Avalon Hill games for this year are a reprint of History of the World (with plastic armies, plastic capitals, plastic forts and monuments), the Pacific add-on for Axis and Allies : Europe, Axis and Allies: Pacific and a completely revised version of Risk called Risk 2210 AD. Some details of this game were recently released via an Internet discussion board by a representative of Avalon Hill:-
"The theme is the world at war in 2210 AD (400 years after the original Risk is set). Mechanical armies fight for control of the earth, its underwater cities, and the near-side of the moon.
What is the same as Risk: You can play the standard game of Risk on the board. The land territories, although renamed, are the same. We have also included the rules to standard Risk in the game. You use the same combat system (basically), where the attack rolls up to three dice and the defender rolls up to two. Compare, with the defender winning ties. Continent bonuses and how you get armies works largely the same.
What is different than Risk: The addition of moon territories, underwater cities, energy, commanders, command cards, space stations, turn order, and the win conditions (explained below).
There are 13 or so underwater territories in the game. These start out empty. The territories are divided into five zones that function the same as continents in terms of bonuses. If you control a whole zone, you get bonus armies at the start of your turn.
There are also 14 moon territories. These also start out empty. They are divided into three zones that give bonuses like continents. The moon has three landing site (one in each zone). You can attack the moon from any space station you control to any landing site on the moon. The moon is easy to take but hard to hold.
Energy works like money in the game. At the start of your turn you get energy equal to the number of armies you get. So if you get 5 armies, you also get 5 energy; 7 armies and 7 energy, etc. Energy is used to hire commanders, build space stations, buy command cards, play command cards, bid for turn order, and as the tie-breaker at the end of the game. Managing your energy is vital.
There are five commanders (per player) in the game: Land Commander, Naval Commander, Space Commander, Diplomat Commander, and Nuclear Commander. Commanders are the only human units in your army and have many different functions. You need to have a Commander on the board to buy and play Command cards of that type. So if you want to buy a Nuclear Command Card (or play one in your hand), you need to have your Nuclear Commander in play. If one of your commanders is killed, you can hire his replacement (i.e. bring him back). Commanders also allow your armies to move into the sea or the moon. You need a Space commander to move your armies to or on the moon. You need a naval commander to move your armies into or under the ocean. Commanders also use 8-sided dice at key times. All commanders defend with an 8-sider. The nuclear commander always attacks with one. The diplomat never does. The other three attack with one if they are attacking from or into their speciality (if you are attacking from or into an underwater city, then your naval commander uses an 8-sider). Those are their big specialities.
There are five Command card decks -- one for each commander. You can use energy to buy cards. Some also require energy to play them. These cards offer defensive and offensive advantages, extra free moves, extra energy, cease fire situations and, yes, nukes. Each deck has its strengths. There are also cards in the deck that give extra points at the end of the game. Space stations (each player starts with one) allow you to go to the moon. Also, all defensive units in space station territories roll 8-siders. Turn order each turn is determined by an energy bid. Turn order is another tricky thing to do well.
Win condition: the game is five-turns long and takes about 2 hours to play. At the end of five turns, the player who controls the most territories (plus continent bonuses and points found on command cards), wins. In the 100+ games I've seen played, there have only been three games where one person was eliminated before turn 5. This is not an elimination game."
Avalon Hill are at:- http://www.avalonhill.com
Upcoming from Critical Hit/Moments in History are Gotterdamerung: Twilight of
the Gods (designer MasahiroYamazaki) on the Battle of Berlin with a unique
Berlin street-level inset map for when the action moves to a tactical-level,
street-by-street fight for the Fuhrerbunker, D-Day: The Great Crusade (designer
Danny Holte),
Operation Wintergewitter (designer Mark Stille) a tactical-level treatment of
the German relief effort of Stalingrad and last, but not least, Grand Illusion.
The designer is Ted Racier, who is well-known for his World War 1 games (Paths
of Glory, Royal Tank Corps, Great War in Europe etc.). Grand Illusion, on the
1914 campaign in France in World War 1, breaks ground by blending hex-based
games with area movement wargames. Using two full-sized map sheets, Grand
Illusion depicts the relevant areas of France, Belgium, and Germany with just
109 very large hexes. The use of roughly army-sized hexes with a mostly corps
order of battle allows players to concentrate on the critical command decisions
made by the highest commanders (Moltke, Joffre, French and Falkenhayn) without
abstracting out the course of the war on the firing line. The result is a
swift-moving game, covering the period from August 14 to November11 in 15
six-day turns.
It appears that Critical Hit has announced that they have cancelled plans to publish the following games: Streets Of Stalingrad, Von Manstein's Backhand Blow, and The Siegfried Line Campaign.
However the designers of Streets of Stalingrad, Art Lupinacci and Dana Lombardy, intend to self-publish the game with a tentative release date of February 2002 to coincide with the 59th anniversary of the surrender of the German 6th Army. Streets of Stalingrad is a re-issue the definitive simulation at company level, of the pivotal battle for Stalin's city during World War II. The game will feature updated maps, a new combat system, new rules, updated OOB's, a historical booklet, 2,200 die cut counters and more.
The designer of Von Manstein's Backhand Blow and The Siegfried Line Campaign, Dirk Blennemann, announces that both these titles are being picked up by GMT Games. Von Manstein's Backhand Blow will appear on the next Project 500 Game Schedule Update, while The Siegfried Line Campaign will be listed sometime later in the year.
There was a minor upset on the discussion board of Consimworld (http://www.consimworld.com), when an unofficial posting announced that all Critical Hit's forthcoming games were cancelled and they were not taking orders. The folder containing discussion on Critical Hit and folders on their games were then removed at the request of Critical Hit. At the time of writing the game folders have been re-instated, the Critical Hit folder is still absent and the information above about games not being published by Critical Hit is correct.
Critical Hit are at:- http://www.criticalhit.com
Games in production by the time you read this will be Paths of Glory II (POG) with a seperate Update Kit for those already having the game. The differences from the original game consist of new scenarios for 1915, 1916 and 1917 and twenty new cards. GMT will also be issuing a PoG Player's Guide packed full of strategy and tactics articles and other goodies.
Afterwards will come:
Kasserine, an operational level two-player game of the World War II German - Italian offensive in Tunisia 1943, a one map game designed by Vance von Borries.
Zero the first of the Down In Flames series will cover the War in the Pacific starts with the Japanese invasion of China and ends with the Battle of Midway
Red Badge of Courage, a Great Battles of the American Civil War series game on the Bull Run/Manassas designed by Richard Berg.
Wilderness War, a Paths of Glory-type game on the French and Indian War, designed by newcomer Volko Ruhnke
GMT will also be placing on their P500 programme Reds, Ted Racier's game on the Russian Civil War that was to have been published in the long-awaited issue 53 of Command. Financial woes still assail Ty Bomba, publisher of Command and he graciously agreed that Reds could be released from the schedule.
Gene Billingsley, owner of GMT, has announced an interesting plan to promote their East Front series (EFS) of games:-
"Just a note, guys, that we ARE in the early planning stages for doing a number of modules (somewhat GBoH-like is the plan at this point) that work with the series rules to cover 2-4 smaller "operations" in a given period. So you might see, for example, Velikye Luki as an Army Group North (AGN) module (requiring AGN with no counters included and a small map), for small $ or several battles in a module with some counters and multiple maps for larger $. We'd use as a template the "all in one" approach to maps, setups, and special rules that you see in the first few scenarios of AGN.
The idea is to have a mix of "new with counters" scenarios and "play these with the maps and counters you have" scenarios that we could release at least a couple times a year in between the bigger games in the series, mostly in the $15-$30 price range. Hopefully this will allow you guys to have even MORE fun with your EFS games and also give us a "hook" now and then to let new folks look at the series without a major cash outlay (we're thinking one or two of the modules would be "complete" except for downloading the series rules from the website, so no "big game" EFS ownership would be required on those)."
Finally, designer Uli Blennemann, brother of Dirk Blenneman has joined GMT as a developer. His first projects will be Sympathy for the Devil, Ty Bomba's game on the last years in the Russian campaign and Medieval, a Richard Berg design which tries to use 'German game' mechanics in a historical game.
GMT are at:- http://www.gmtgames.com
The latest Vae Victis is issue 37 containing France 1940 - Plan Jaune, on the fateful 1940 World War II campaign. The latest Strategy and Tactics contains Twilight of the Hapsburgs (battles in Word War 1 on the Italian front) which use the same game system as the earlier Reinforce the Right. Both games have had good initial feedback.
The latest Panzerschreck (issue 5) has First Day Of The Somme, a solitaire game emphasising planning in the battle and Dogger Bank a two player game on the World War 1 naval battle.
At the time of writing BSO Games, Richard Berg's company that publishes his
DTP designs, is offering Line Of Fire containing two Napoleonic battles, Maipo,
in which
the United Army of the Andes, led by one the great figures of the revolutionary
movement, José de San Martîn, fights a similar army of Chilean Royalists under
General Osorio and Lundy's Lane a battle in the War of 1812, in which British
regulars, some local militia and a contingent of Mohawks and led by Gordon
Drummond, face off against a similar force of American regulars led by Winfield
Scott. Line of Fire is designed for quick learning and easy play, using the same
system first seen in Las Batallas de los Gringos. System rules are 6 pages,
there are no "turns" - play is Continual - and combat resolution is a
single dieroll. Play time is around 2 hours, per battle.
Richard Berg's DTP outlet, BSO will be publishing his long-awaited historical rail game, Confederate Rails. The game did not get enough support for publication via GMT's P500 programme so GMT was kind enough to let BSO do a DTP version. Confederate Rails is a rail game that takes place during the American Civil War, but a most unusual one, in that the players are trying to make money from running freight on a rail network that is gradually (and, in game terms, randomly) shrinking, using a rail system that seems to specialise in incompetence and inefficiency. Confederate money (fake) will be included with the game!
Perry Moore Games have released Panzers Along The Terek, covering the 3rd Pz
corps advance along the Terek River in 1942. The game scale is daily turns, tank
companies, battalion and regiments are the units, and map scale is1 mile a hex.
Perry Moore Games are at:- http://www.jps.net/perrya/
Scott Holmgren, who runs Blue Guidon Games, a DTP outfit, has announced that its only game so far, Fire in Mississippi is 'out of stock'in that no new copies will be printed. Also, development of their next game Thunder on South Mountain has been put on hold. Scott is moving home and has no spare time for working on games.
The latest game from the Microgame Design Group is Vimy Ridge. Designed by
Kerry Anderson the game covers the World War 1 battle from the initial barrage
to the final objectives reached by 1st Canadian Division.The 22 x 17"map
covers the battlefield at 250 yards per hex. The 280 counters show the company
and battalion units from the Canadian Corp and the German Gruppe Vimy. Special
rules are ncluded for barbed wire, mines, tanks and Canadian gallantry. Note
that Vimy Ridge is the re-release of the game Vimy Ridge: 1917 formerly
published by Pacific Rim. There are minimal changes in the rules but the
graphics have been substantially changed.
Microgame Design Group are at:- http://members.home.net/co-op/
Schutze Games has just released The Blood and Steel Expansion which covers the flanks of the Kursk battle as two seperate battles. It is designed to be combined with the original Microgame Design Group Blood and Steel game for a huge 3 map campaign. Schutze Games are handling this expansion as Kerry Anderson of Microgame Design Group (MDG) did not think enough copies would be sold to justify publication by MDG. Also the three maps and countersheets put the combined game way over typical MDG component standards.
Schutze Games are at:- http://www.geocities.com/schutze_games
BoneGames, who pioneered the offering of games free for download on the Internet, have announced a free downloadable expansion for their first game to progress from free game to commercial game, Queen Victoria's Navy (on pre-dreadnought naval combat. The expansion is Admiral On Deck and contains 6 more pages of advanced rules and one additional set of game charts and four historical scenarios. Admiral On Deck is not a stand alone game; ownership of Queen Victoria's Navy is required. More expansions are planned.
Bonegames are at:- http://www.bonegames.com
Yes, the god of board wargaming is back. A third edition of his Wargames Handbook will be appearing. Its genesis is interesting. In a newsgroup posting Jim says:-
"The publisher of the first two editions was not interested in publishing a third editions (yeah, yeah, more fodder for the "wargaming is dead" crowd…) So I decided to try one of the web based "instant publishing" outfits. I chose iUniverse.com (recommended by a writers group, the Authors Guild, that I belong to). Once I had rewritten parts of the second edition, it took me about an hour to pour the electronic manuscript into the online iUniverse forms. Cost me $99. They sell the third edition for $23.95 and it is available via their site."
The third edition is at:- http://www.iuniverse.com/marketplace/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0%2D59
Remember that the second edition (dated 1992) is still available free online at:- http://www.strategypage.com/prowg/default.asp?target=wargameshandbook/contents.htm
There seems to be a glut of great computer wargames coming out. Combat Mission, from Battlefront Games, a World War Two tactical level game, has been mentioned in an earlier Despatch. A demo is available. Note that Combat Mission is only available online.
Battlefront is at:- http://www.battlefront.com
Matrix Games have announced an update of the classic old SSI game, War in Russia, as a free download. War in Russia is a divisional level wargame that deals with almost every aspect of the war in the Eastern Front. This is considered by many to be one of Gary Grigsby top game designs. In this new 3.0 release, you will find many new features and enhancements in War In Russia. Matrix Games have already published a free final version of Steel Panthers (a World War Two tactical tank battle game) as Steel Panthers: World at War. An updated version of Grigsby's classic Pacific War is promised.
Matrix Games are at:- http://www.matrixgames.com
Shrapnel Games have been getting good press for a number of their games, in particular Horse and Musket (18th century tactical combat), Combat Command 2 (operational World War 2 combat) and Steel Beasts (World War 2 tank simulator). Demos of all these games are available.
Shrapnel Games are at:- http://www.shrapnelgames.com
Finally if computer wargames are your thing then you should check out The Wargamer at:-
They have a great collection of reviews, demos and patches and are certainly raising the profile of computer wargaming, as this announcement shows:-
"Thanks to your loyal readership, it is my pleasure to let you know that
The Wargamer has been ranked as the 66th most popular gaming site on the World
Wide Web effective this week by Hot100.com
(http://www.100hot.com/directory/gaming/games.html), a major indicator of
website traffic and popularity. Considering there are thousands, if not hundreds
of thousands, of gaming websites in existence, we are quite proud of this
accomplishment."
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