It is 1939.

Colonial imperialism is in its last throes, yet Germany still wants her place in the sun. Japanese and German imperial desires unite them in a common goal and against anyone who dares stand in their way. Italy joins their ranks having felt slighted from the treaty of Versailles and the world is plunged into War and Chaos with the Allied forces uniting to stop the Axis forces. Now you must unite your forces and conquer the world!

The game-play within continental land areas is standard D6 versus D6 and D5 versus D6 from land to City, so when it comes time to cross a water body or take cities, it would be wise to utilize bombers from your cities to soften the landing points and entries! Water bodies have NO defense, so you're free to enter them, but to land on the beach, or take a city from sea, is a daunting task! Bomb up to three spaces away from your city with standard D6 versus D6 then cross the ocean to storm the beaches D4 versus D6, or cross to take your opponents city D3 versus D6. Make sure you send enough to hold it, because if you get pushed off the continent then you have to do it all over again! Also, keep in mind that Islands are not connected and must be attacked from ocean spaces. So, Oceania and Japan, in particular, require a lot of Island hoping in your conquest of them. This might make them a bit of a task to take, but, once taken, also offers the defensive advantages of water to land/city defense.

Return to attack and return to placement are on, and 3 in-turn fortifies are given, so move your troops around at your discretion and strategize your attacks, but don't let any troops be caught out at sea or they will be completely lost when all water bodies revert to neutral at the end of your turn!

SCOUTS!

This is before the time of satellites, so information is at a premium. It is set to total fog, but it is not actually total fog. You'll have ground reconnaissance (scouts) for every territory held who gather information regarding the surrounding territories and report back to you at the beginning of your turn. So you will be able to see everything around you at the beginning of your turn like it were medium fog, but, once you break through what your scouts have told you at the beginning of your turn, everything behind that is a mystery to be discovered upon attacking it. When crossing the oceans you will be blind to the other side so mobilize your air force to bomb from your cities so that you know where you are going before you get there. Once there, then if you can make it to your next turn and still be dug in on the other side, then your scouts will have been able to gather you some new information and you'll now be able to see what you're dealing with!

SPIES!

If attacked in territories that you have held (did not just capture), you will have built up support in the communities and retain spies who are still sympathetic to your cause. Even though they are now behind enemy lines, they will report back to you information about the territory that you lost and their surrounding environs. Valuable information to mount their liberation! If successful in liberating any of those supportive territories, you do not even have to hold onto them. Just by retaining your presence there and marching your armies through, your spies will live on and continue to provide you with information. Fail to liberate them, however, and your spies, having now lost your support, will either have been killed by the new occupying force, or will have lost confidence in you and will withdraw their assistance... You will now be blind there until you can once again take AND HOLD that territory to build up their confidence again.

TECHNOLOGY!

As you gain more power and cities, you will also begin to benefit from your scientists busily working away at the research facilities in your bigger cities. For research into flight you will gain R&D points at a scale of two less then the city bonus.

As your R&D points pile up you'll first be able to advance your knowledge of flight and achieve long range flight. Long range flight will allow you to airlift your troops between cities via fortification, such that your fortifications will now be to any connected territory connected by all of your cities! After you have mastered long range flight, your scientist will then bring to you theknowledge of Long Rang Heavy Bombers whereby your R&D points will directly translate into being ableto bomb any city on the board at D7 versus D6!

NUKES!

After both long range flight and long range heavy bombers are achieved, then the race for nuclear supremacy is on. For research into Nuclear bombs you will gain nuclear R&D points at a scale of three less then the city bonus, so, only very few select cities have the know-how of how to bring you "the bomb"!

As your Nuclear R&D points build up you will be given the opportunity, whenever you like, to try and put them to use. Unfortunately due to shortages in enriched uranium and heavy water, it is a limited resource to utilize and your nuclera R&R points do cap out at 25. As your nuclear points build up, you'll also need to decide when the best time is to utilize them as you'll first have to build your nukes at the cost of passing your Nuclear R&D points through 10 neutrals. Once through the neutral "cost", however, whtever reamins will be able to Nuke any city in the world D9 versus D6.

AERIAL RECONISSANCE! (If desired - change fog to heavy or medium)

Fog override is on, if you please, but if you choose to increase the technology level, suddenly air reconnaissance from your cities will light up a lot of the map, even if only on heavy or medium setting you'll know a lot more about your opposition's position, and they yours! At the medium level, your reconnaissance scouts have been replaced by aerial reconnaissance and even when moving forward in your attacks new ground will open up to you in ownership and strength. At the heavy level your scouts will still report to you the strength of the opponents adjacent to the territories you hold at the beginning of your turn, but once breaking through that your aerial support will only be reporting who owns subsequent territory, but not the strength of their forces there until you attack it. No matter if utilizing medium or heavy, however, your spies will still perform their duties admirably and report to you from behind enemy lines in the form of both who has taken ownership and what their numbers are. So feel free to adjust the fog setting to your liking and to the effect you desire, but for the purposes of how this board has been designed, the Scouts & Spies effect is best and most prominent with Total Fog! Make use of the information provided and remember, loose lips sink ships!

COLONIAL BONUSES

Even though colonialism is on its last legs, some bonds still exist. If the entire UK is held (Ireland, Scotland and England, plus London), then India and South Africa are still in your favour and will pay you an extra troop for holding either of them in conjunction with the UK & London. Even though Greenland falls geographically into North America, politically it is tied to Denmark. Hold both Denmark and Greenland and you'll be rewarded with an extra troop to deploy. Finally, Russia exerts their own brand of Soviet Imperialism over Mongolia. Hold ALL of the USSR and Mongolia and you'll be rewarded with three additional troops to contribute to your spread of Communism!

PACIFIC ATTACK LANES

The Pacific ocean is a big place! To combat it's size there are a variety of jumping points in the form of two Antarctic stations, one Arctic station and the USS Lexington in the middle. All of these have their own bonus and abide by the same rules as cities. The Antarctic stations together, however, confer an extra bonus of 1 and holding all 4 adds an additional bonus of 3, for a total of 4 (including the 1 for holding both Antarctic stations) These along with Hawaii and the reach of Tokyo, Canberra, San Francisco, Lima, Panama City, amongst others, present a variety of ways to cross the pacific and attack from one side of the map to the other.

NOTES

You may have noticed the WarGear generated board stats erroneously indicating that you will receive 1 unit for every 10 territories held, and that the numbers tallied in your stats section will look inflated (Premium Members) yet be assured you are receiving approximately 1 bonus unit for every 5 territories.

In order to approximate the desired 1 per 5 territory setting, a 1 bonus per 10 territories had to be entered into the game designer. This is because hidden territories known to us designer types as "factories" were created to be the scouts and spies for each non-ocean territory, and unfortunately those factories count as territories as far as the per territory bonus system is concerned.

Refer to the bonus guide on the lower left corner of the board to see Continental bonuses. For the general rules and Colonial bonuses, look to the description written in the middle bottom of the board. To see the name and bonus value for a city, hover over it with your pointer, but if playing from your phone you might have to consult the description here:

Antarctica station 1 +1 Antarctica station 2 +1 Arctic station +1

Athens +2 Bangkok +2 Barcelona +2

Basrah +3 Beijing +4 Berlin +5

Bissau +2 Buenos Aires +2 Cairo +4

Calcutta +2 Calgary +2 Canberra +3

Cape Town +2 Caracas +2 Chicago +3

Dallas +2 Darwin +2 Delhi +4

Dushanbe +2 Hong Kong +4 Igarka +2

Irkutsk +3 Istanbul +3 Jakarta +3

Juba +2 Lagos +3 Lanzhou +2

Lhasa +2 Lima +3 London +5

Lusaka +3 Magadan +2 Manila +2

Maraba +2 Mexico City +3 Miami +2

Mombasa +3 Moscow +4 N'Djamena +2

Nar'yan Mar +2 New York +5 Omsk +2

Oslo +2 Panama City +3 Paris +3

Perth +2 Pointe-Noire +2 Porto +2

Quebec City +2 Rabat +2 Reykjavik +2

Rio Branco +2 Rio De Janeiro +3 Rome +3

Salalah +2 Salt Lake City +2 San Diego +4

San Francisco +3 Seoul +2 Shanghai +3

St. Petersburg +3 Stalingrad +2 Tehran +2

Tokyo +5 Toronto +3 Tripoli +3

USS Lexington +2 Vancouver +3 Vladivostok +2

Vyatka +2 Waikiki +3 Warsaw +2

Washington D.C. +5 Wellington +2

Keep calm and carry on!