World at War 96 The german navy's War Plan Z

War Plan Z assumes that Adolf Hitler did not cancel the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) expansion program in 1939. World War II in Europe did not begin in September of that year. Instead, Hitler waited until War Plan Z was completed (in stages). The game is a two-player strategic simulation of the hypothetical naval campaigns that would ensue between the Germans and the Allies in the 1940s. One of the game's assumptions is that, with Germany focusing on building up its navy, there would be no campaign in the West, and France would therefore remain an Allied power. Germany and the USSR still divided Poland, and an uneasy peace still prevailed on the Eastern Front.

The game system presents the effects of various operations. Players perform actions that encompass combat, logistics, intelligence, and other operations. A player can perform one or more actions per turn, depending on base control.

Each map area is approximately 880 kilometers wide. Each turn represents one month of operations. Naval units represent two fleet carriers, divisions of two or three battleships, four to eight cruisers, flotillas of 19 to 40 destroyers, or various other types of ships. Most of the game's land units represent corps or divisions. Air units represent six to twelve squadrons of aircraft.

22 x 34-inch game map and one sheet of 228 9/16-inch counters.

Design by Joseph Miranda