Secrets of the Third Reich

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Secrets of the Third Reich is a miniature wargame created by Grindhouse and Westwind Productions. The setting is an alternate timeline World War II, where the war didn't end in 1945 but instead continued on until 1949, with tons of historical events changed along the way. The game is primarily a platoon sized skirmish game, but scales well to larger battles. Miniatures are in 28mm scale and standard 6-sided dice are used. The available armies are The United States, Germany, Soviet and the Britain.

Not to be confused with the 2014 TV series of the same name.

Tropes used in Secrets of the Third Reich include:
  • Action Bomb: Zombies strapped with explosive ordanance.
  • All Myths Are True: Secrets of the Third Reich has in addition to WWII Super Science a large array of references to various mythologies and folk tales from all the involved factions, including Werewolves, Urzine, Koschei the Deathless, Vampires and even small nudges to things like King Arthur and The Spear of Destiny.
  • Brain In a Jar: The SWD's Projeckt Drohne pretty much turns debilitated German Soldiers into this.
  • Captain Patriotic: Elizabeth "Libby" Ryan, Codename Liberty, is in many ways a Distaff Counterpart of Captain America.
    • Arguably, ANYONE put under the United States Sentinel of Freedom program becomes this.
  • Cyborg: The British special character Black Jack, who after a botched Sentinel treatment he had to be rebuilt as a cyborg, using technology recovered from the same crashed alien vessel the super steroid was research out of.
  • Gas Mask Mooks: Chemical warfare is common, which makes gasmasks a necessity for all armies. Especially considering the fact that a certain gas kills you and turns you into a flesheating zombie.
  • Ghostapo: In the form of the SWD, the Ministry of Special Weapons Development. Direct decendants of the Thule Society.
    • Also, MI-13 and Temple (to an extent) can be considered a Good Guy version of this, given their interest in Paranormal Individuals and Super Science (the difference between the two being how such individuals are used)
  • End of an Age: In the introductory page of the rulebook, the state of the world is referred to as this.
  • Humongous Mecha: All armies provide their own examples of these. Mainly display a western style, being much like large and clunky bipedal tanks. There are even rules to device your own custom powered armor or mech.
  • Invisibility Cloak: The American Chameleon snipers are equipped with these.
  • King Arthur: Major Clive Goddard pulled the legendary sword out of the stone during a patrol around the Battle of Bastogne. His command section have even become known as the "Round Table".
  • Mini-Mecha: The British RAT ought to qualify as one of these: http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=126_128&products_id=1066 [dead link]
    • As well as the German Wolverine.
  • Military Mashup Machine: Bound to happen with the Custom Vehicle Design Rules.
  • No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Seems to be the case with the American atomic weapons program after a raid against the main research facility causing the death of key staff members and a loss of important data. After the raid they were left with only 3 functioning atomic bombs.
  • Nuclear War: USA has successfully dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Berlin. A third bomb was headed for Tokyo but the plane carrying it was shot down and USA now fear that the Japanese may have recovered it. Germany has developed and deployed radiation bombs in western Europe (Destroying Paris), Britain (Devastating London), the United States (Detonating near Baltimore) and Russia. Russia is currently trying to develop atomic weapons of their own.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: The German army has Vampires under their command. They mostly behave like classic vampires.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: The German army has Werewovles under their command. Mostly behaves like a classic werewolves but can be killed by any kind of weaponry and not just with silver. They also have access to human/werewolf hybrids (Wolfrunners). Notable is that some werewolves are in fact not wolves at all but dogs such as Alsatians, Bulldogs and Dobermans.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: In that they can be controlled. Germany has a technological way of controlling them which pretty much amounts to radio controlling the zombie of an officer, who zombified soldiers will follow out of habit. The Soviet zombies on the other hand is driven solely by patriotism and will keep fighting the enemy even after death.
  • Powered Armor: All armies provide their own examples of these. There are even rules to device your own custom powered armor or mech.
  • Playing with Fire: The British special character Ash, who has pyrokinetic powers.
  • Psychic Powers: The British special character Dr.Lazarus, capable of precognition and healing. Also has the option of bringing his pet vampire Maxwell into battle.
  • Spider Tank: The Soviet army has one of these.
  • Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Naturally, the German army has powered armor, mechs and a wide variety of other futuristic weapons at their disposal, including jetpacks of course. The other nations don't lag behind though and provide plenty of futuristic weaponry themselves.
  • Super Smoke: Vampires can transform into mist form.
  • Super Soldier: Most noteworthy are the American Sentinels, who are injected with super steroid called the "Roswell Cocktail" (The formula was researched from recovered alien technology) to give them superhuman strength and toughness. Also the Soviet Siberian sub-humans.
  • War Is Hell: Very much depicted this way.
  • We Have Reserves: The Soviets have a special rule that allows them to fire into close combat, regardless of friendly fire. Soviet commisars are also fond of making an example of incompetent officers and anyone foolish enough to flee.
  • Zeerust: Most of the advanced technology in the game has this feel to it.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: At least a localized one in mainland Europe, as a result of Germany's use of their zombifiying V-gas (Vergeltungswaffe 4).