In 2001, Avalanche Press released a separate new version, more closely resembling the original game, known as John Prados' Third Reich.

Terrain, which has no effect on movement, triples units on defense, while fortresses (Maginot Line, Westwall, Gibraltar, Malta, Leningrad and Sevastopol) quadruple them.

Each combat may result in the complete elimination of either side, or an exchange, or a compulsory counterattack, either at face value (i.e. ignoring terrain effects) or at odds dictated by the table.

[2] An attack at odds of 3:1 or greater is guaranteed to succeed, the only uncertainty being whether or not the defender will be eliminated outright or inflict some exchange losses.

There is no limit to the number of armor units which may stack on or attack from the original breakthrough hex, provided the overstack is rectified by the end of the turn.

The die roll may require the enemy to lose counters (major countries have replacement units – immobile single-factor infantry units – used to garrison remote areas or to remove to fill attrition losses, apart from the USSR which has many cheap single-factor infantry armies) or hexes – the attacker may not choose a capital, red objective city or bridgehead.

Unsupplied units cannot move, and are eliminated after the construction phase, and cannot be rebuilt in the same turn in which they are lost (unless the owning player deliberately loses them in poor-odds attacks).

Paratroops do not count for stacking, and negate the effect of rivers, but are lost permanently if not adjacent to a friendly unit when eliminated.

Up to five air factors may base at a city, or at an airbase counter (each major power has three of these, one of which may be placed each turn – once placed it can only be moved by SR or relocated to the country's capital if out of supply).

In the 1981 and subsequent editions Italy may surrender once the Allies have the initiative, control North Africa, Sicily (or both Sardinia and Corsica) and a foothold on the Italian mainland.

Two of the German variants were potential game-throwers, allowing Spain (and hence seizure of Gibraltar and transfer of the Italian fleet to the Atlantic, prior to invasion of Britain) or Turkey to join the Axis.

The fourth edition diluted the chances of this happening by adding an extra 10 for each side, including "Hitler Assassinated" (requiring Germany to pass for a turn, with a chunk of her BRPs frozen).

Further draft rule changes by Robert Beyma were also published in that magazine in the mid 1980s, giving the Soviets a few extra air and armor units later in the game, and extra BRPs for control of key cities (several of them in the Urals), and causing the US forcepool to arrive in three annual tranches (1942–44), making a massive landing in France in 1942 as unfeasible as it was in reality.

US involvement before and after the formal Declaration of War thus became a gradual affair, with escalating US-Axis tensions tracked on a table, increasing with German U-boat activity and attacks on minor countries, and the US economy growing automatically every turn until it attained vast proportions.

The Soviet economy was now generated largely by "Industrial Centre" units, with escalating Russo-German tensions in Eastern Europe allowing a narrowing window for a surprise German attack (the Designer's Notes explicitly stated that this was to mimic Hitler's actual motivation in 1941).

Empire of the Rising Sun (1995), a Pacific theater counterpart to Advanced Third Reich, included rules for aircraft carriers and research (eg.

of air ranges, torpedo effectiveness and atomic bombs), as well as rules to combine the games to simulate the whole of World War II around the globe.

The magazine recommended the computer version to those who wanted to learn the game but could not find local opponents, but suggested that experienced players only buy it to play by mail.

[3] A combination of Advanced Third Reich and Empire of the Rising Sun, initially designated "Global War 2000", began development with rules and components posted online, publicly available for anyone who might want to be a playtester and might offer feedback.

Designed by Brian L. Knipple and published by Avalanche Press, it has distinctly different mechanics from Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, although it is simpler and resembles the original more closely than the GMT version.

In the April 1975 issue of Airfix Magazine, Bruce Quarrie called Third Reich "One of the most interesting, though complicated, games to come our way for some time."

"[4] In a 1976 poll conducted by Simulations Publications Inc. to determine the most popular wargames in North America, Third Reich placed a highly respectable 33rd out of 202 games.

[5] In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer noted that "Third Reich's strongest point is the military production system, which works smoothly (if with questionable historical accuracy in certain cases) and ties the game together."

an early German attack on the USSR or via Turkey into the Caucasus, or Allied invasions of Italy) can be explored in a matter of days of real time, rather than months.

He describes as "pretty peculiar" the cost of declaring war on major powers and the mechanism by which players can obtain a double turn by manipulating the Basic Resource Point Level.

A cautious defence of Britain makes a German invasion unfeasible, but "the titanic German-Soviet struggle is very much a two-way affair, with great Russian restraint needed to avoid being trapped and knocked out early in the war."

He comments that "the multi-player aspect is rather a bore" - apart from some discretion over Anglo-French cooperation and the timing of Italian entry to the war and the German attack on the USSR, by about 1942 every country will be engaged more or less as in reality.

[6] In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Martin Campion called this "an innovative and challenging game which allows a player to experience the complexity of events in a total war."

"[7] (Nicholas Palmer disagreed, writing that in the normal course of play, France is "almost certainly doomed", especially if the Germans obtain a double turn in Winter 1939 - Spring 1940.

Players are given a wealth of strategic options; yet the events of the war are re-created by making the historical objectives desirable in game terms."