the time. This article introduces new units and markers to the game. Finally, you are also provided with optional rules which can change the games play immensely, Overall, these new units, markers and Optional rules, breathe new life into this postcard game,

Simulation Corner by John Prados

Whither Innovation

This excellent article from John Prados looks at the innovation of the boardgame hobby during the past 30 years. It specifically focuses on the innovations brought forth from Against the Odds magazine since its beginnings in the early 1990’s. The author correctly shows how ATO released games simultaneously tying them into real live subjects of current history.

Also, ATO’s took an innovative view of historical subjects in their annuals. Here they commissioned four different game designers to present their visions on the same historical subject. This led to ground breaking designs such as “Four Roads to Moscow” (2011 annual), “Four Roads to Paris” (2015 annual) and the latest 2018 annual Sea Monsters (which is available now). The remainder of this article continues to look at ATO’s innovative approaches to historical situations. This article provides designers insights to other designers works and provides the reader information that otherwise may have been otherwise overlooked.

The Fifth Columnist by John D. Burtt

In-depth book reviews from Behind the Lines

Here you are provided with a review of Osprey Publications 2017 release of “The Improbable Victory” which is edited by Chris McNab. It appears that this book on the American Revolution combines many other American Revolution books from Osprey into a single volume, The review is well written and provides the reader with a glimpse of what to expect in the book.

 

Die Atombombe (the game that is included with this issue of the Magazine.)

The Reich’s Bid to Build the Bomb

Designed by Steven Cunliffe

Introduction (Game Background excerpts taken from the games Introduction.)

This is a CDG, Card Driven Game about the German push to build the Atomic Bomb during World War II. By late 1941 there was an increasing awareness in Germany that Operation Barbarossa would fall short outside of Moscow. Many senior German officials began looking for an alternative. Would a Nuclear alternative of some sort be successful?

Die Atombombe is a multi-player game that examines Germany’s atomic research efforts during World War II. Each of the players represents the Director of a prestigious research institute and are recruited by a faction inside of the German government, either military or industrial to see if some sort of miracle is at all possible.

(Historically, very little was achieved due to technical misunderstandings, shifting priorities and dispersion of efforts.)

Game Objective

Of course, in its simplest form, you can say that the object of the game is to build an Atom Bomb. However, to get from here to there is NOT a simple matter as you will see. Die Atombombe is a competitive card game, best played with 4 to 5 gamers. There are several levels of difficulty players may choose from before starting the game, ranging from “Basic” (a fun, rollicking game with a bomb in every basement) to “Historical” (best reflecting the true daunting challenge of executing a nuclear program). As the game unfolds, players work through their Director to try to acquire scarce resources, recruit other scientists, engage in intrigue against their rivals (this is the Third Reich after all), and demonstrate progress in their efforts to deliver a real advance. A player will really need to go all out to get some sort of useable weapon ready by himself before Berlin is overrun by the Red Army. Another path to building a weapon may be through limited cooperation with the other players (a “success” in these contexts is assumed to allow Germany to negotiate some sort of acceptable end to the war).

Components

The physical components included with this game are;

  • 1 Play Mat
  • 5 Secret Faction Cards
  • 9 Director Cards
  • 20 Resource Cards
  • 20 Enemy Action Cards
  • 25 Event/Scientist Cards
  • 29 Event/Intrigue Cards
  • 1 Soviet Progress marker
  • 6 Numbered Initiative markers
  • 10 Director counters (each representing one Director)
  • 35 double-sided Influence Point markers

Players must provide a number of their own 6-sided dice for play.

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Preparing for Play

First, you need to choose the overall Challenge Level to play at either Basic, Advanced, or Historical. Next you must place the Play Mat in the center of your table where it can be accessed by all the players.

Next, the Soviet Progress marker is placed in the Moscow Box. This shows the Distance Track facing towards the 1000 Miles Box and depicts how close the Soviet front is to Berlin. Now you have to setup the game for the Initiative Preparation. Here you place a number of red Initiative markers equal to the number of players in the game. (You will also see Black Initiative Markers in the Counter mix and these are for use in a future expansion of the game which will be published in a future issue of Against the Odds.)

Now, you place all the Influence Point (IP) markers in a neutral pil) where they can be picked by all players. After this, separate all the cards into their separate decks and shuffle them. The Enemy Action deck is placed to the right of the Play Mat. The Event deck is placed to the left of the Play Mat. The Resource deck is placed to the right of it. An area next to each deck is reserved for discards. When a deck runs out of cards the discard pile is reshuffled and the cards are used from it. Deal out six cards from the Resource deck face up at the start of the game laying them out in a row across the top of the Play Mat. This row of six cards forms the Resource Exchange from which players may buy the cards present.

Next, you deal out one Secret Faction card to each player face down. Finally, you randomly select and deal out a number of Director cards equal to the number of players into the center of the table face up. Players decide which player will go first and then chooses one of the Director cards. Play proceeds to the left until each player has chosen a Director. Each player then places the Director counter matching his Director’s card in the Stage Advancement 0 box on the Play Mat. The Player Mat serves as the focus of the game where much of the games actions take place.

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Winning the Game

The game can end in one of two ways. First, If an Atomic Bomb is created by any player at any point, the game ends immediately. Or, If no player has made an Atomic or Dirty Bomb by the time the Soviets get to Berlin, then the game also ends. In either case, players now reveal their Secret Faction cards and add up all the Victory Points (VPs) received for the conditions listed on the card that they meet. Count up each player’s earned VPs for their Faction as above; the player with the most VPs is the game’s winner. While an Atomic Bomb maker may imagine he has clearly won, each Faction’s true goals, and the other players’ VP totals towards those, may give someone else the win. So, even at the end, there is a twist that can spell defeat.

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Example of Play

(Taken from the Die Atombombe rules and used with the kind permission of the Against the Odds staff.)

The following is the Example of Play that is included with the rules in ATO 50 and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Against the Odds publisher and editors. The 4 gamers have chosen to play the Basic game this time and so will follow the green arrow pathways on the Playmat.

It is the seventh turn of the game and the Individual Player Action Phase is about to start. The Soviets have been on a roll throughout the game and had, at the beginning of the turn, drawn a Feint card followed by a Blitz card (for a 300 mile advance altogether) and are now at Warsaw, just 200 miles from Berlin. Eight Enemy Action cards have been revealed so far in total. Each player’s maximum hand size is now 6 and Black Market items cost 9 IPs each. Earlier Allied bombing has permanently wrecked two of the Resource card slots and the Resource Exchange now holds only 4 cards, Ample Electric power (06), Heavy Water Distillery (07), Uranium Samples (10), and an Engineering Team (12).

Player 1’s Faction is the Heerswaffen-amt (HWA) and his Director is Baron von Ardenne. His play has been awesome (and lucky) to date, and through astute play, wheeling—dealing with others, and shopping on the Black Market, his Director’s counter is already at Stage 3 (Uranium Engine). He currently has the highest stash of 17 IPs but also has the lowest Initiative marker as a result (#4). He has Scientists Heinz Pose (04), Walter Gerlach (06) and Franz Houtermans (25) in Ready Mode in his Control Zone, along with Resource cards Thermal Diffusion Tubes (13), Uranium Deposits (14) and Advance Research Institute (19). The player chose to Drain his Uranium Deposits (14) card as a result of the Soviet Blitz card at the start of the turn. In his hand are Intrigue cards Spy (43), Early Successes (49), and Spoils of War cards 27, 28, 30 and 31. His current VP total is 30 (+10 for building a Crude Atomic Pile, and +20 for creating a Uranium Engine). Player 1 can also gain VPs for each Tech icon he possesses at game end.

Player 2’s Faction is the Post Office and his Director is Doctor Klaus Clusis. His successes have been few so far and his Director’s counter is only at Stage 1 (has a Nuclear Theory). He currently has the second lowest amount of IPs at 10 but also has the second lowest Initiative marker as a result (#2). He has Scientists Karl Wirtz (02) and Walter Herrmann (12) in Ready Mode in his Control Zone, along with Resource cards Heavy Water Samples (02), Advanced Cyclotron (03) and Centrifuges (18). The Advanced Cyclotron (03) card is presently Drained due to the earlier Soviet Blitz. In his hand are Intrigue cards Spoils of War (33), Lab Accident (36), Mistaken Calculations (38), and Drafted (42) plus Scientist cards Siegfried Flugge (13) and Walter Bothe (17). His current VP total is just 5 (he has a Nuclear Theory too) but has great potential to score VPs if he can help end the game early and count the remaining unused 12 Enemy Action cards at 4 VPs each.

Player 3’s Faction is the Reichs- forschungsrat and his Director is Doctor Hans Kopfermann. He made early gains and his Director’s counter is currently at Stage 2 (has a Crude Atomic Pile), but was found to been holding the Moral Qualms card the previous turn by Player 1 who promptly denounced him. As a result, he has lost all his IPs, Scientists, and Resource cards that were in his Control Zone and hand. He now just has the 6 cards in his hand drawn at the start of the turn and the 7 IPs he received at start of this turn. He also however, now has the lowest Initiative marker as a result (#1). The cards in his hand consist of Intrigue cards Spoils of War (26), More Pressing War Work (51), and Influential Lecture (53) with Scientist cards Erich Bagge (22), J. Hans D. Jensen (23) and Hans Suess (24). His current VP total is also just 5 (for coming up with a Nuclear Theory, his faction gets nothing for creating his Crude Atomic Pile). Revenge burns high in his heart and he may seek to prevent his now nemesis, Player 1 from succeeding any further.

Player 4’s Faction is Reichsindustrie and his Director is Prof. Otto Hahn. His successes too have been modest so far and his Director’s counter is also only at Stage 1 (has a Nuclear Theory). He currently has second highest amount of IPs at 12 but then also has the second highest Initiative marker as a result (#3). He has Scientists Wilhelm Groth (14) and Hans Gieger (18) in Ready Mode in his Control Zone. In addition, he has Resource cards Uranium Mine (11), Ultra Centrifuge (15) and Refined Uranium (17) in his Control Zone. The Refined Uranium (17) card is currently Drained, a result of the Soviet Blitz card earlier. In his hand are Intrigue cards Spoils of War (35), Good Party Connections (50) and Pursue a False Trail (52) plus Scientist cards Freidrich Bopp (09), Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (14) and Abraham Esau (15). His current VP total is also just 5 (for coming up with his Nuclear Theory) but he has great potential to score VPs by amassing Uranium icons at the game end. (Astute players may notice his unusual interest in Uranium just by glancing at the cards showing in his Control Zone).

Round 1:

Play begins with the Individual Action Phase. Player 3 holds Initiative Marker

#1 and goes first. Noticing how close the Russians are to Berlin, and still seething over being denounced as a traitor to the Reich, he elects to use the Intrigue Action and plays the More Pressing War Work (costs 1 IP) card against Player 1 specifically. Player 1 now knows he cannot draw any cards to replenish his hand next turn. Player 3 now has 6 IPs left.

Player 2 holds Initiative Marker #2 and goes next. Realizing he needs more brainpower to improve the chances of advancing to Stage 2, he chooses the Recruit Action and move Scientist card 17 (Walter Bothe) from his hand to his Control Zone in Ready mode at a cost of 3 IPs, leaving Player 2 with 7 IPs left.

Player 4 holds Initiative Marker #3 and goes next. Feeling that Berlin may be overrun the next turn and that the chance of a Bomb being built is remote with the game then decided on VP totals, he decides to beef up his Uranium icon supply via a Buy Action and purchases the Uranium Samples card (12) from the Resource Exchange for 3 IPs and places it in his Control Zone in Ready mode. Player 4 now has 9 IPs left.

Player 1 goes last. He has some difficult choices to make. He appears to be ahead on VPs. The Russians are close to Berlin, and Player 3 isn’t being a good party comrade. Should he try for a quickie Dirty Bomb now which the rules now permit (but which also gets his faction no VPs), or build for the future and try to make a real Atomic Bomb later? Annoyed that Player 3 is picking on him, he decides to undertake an Intrigue Action and plays his Spy (43) card against Player 3. He does so by paying 1 IP, reveals the Spy card, and randomly draws the Spoils of War (26) card from Player’s 3 hand, adding its 1 Heavy Water icon and 1D6 to his own hand. Excellent! Just what he is lacking. The Spy card is discarded. Player 1 now has 16 IPs.

Round 2:

Play begins again the Individual Action Phase. Player 3 still holds Initiative Marker #1 and goes first. Again he elects to use the Intrigue Action and plays his Influential Lecture (53) card at a cost of 2 IPs against all the players (protesting loudly and disingenuously, “I wish I could just use it against Player 1.”) Each of the other three players rolls a die and subtracts 2. Assume Player 3 collects 1, 2 and 3 IPs from Players 1, 2 and 4 respectively. Player 3 now has 10 IPs.

Player 2 still holds Initiative Marker #2 and goes next. He now only has 5 IPs left and realizes he also needs more Heavy Water icons to advance. He decides to beef up his Heavy Water icon supply and chooses a Buy Action and selects the Heavy Water Distillery (12) card from the Resource Exchange for 2 IPs and places it in his Control Zone in Ready Mode. Player 2 now only has 3 IPs left. Player 4 goes next. Now somewhat nervous about Player’s 1 prospects, he choose the Intrigue Action to play two Intrigue cards from his hand. The first is Good Party Connections (50) which costs 2 IPs. His three dice rolls are 3, 5 and 6. He collects 6 IPs from the neutral cache. He then plays Pursue a False Trail (52) against Player 1 but being cheap, expends 0 IPs on it, so Player 1 only loses 1D6 on his next Research Action roll. Player 4 now has 10 IPs left.

Player 1, down to 15 IPs and feeling beleaguered, but sure he is currently ahead on VPs so it’s wise to end the game now, announces he is undertaking a Research Action to try and create a Dirty Bomb. For the Basic game, he needs 3 Tech, 3 Heavy Water and 2 Uranium icons to try. He then also has to roll 40 or better with the dice. His Director and 3 Scientists in Ready Mode provide 6 dice plus 6. His current Icon count is 3 Tech and 2 Uranium icons for his two Resource Cards 13 and 19 in Ready Mode (the already Drained Resource card 14 from the Soviet Blitz in his Control Zone cannot be used). From his hand he deploys Intrigue cards 26, 31 and 49 (costs 6 IPs between them) which adds 3 more dice and a Heavy Water icon. He then goes to the Black Market and buys another Heavy Water icon with his remaining 9 IPs. Still one Heavy Water icon short, he looks around the table and asks if anyone wants to help. Player 3 says “No way, in fact I’ll interfere with your efforts by spending 3 IPs so you lose a die.” Player 3 feels Player 1 must secretly be controlled by the SS or Reichforschungsrat faction (who benefit from having a Dirty Bomb) and then also publicly expends 3 IPs to hinder Player 1’s work resulting in another lost die. Player 2 says “Your chances of success are low, but I’ll help and Drain my Heavy Water Distillery with its one Heavy Water icon for you and also spend my last 3 IPs to gain you a die roll. However, if you don’t succeed, you have to agree help me in my next Research Action attempt AND buy me a beer after the game either way.” Player 1 agrees. The new calculation is 9 dice + 6 for Player 1, + 1 die for Player 2’s help, -2 dice for Player 3 and 4’s interference, and another -1 die for the Pursue a False Trail (52) card still in effect on Player 1. So the new total is 7 dice plus 6. Player 1 now Drains all his cards being used in the attempt. The odds are against Player 1 but amazingly he rolls a 34 with the 7 dice and adds 6 for a narrow success score of 40! The Dirty Bomb program has worked. Player 1 moves his Director counter into the Stage Advancement 4 box on the Play Mat. The game ends and all card play is frozen. Players now tally up their VPs but cannot claim any VPs for cards that are currently Drained.

Player 3 as the Reichforschungsrat comes off poorly with just 5 VPs overall. Player 1 as the Heereswaffenamt has 30 VPs for his various Stage Advancement successes as noted before but cannot claim any VPs for the 3 Technical icons on the Drained cards in his Control Zone. Player 1 can claim 5 VPs each for the two Tech icons on cards 27 and 30 still in his hand at game end for an overall total of 40. Player 4 as the Reichsindustrie, while not advancing very far in his nuclear program (only 5 VPs for having a Theory), managed to amass an amazing amount of Uranium icons (8) on the cards still in Ready Mode in his Control Zone and in his hand for a VP total then of 45. Player 2 as the Post office gets 5 VPs as noted before for his small success (he too has a Theory) but also claims another 48 points for a short war (as there are still 12 unplayed Enemy Action cards) for a total of 53. Player 2 wins (and collects his beer after the game).

Summary

I hope you can see from the magazine articles and the game included with this 50th Anniversary Issue, that the Germans were chaotic in their approach to building the atomic bomb. The United States on the other hand, had unlimited resources, a unified team and a unified direction from the top that was able to push the United States to complete the Atomic Bomb first. The game, illustrates how Germany had no concentrated effort and was chaotic in their approach. Overall, I believe that the Die Atombombe Card Driven Game correctly shows the German chaotic approach to this war effort.

This 50th issue of the Against the Odds magazine can be purchased directly from

Against the Odds (atomagazine.com)

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