by RockyMountainNavy, 4 July 2025
When is a wargame a war game? Given that there is no agreed upon definition of a wargame (or as the U.S. Naval War College confusingly prefers to say, “war game”) how can a player tell if they are playing a wargame or just war-themed strategy boardgame? In 2014 designers Waldek Gumienny and Jaro Andruszkiewicz through Phalanx Games posed that very question to the hobby wargaming community with 1944: Race to the Rhine. Their answer is a challenge: Let’s race!
The Phalanx website describes 1944: Race to the Rhine this way:
The game is based on the historical events of the year 1944. The players, in the roles of the Allied commanders, take part in a true race to the Rhine. Whoever reaches the river before wins the game and ends World War II before Christmas. But there is little time, since the Axis defense is getting stronger and stronger, and the window of opportunity may not be open much more. (Phalanx)
While that certainly sounds like a setting for a wargame, the focus of Race to the Rhine is not on combat but logistics (i.e. “supply” for the non-grognards). As the BoardGameGeek (BGG) overview explains:
Not enough gas, not enough ammo or not enough time. Not enough to cross the Rhine before the enemy closes all the gaps. You need to form the bridgehead before others do. That’s the only way to Victory and your personal glory.
1944 Race to the Rhine is a new game experience. You can’t win this game without proper planning. Your tanks need gas to move and ammo to fight. But don’t forget to feed your GIs. So what would be your transport priority? (BGG)
Europe in portrait or landscape?
Physically, 1944: Race to the Rhine is a very Eurogames-looking product. The game comes in a 3-inch deep square box that is roughly 12” x 12”. The mounted mapboard unfolds to a plentiful 33” x 22”; given the need for table space to lay out various game cards and supplies even playing on a 4’ x 5’ table is very tight. Then there is the matter of seating; the rulebook recommends players sit on three sides of the board. Using the recommended layout results in Montgomery and Patton on either side working their way across the game board while Bradley sits at the end and must go “up” the board.
Euro-pean war
In the introduction to Euro War Games: The history, state and future of professional (war)gaming in Europe, editors Jan Heinemann, Riccardo Masini, and Frédéric Serval identify a “new generation” of wargames that rose from German-style board games or what is more commonly called Eurogames.
All the experience gathered by Eurogames in the choice of components and visual interface, as well as efficiency of game mechanics and graphic presentation, was instantly recognized and reused by the cleverest and more open-minded wargame designers from all over the world. The fact that many of these “Euro” mechanics were themselves derived from the classic simulation games of the 1970s and 1980s made the process even simpler, leading to a new generation of wargames sometimes just easier to approach, other times encompassing more dimensions of the historical events, sometimes both. This was the age of “EuroWarGames” or for some people with no love for complex words, the “Waros”: simulation titles characterized by a great hybridization with other gaming genres, both in represented content as well in mechanics. (Heinemann, et al., p. 16)
Looking at the box cover and box back of 1944: Race to the Rhine one likely is very tempted to call the title a wargame.
The BGG entry for 1944: Race to the Rhine shows that of 40+ voters, 36.4% describe it as a Wargame. Interestingly, a greater share of users, 59.1%, call it a Strategy Game. Perhaps this is a sign that Phalanx succeeded in packaging and marketing Race to the Rhine in a way that appeals to non-grognards.
While a majority of BGG users call 1944: Race to the Rhine as a strategy game, those same users categorize the title as a World War II Transportation Wargame with multiple game mechanisms including Action Points, Dice Rolling, Movement Points, Network and Route Building, Pick-up and Deliver, Point to Point Movement, Race, Simulation, and Solo / Solitaire Game. Many of those game mechanisms are uncommon for a wargame—but often familiar to Eurogamers.
Got wood?
In the chapter “Attack of the Hybrids! Wargames and Eurogames-derived mechanics” by Riccardo Masini in the book EuroWarGames, Masini considers wooden pieces:
Another very recognizable element of hybridization between Eurogames and simulations is wooden components…In general, hybrid simulation games use wooden generic pieces alone or in conjunction with more traditional cardboard counters for very specific historical or narrative purposes. (Heinemann, et al., p. 35)
1944: Race to the Rhine uses a veritable forest of wood. There are wood blocks for the various Allied Corps along with wooden trucks and wooden oil barrels. There are wooden cubes for ammunition and food. There are some cardboard components in 1944: Race to the Rhine but they often are game markers. The point is that 1944: Race to the Rhine exceedingly fits Masini’s hybridization test for a EuroWarGame.
Cards of war
The most important component or “telltale sign” in Masini’s hybrid game is cards (Heinemann, et al., p. 33). Like many card driven games (CDG), the cards in 1944: Race to the Rhine are used in a way that Masini describes is the “engine” of the game. In 1944: Race to the Rhine there are two main types of card decks: each player has a “Pursuit” deck and the Axis forces are represented by their own deck. The Pursuit deck in particular is the engine of the game; when entering an unoccupied area the moving player draws from their Pursuit deck and resolves the situation presented. There are cards for encountering the Resistance, for searching using a Recon card, and cards to track the special abilities of the three Commanders (Bradley, Patton, and Montgomery).When entering a space occupied by the Axis, a card is draw from the Axis deck. The card often shows a military unit that must be defeated.
Tracking the Euro way
1944: Race to the Rhine does not use a classic hexagon game map, instead opting for a board using a point to point system which is in effect a set of tracks across the board (one track for each player). While 1944: Race to the Rhine does not use several map designs mentioned by Masini such as area-impulse or area majority. 1944: Race to the Rhine comes close to one game mechanism Masini mentions, Tableau Building, if one considers the Corps cards each player controls and the multiple spots for supplies on each.
Dice are nice
Regarding dice, the situation is a bit more delicate when considering 1944: Race to the Rhine.
For historical wargames, in particular, the results distribution, list of modifiers, and quantity and frequency of dice rolls are a crucial part of how the game designer want to represent the events depicted by the game itself. Eurogamers by their very nature have a very different concept of alea. (Heinemann, et al., p. 37)
1944: Race to the Rhine comes with three dice but they are only used as a random number generator in the solitaire rules. When it comes to combat the game does not use dice rolling against a Combat Results Table (CRT) or other classic wargame combat resolution models; instead the winner in a combat is determined not by comparing firepower but through the expenditure of supply. The Axis card shows the amount of supply that needs to be available on the Corps card of the unit moving into the space; enough supply and defeat the unit and enter the space. Not enough supply means you spend as much as you can but then go back to where you came from.
Generals in action
Masini writes:
As a final point, the hybridization process between Eurogames and wargames can operate on general gaming dynamics, not directly tied to a specific rule. Very frequently, for example, new wargames give a predefined set of possible actions to players, instead of leaving them with just a map, a handful of counters, and a CRT to find out what they must do to conquer Russia or rout the British at Waterloo. (Heinemann, et al., p. 37)
The ad copy for 1944: Race to the Rhine describes a turn this way:
Each player controls three or four Corps and the players move in turns. In each turn, players can do two actions: move their Bodies (and fight in a battle, if they encounter Axis troops), get supplies, get transport trucks, and ensure air supremacy. The first to cross the Rhine River wins. (Phalanx)
During a player turn in 1944: Race to the Rhine the player can take two Actions out of six available types. Depending on the number of trucks available a Supply Check Interphase may be triggered. After the player action an “Axis Reaction” is triggered. The actions and a special Supply Check Interphase are found on the player aid cards shown below.
Note that none of the player actions in 1944: Race to the Rhine are “attack.” That is because combat may—or may not—occur during Corps movement either when a Pursuit card reveals an Axis unit or when a Corps enters an Axis-controlled area and an Axis card is drawn. A close reading of the Player’s Turn card shows the possibility of an Axis counter-attack. A “counter-attack” is not a battle but an ability to remove a control marker of another player—literally a “take that” action a player executes to slow down the advance of another player (so much for being allies). The lack of specific game mechanisms for resolving combat using a firepower comparison is yet another nod to a Eurogames design legacy.
Allied but not together
Masini writes, “There is another typical Eurogame dynamic becoming more and more common in simulation games: cooperation” (Heinemann, et al., p. 38). 1944: Race to the Rhine, however, is far from a cooperative game. That said, it is not a classic two-player wargame either. 1944: Race to the Rhine is designed for 1-3 players with three the preferred number.
While the three players are ostensibly allies, in 1944: Race to the Rhine they literally represent three competing factions each with their own track to victory and special abilities. Thus, 1944: Race to the Rhine is neither a classic two-player wargame nor a cooperative Eurogame; frankly speaking, gameplay devolves into a form of multi-player solitaire. That is because 1944: Race to the Rhine is figuratively a three-horse race with each horse/player working their own way up their own track.
Of all the point areas on the map only eight are shared between two players. That sharing is very limited; until liberated (controlled) by a player both sides may enter but once liberated the space can only be entered by forces from the liberating player. The game, by its very design, is a three track race between players with little (no?) in-game incentive to help an ally.
Indeed, as mentioned above, there are game mechanisms (Axis counter-attack) available to players that act upon other players with the intention of slowing them down instead of helping them. Surprisingly, the lack of cooperation between players is perhaps one of the more historically accurate aspects of the game design. Just how often did Patton and Montgomery really get along?
Rules of war
While not a form of hybridization mentioned by Masini, the format of the rulebook for 1944: Race to the Rhine is another indicator that the game is influenced by Eurogame design elements. The rulebook is not written in a classic wargame-like “case system” where the rules are indexed in some hierarchical manner. Wargame rules do not have to be written using the case system but the use of an alternate format is generally viewed as a sign of a more Eurogames-influenced design. The rulebook for 1944: Race to the Rhine is only lightly indexed and depends heavily on graphics to assist in learning the game. Annoying, the rulebook consistently misspells “Bradley” as simply “Brad.” Oh well…
So it’s a waro
As enumerated above, Race to the Rhine certainly has many game mechanisms and design choices that appear to fit the concept of a EuroWarGame. Yet I hesitate to call it such. That hesitation comes, perhaps, from a game design focus on logistics over combat to the point that combat is simply a supply expenditure; pay the right collection of wooden bits and your problem goes away. The game never asks—or even tells—how many tanks or infantry or artillery you have; it just asks how many and of what type of wooden bits you have. The game is also a multi-player solitaire design with a very abstract opponent; in order to win one must prioritize the competition between players racing up their own tracks over fighting the Axis.
[Popularity Contest]
[1944: Race to the Rhine was first published in 2014. Since then, there have been two other “Race” games; 1941: Race to Moscow (Phalanx, 2022) and Keep‘em Rolling: 1944 – Race to the Rhine (Phalanx, 2023). Famed designer Volko Ruhnke reportedly is also working on a new “race” game but set in the World War II Pacific theater.]
The ad copy for 1944: Race to the Rhine really tells us all what we really need to know:
Will you follow General Patton’s strategy to discard ammo in order to bring additional fuel barrels along to move boldly forward? Will you risk your prestige and gamble on Market-Garden as Marshal Montgomery did? Will you cross the Rhine faster than General Bradley did, with the help of your hard work and a little luck?
The description of 1944: Race to the Rhine is the true reveal; this is not a wargame where the objective is to defeat the enemy but a strategy boardgame where players race to first place. The description makes it clear that 1944: Race to the Rhine is not focused on defeating the Axis but satisfying personal prestige. Facing a situation where you have to eat, move, or fight—but can only really do one at a time—who will be first to cross the Rhine? 1944: Race to the Rhine presents one possible answer though a very Euro-derived racing boardgame.
[Supply Lines vs Race to the Rhine]
[Given the paucity of wargames dealing with logistics such as 1944: Race to the Rhine, one might be tempted to call that game unique in the pantheon of wargames. Alas, there is another “logistics” wargame that came along just a few years after 1944: Race to the Rhine was released that is admittedly Eurogames-influenced but still very much a wargame. In 2017, Hollandspiele games released Supply Lines of the American Revolution: The Northern Theater, 1775-1777. The core theme of both games are very similar: armies need the right supply to move and fight. Though the location of the two games are continents apart (literally) at first glance they look somewhat alike; Supply Lines uses a point-to-point map upon which chits for armies move and in both games wooden bits are used to represent supply be it food or ammunition (both games) or oil (Race to the Rhine). Supply Lines, however, does not use cards and combat is not deterministic but resolved instead with the use of dice. Although I previously referred to Supply Lines as a “waro,” and it mostly fits Masini’s definition of a EuroWarGame, between Supply Lines and Race to the Rhine it is Supply Lines that I clearly consider is a wargame.]
Racing to the Rhine
In an April 2020 video review, Grant and Alexander of The Player’s Aid called 1944: Race to the Rhine a, “history-themed Euro racing game.” After studying the components and rules, playing the game, and looking at the overall product through the considerations laid out by Masini in EuroWarGames, I am comfortable in echoing Grant and Alexander in saying 1944: Race to the Rhine is not a wargame. The game is a foremost a racing game and secondly a history-themed strategy game.
I fully realize that the intent of Heinemann, Masini, Serval, and many of the contributors to EuroWarGames is to convince hobby wargamers that EuroWarGames stand equally alongside wargames. Players of 1944: Race to the Rhine likely will best be served by recognizing this title is very much unlike many wargames due in no small part to the hybridization process that incorporates many design features and game mechanisms often associated with Eurogames.
The clash of Eurogame versus non-Euros often comes down to considerations of theme versus game mechanisms. At the risk of using too broad a brush, Non-Euros tend to emphasize theme whereas Euros focus on game mechanisms over theme. From that simple two-sided test 1944: Race to the Rhine appears to me to be very much a design where game mechanisms trump theme. While to some I am likely seeming to make a mountain out of the anthill issue of wargame or not, remember that above all else 1944: Race to the Rhine is a fun game to play—even if it is played solitaire amongst friends with cards and wood.
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