Blocks in the West is a simulation game covering the whole Western Front Campaign from Fall of Gelb in May 1940 till the last bullet-battle in Berlin, May 1945.
Developed on wooden blocks and cubes with an astonishing 124cm x 87cm, laminated, full color map-board. There are no paper components other than the Manual.
All the wooden, plastic components & stickers have been created by the best Italian artists in the industry and painted "Buratto", a technique usually adopted for painting car parts and accessories.
Historical Background
Early in the morning of May 10, 1940 under the code word Danzic, Fallschirmjäger from the 7th Flieger Division and 22nd Luftlande executed surprise landings at Den Haag, on the road to Rotterdam and against the Fortress of Eben Emael in order to facilitate German Army Group B's feint advance in Belgium, while the main attack was conducted by the stronger Army Group A, led by 7 panzer divisions from the Ardennes, through a terrain believed unpassable to armor units.
France and UK reacted immediately, activating the Dyle-Breda Plan, committing their best forces directly into the trap
Then in June the evacuation of Dunkirk was a partial success, but the battle for France was over with an astonishing German Victory.
Four years will pass before the Western Allies would come back to the continent and thus finally defeat Germany.
Blocks in the West is a game of World War II conflict simulation at the operational level. It recalls the most decisive battles fought on the Western Front from the battle for France in the Spring of 1940 until the dramatic end in Berlin in the Spring of 1945.
Although based on historical events and battles, the players in command of the two factions can modify the evolution of World War II on the Western Front.
The game is recommended for two, three or four players: one/two control the Western Allies and the other one/two control Germany and Italy. The game is also suitable for solitary play: the single player just controls both sides. In this case, a play with Fog of War is mandatory.
The rules are divided into three major sections which can be learned one at a time. The first section is the basic game rules which introduces the basic concepts and enables players to start playing the game without too many rules to remember. Then the advanced game rules provide more specific and detailed rules for an enhanced realism, such as the use of Fuel and the Advanced Production System. Finally, for those players who want to get the best out of the game, optional rules can be added as desired. The Optional Rules include Technology Research, Strategic warfare over German factories and U-Boot Campaign in the Atlantic Ocean, Amphibious Invasions, Parachute Assaults…
A hexagon is approximately 43 miles (72 Km) across.
A game turn is 1 month long.
A full strength counter represents a major military formation (normally a corps) of 30,000 men, 300 Tanks or 300 planes – depending on the unit type, equipment, nationality, etc...
Fog of War
The game can be played with the Fog of War on (wooden blocks are placed on the map in such a way the opponent player cannot see them) or with Fog of War off (all units are visible).
Scenarios Overview
With over 300 unit counters and 300 different resource points of various colors, players can enjoy hours of fun by playing one of the 2 Campaign (may be combined with BITE) or by playing one of the other scenarios. Each scenario has a different length (from 1 to 10 turns) and a difficulty level, rated in brackets from 1 (Very Easy) to 10 (Very Hard):
Short scenarios:
SBW1: La Gotica - April 1945-April 1945 (1)
SBW2: Ardennes ’44 -The Bulge December 1944-January 1945 (4)
SBW3: Fall Gelb – France 1940-May/June 1940 (5)
Long scenarios and Campaign:
SBW4: Operation Husky – Sicily 1943 July-September 1943(4)
SBW5: The Battle of England - July-October 1940 (4)
SBW6: Victory in the West - May-October 1940 (7)
SBW7: The last days of Mussolini - July-November 1943 (6)
SBW8: Overlord – Normandy ‘44 - June 1944-July 1944 (6)
SBW9: Short Downfall - June-November 1944 (7)
SBW10: Downfall - June 1944-May 1945 (9)
Every scenario has different victory conditions and length, with a different playing time of 1 hour for the short scenarios and 4+ hours for the long scenarios.
There is also 1 Campaign, playable in combination with BITE:
SBEW2: Downfall The Campaign - 1944-45 (10)
Components for both Editions:
Two 87x62 cm map boards (laminated)
Rules manual
1 Expansion Map
1 Scenario Journal Setup Chart
2 Player aids
40 wooden light blue blocks (France)
100 wooden black blocks (Germany)
30 wooden light green blocks (Italy)
1 wooden tan block (Turn Tracker)
45 wooden dark green blocks (US)
45 wooden blue blocks (UK)
30 wooden orange blocks (Axis Forts
20 wooden brown blocks (Minors)
45 wooden blue blocks (UK)
2 wooden orange plates (Mulberries)
318 PVC stickers (laminated) NATO EDITION
2 stickers for the Turn Tracker Token
60 wooden yellow cubes (General Production Points)
20 wooden red cubes (Armor Production Points)
20 wooden blue cubes (Air Production Points)
10 wooden white cubes (Navy Production Points)
20 plastic black cylinders (Oil Production Points)
10 plastic white cylinder ("Out-of-Supply" Markers)
10 wooden blue discs (Partisans)
20 plastic red factories
20 plastic blue factories
5 plastic black factories
5 plastic white factories
7 dice
Special Components for the Limited Boxed Edition:
1 Strategy Guide and Designer's Note
318 PVC stickers (laminated) ICON EDITION
50 Special Wooden Components
1 Black BLOCKS IN THE WEST T-SHIRT
1 deck of 12 Special Event Cards (3D, UV matted, double laminated)
14 Translucent Dice: 7 Americans (Dark Green) and 7 French (Light Blue)
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