War Plan Z assumes that Adolf Hitler had not canceled the Kriegsmarine (Germany Navy) expansion program in 1939. World War II in Europe does not begin September of that year. Instead, Hitler waits until War Plan Z is complete (in various stages). The game is a strategic two player simulation of the ensuing hypothetical naval campaigns fought between the Germans and the Allies sometime in the 1940s. One assumption of the game is that since Germany concentrates on increasing the Navy, there is no campaign in the west, so France remains an Allied power. Germany and the USSR still divide Poland, and an uneasy peace remains in effect on the Eastern Front.

The game system shows the effects of various operations. Players conduct actions that encompass discrete combat, logistical, intelligence and other operations. A player can conduct one or more actions per turn, depending on control of bases.

Each area on the map is about 550 miles across. Each turn represents one month of operations. Ship units represent two fleet aircraft carriers, divisions of two or three battleships, four to eight cruisers, flotillas of 19-40 destroyers, or various numbers of other ship types. Most ground units in the game represent corps or divisions. Aircraft units represent six to twelve squadrons of aircraft.

22 x 34-inch game map and a sheet of 228 9/16-inch counters.

Design by Joseph Miranda