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Strategy Game Studio / Avalon Digital · 1 Sept 2023
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The very first Blitzkrieg campaign of WW2 is covered by this game on a daily basis. And you can also explore alternative situations of different war starts, with the ‘What-if’ scenarios. Man your tanks!
The Second World War officially began with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. "Officially", because Hitler first wanted to launch the operation on 26 August. For diplomatic reasons, the launch was postponed. But not all the special units responsible for actions behind the Polish lines received the counter-order in time, leading to various clashes. SGS Fall Weiss (White Plan in German, the code name for the operation) covered the Polish campaign between September and October 1939.
The German forces appeared to be fast, brutal and unstoppable, thanks to a concept that was quickly described as "blitzkrieg". In reality, the name "blitzkrieg" was coined by Western journalists and was not, strictly speaking, a concept constructed as such. The Germans don't even use the word "blitzkrieg". It was in fact a judicious exploitation of technical advances in the field of motorisation of radio resources, combined with the use of tanks to apply ideas developed by several military thinkers over the last two decades.
SGS Fall Weiss is a turn-based game. Each turn corresponds to two days of real time, for a campaign scenario that spans 19 turns (plus a "pre-turn" that lets you choose the options that will apply afterwards). The units, represented by counters, are at division, brigade or regiment level, with a few battalions (or battalion-equivalent units). It is therefore an operational-scale game.
One of the aims of SGS Fall Weiss is to help players understand how the conflict unfolded, as in an interactive history book. It gives you the chance to manoeuvre the units that clashed in Poland in September and up to October 1939, including the Slovakian and Soviet invasions (with units from the countries concerned). The player has at his disposal armoured, motorised, cavalry, infantry and artillery units, as well as armoured trains and river flotillas for the Poles. The respective air forces are also present.
To ensure rapid success while limiting losses, the attacking player must make balanced use of air support, armoured units, artillery and regular infantry, taking into account the effects of the terrain (woods, forests, rivers, etc.). He also has to deal with the cards in his hand, which simulate perfectly successful tactical or operational actions or events with a strategic dimension: from the bonuses brought about by the increasing use of Pervitin within German units to the increase in Polish replacements induced by popular support.
The objectives are simple. The invaders had to conquer strategic objectives, starting with Warsaw and Lvov. As long as these two cities held, Poland would not surrender. The defender must inflict as many losses as possible on the attacker and hold out as long as possible, making the most of the terrain and meticulously managing reinforcements and replacements (to replenish depleted units). The longer the German player loses time and suffers losses, the more difficult it could be to launch a subsequent offensive to the west (which no-one had yet imagined at the time) on the date that history will remember (10 May 1940)...
Furthermore, by holding out for a long time and depending on events and the cards played, an Allied offensive in the West against less solid German troops (the best units being committed against Poland) could well occur, causing an automatic German defeat. The Axis forces are powerful, but they have to move very quickly (not to mention the fact that, as time passes, the Polish player will be able to set up more and more defensive positions). Historically, the great Allied offensive of 1940 that was promised to Poland a fortnight after a possible invasion never took place. But let's imagine for a moment that the German forces were in great difficulty in Poland, with an accumulation of events unfavourable to Berlin... Bad weather could also appear, favouring the defenders.
The Soviet invasion will add to the initial shock caused by the Germans. The Polish player is faced with an additional choice: anticipate this invasion and leave relatively large numbers of troops in the east. Or, on the contrary, clear the eastern border to reconstitute the units destroyed by the German invasion.
Fall Weiss contains a main campaign that covers the entire conflict. The simple rules of classic SGS apply, densified by those developed by the designer of SGS NATO's Nightmare. SGS Fall Weiss is not as complicated as SGS NATO's Nightmare, but the rules specific to this game (and to the series of German campaigns from 1940-1941) make them innovative games based on a tried and tested system.
This campaign is really two games in one. At the start of the game, the players (player against player in pbem or player against AI) are offered a historical variant and an alternative variant.
The historical variant removes many options or events that did not take place (such as an early Polish mobilisation that was not cancelled at the end of September), allowing for a game experience t
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