Downfall: Conquest of the Third Reich Preview 3 — The Soviet Offensive Continues, by Bob Heinzmann and John Butterfield Find sources: "Downfall"game– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( March 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) As a whole Downfall is a pretty simple game. The rules take minutes to read and about the same amount of time to explain to new players. The game has a recommended age of 7+. I think children under the age of seven could play the game as they shouldn’t have any trouble understanding the rules. I think the age of 7+ is due to younger children not understanding the strategy behind the game. The game falls into two halves: before and after the eruption of Vesuvius. Before the eruption, players play cards to place their pieces in buildings. After the first eruption, they can also place as many relatives as the number of pieces already in the building they placed their piece in. When Omen cards are drawn, the player can take any opponent’s piece and throw it into the erupting volcano. In this manner, players try to get as many pieces onto the board as close to the exits from the city as possible.

What initially drew me to Downfall is the idea behind the game seemed unique and something that I had not seen in other games that I have played. I don’t think I have ever played a game before where you use gears/wheels to move discs from the start to the finish. The game’s premise is probably the game’s greatest strength. The idea of two players/teams playing against one another without knowing anything about the other player’s/team’s gameboard layout is an interesting idea. Any move you make could end up helping your opponent as much as it helps you. For your first couple of games it will be impossible to tell where the other player’s discs are on a particular dial. Since both sides are not lined up with one another there is no way to tell where a disc is positioned on the other player’s side of the gameboard. The only way to know where the discs are located is to play the game often enough that you have memorized the differences between the two sides of the gameboard. Even if you have memorized both sides of the gameboard you could still have a hard time remembering all of the locations of the discs. Basically if you don’t play the game frequently enough to memorize the other side of the board, Downfall becomes a guessing game. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it may drive people nuts who want more control over the outcome of the game. A 3 player game about to begin. Two players are set up and ready while the third (top left) decides how they want to place their starting pieces.

Review Summary

On top of contending with the omnipresent radiation, players have to find enough food to feed their survivors, and stone, oil, and metal to fight the radiation, build shelters and units, and research new technologies. Resources can be hard to come by, and it can be difficult to feed all of your people (and it gets progressively harder as the game moves forward) so the game really feels like a struggle for survival in a deadly world, even when you don't take the other players into account.

Downfall: Conquest of the Third Reich Preview 4 — Action Rounds Continue, by Bob Heinzmann and John Butterfield Thematically this game is an absolute winner. So if you are a fan of post-apocalyptic dread, you don't mind the likelihood that the board won't offer perfect balance to each player, and you like 4X games but don't often have 4+ hours to spend playing them then Downfall just might be your irradiated cup of tea. Downfall is a two-player game for players aged 7 and older, first marketed by the Milton Bradley Company in 1970.The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. The copy of Downfall used for this review was provided by Tasty Minstrel Games . Where's the score? Downfall is what I would call a casual game. You can put some thought into the game but it isn’t a brain burner. It is probably best when you just play it and see who ends up winning the game. I had some fun with the game and it would be something I would play occasionally if someone else wanted to play the game. Downfall does have some problems though. The bottom line: Downfall is a 4X game that is more about surviving than conquering. While you can fight with other players your biggest enemy every game is the harsh irradiated post-nuclear-war world that you are all struggling to survive in. The card drafting mechanics are fun, turns are generally brisk, and the set play time means that Downfall is easier to get to the table than most other popular 4x games, but if you are looking for a deep political system, balanced starting positions, and a large amount of asymmetry between factions you won't find them here. Downfall takes a few plays to get a feel for, but if you have a solid group who can learn the game together there is a lot of replayability built into this game.