Category: New Release

an expansion for Second World War at Sea: Plan Z, with 105 new silky-smooth playing pieces and their story, too [Forum]

includes four separate games recreating the major battles in the 1806 campaign of the Empire of the French against the Kingdom of Prussia in Central Germany. The four games include : La Bataille de Saalfeld; La Bataille d’Hassenhausen (Davout’s epic battle with the Duke of Brunswick); La Bataille de Jena; and La Bataille d’ Halle. La Bataille d’ Halle is the 2011 winner of the Charles Roberts Award for best print and play game. [Forum]

The Lock ’n Load Tactical Series hits harsh and unforgiving desert terrain in Heroes of North Africa. The battles start in 1940, with a few in East Africa, and Sidi Barrani, Egypt, and continue up to El Alamein and the Americans’ first taste of combat during Operation Torch, in November of 1942. [Forum]

South China Sea provides an integrated political-military simulation of near future contention and conflict around the South China Sea. Players take on the roles of China, the United States, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. They simulate current political tensions through card play and structured negotiation keyed to real world events in an effort to "move the needle" to their side. [Forum]

Limited quantities back in print! Designer Brian L. Knipple’s masterpiece is one of the largest games we’ve ever made, with four oversized maps divided into hexagons at a scale of two kilometers across each hex. Some scenarios use only one or two maps, allowing players to wage war in an afternoon or set it all up and play all weekend. [Forum]

features the insert game, Operation Musketeer, that is based on the assumption that the 1956 Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt turned into a major superpower confrontation in which the forces of the Soviet Union and United States became involved. [Forum]

Designer John Theissen has another compact operational sandbox for ACW gamers to play around in. While the game has some similarities to his More Aggressive Attitudes, important differences in scale and emphasis result in a unique experience that's specific to the factors that doomed the Union's 1864 Red River Campaign. [Forum]

This is the second game based on the Company Scale System (CSS) by Adam Starkweather and features 4 maps. The game covers the full fight for Guam in 1944 with 6 scenarios and the campaign game. On the 8th December 1941 American soil was invaded for the first time in the war, the small American and Guananian garrison was overrun and 2 days later the Govenor surrendered the Island to the Japanese. On 21st July 1944 the Americans would return to retake the island and drive the Japanese invaders off; a day that is still celebrated as 'Liberation Day'. [Forum]

simulates the first major attack by United States forces during World War I. During their spring offensive, the German 82nd Division captured the crucial crossorads of the town of Cantigny. The 1st US Infantry Division was rushed to the front and its 28th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the "Black Lions", was ordered to retake and hold the town. [Forum]

Featuring 8 major battles: Fornovo, Cerignola, Agnadello, Ravenna, Marignano, Bicocca, Pavia, and Ceresole. The game uses the popular "Men of Iron" mechanics with much concentration on detail of weaponry, from the differences between closed formation and open, to the decline of the Swiss (pas d'argent? pas de Suisse), and the rise of the German Landsknecht, the major force in warfare of the era and, ironically, the best-dressed men in Europe. [Forum]

two-player game depicting the Allies’ combined ground and airborne attack in the Netherlands during WWII, which was code named Operation Market-Garden. The game starts with the airborne landings on September 17th and continues until September 23rd. The Allied player must rush his ground forces forward as fast as possible to relieve his beleaguered airborne divisions and capture a bridge across the Rhine. Game design by Mark Simonitch. [Forum]

Stalingrad: Verdun on the Volga offers a clean, streamlined version of the classic area-impulse system, the most recent example of which is Michael A. Rinella's own Operation Battleaxe. The battlefield area depicted includes zones to both the north and south of the city, which not only increases available options but also set up situations where both players must look to attack and defend, from an early point in the game. [Forum]

Panzer Grenadier: Spearhead Division is a supplement for Panzer Grenadier: Elsenborn Ridge game, featuring 88 new die-cut, mounted pieces displaying the division’s units in their own special color scheme. There are also 25 scenarios, and with four “battle games” that link them together. [Forum]

The first expansion to Napoleon and his Marshals expands the series to include the wars in Spain and Portugal from 1805-1815, with scenarios for 1807-1814, 1809-1814 and as part of larger campaign scenarios. The basic set (Napoleon and his Marshals) is required to play. The complete British army and navy for the basic game is added, along with the Spanish army, navy, and leaders and the Portuguese army. A 20.75 x 16 inch map of Spain, Portugal, Southern France and the adjacent seas is included along with two 88-counter sheets of 0.6" square game counters, printed front and back. Scale is approximately 38 miles per hex.

The Germans named their unrealized plan to invade Iceland “Unternehmen Ikarus”, Operation Icarus. Tiny Battle Publishing’s thrilling game of the same name revives this tenuous turning point in World War II, where British troops stood between Germany and the rest of the world. This brigade-level tactical wargame features land, sea, and air units navigating Iceland, the ocean and sea surrounding it, and the skies above. [Forum]

Special Ops #7 has eight articles, two ASL scenarios, two ASLSK scenarios, and Autumn For Barbarossa, a complete Standard Combat Series (SCS) game. Autumn For Barbarossa (AFB) is a Standard Combat Series (SCS) game covering the culmination of the initial German offensive toward Moscow in the fall of 1941. AFB features a small map area and a limited number of units, making it easily accessible for fast or competition play. The entire campaign finishes in 10 turns. [Forum]

Here is something new and exciting, something completely unlike any other game on your table. Table Battles reduces armed conflict to its essentials, to the absolute universal truths behind all battles: the threat of force and its application. It's about leverage, about feints and counterfeints, threats and counterthreats, about creating openings and then going for the jugular, about leaving openings and springing a trap. This base set contains eight battles from across four centuries of conflict. [Forum]

Game design by Ty Bomba that enables two players to game the entirety of alternative history’s worst nightmare: a triumphant Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, having won World War II and conquered the planet in 1945, square off against each other – for total domination – three years later. [Forum]

a solitaire simulation of the Tannenberg campaign in August, 1914, which puts you in place of the commander of the German 8th Army. Your task is to defend the province of East Prussia against the Russian 1st and 2nd Armies, advancing from east and south, respectively. Simple yet elegant mechanics make for an entertaining challenge.

Along with multiple game articles, this issue features an inside look at the design of Demyansk Shield by designer Vance von Borries, althong with a fascinating interview with Vance conducted by Andy Nunez. [Forum]