I just got the new 3rd Reich yesterday. It looks f*ing awesome! I've always hated the 3rd Reich system. I wasn't expecting much when I bought it. I just figured I would support the hobby, see what's new and fill out my collection on my favorite game topic: Strategic WWII. I was pretty surprised. They have done an excellent job of reworking this design. It looks like they have gotten rid of all the things I've hated about 3rd Reich. I've only done a quick survey and skim of the rules. So far I like what I see. Here is a quick overview: Things I hate about the old 3rd Reich system that they fixed or got rid of: Stupid Front rules and partition lines. Hurrah! Bizaar armored exploitation chains that go on forever in impossible and weird configurations. No HQ's or CnC CRT's and combat tables (I hate calculating and looking up stuff) Abstracted SW (I have x Sub points for the year against your y ASW points, so you loose z BRP's. What fun is that? I want to fly my bombers over your country, fight past your interceptors and bomb you. Simple, makes more sense and it is fun! Cheap, one sided, generic counters that have to be flipped on occasion. Yuck! Blacked out Switzerland hexes. Come on! The rules have been simplified greatly and streamlined: a mere 27 pages w/ big easy to read print. The old A3R was 63 pages of fine print plus the Appendices with 30-35 pages. The new edition does have a Scenario book of 27 pages of setup info and a 4 page explanation of Political Markers. There is a Barbarossa, France 40 and a campaign scenario. There is also a 38 scenario w/ Czech units. Very cool! After skimming through half of the rules last night for about 15min I think I am about ready to set up my first run through. That is refreshing. Beautiful full color counters. Most of them are double sided for 2 step units. The Map is hard mounted and very colorful. Might be a bit too colorful with the counters on it. I'll have to see. There are regular Surface Fleet units, CVs, Subs and LC's (Landing Craft) for naval units. They have both TAC and SAC air units. I've never cared for the BRP system. That is pretty much the same. They do tie BRP's to individual Cities/Objective hexes though. So, as the Germans invade Russia and take cities, the Russian production falls and the German production goes up. I can live with that. Very cool CnC/HQ system. To move and fight, units have to be within 4 hexes of an activated HQ. At the beginning of the turn, players can buy corresponding activation chits for their HQ's. These go into a cup and are pulled randomly. When your chit is pulled, that HQ can command movement and combat. You keep pulling chits until a die roll randomly ends the turn. Combat looks real simple. In most cases you roll 1 die for each combat factor you have. Hits are scored on 6, a la Columbia Games. This can be modified by different things. It seems to pretty much work the same for land combat, air combat, naval combat, Strategic Bombing, Convoy Raiding etc. Different hit numbers and mods, but the same concept. I really hated using different tables and systems for different types of combat. Armor still looks like the only units w/ ZOC. Exploitation seems more "normal". Looks like Armor can move into advanced into hexes and beyond up to 3 hexes. Then they get to attack and advance again. (w/ air in some cases) There is some limitation on exploiting into hexes adjacent to enemy units. I'm not sure how this will play out exactly w/ the counter density and time line yet. At first glance it looks much better than the old system. Supply sources seem to be mostly home nation cities. Unsupplied units get flipped to their reduced side. If already reduced they are eliminated and here is the nasty part: Permanently! That's right, they are not returned to the force pool, they are removed from the game. Ouch. I'm not sure how this is going to play out. Could be too nasty. Naval things have changed alot. It is a little hard to envision w/o playing it through. No more hex based naval. (I did kind of like that system in the old edition) Naval moves by sea areas. Players can move into a control box or a raider box in each sea area. Naval battles start if both sides have units in the control box. If both sides last for 3 rounds of combat, then they stay out there and can trace supply though to the sea and intercept enemy moves through that sea area. Looks like the Axis can attack convoys by moving subs or ships into any raider box. Now you can actually fight out the battle of the Atlantic like in Wif. I'm not exactly sure how this is going to impact things in the Med. There are so many changes it is hard to piece it all together at once. I'll let you know more after I play it. There is a simple political system. You can spend BRP's to influence minors toward you to different effects. There are also random political event type markers that are pulled: Molotov/Ribbentrop, Why die for Danzig?, Mussoulini always right, Coups, Partisans, Pear Harbor, Hitler killed, Jets, Abombs, V Weapons, etc. Again, the theme seems to be simple fast and fun. So far, I think it is the best 3rd Reich yet. Hey, you guys at Avalanche should do a new version of Squad Leader and Rising Sun too if your going to do them like this!