A quick overview of the concept known as Blitzkrieg, and why it matters

From 1939 to 1943, the army of Hitler’s Third Reich toppled several of Europe’s nations with a method of warfare understood in history as blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg, however, was not actually a formal concept among officers in the German military, just a term applied to what occurred after outside observers noted the speed by which the Germans won campaigns, compared to the long, drawn out, attritional type of warfare in the First World War.

As an informal term, it has served to summarize a set of disciplines that were distinct to the German military in 1939, which the Allies had to learn for themselves before they were able to turn the tides and achieve victory.

Such principles include:

Fighting in a context of total war

Emphasizing maneuver over attrition

Utilizing smaller forces that have better training

Achieving quick victory with concentrated assaults on weak points

These features are not insignificant. While many still debate the ethics of using medical facts that the Nazis discovered through human experiments at Auschwitz, nobody debates the ethics of using military facts that Nazis pioneered during the conquest of those they considered sub-human. We just use them. For example, in the Persian Gulf War, the American armored assault into Iraq that cut off enemy forces positioned in Kuwait was straight out of the Nazi playbook (as we will see in a bit).

The organizational methods are therefore tried and true in the real world, but what about in a Minecraft version of the world? If we look at World War II (specifically the Western Front at the start of the war) and imagine it happening in this context, we can wonder exactly what the Germans might have done with the tools available to them in 1940 and how they would have translated the rules and mechanics of Minecraft into a style of warfare that they could understand.

This is actually possible within Minecraft as it currently exists. Accepting that one block in the game is equal to one square meter, a single file can store a surface area equal to five times that of the Earth. This has actually been a feature of the game since its beginning, even though no server has ever been that large. Thus, it is possible to have a true simulation of World War II, in that it spans the whole planet. Again, for right now, we are just going to focus on Western Europe.

Additionally, we are only going to focus on a Minecraft version of our world and not trouble over other dimensions, such as the Nether or the End, so any items that depend on access to them will not be part of the calculations. Just to make things a little easier, we are going to borrow some ideas from Minecraft: Story Mode, namely, that everyone can simply talk to one another in close proximity and that death is permanent.

With that out of the way, the main questions to ask are:

In Minecraft, would the Germans have launched an offensive through the Allied center with a breakthrough at Sedan, France (as they successfully did in the spring of 1940)? Would they have then pushed all the way to the English channel to cut off and destroy Allied forces in the Low Countries, before penetrating into the heart of France, thereby flanking the forces of the Maginot Line?

By using this blitzkrieg operation as a baseline, we can begin to imagine what would happen in a Minecraft context and ask: Where would it diverge, and where would it be similar?

Combat options

Let us look at the tools both sides would have had. Combat on land would take three basic shapes:

Infantry (on foot)

Cavalry (on horseback)

Artillery (TNT cannons)

This makes it not unlike the land forces of actual militaries, even those of World War II Europe. Let us analyze what each type could do.

Infantry

Infantry could be all-purpose fighters, but more often they would form lines of defense, fortifying in something akin to trenches or in walled areas built in strategic locations. From there, they could lay down arrow fire or perform other forms of disruption. For example, lava and water could be dumped to block or disrupt movement, possibly inflicting harm. The same could be true of sand and gravel for suffocation. General mining operations could be conducted to disrupt forces on the surface.

Because they cannot move quickly, they would not be great for most offensive operations. Rather, they would be better served by following up the assaulting force and establishing control of the area, while the assaulting force is able to strike elsewhere.

Above, hundreds of players battle by sword. Melee combat would likely be ineffective or sub-optimal.

Bows and arrows would be the preferred weapon — along with crossbows that launch fireworks — with shots fired from cover. Swords would be weapons of last resort and ideally not used. Soldiers could deploy “grenades” by rigging small cannons that propel TNT into a battlefield. They could even use TNT to place landmines and detonate them when needed.

Cavalry

Cavalry would function like the armored units of this war (thereby providing the “blitz” of any blitzkrieg). Some of this is supported by the fact that the horse’s own health and armor actually contribute some level of protection in combat, like the plating of a tank. With riders that use enchanted bows or fireworks, their shots could offer similar threats as the rounds that tanks fire. In terms of logistics, horses even surpass the capabilities of tanks. The fastest tanks of World War II could reach a top speed of 24 mph, while the fastest horses reached speeds of about 35 mph in the game, potentially allowing them to conduct a blitzkrieg even more rapidly than the real German panzers did.

Like tanks, horses can cross most terrain features. Unlike tanks, they would not need to refuel, and they only require one person to operate, who could also “repair” their horse by feeding it. This would make them very handy for long-term operations. Since speed and keeping unit cohesion is important, the fastest horses (the ones that can travel at 35 mph) would need to be acquired by the military from the general population, so that all troops could be at a standard. The slower horses would have be used for other purposes, such as local trade and possibly supplying troops.

Artillery

A long-range artillery cannon created by ShadowMage.

TNT cannons have been possible in Minecraft for years. With the features available in the current version of the game, they are much easier to build and more effective. A recent example seen in this video shows that a round can be launched over distance of about 2500 blocks, which is a little over 1.5 miles. This means that artillery could provide bombardments from tactical distances, much like in real warfare, with a high degree of accuracy. By knowing the exact distance and elevation of a target, the force of each shot could be modified for whatever the standard cannon design is. All the artillery crews would need at that point is a good supply of explosives and the ability to do math.

The main drawback is that these cannons can only fire along a straight line of blocks and cannot pivot or rotate, like artillery guns in real wars. They would have to be constructed directly North, East, South, or West of targets, meaning that they would be relatively easy to locate (by enemies) through process of elimination. TNT also does not have a deadly radius that is anything close to that of an actual artillery round, so they would only be effective against stationary targets. This means that they would probably help very little in a dynamic battle, but this does not make them worthless.

Artillery would likely be most effective in the initiation of assaults on specifically identified locations that needed to be breached or seized. A general rain of TNT by a few guns placed a couple of miles away could proceed for a few minutes, destroying whatever they could hit. With this done, the main attacking force in the area could fall upon the disrupted foes, while the artillery crew relocates.

Dogs

It’s probably useful to discuss the role of dogs in combat. Most soldiers would probably enter the war with several at first, and they would have an easy time keeping up, wherever armies moved. They could play a major role when combat becomes close-quarters, but large numbers of them would make easy targets for artillery, grenades, and even for arrows. Moreover, unlike horses and similarly useful mobs, they are tied to their owners, meaning that individuals would have to maintain their packs and keep them healthy and fed. Since dogs are more fragile than horses and cannot be armored, casualties would be high.

Furthermore, it’s not obvious that players would always have easy access to the meat necessary to maintain large packs, both for breeding and healing, so the role of dogs would probably decline over time.

The roles they could probably serve most consistently over time is to assist in combat in fortified areas or to form a guard force for artillery crews while setting up or firing.

Navies and Air Forces

Because most vehicles that can be crafted are very simple, operations over the water and air would be limited in a Minecraft version of the world. Boats are easy to build and use, but they can only fit two players total. Complex crafts, such as battleships or submarines, would thus not be a feature of this would. Naval encounters would be simplistic and more reminiscent of pre-modern conflicts. Long voyages may run the risk of encountering hostile mobs or being hit by lightning during storms. Unless there were a way to know coordinates, the lack of terrain features or constellations would make precise navigation impractical.

Footage of Muselk using a bomber “plane” in Minecraft.

Aircraft do not properly exist in Minecraft, but contraptions that utilize pistons and slime and exploit the physics of the game allow for slow-moving flying machines. One YouTuber demonstrated that bomber planes could be built with little difficulty and drop a decent payload over an area. Another has shown how a glitch can be used to duplicate TNT during a bombing raid. The latter of these is potentially quite deadly because they would never stop and do not even need someone to man them. They could go on an endless flight of destruction into the enemy nation.

To be clear, these machines would not become the main method of warfare. Because they move extremely slowly and cannot go as high as real aircraft, nations would likely have little trouble intercepting and destroying them. Sky-barriers could even be set up along the frontier to catch any that are released sporadically and trap them. At worst, the first few miles of national territory near a border would be very unsafe. Also, since Mojang has usually tried to patch glitches like these, let us also assume that this is a version of Minecraft with such a patch. Still, non-glitch bombers could pose a viable way to batter a city or stronghold, for a land force to overrun.

For these reasons, the more traditional, land-oriented approaches to warfare would still be the dominant methods.

Intelligence and Information

How would large armies that span hundreds of miles coordinate? How would they navigate to where they needed to go? Minecraft is not without options.

Communication

Telegraphs could be developed, using redstone signals over a long distance. While not as ideal as radio broadcasts, they would still get information over great distances instantaneously. Someone on the other end would just need to know Morse Code or be able to build a machine that could decode it for someone to transcribe. This process would still take some time. It would even be possible for telegrams to be sent to multiple areas at once, meaning that a complex set of orders could be sent to separate units, such that they would be able to coordinate efforts.

ImadBush’s version of the Enigma Machine in Minecraft.

Those who have seen The Imitation Game may wonder whether or not messages could be encoded, through something like the Enigma Machine. To some extent, this kind stuff is possible. One player claimed to have built this very machine in 2016. It stands to reason that some version of this could be constructed for actual use. Other players claim to have built Turing Machines, which can decode Enigma messages, but these seem to be based on command blocks (which are not part of the normal game) or require an inordinate amount of time to process.

For the purposes of blitzkrieg and conveying orders all the way from Berlin to the front, this is very possible. Once received, orders could be written down with a Book and Quill, each of which can store over 12,000 characters, meaning that extensive information could be physically presented to subordinates with ease, after transmission.

Mapping

Maps are tricky. They are easy to make, chart, and copy. They can also have compasses built into them to show the player’s location, like a constant GPS. The problem is that they do not ever get too large. The widest zoom currently only covers about 1.2 square miles of land, hardly enough to show the terrain involved in a massive operation at the level of blitzkrieg. Some of these maps could be laid on adjacent item frames on a wall, to widen the view a bit more, but even this would be limited and would take up a lot of space, meaning that only a command headquarters could make use of this.

That said, several of these maps would probably exist for all of Europe before the conflict, and governments would probably have them stored. The key would be to produce them quickly and to send them out to units that would need them in a timely manner. Commanders could carry several of them for reference, to determine their exact location at a given moment.

In addition, landmarks and local signage would probably also exist and could be used by maneuvering forces to navigate the terrain. Make no mistake; this would not be unusual. Units have gotten lost and turned around many times in history, while still ultimately prevailing. It is not obvious that uncertainty factors such as these would make a large-scale operation insurmountable, so long as competent unit commanders were maintaining awareness.

Auftragstaktik

In German military theory is a term called Auftragstaktik, which is a system of giving orders and assigning missions that is concise but general. It gives direct instructions that accomplish basic goals and allows leaders down the chain of command to fill in the blanks of the plan with their creativity and their more localized view of the situation. Where there is uncertainty or limits on the information that can be delivered en masse, the Germans would probably thrive in this context more readily than the other Europeans, as this defined the nature of their leadership structures at the time better than it did for other nations.

The Blitz

Historical map displaying the actual invasion of France.

For rest of this scenario, we can make some easy assumptions about the Europeans. We can assume that World War I would have gone mostly the same and that it would have informed decisions about the war to come. For example, maybe horses, like tanks, were a late addition to the war, as if the game had been updated. We can probably also assume a general scenario where the Allies enjoy an advantage in numbers and quality of weapons. The success of Nazi Germany will depend on prevailing in the operational art of war, through blitzkrieg.

The Layout

The Allies and Germans will have dense fortifications along the Franco-German border (the Maginot and Siegfried Lines). A head-on attack here is out of the question, so the Allies will expect some kind of attack to bypass this area, through the Low Counties (The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg), as the Germans did in World War I. Because they are focused on thinking in terms of that war, their cavalry units will not form whole divisions but instead will be attached to infantry divisions to provide support, along vast lines of defense. The best troops and materiel will be placed in reserve formations, ready to respond to the main attack. The Germans have to figure out where this will be and how they will be able to encounter the least resistance.

Crucial is the fact that the Allies have better equipment (which might be realized in terms of having more diamond or better enchantments) and are not reeling from the damage of a previous campaign, such as the German invasion of Poland. This means the Germany’s path to victory is solely one of a better imagined and better executed military operation.

The Germans will need to organize their faster horses into cavalry divisions, which can advance through regions at the speed of the horses and not be limited by sluggish infantry. The Allied tendency to use cavalry as infantry support means that there are not unit-level movements that happen at the speed of a horse. The Germans can exploit this and, even with frailer horses, can penetrate deep into enemy territory. They can then surround and cut off enemy units from supply/communication lines, or they could make a straight dive for civilian centers, maybe even Paris itself.

The Winning Move

The main adherent to rapid movement will be river systems. Some of these rivers would stand to be hundreds of blocks wide and quite deep, slowing down travel by horse quite a bit. Boats and leads could be used, but if such a force is accompanied by dogs, mining the boats to pick them back up could result in dogs being hit and fights provoked. Leaving the boats there and placing new ones at the next crossing would mean that many dogs would stay in those boats and get left behind, while also leaving evidence of the invasionary force. Moreover, the crossing would still be much slower, and the forces would be vulnerable while crossing and moving more slowly, especially while landing on the other shore.

Bridge crossings would offer much more convenience, as would avoiding rivers as much as possible. This means that open plains would be desirable. Two targets of the Germans, the Belgian town of Gembloux and the French town of Sedan, offered crossings that gave way to long stretches of open plains. Sedan ended up being the location of the main attack by the Germans in the real World War II. It stands to reason that an attack through the Ardennes into Sedan would offer similar benefits.

The real question is whether or not a feint in the North to lure up Allied units would be in order, so that the main attack could cut South of them and block of their path of escape and access to supplies. There is some merit to this, but I suspect, in this case, a feint in the Low Countries would have the benefit of pulling away the reserve forces and creating a direct pathway to Paris. It is not yet obvious how dire being cut off from supplies in the course of a single military operation would be, since fuel and food needs are not quite as strict in many respects, so trapping these forces in the North might not be the best approach.

A good invasion would start with a feint to the North.

For these same reasons, as well the 40% higher top speed of horses compared to the fastest of the German panzers, cavalry divisions could advance almost unimpeded, if the Allies failed to intercept them. The slower rate of communication also means that the Allies would fail to adjust properly to a highly dynamic situation and may resort to panic. Since Paris would be of key political importance and be a major economic center, its loss would be difficult to tolerate. It would lead to the fall of France.

In Minecraft, a breakthrough at Sedan would still be in order, but the first target would be Paris.

A breakthrough at Sedan, supported by a large artillery bombardment, the deployment of “bomber planes,” and possible mining attacks, would open the way to Paris. Artillery and bomber crews could pack up and follow, to set up for future assaults as needed and to threaten Paris and other key areas with destruction. A surrender could be forced, as the civilian population is endangered.

Infantry units that follow the breakthrough could encircle the Maginot Line and cover the rear of the advancing columns of cavalry. They could also establish redstone lines with Berlin, so that they could better understand the situation and issue new orders. Isolating forces in the Low Countries would deprive them of such a line of communication. Still, knocking out Paris and the leadership it provides would be even better.

If we assume surrender would not occur, if the French still had hope, an offensive to the North after occupying Paris would be in order. With communication lines to Paris cut, it is likely that Allied units in the Low Countries would be caught off guard. Additionally, Benito Mussolini would probably see his opportunity and invade France from the Southeast.

After capturing Paris, the Germans could hook North and attack the Allies in the Low Countries.

At this point, the collapse of the French government and army is a given, and the surrender would be likely. Even escaping across the English channel, the tens of thousands of Allied troops would be too disorganized to land elsewhere and launch an attack in coordination with military forces that remained on land. The Germans would have all of the initiative and enjoy a great victory (but a tragic one, no less, since we also know what they did afterward).