Secret Weapons of the Third Reich

About this board game

Secret Weapons of the Third Reich is a 2015 strategy game for 1–4 players, with a playing time of about 180 minutes, that simulates the World War II arms race from the German perspective.

Beginning in 1938, each player controls one or more research groups working on secret weapon projects. Assigning a leading researcher provides an initial bonus, while that researcher’s regime loyalty affects requisition attempts and resistance to opposing efforts. Players must secure project approval, gather resources and scientists, attach required technologies, and pay the costs needed to advance development.

Approved projects generate funding in the form of resource cubes. Once completed, they award victory points and usually allow weapon production. Produced weapons provide additional points while also contributing to a shared production goal: if the players collectively fail to build enough weapons before the game ends, everyone loses.

• Develop projects ranging from V-1 buzz bombs and V-2 rockets to Haunebu flying saucers and other extraordinary designs.
• Deploy project plants across Germany, Austria, and later occupied European territories, where locations support different types of research, development, or production.
• Manage enemy bombardments, shrinking territory, lost technologies, and increasingly difficult logistics as the war progresses.

Cooperation is essential, but it is never simple. If a completed project or produced weapon falls into Allied hands, players lose victory points and the common production target moves farther away. Each player must weigh personal ambitions against the need to share technologies and resources.

Events may secretly turn one player into a turncoat, working to help the enemy from within. That hidden objective can provide a way to win even when the other players would otherwise lose, adding uncertainty to every research decision in Secret Weapons of the Third Reich.