1859, which covers both the 1859 Second Italian War of Independence and the 1864 Second Schleswig War.

The rules were designed specifically for large-scale battles of several divisions to several corps on each side (ideally with 6, 10, and 15mm figures) but the rule system was subsequently modified to accommodate much smaller engagements (with larger size figures) as well.

Besides the rules, 80 percent of the book is devoted to detailed historical notes, background information, orders of battle, and an extensive annotated bibliography. Fourteen exhaustively-researched historical battle scenarios are included in each book; these cover seven Italian and seven Danish scenarios in "1859". Both books are extensively illustrated in color throughout, and contain ample diagrams and examples of play. Summary "cheat sheets" are included.

Against The Odds, Classic 1 #2

Operation Cartwheel

“Operation Cartwheel” eventually included the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, the death of Yamamoto, Bougainville, multiple parachute drops, a Japanese counter-invasion, and the leap-frogging strategy up New Guinea. It involved the top commanders on both sides, sometimes working in close harmony and sometimes at ends. (The Japanese army and navy had conflicting concepts of how to defend the area and each pursued their own ideas!)

Now, you can take charge of difficult decisions. The Allied commander must juggle resources at the end of a long, thin supply line. He must take risks to succeed. The Japanese commander must counter Allied strikes...fighting to delay, while always seeking the chance to strike back and make Allied risks more costly than they can afford.

With 288 5/8" counters and a 22 x 34 inch map (each hex representing about 100 miles) Operation Cartwheel integrates separate ground, naval, and air games. Logistics is key, as it was at the time, but not a burden in game mechanics.

This Annual also features a bonus game on Gazala 1942, using the Stand at Mortain game system, with a full color (and larger than post card!) map and 64 die-cut 5/8" counters. Like all Annuals, the biggest challenge is getting everything back into the box! Sign up for yours today, or with your next subscription.

Americans seldom notice the enormous changes that the Napoleonic Wars caused to the Western Hemisphere...things far larger and with much greater effects than our own War of 1812.

The Louisiana Purchase really started it, as Napoleon sold Jefferson a large block of land that really "belonged" to Spain. In shifting their forces to try and limit American expansion, the Spanish-loyal authorities opened the door to losing the remainder of two continents. Guerra a Muerte depicts the 14 year struggle that saw Spain's possessions in the hemisphere change from "almost everything not U.S." to "Cuba and Hispanola."

As in the American Revolution, the local population could be divided into "patriots/revolutionaries" on one side, "loyalists/Royalists" on the other, and a huge middle block of those who wished to stay out of battle-- over which both sides exerted tremendous pressure, making these episodes as bitter as any period in history. The game title means, "War to the Death," and comes from a proclamation Simon Bolivar made to all Spaniards in Venezuela-- "support us or else."

Warfare took place from the remote northern border with America to the tip of the continent now shared by Chile and Argentina. Progress ebbed and flowed, with territories changing hands several times and the intensity and size of battles slowly escalating.

The overall war is a fascinating struggle of varied elements, from Spanish and "Royalist" troops to formed patriot units, militias, armed mobs, Indians, and mercenaries. Actions include slave revolts, naval assaults, guerilla war, battles with a hostile environment, and the interplay of politics with economics...all depicted and intermeshed to affect overall play as they affected real events. The game offers a map from "New Spain" to "Rio de la Plata," with area movement, one-year turns, and 280 half-inch counters.

Guerra a Muerte offers a chance to understand a hardly-heard-of period of Western history, the effects of which are still with us today.

It was sort of like "Pearl Harbor" all over again, but worse. Twice as many allied deaths, 400 ships lost, while the authorities resisted both the proven convoy system and the common-sense approach of simply turning the lights out on coastal cities.

It could have been much worse. While Stalin knew about Pearl Harbor in advance, Hitler did not. The Kriegsmarine started Operation Drumroll with just FIVE submarines and were navigating with US tourist guide books. But, with cities alight, US destroyers sitting in port, and merchant ships sailing with navigation lights burning, the Germans called it, "The Second Happy Time."

Some say the publicity campaign, "Loose lips sink ships" was not really about keeping information from German agents (which were almost non-existent) but to keep people from talking about the Allied disaster happening within sight of America's shores. It got so bad the British sent ships and planes to help America defend the East Coast!

Paukenschlag ("Operation Drumroll") covers Germany's attack on America, from January to June 1942, using the historical U-boat capabilities and optionally, adding the German long-range bombers which could have taken part. The game board is based on the sea maps the U-Boat commanders actually used themselves, covering the East Coast, Gulf, and Caribbean. Key elements like radar, "Huffduff," German "Milkcows," and a carrier task force are included.

Movement is simple. Decisions are complex. The next move is yours.

Miniature armies - carefully painted and labeled with unit names, strengths, and abilities - have been found in Egyptian tombs, suggesting that "wargaming" goes back a long time.

Of those miniature armies, no units take more precedence than the chariots - the "panzers" of their day. Keep in mind that horses of this period were too small to "ride" with a man on their back in a "cavalry" way. Only chariots offered a battle platform faster than sandals, and provided the "shock troops" of their day and a platform to designate the aristocracy and elite peoples. Alexander and the Roman legions might sneeze at chariot power... but not for another 900 years!

Kadesh must be the chariot battle of all time. Sources conflict and disagree, but there may have been as many as 5000 chariots in this twisted, confused, and bloody battle, fought to determine the borders between Egypt and the Hittite confederacy...

As an early example of "spin," Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II claimed a tremendous victory and the total vanquishing of the Hittite army... although he also signed a peace treaty that left the disputed city of Kadesh in the hands of the Hittites and never returned. Hmm. (A later and more formal treaty between Ramses and the next Hittite king is reproduced on the walls of the United Nations, as one of the first recorded international peace treaties. Ramses did not get Kadesh with that one either.)

Now you can take the reins and lead your lines/lions into battle. Day of the Chariot: Kadesh offers a classic design by Gene Dickens fully updated into a tactical view of one of the most-discussed battles of middle eastern history, with 340 double-sided counters, 30 minute turns, and everything you need to play a system emphasizing command control and flexibility (or the lack thereof). Three distinct scenarios provide the battle that did happen (according to Ramses), the battle that both sides had "prearranged" to happen, and the smaller, more confused battle that historians think actually did happen. (You may be surprised how different the "same" battle can be!)

Not War But Murder covers the week-long operation which marked the end of Grant's 30 day, "smash 'em up" campaign begun at Wilderness. Like a bloody chess match, Grant and Lee made move and counter move to get to this point, with Lee well aware that a false move could end the war quickly.

Not War But Murder, by designer Michael Rinella, is his newest area-map game, and his first take on an American Civil War battle. This game includes one 22" by 34" inch area map, 170 5/8" counters, and 12 pages of rules that include designer notes, and optional rules. It also marks the debut of what Rinella calls the "diceless advantage". In previous area-impulse games, from Monty's Gamble all the way to the Avalon Hill games of the early 1990s, an "advantage chit" allowed the person holding it to re-roll an single die roll (or rolls if it was a combat). In NWBM this changes. The player may spend the advantage to gain specific game benefits, automatically. Thus, rather than being hoarded, this "twist of fate" is likely to hop back and forth, as each player strives to save a desperate situation.

Kulikovo 1380 is a game covering the battle between the Golden Horde clan of Mongols and the collected principalities that we know as Russia under the growing leadership of Muscovy, and the Grand Prince of Moscow, Dmitri Ivanovich, later entitled Donskoi for his victory at Kulikovo (which is right near the Don River). For 150 years, Tartar armies had readily destroyed all Russian opposition, and Kulikovo was the first sign that Russia was starting to emerge from Tatar domination. It would take several centuries more.

Kulikovo is considered a major turning point/battle of the Middle Ages, in that it not only showed that a western-style, “heavy” army could defeat the Mongols, but it was also the first major step in the unification of the various Russian principalities under the leadership of Muscovy.

Kulikovo is an accessible, fast-playing, fun game of low complexity. Gamers who have played ATO’s Suleiman the Great (ATO #9), and/or GMT Games’ Men Of Iron should find all of this quite familiar.

Imperial Sunset is a moderate level complexity simulation of the largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The battle was fought from October 23-26 1944 as the US returned to the Philippines, landing on the island of Leyte. The US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy fought a series of actions that collectively have been recorded as the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The historical result was a decisive defeat of the Imperial Navy, virtually eliminating it as a viable force for the remainder of the war. For the US Navy, it was a victory that was almost squandered due to command problems.

Each game turn is six hours; there are three day turns and one night turn for each calendar day. Each sea hex is approximately 25 nautical miles across. The game map is used for all Task Force movement and movement by air units. Two tactical displays are included, one for naval surface engagements and one for air attacks.

Contents:

La vallée de la mort ("Death Valley") is a simulation of the epic siege that ended the French colonial presence in Asia and marked the beginning of a 21 year struggle for national unification. The game is designed for 2 players, one taking the role of the French commander of the fortress complex at Dien Bien Phu, the other of General Giap, commanding the Viet Minh forces laying siege. The game and scenarios are small enough to be played solitaire, however.

Each turn of the game represents one week. Each assault impulse represents one day. A point of combat strength represents 150 to 200 men, 6 aircraft, 5 or 6 guns, or a single tank. An inch on the map corresponds to 700 yards.

Also included in this issue is a bonus mini-game on Na San in late 1952. This smaller battle, similar to Dien Bien Phu, the French won, but lulled them into thinking their strategy was correct. Compare just how much each side learned about the other over the course of the two battles!

Dissatisfied with the Mexican President’s decision to halt all payments on foreign debts until the Mexican economy improved, a coalition of European Powers that included the French Empire, Spain and Great Britain agreed to send an expeditionary corps to capture the main port of Vera Cruz and hold it until debt payments were restored. The British and Spanish monarchs did not reckon with the ambitions of Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and Emperor of the French. The wily Napoleon III schemed to conquer Mexico and set up a puppet regime that would bleed Mexico of its treasures to finance a resurgent French Empire.

Bittereinder is a two-player simulation of the entire 2nd Anglo-Boer War of 1899 to 1902. It depicts the events arising from President (of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek - ZAR) Paul Kruger's ultimatum to the British Empire on October 9, 1899, demanding the following:

As 1941 moved from winter into spring and then into summer, it was becoming increasingly apparent that war was coming to the United States. Most American political and military leaders viewed the Nazi war machine in Europe as the greatest menace, and fear that US intervention/involvement would come too late grew with each passing month. Most who viewed the escalating conflict in Asia felt that diplomacy and economic sanctions could bring Japanese aggression on that continent to an end; even if military force was needed, US and western military prowess would make short work of the armed forces from the empire of the Rising Sun. The sudden attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, the devastating air raids in the Philippines the next day, as well as the loss of Great Britain's battleships Repulse and Price of Wales brought the war home in a shocking and horrifying manner.

Despite pre-war warnings and plans, only in the Pacific, the Phillipines, and China were there Americans ready and able to fight the Axis forces. Of those, only a small group of mercenary airmen and ground crew, desperately outnumbered and led by man who had been vilified while in the US Army Air Force, met with success in the opening weeks of the war.

Suleiman the Magnificent is a game covering the massive battle on August 29th, 1526 between the Ottoman Empire and the army of the Kingdom of Hungary that eventually resulted in the fall of the latter kingdom and the disappearance of Hungary as an independent country for 400 years. The Hungarians numbered around 35,000 (including artillerists), the Ottomans, about 60,000. While there is much disagreement about numbers at this battle, all sources agree that the Ottomans did outnumber the Hungarians significantly. The Hungarian front line was stretched rather thinly to match, or attempt to match, the frontage that would be presented by the Ottomans. The Hungarians had, as was the practice for the last 200 years in European warfare, dug a trench in front of their front line infantry and artillery to give them a defense advantage. The actual battle, which started at around 3:00 PM, lasted but a few hours, maybe less.

Each combat unit represents about 750 men. The map scale is about 225 yards per hex and depicts the flat and, because of the proximity of the oft-overflowing Danube, somewhat soft and, in many places, slippery battlefield at Mohacs.

The newly formed United States faced a challenge with its western territories. Many of the soldiers and colonists of the original 13 colonies looked forward to settling the regions along the Ohio River, but the new nation lacked the resources and force to rapidly expand into the areas beyond the Appalachian mountains. Further, the British had not withdrawn from their western forts, in clear violation of the Treaty of Paris, 1783. Great Britain sought to maintain the lucrative fur trade with the native residents, as well as to put pressure upon the new, upstart nation. As armed clashes and atrocities between settlers and natives increased in ferocity, the way of the warpath led increasingly to the dark and bloody ground of the Ohio frontier.

A Dark and Bloody Ground is a simulation of the five year struggle for control of Ohio in the Old Northwest Territory. One player assumes the role of the leader of the United States armed forces (militia and regular US Army), while the opponent operates the various Native American nations, and their potential allies from Great Britain and Canada. The game can, however, be played solitaire with little effort.

When dealing with the Battle of Stalingrad, one hardly knows whether the "whimper" is represented by 6th Army's surrender in February, 1943... or better represented by the mere 6000 survivors of 6th Army (out of 91,000 captured) who finally made it home in 1955.

But if the whimper can be debated, the final "bang" is certain... Wintergewitter. Operation "Winter Storm" began as the final relief effort of surrounded Stalingrad, with a scratch Panzer Korps made up of units from all over the theater (and the strongest, 6th Panzer Division, coming back from refit in France!). Supported by already shaken Rumanian units, the force had 110 kilometers, two rivers, and two Soviet armies to cross, compounded by unusually mild early winter conditions, with as much rain as snow. (That would change after the battle.) They made it over halfway to Stalingrad, with the attack called off when 6th Panzer had to be used to support an Italian collapse which threatened losses even more catastrophic than Stalingrad.

Every second counts in this action packed game of strategy and tactics, as each player attempts to take control of the battlefield and become absolute commander.

Skill, cunning and tactics are the only thing that will see you through!

If you think you have nerves of steel, and the strength of character to make men take the battle to the enemy under a hall of withering fire, then maybe you can be 'Battle Group Commander'!

Soften the enemy up first with pop up attacks on any unit that is getting too close with the helicopter, or bombard longer-range targets with the launcher. Try and take out as much of the enemy specialists as soon as possible, but remember while you are doing all that to your enemy, they will be trying to do the same to you!

Fire and Movement Issue 147

This is an update of the popular game that originally appeared in S&T over a third of a century ago, and was then expanded and released in boxed format early in the 1980s. This is a two-map game, in which the action begins on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and continues through the Allied breakout and subsequent drive to the Seine River. Two one-map scenarios are also included: one covering the landings and fight to secure the beaches from 6 June to 15 July, and a second covering Patton's famed breakout operation. Units of maneuver are mostly regiments and brigades with some battalions and divisions. Randy Heller has provided a variant to add more of the historical order of battle with new counters for flak units and other small German units that were important to the stubborn defense. Joe Youst has spearheaded the development and playtesting of the updated rules.

The Civil War in the Far West: The New Mexico Campaign, 1862 (NMC), is a two-player, low-to-intermediate complexity simulation of the Confederate invasion of the US southwest. It's primarily a strategic-level design, but it also contains operational undertones. The Confederate player is generally on the offensive, but the situation also calls for the Union player to make counterattacks.

Each hexagon on the map represents nine miles (14.6 kilometers) from side to opposite side. The units of maneuver for both sides are represented using a "strength point" system in which each point equals approximately 100 troops. Each artillery unit represents about six guns. Each game turn represents half a month. The game has been designed by Charles Diamond.

The Confederate combat units are illustrated with cavalry icons; those of the Union are shown as infantry. That was a broad compromise adopted due to the historic fact both "armies" engaged here - which, in reality, amounted to roughly a reinforced brigade on each side - are probably best described as combined-arms dragoon-and-foot combinations. Their unit compositions varied, as did their combat tactics, with the day-to-day availability of remounts and other supplies. Since the main sub-component of the Confederate force was known as Sibley's Cavalry Brigade, while the Union roster was primarily made up of infantry companies, we went with the icon presentation you see on the counters.

Artillery, supply wagons and depots are printed in Union blue on one side and in Confederate gray on their other. That's because those units may be captured during play and pressed into service in the army of the capturing side.

Third Reich is one of the best-known board wargames ever published. It came to Avalanche Press in 2001, followed by Great Pacific War in 2003, and a Player's Guide in 2005.

Rumors of War is a new expansion for either or both games, with a map stretching from the eastern edge of the Third Reich Deluxe Map to the Ural Mountains, and adding Iran, Iraq and the Persian Gulf on its southern edge. It's at the same size and scale as the Deluxe map, with new objectives and countries to conquer.

There are also 80 die-cut-and-mounted playing pieces, with the Iraqi and Iranian armed forces, Russian nationalists, Irish, Latvians, British, Italian and Soviet marines, German cavalry and mountain troops, Indonesian nationalists, atomic bomb markers and much, much more!

David Meyler brings us variants for Iran, for Romania as a major power, and of course for more things Dutch. Jeff Adams gives us strategy tips for Operation Sea Lion, Tim McBeth makes the dismal science of economics exciting, and William Sariego looks at island-hopping strategies and the French war effort.

Rumors of War is not playable by itself, but instead brings more fun to your gaming table with either or both of Third Reich and Great Pacific War.

When Avalanche Press brought back the classic John Prados' Third Reich in 2001, they always intended that it be followed by a sequel covering the Pacific Theater with the same game system and at the same scale. They brought out Great Pacific War in 2003, and the next step seemed clear: a player’s guide with extra units and scenarios, plus strategy hints.

The book comes with 120 die-cut and mounted counters, just like those in the games themselves.

There are new scenarios covering two very real possibilities that never occurred: a 1936 war between France and the Soviet Union following the Nazi occupation of the Rhineland, and a 1946 war between East and West. Two smaller scenarios concentrate on the Spanish Civil War and the Japanese invasion of China.