On the Net by Alan PoulterOn the Net is a compilation of information gleaned chiefly from Consimworld (http://www.consimworld.com) and Web-Grognards (http://www.grognard.com). Material correct at time of writing: 26th March 2004 NEWSFirst Blood on the Net This game was originally published in issue number 6 of volume 26 of the AHIKS Kommandeur, which was AHIK's Silver Anniversary volume in December 1991. It was subsequently republished after major development in Strategy and Tactics number 178 by Decision Games. The original AHIKS version is now available for free download by kind permission of Decision Games (http://www.decisiongame.com). New game review magazine Game! is a new magazine that reviews a variety of board games, mainly of the German variety, but also covers board wargames. The first issue (only) is available free at: http://www.gametableonline.com Its publisher, veteran gamer George Phillies says: “I have been publishing
gaming fanzines for 40 years. Indeed, I founded and edited The Tank, the first
amateur board wargaming magazine ever published, when it appeared in 1964-1965.
I have folded, stapled, stamped, addressed, and printed magazines produced via
spirit master, mimeograph, photocopy, and paper stencil photooffset. In all that
time, I put more effort into transferring the words to paper and shipping them
to the heroic subscribers than I did assembling the editorial material that I
liked. New military history magazine The Armchair General, whose premiere came out in March 2004, has a website at: http://www.armchairgeneral.com/ It will occasionally publish board wargames as inserts. The first issue contained a game called Operation Iraqi Freedom which can be downloaded at: http://www.armchairgeneral.com/OperationIraqiFreedom.zip New editor for Operations Bruce Monnin becomes the new editor of MMP’s Operations, according to the following statement from MMP: “MMP is sad to announce that Dave Demko is resigning as editor of Operations magazine because he does not have the time and energy to devote to it that he feels is necessary. Our thanks go to Dave for all his hard work. We especially appreciate that Dave was able to continue operating Operations as MMP transitioned into running The Gamers. MMP is also very pleased to announce that Bruce Monnin is the new editor of Operations. Bruce has been publishing The Boardgamer since 1995 and has won the Charles S. Roberts Awards for Best Amateur Game Magazine four of the last five years. Bruce is a Licensed Professional Engineer who is currently working on his Masters in Education, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Boardgame Players Association. Bruce has told us that his primary goals for Operations are to get issue 45 out ASAP, to get the magazine back onto a quarterly schedule ASAP, and to expand coverage to include the entire line of MMP games, while maintaining the focus of Gamers games that has been the foundation of Operations magazine. To help accomplish these goals we hope to expand the size of the magazine. We know you will all wish Bruce tons of luck. Dave and Bruce are in the process of sharing material, and we hope to get the next issue out real soon. Bruce said that he will continue The Boardgamer for several more issues which should satisfy nearly all of the current subscriptions, after which the Avalon Hill content of The Boardgamer would be folded into an even further expanded Operations magazine.” NEW GAMESAvalanche Desert Ratsis the seventh game in the Panzer Grenadier series, and the second (Afrika Corps being the first) to cover fighting in North Africa. Desert Rats contains fifty scenarios. See: http://www.avalanchepress.com Avalon Hill A revised edition of Axis & Allies has been issued. The revised Axis & Allies, created under the direction of Larry Harris, the game’s original designer, features more detailed game pieces, a beautifully charted, full-colour world map, and updated rules. Rules changes: - tanks have 3 defense, fighters are 10 IPCs, carriers are 16 IPCs. Clash of Arms Dawn of the Rising Suncontains 20 scenarios covering all the major surface engagements of the Russo-Japanese War. It uses the same rules system as Fear God and Dread Nought, and also has a special Jumpstart scenario to enable rules to be learnt quickly. See: http://www.clashofarms.com Columbia Games The latest ‘block’ game (where units are blocks which can have their id and strength hidden from the opponent) is Gettysburg: Badges of Courage. It uses leadership and a novel tactical combat system to recreate the struggle to control the strategic crossroads at Gettysburg. All three days of Gettysburg can be played separately or together. See: http://www.columbiagames.com Gio Games War to Axis: Warfare in Normandy covers the Allied invasion of June '44. It uses a variant of the game system used in Battle Cry. Pieces are standup counters, not figures as in Battle Cry. It comes with rules in Italian and English. See: http://www.giogames.it/ GMT Gringo!, based on the Great Battles of the American Civil War system, covers battles from the Mexican War, 1846-47: Buena Vista, Monterey, Cerro Gordo, El Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec, The system has been customised slightly to allow for the different features of this era. Designer is Richard Berg. See: http://www.gmtgames.com/ Lost Battalion Games Battlelines: Stalingrad CampaignUpper Echelon Set completes the first campaign series. The set includes over 950 unique cards and spans combat operations in and around Stalingrad during the fighting of 1942. See: http://www.lostbattalion.com/ Multi-Man Publishing A Fearful Slaughter is the latest in the Civil War Brigade series, originated by The Gamers. A Fearful Slaughter covers the battle of Shiloh. It has a set of specially adapted extension rules for regimental level action. It is a big game: five full-sized countersheets, two copies of charts and tables (plus some on the maps), loss record sheets and two maps. See: http://www.multimanpublishing.com Naval Warfare Simulations The World War One Expansion Pack #1: Tsushima expansion adds over 180 unit data cards and over 70 new classes of warships. Other features include torpedo boats, three new full color maps, 12 pages of expanded and advanced rules, 10 scenarios covering the Russo-Japanese naval battles, and two new combat reference charts. See: http://www.naval-warfare.net/content/index.html Pinnacle Games Fields Of Honour: the American War of Independence is an unusual mix of
boardgame and miniatures system. The game allows you to fight battles in the
traditional boardgame manner but the rules have additions for use with
miniatures. NEW MAGAZINE WARGAMESStrategy and Tactics issue #220 contains Group of Soviet Forces Germany, on a hypothetical Soviet Invasion of Germany, like the older SPI game NATO. Game designer is Ty Bomba. See: http://www.decisiongames.com/ Vae Victis issue #55 contains Solferino 1859, covering the battle at the brigade level. See: http://www.vaevictis.com/ Note that Vae Victis magazine and games are in French but rules translations are made available via: http://grognard.com/vaevict.html NEW DESKTOP PUBLISHED WARGAMESNew from BSO, Richard Berg’s DTP label, is East-West, on the battles of Valverde and Olustee from the American Civil War. Like other BSO games, this one has only 7 pages of rules, no game turns, quick resolution of fire and shock combats and has a variable reinforcements rule to create different game play. BSO has no web site but you can email Richard (and order the game) via BergBROG@AoL.com From Khyber Pass Games Ataturk! is an operational level game dealing with the Turkish War of Independence from 1919 to 1922. One player manages the Turkish forces and their allies while the second player handles the loose conglomeration of former World War One Allies. Initiative is random and can change every game turn. Units that wish to fight may not move that game turn while moving units may not attack. See: http://www.khyberpassgames.com New from Schutze Games is Vicksburg, a Paul Rohrbaugh design on the campaign to capture Vicksburg during the American Civil War. See: http://www.geocities.com/schutze_games/ New from designer Perry Moore is 200 Miles from Moscow! The game covers the White Offensive with tanks and aircraft advancing towards Moscow from Oct. 6th-20th, 1919. See: http://pweb.jps.net/~perrya/ NEW WEB RESOURCESAlan Emrich (designer of Totaller Krieg) has created an extensive 11-week Principles of Game Design course offering that he is teaching at The University of California at Irvine, Stanford University, and The Art Institute of California (Orange County chapter). See: http://www.alanemrich.com/PGD/PGD_Introduction.htm As part of a new MA option course on Conflict Simulation, Professor Philip Sabin of the Dept. of War Studies, King's College London, required students to design board wargames (using Cyberboard). You can freely download student designs of games on battles from Cynoscephalae to Dien Bien Phu. In return, you can give the student designers feedback as they prepare their final versions. See: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/wsg/consim.html From Microgame Design Group, Target: Damascus is a free downloadable expansion scenario for No Middle Ground covering the Israeli five day Operation Shocktroop counteroffensive. Get it from: http://www.microgamedesigngroup.ca/TD/index.htm Neppagames are offering an alternative simplified combat resolution system for their World War Two strategic level game, European Theatre of Operations. it is a free download and is available from: http://www.neppagames.com/Downloads/downloads.htm Lanterna!is a Mediterranean supplement to the earlier Spanish Fury: Sail miniatures game of warfare at sea, 1560-1603. It covers galley warfare covering the same period and includes new ship cards, counters, scenario and background on the antagonists. It is available free from the Perfect Captain web site at: http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/sfsail.html Chris Kemp is offering as a free download his miniatures rules, Not Quite Mechanised, for operational level World War Two. See: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nc.kemp/nqmhome.htm Second edition rules for Go Tell the Spartans, from Against the Odds#6, are available in PDF format at: http://grognard.com/info1/gotell2ed.pdf Vimierofrom MMP is a free mini-game in their Napoleonic Brigade Series. It is available at: http://www.multimanpublishing.com/theGamers/archive/vim.htm Last update 07/10/07 by Paul
Barrett |