At the start of 1986 Avalon Hill published a "Gamers Guide to Third Reich". This featured Designers Notes, stressing the game's focus on economics, air and armour (in that order), and mentioning that Prados' original draft had been at division-level with a much larger number of air points, making it an exercise in "finger dexterity". There were also several strategy articles, many of them written by Marcus Watney and many of which had previously appeared in "The General", outlining plans for German attacks on France & Yugoslavia, an Italian attack on Yugoslavia, and British, French and Soviet defences against German attack. There was also a discussion of the game's portrayal of economics, and a draft diplomacy system, a later version of which would be included in "Advanced Third Reich". The guide criticised the unrealistic weakness of the late war Soviets in BRPs, air and armour units.