by Aaron Danis, 18 August 2022 ~ #UnboxingDay
Breslau 1945 is a moderate redesign and republishing of Perry Moore’s original 2005 game of the same title, this time for Against the Odds magazine #56, which was distributed in July 2022 in a ziplock bag. Board Game Geek only lists three games on this battle (if you count this and Moore’s original version as separate games), so this is a rarely covered battle. Of note, this battle occurred in the last months of the war, and the Germans did not surrender the city of Breslau until nearly a week after Berlin surrendered and Hitler was dead.Needless to say, the Soviets were not amused.
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This game covers the battle at the Grand Tactical level (mostly companies/battalions for the Germans, regiments for the Russians), with lots of chewy tactical chrome. The 347 game counters are a major quality upgrade over the original game (there are 3 variant counters for two other games included, and two blanks). They are easy to read with big combat and movement factors. The counters run on the thinner side, but fortunately don’t just fall out of the two counter frames.
The map is well-done, with BIG hexes that can easily hold the playing pieces. It has the turn record track and a holding box for Soviet air units. The Terrain Effects Chart and Combat Results Table are on the back page of the rules so I recommend that you print it onto card stock paper from the full-color rulebook PDF available here.
As one would expect from an end-of the Nazi Reich East Front game, there are three Special Rules (ohhh, German Goliath remote-controlled AFV bombs!) and lots of Optional Rules (including German Tabun nerve gas from a local chemical weapons plant and Soviet pontoon bridges). Did I mention the German Armored Train? Just when I thought there wasn’t much new of interest in WWII Russian Front games, I am happily proven wrong. I can’t wait to get this on the table and report back!
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