Take the air!

... on cardboard..

Avalanche Press will expand their existing Great War at Sea (GWAS) series to include a game solely on Zeppelins! That is just ducky with your airship enthusiast correspondent. GWAS has its enthusiasts and detractors; I tend to be a cautious enthusiast about the series. Still, an entire game about airship combat, that's a rarity, and something I will seek out. Given the quality of the artwork usually devoted to the GWAS series, I am sure it will be a visual treat.


Avalanche blurb follows:

For a brief period, Ferdinand Graf Zeppelin's giant gas-filled airships ruled the world’s skies. Though conceived as passenger craft, during the First World War rigid and semi-rigid airships performed long-range scouting and bombing missions.

Like Dreadnoughts and East of Suez, Zeppelins includes die-cut-and-mounted playing pieces, but these are special, oversized ones: 2/3-inch by 1-and-1/3-inch large pieces depicting famous airships of Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Italy, Austria-Hungary and France. These are used with the new tactical and operational rules provided; unlike the standard game rules that treat all airships the same, with the Zeppelins module, each airship class has its own range and endurance qualities.

Every airship that played an important role in the First World War is present, both German Navy and German Army machines that scouted for the High Seas Fleet and attacked naval targets. The ultra-long-range “Africa Ship” L59 is present, along with the big, modern L100 class cancelled by the war’s end.

The Royal Navy maintained a large fleet of airships, and the British get the Italian-built semi-rigid airship SR-1 along with the many rigid airships built at war’s end. Italy built a large number of semi-rigid airships (with a solid keel rather than a complete frame as with a true zeppelin) and these are also included.

The United States Navy gets its Shenandoah and Los Angeles, and the United States Army the big semi-rigid airship Roma. The French Dixmude, a former German zeppelin, is here as are Austria-Hungary’s small contingent.

New airship-centered scenarios, or modifications of current scenarios, are included for almost all of the Great War at Sea games: Mediterranean, U.S. Navy Plan Red, Jutland and U.S. Navy Plan Gold. (copyright, Avalanche Press 2007)

Given Avalanche's proclivity for creating, er.. "interesting 'what if' scenarios", may we look forward to a game that boasts giant multi-national air fleets fighting each other over the trenches or out at sea? Sure, it never could have happened. But it is nice to have the tools to simulate it.

GWAS Zeppelins pre order blurb site

To Arms, Comrades, to Arms!

Did anyone out there get the recent Avalanche Press flyer?

I'm very psyched about RED RUSSIA, a reworking of the SOLDIER KINGS system (which, to be honest, I'm not crazy about-- I don't DISlike it, it just never thrilled me) for the era of the Russian Revolution and Civil War. This is one of my favorite historical periods,and I suspect it will have me changing my mind about Soldier Kings (if anything can do it, it would be a game on this subject...).

There's not much on the AP website about it, just one piece of counter art...



The pub date seems to be "2006" but I suspect that might be moot at this stage. Anyone hear anything about this one? The price is nice at 40 simoleons.

SGMT

It's IGA time again

Already??

A long while back I got invited to work the historical wargaming selections committee for "The Gamer's Choice Awards" which morphed into "The International Gaming Awards". We actually take this duty fairly seriously. Well, it's decision time again, and we had to submit our top ten list of the games that were published in 2005. This will be winnowed down to a top 3.

My preliminaries (note that this is not in any order):

Conquest of the Empire (Eagle)

It's a reprint, yes. However, the addition of the Martin Wallace rules makes a simple plastic piece pusher into a very interesting strategic game with loads of eye candy.

Wellington (GMT)

Hands down my favorite wargame of 2005 (personally). Mark McGlaughlin's succesor to the Nappy Wars system surpasses the parent in a CDG system game that is just a pleasure to play.

Empire of the Sun (GMT)

Mark Herman (my old Booz Allen colleague!) is a wargame designer of note, who is constantly breaking new ground. Empire of the Sun is deserving of praise..

Men of Iron (GMT)

I usually like Berg's designs, and I really enjoyed playing this particular one. A bunch of smallish battles with a funky initiative system..

Bonaparte at Marengo (Simmons)

This game is in contention for top spot in my mind. On the face of it, it seems very simple block pushing game with the regular fog of war. The addition of the unique terrain rules really makes it a contest.

Down in Flames WWI (Verssen)

I am a big fan of the Down in Flames WW2 series from GMT and was very disappointed it never got published as a commercial product. However, Dan Verssen's new DTP company is cranking out professional looking products that require a little assembly.

Fire in the Sky (MMP)

MMP's translation of Tetsuya Nakamura's Pacific War game received a lot of raves in 2005, and with some justification.

Battleships at War (Minden)

Seems like this is pretty old for 2005, because I remember buying it a while ago. In any event, I'm a big fan of both Minden and their miniatures style ship system. Battleships at War basically is minis with paper, combining just about everything that's been published in the series so far.

Silent War (Compass)

Even though the game is hideously high priced (in my own opinion) I can't deny that Compass Games has finally put out a game that I have been jonesing for since the late 90s.

Gazala 1945 (avalanche)

This is my personal favorite of the "modern micros" that Avalanche has been publishing lately, most of all because it's not about the Eastern Front, but also because I love the graphics work done on this design. The map is wonderful.

2005 was a great year for wargame designs, which made my choices a lot harder than in years past.

This is around the time of the year I get more new wargames/history games than any other. Sometimes I get review copies (not the 'freebie' you think they are, there's a lot of work involved in these game reviews!). Sometimes I get birthday presents. In any event, here are some recent real wargame acquisitions and my first glance opinions about them.

(have patience... Blogger, for some reason, squishs layout tables and starts them halfway down the page... fie, blogger, FIE!)

First of all, there's REVOLUTION: THE DUTCH REVOLT by Phalanx. A very interesting game (on a small map) on a somewhat neglected subject. Revolution simulates the Eighty Years? War between Spain and the Netherlands. This epic struggle lasted from 1568 until 1648 and eventually brought independence to Holland and the northern provinces. In the south, the revolt was less successful and Belgium did not emerge as an independent state until after the Napoleonic era. Revolution is a game I have been wanting, because I love obscure subjects for wargames, and I like Phalanx as a company. This is one of their more "wargamey" wargames, with the exception of perhaps A HOUSE DIVIDED. It looks like it will be a real hoot to play, if somewhat longish.
The New version of ROMMEL IN THE DESERT (Columbia Games) showed up. This is a great block game simulating a simpler approach to the North African war using blocks to retain fog of war. This game is a closer cousin to HAMMER OF THE SCOTS than, say, EAST FRONT. Logistics cards are very important, much like the strategy cards in Hammer. My only problem with this is that I already own the earlier version of the game! I guess I can trade it off.
BEYOND NORMANY is the British addition to the Panzer Grenadier system by Avalanche Press. This is my first exposure to the system, which looks reasonably straightforward and a heck of a lot easier, than, say Advanced Squad Leader or Tobruk. I intend to give this one a try. The bits are lavish; nice (somewhat glarilnly yellow) folded maps, the standard isometric squad view counters. Surprisingly thin cardstock, I thought, but the art is wonderful. Oh, it comes with 42 carefully researched and playtested scenarios...
Last, and maybe the best acquisition of the bunch, FRIEDRICH by Histogames. I've been wanting to get this one since I played it at PREZCON last February. The system is unique, colorful, easy to play, easy to teach a newbie, but loaded with options (and, yes, a lot of luck of the draw). That's okay with me, I know it's a hoot to play.
And so, with these recent acquisitions, plus the recent CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE, I suspect I've acquired more WARgames than I can play in a year. I hope I can get at least one session in with something soon, and if I do, you'll read about it here.

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