Whether one has noticed or not, the pace of my wargaming posts on this blog slowed down over the past few weeks. There are a few reasons, like the always dependable Real LifeTM intervening, as well as moving to a new job at the same time federal workers around me get a Return to Work mandate (as an aside I have absolutely no sympathy for any of them because my post-COVID back to work full time started in late-2021). Another reason that surprised me a bit is the game currently on my table, Downfall: Conquest of the Third Reich – 2nd Printing designed by Chad Jensen and John Butterfield (GMT Game, 2022) is taking longer to play than I expected. Given I am using a review copy graciously provided by GMT Games to the Armchair Dragoons I am going to have my full comments posted there when complete. Getting to complete, however, has turned into more of a slog than I expected.
After reading the rulebook and setting up Downfall (the eight-turn Campaign Game) I expected to quickly run through the game. Yes, the box back said, “Playing Time 6-12 hours” but that’s always an overinflation, yes? Further, the rules for Downfall are kinda simple (44 pages with plenty of illustrations and examples of play) and the counter density (351 total counters of which many are markers) is rather small. That by itself should portend an easy, quick-to-play wargame, right?
Not this time! [No pun intended.]
In terms of game mechanisms a turn in Downfall is fairly straight forward. The game is, “played in continuous action rounds, each conducted by the faction with the initiative.” Per the rules an Action Round has six steps, some of which, “may be interrupted by play of situational action cards, when the situation on the card applies.” The six steps are:
- “Update weather, if necessary”
- “Fill the action track, if necessary”
- “Pick and place an order marker”
- “Pay the order’s initiative cost”
- “Perform the order”
- Resolve events, if any” (6. Action Rounds, Rulebook, p. 19)
Looking closely at the Action Round of Downfall, one should notice that three of the six steps do not necessarily occur in a given Action Round. One would think that this means the game speeds up. That is what I thought at first after reading the rulebook. In reality, however, it is the position of the weather marker on the Initiative Track that is most important to moving the game along.
As noted above, the faction’s position on the Initiative Track determines the order the Action Rounds occur in Downfall. Different orders cost different Initiative which moves the various faction markers and the weather marker along the Initiative Track. A new turn begins when the weather marker moves beyond Space 91 of the Initiative Track.
In practice, I find it takes me 60-90 minutes to play each turn in Downfall. For an eight-turn Campaign Game this puts my total play time close to 12 hours. In reality my first play took much more than 12 hours as I basically reset the game after the first turn given the amount of rules learning mistakes made on my first run-through and then played slowly for the first several turns as I learned—and became comfortable with—the rules. Finally, as I do not get to play my wargames in large, chunky blocks of time, the 12 or so hours was spread out over a bit more than a week.
I will say it once again; the rules for Downfall are not hard nor complex. The game mechanisms are relatively clean and easy to understand. So why is it taking so much time for me to play a turn?
Analysis paralysis…in a good way.
Downfall is a two-player game (Western versus Soviet players) with each player controlling two factions. The Western player controls the Western factions (US, UK, Commonwealth) and the OKH faction (German and minor Axis armies facing the Soviet Union in eastern Europe and Russia). The Soviet player controls the Soviets and the OKW faction (German and Italian armies facing the Western allies in western Europe and the Mediterranean).
All of which means Downfall places a very interesting cognitive load on players. While the rules for Downfall are not complex and thus do not weigh heavily on that cognitive load, the fact the players have a “split-personalty” weighs heavily. Add to that load a game where strategy is not as straight -forward as one might expect in a wargame. For the Soviet player the game starts in 1942 as the OKH offensive has culminated. How does the Soviet player start, and sustain, a counteroffensive? For the Western player North Africa is basically a finished thing so how do you win the Battle of the Atlantic, the fight for the Mediterranean, and threaten invasion of Europe?
To use a boardgaming expression, Downfall is a rather thinky wargame. The question I am still struggling to answer comes down to, “Is all the thinkiness in Downfall, which takes time to play, worth it?”
That looks to be the question I will try to answer for Regimental Commander Brant and the readers of the Armchair Dragoons. That is, as soon I can get my thoughts written down and cleared up.
Feature image courtesy RMN
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