On to Berlin!

I got a chance to play a near final copy of MMP's On to Berlin at Winter Offensive. An easy to learn game, the rules are only 16 pages with numerous examples. A teach of the game only took about 20 minutes and we rarely had to consult the rules once the game started.

The game is card driven, but you get to do the event and the operation points, the only restriction being you can't do some points, play the event and then finish the points. The game has a tech tree of sorts in that your starting events all have 2 operation points, but through play of the development event you can get events with 3 operation points and finally 4 operation points. Most of the level 3 and 4 events are the same events as in the your starting deck, but there are a few unique ones such as Strategic Bombing. The advantage of the 3 level event is not only it has 3 operation points, but you can now have two of those events in your hand. The German player, I was the Allies, when he got his level 2, 3, and 4 Blitzkrieg events was a terror.

The number of cards you get at the start of each turn is based on the number of resource areas you control. You then go through your deck and select that number of cards for the turn.

Neutral powers are brought into the war via the play of Diplomacy event. Some of the larger powers require a multi-turn process to bring into the war such a Spain, Turkey, USSR and USA. The game played out pretty historical, the Germans invaded Norway, Italy invaded Yugoslavia, and the Germans were at the gates of Moscow before the tide turned.

The game came down to the last turn and the remnants of the Germany army held enough areas for the victory. All in all a tight game in which you can play all of WW2 in about three hours.