Duel in the Dark Big Bag of Expansions

A collection of small expansions for Duel in the Dark

Contents include:

1 British searchlight (ground defense object)

1 British 3.7-Inch QF (ground defense object)

2 Railroad Flak 12.8 cm (ground defense object)

1 Skilled Gun crew (special medals)

1 Acoustic Mirror (ground defense object)

1 Quad Flak 2 cm (ground defense object)

1 Ju88 “night fighter” (new plan with fuel gauge and observer badge)

1 3-5 player variant

1 The Walls Have Ears (includes target city tokens)

$20.00

Island of Death

Sitting astride the sea lanes from Italy to North Africa, the island of Malta hobbled Axis attempts to supply their forces in Libya and Egypt. Frustrated Axis planners hatched a series of operations designed to capture the fortress, known as Operation Herclues to the Germans and Operation C.3 to the Italians. Several times the assault seemed imminent, but at each juncture the Axis held back from rolling the dice. Now we let you see what might have happened.

The game includes two scenarios, plus variants covering various Axis and Allied plans to defend and attack the island. The game system, used previously in Red Steel, and in our proposed Classic Wargames Alamein and Sicily, is one of our more involved yet thanks to the island’s small size takes only a few hours to play.

British gunners on Malta await the Axis, 1942.

Game pieces represent companies and battalions. Units are rated for morale, attack, defense and movement. Superior morale will assist a unit in several game functions but particularly in combat. Tank units are rated for armor quality; anti-tank units have a similar rating used to fight tanks. There are very few tanks on Malta, where infantry will determine the outcome.

Artillery is the most powerful weapon on the battlefield. Artillery units may support an attack or a defense. And artillery must be supplied; running out of artillery ammunition is a very bad thing, and both players must choose where to use their shells. Each game “day” is divided into three daylight and one night turns.

The map is divided into hexagons (“hexes”) and shows the entire island at a scale of 1 kilometer per hex.

The British defense is built around the division-sized Malta garrison of nine regular British battalions, plus four more of the King’s Own Maltese Regiment. They are backed by plentiful artillery and anti-aircraft units. In the first wave, the Axis has a German parachute brigade and a brigade-sized Italian parachute division, plus a small Italian air-landing division. There are also commando units from the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. The second wave has two Italian infantry divisions. Italian warships, and German and Italian aircraft, provide support for the attack.

$29.99

War Plan Crimson

War Plan Crimson is a game that simulates a hypothetical invasion of Canada by the United States some time between 1935 and 1939. The game is designed for two players, one representing the leader of the armed forces of the United States deployed against Canada (the US player) and the other representing the commander of the Canadian and British forces that would defend against a foreign invasion (the Commonwealth or CW player). …

$19.95

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Autumn Mist: The Battle of the Bulge

Autumn Mist: The Battle of the Bulge is a simulation game of the the German last-ditch offensive through the Ardennes forest in December 1944. The Allied player controls all American and British (UK) units. The German player controls units from the German Army, the Schutzstaffel (SS), and the Luftwaffe (German Air Force).

CONTENTS: 20 page color rulebook, 280 die-cut counters, Folded color hex map, Cardstock charts & tables, 2 dice!
Complexity: Moderate
Map Scale: 5 miles per hex
Unit Scale: Battalion to Division
Time Scale: 2-3 days/ turn
Players: 2
Solitaire Suitability: Low
Playing Time: 2-3 hours

$21.95

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Bitter Victory

After chasing Axis forces out of Africa in the spring of 1943, the Allied armies prepared to return to Europe. After studying several possible landing sites, the British and Americans decided to invade Sicily. Strategically located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, its capture would help secure Allied communications thorough this vital waterway and de-stabilize Italy’s fascist regime.

In June, the British Eighth Army landed on the island’s eastern coast and the American Seventh Army on the south. Axis forces resisted bitterly, but finally were chased off the island.

The game includes four scenarios, covering various Axis and Allied plans to defend and attack the island as well as the historical situation. The game system, used previously in America Triumphant, Alsace 1945 and Red God of War, takes only a few hours to play.

Game pieces represent battalions, regiments, brigades and divisions. Headquarters are vital to activate units and send them into action; supply is also important to keeping your units at full efficiency and players must choose how to allocate their resources. There will never be enough of them to accomplish everything at once.

$19.99

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Defiant Russians 1941

The topic is the 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union. The map portrays the western Soviet Union from the Polish border to the area east of Moscow, and from the Arctic regions on the north to the Turkish border on the south. It's divided into hexagons, at a scale of 45 miles across each.

Players control the actual units that fought in this campaign. Axis units mostly represent army corps. These include German, Finnish, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish and Romanian units. German tank units provide the real striking power for the Axis, and these are the strongest units in the game.

Defiant Russia isn't a very large game. The map is 17x22 inches, and fits easily on a small table. There are 140 playing pieces, and it comes in a small box that's easy to store. The game plays very quickly, concluding in about 90 minutes, with a minimum of charts and tables to consult. It's suitable for ages 10 and up and a steal at just

$19.99

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Red Vengeance

Like Defiant Russia, this game is designed to be easy to learn and fun. The map portrays the western Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Romania and eastern Germany, with parts of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria as well.

Players control the actual units that fought in this campaign. Axis units mostly represent army corps. These include German, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Romanian units; the latter two will eventually switch sides. The Axis player actually starts the game with more tank units, the real striking power in this game, than the Soviets. But as they’re lost they are difficult to replace, while Soviet power just keeps surging.

Soviets are generally armies. Unlike Defiant Russia, the typical Soviet unit is as good as the typical German unit, and many of them are better. The Soviet player’s goals are very simple: drive directly for the heart of Nazi power. The Axis player can’t simply hold back on defense, but must counterattack judiciously.

Like Defiant Russia, Red Vengeance isn't a very large game. The 17x22-inch map fits easily on a small table. There are 140 playing pieces, and it comes in a small box that's easy to store. The game plays very quickly, concluding in about 90 minutes, with a minimum of charts and tables to consult. It's suitable for ages 10 and up.

$19.99

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Alsace 1945

Like any dying organism, the Nazi regime lashed out against its enemies during late 1944 and early 1945. The most famous of these actions, the so-called “Battle of the Bulge,” is the focus of our America Triumphant game. Less well known but equally critical in destroying Germany’s military potential was the offensive in Alsace, Operation North Wind, which opened a few weeks later.

Along the southern portion of border between France and Germany lay the plain of Alsace and the city of Strasbourg. The province of Alsace and its political capital, Strasbourg, had been annexed by the Germans in 1871, returned in 1918 and retaken by the Germans in 1940. The city in many ways represented the prestige of France and its capture would exercise an immense influence over Allied operations in the battles that raged across the plain in the closing months of the Second World War.

Alsace 1945 covers the American offensives of November and December 1944 and the desperate German counterattack in January. The game system, used previously in America Triumphant, covers these three battles in scenarios requiring only a few hours to play. A fourth covers a hypothetical German attack launched in conjunction with the Ardennes (“Battle of the Bulge”) offensive to the north and capable of being played alone or with with America Triumphant.

With 140 game pieces and one 22x17-inch map, the game covers the battles at the regimental and battalion level and includes the effects of outside political and military events, the biggest being the Ardennes offensive.

The following scenarios are included:

• The Alsace Offensive. As the Allied armies closed up everywhere on the German border in November 1944, it seemed that the war was nearing the end. It was no different in the American Seventh Army sector where the XVth Corps attemped to drive the Germans back north of Strasbourg.

• Drive to the Westwall. The American November offensive ground to a halt with few gains for the losses suffered. After reorganizing, the Americans resumed their drive toward the Westwall on the 5th of December. German forces had been stretched thin as the High Command ordered mobile formations transferred out of the area to prepare for the upcoming offensive in the Ardennes. Those remaining had been bled white by the American attacks. With the new 12th Armored Division on loan to Patton’s Third Army, where it replaced the worn out 4th Armored Division, the two American corps attacked north in the morning hours.

• Operation NORDWIND. The Ardennes offensive stretched the American Seventh Army’s front as units spread out to hold territory previously held by units of the Third Army sent north to attack the southern flank of the German penetration of the Allied lines. With the German advance stalled, Hitler looked for an opportunity to strike a blow against the Allies and came up with the Alsace region of France where the Germans believed the Americans were especially weak.

• Wacht am Rhein South. The only real chance the Germans had of seriously disrupting the Allies on the Western Front was to attack in the Ardennes and Alsace as close together as possible. This scenario presumes that the German High Command was able to bring together the necessary units and supplies without the Allies suspecting an attack was in the works. Even assuming complete ineptitude on the part of the Allied intelligence community, the Germans would have had a difficult time assembling the forces required to mount a credible attack in Alsace. Unlike the American defenders to the north, the Seventh Army was actively advancing, even if only with a portion of its strength. While not realistic, it is interesting to examine the possibility of a theater-wide offensive. This situation can be played alone or in conjunction with America Triumphant.

Alsace 1945 is packaged just like Defiant Russia in a small box for just $19.99. Included are 140 game pieces and one 22x17 inch map.

$19.99

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Gazala 1942

Starting with the Italian invasion of Egypt in September, 1940, war flowed back and forth across the North African deserts for 18 months. The summer of 1942 found the Axis and Allied armies facing one another west of Tobruk, where the Commonwealth forces had dug in behind extensive minefields. Each army prepared to renew the offensive, but the Axis won that race. On the night of May 26th four mobile divisions turned the southern flank of the British line at Gazala.

Gazala simulates the critical battle in the summer of ’42 that led to the fall of Tobruk and the arrival of the Axis armies at the gates to the Nile delta. We’ve shown the battles before on a tactical level in our Desert Rats game. With 140 game pieces and one 22x17-inch map, Gazala’s three scenarios can be played in one to eight hours. The game system is very similar to that in America Triumphant and Alsace 1945, with the addition of anti-tank fire. Most units are brigades or regiments, with a few battalions as well (usually tanks). Italian, German, British, South African, Indian and Free French units are represented.

The following scenarios are included in the game:

Operation AIDA

The Axis in Africa saw their position quickly becoming untenable position as Allied strength grew almost on a daily basis. Soon the British would have overwhelming power with which to eject the Axis from the continent. An immediate attack seemed the best, maybe the only, hope to win the war in Africa. The attack against the British Gazala defenses set out late on May 26th. Initially the Axis attacks gained little ground and suffered casualties at a rate, which lower than those being inflicted on the British, would soon erode German and Italian striking power.

Opening Moves

The Axis desert offensive in May 1942 was a gamble. The British Army was strong and known to be preparing an offensive of their own. The first few days of the attack went well for the German and Italian formations, but soon threatened to develop into a battle of attrition that only the British would win. Erwin Rommel turned an all-but-stalemated battle into a victory the likes of which the Axis would never again see in Africa.

The Offensive the British Never Launched

The British did not meekly await the Axis attack at Gazala. They had been extending the desert railroad line from the Delta in order to more easily move reinforcements and supplies to the front. Immediately following the completion of the railroad extension, General Ritchie, commanding the Desert Army, planned to attack. He expected to wear down the Axis forces by virtue of his superiority in armor and drive them from Cyrenaica. The British attack was, fatefully, scheduled to begin several days ahead of the Axis offensive, but delays in the railroad construction program pushed it back and the Germans and Italians went first. If the railroad had been finished on time. . . .

The game is packaged just like Defiant Russia in a small box, for just $19.99. Included are 140 game pieces and one 22x17 inch map.

$19.99

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Panzer Grenadier: Sinister Forces

The four years of brutal warfare on the Eastern Front brought the political troops of both sides into front-line fighting. Formed to control civilians rather than fight armed enemies, the Soviet NKVD and the much larger German Waffen SS each committed mass murders in the name of ideology and from simple animal barbarism. Knowing their well-deserved fate if captured, they often fought with suicidal fanaticism.

Sinister Forces brings background articles and scenarios covering these troops and their battles to the Panzer Grenadier game system. It is not playable by itself, but requires Eastern Front to play most of the scenarios, and Afrika Korps or Desert Rats to play all of them. This is a book supplement complete with a full set of die-cut and mounted counters, much like Great War at Sea: Dreadnoughts.

Scenarios take place on the Eastern Front. The SS troops are of generally lower quality than the corresponding German Army pieces of Eastern Front, reflecting the lower standards of training and recruitment for these political formations. Background articles place the scenarios in the full context of the war in Russia.

New weapons also appear. The SS wield huge 220mm mortars seized from the French army in 1940, French-made B1 heavy tanks, B1 tanks converted to carry flamethrowers, Soviet-made T-34 tanks, and new forms of transport: light SPW 250 half-tracks and fast Volkswagen personnel carriers, the famous Kubelwagen.

There are SS units included of high combat value: special pieces and scenarios for the Norwegian ski battalion and for the Finnish SS battalion.

By contrast, the NKVD troops are of generally higher quality than the Red Army’s rank-and-file. Though used like the SS to murder the regime’s opponents, its suspected opponents, and other people for no particular reason, NKVD troopers served longer than their army counterparts and had more training behind them. They usually fought well when deployed against the Germans, but lacked artillery, tanks and heavy weapons.

Gentleman scholar Greg Guerrero, an expert on the Soviet military, provides the background commentary for Stalin’s political army. Both the NKVD “field army” and the elite commandos of OMBSON are covered as is the Soviet partisan movement, with new counters for Partisans and scenarios for their use.

$24.99

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Strange Defeat: The Fall of France, 1940

In the spring of 1940, the French Army, generally believed to be the best in the world, again faced her mortal enemy, the German Army. With the last war scarcely 20 years past, this one seemed destined to develop along similar lines. British forces came ashore in strength and both nations made a show of cooperating. Few believed that Belgium could stay out of the conflict, but her leaders continued to act as if it was possible.

When the attack finally came, the speed and ferocity of modern warfare overwhelmed the Dutch and Belgian armies in the first few days and the French and British not long after. Air power, paratroopers and massed armor caught the Allies flat-footed and unable to effectively respond. In six short weeks two more countries fell under Nazi control, the French Army was defeated and the British ejected from the continent. None could have foreseen this strange defeat just a few short weeks before.

Strange Defeat is a sequel to Defiant Russia and Red Vengeance. Like those games, it’s designed as an easy to learn, fun game. The map portrays the Netherlands, Belgium, western Germany and northern France.

Players control the actual units that fought in this campaign; most of them represent army corps with a handful of divisions. The typical Allied unit is as good as the typical German unit, and many of them are better. The German player must play to his or her advantages: an air force designed for tactical support, parachute regiments to assault key points, and concentration of force.

Like Defiant Russia and Red Vengeance, Strange Defeat isn't a very large game. The map is 34 x 22 inches, divided into very large hexes for ease of play. There are 140 playing pieces, and it comes in a small box that's easy to store. The game plays very quickly, concluding in about 90 minutes, with a minimum of charts and tables to consult. It's suitable for ages 10 and up and a steal at just $19.99.

$19.99

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Freikorps

Design: Brian Train

FREIKORPS is a simulation game depicting a hypothetical invasion of Germany by the Soviet Union’s “Red Army of Workers and Peasants” in 1920. The game is designed for two players, one representing the irresistible forces of proletarian
revolution (the Red player), and the other the impervious
alliance of anti-Bolshevist forces that would have been arrayed to oppose such an invasion (the White player).

The game begins just after the Red player’s forces have won the Battle for Warsaw in August 1920. Sensing that the time is ripe to “carry Revolution to the rest of Europe on the points of Red bayonets,” the leadership of the Soviet Union has decided to seize Berlin, capital of a Germany in political and economic disarray. However, it is already mid-summer and the Soviet Union cannot sustain a military effort of this size past the onset of bad weather at the end of October. The Red player has just ten weeks to change the course of world history.

• CONTENTS: 20 page color rulebook, 280 die-cut counters, Folded color hex map, Cardstock charts & tables, 2 dice!
• Complexity: Medium.
• Map Scale: 15 miles per hex.
• Unit Scale: Brigade/Division.
• Time Scale: One week/turn.
• Players: 2.
• Solitaire Suitability: Good.
• Playing Time: 2-3 hours.

$19.95

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Panzer Grenadier: South Africa’s War

The Union of South Africa entered World War II with some reluctance — three days of debate raged before Great War hero Jan C. Smuts split the ruling Union Party to force a declaration of war. South African forces fought in the conquest of Italian East Africa, and in the campaigns in Egypt and Libya.

South Africa’s War is a supplement to the Panzer Grenadier series, focused on the battles of South African forces in Somaliland, Ethiopia, Egypt and Libya between 1940 and 1942. Two South African divisions saw action during these campaigns, seeing some of the war’s fiercest actions at the Juba crossings, Gazala, Operation Crusader and of course Tobruk. And in the vanguard of the Allied armored advances rolled the justly-famed South African armored car regiments. This module is not playable by itself, but requires ownership of Desert Rats and Afrika Korps to enjoy all of the scenarios.

South Africa’s War includes 88 die-cut and mounted playing pieces. All of them represent South African forces: tanks, armored cars, infantry, machine gun, mortar, anti-tank, artillery and of course leaders.

$17.99

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Great War at Sea: Jutland

History’s best-known naval battle was just one part of the ongoing four-year struggle to control the seas around Germany’s coasts. If the German High Seas Fleet could catch and destroy a portion of the much larger British Grand Fleet, the blockade suffocating Imperial Germany might finally be broken.

Great War at Sea: Jutland is a completely new edition of our long-retired North Sea game. It covers not only the signature battle, but also the many other sorties of the High Seas Fleet like the Scarborough, Lowestoft and Gorleston Raids, the Battle of Dogger Bank and Helgoland Bight.

Like all games in the series, this one is packed with scenarios. Along with the operations in the North Sea, the game also includes the bitterly-fought naval war in the Baltic Sea. Here the roles are reversed, with the smaller Imperial Russian Navy aggressively seeking an advantage against the larger German forces. The Russian cruiser raids are all covered, as well as the climactic Battle of Moon Sound.

The map covers the North and Baltic Seas, as well as the waters around the British Isles. It’s larger than the map in the previous edition, and done to the new standards Terry Strickland set with Leyte Gulf. The smaller navies of the region are all represented as well: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands.

But it’s the major powers that get most of the ships. The Royal Navy is huge, with ships ranging from ancient paddle-driven minesweepers to modern battle cruisers like Repulse and Renown. Famous ships like the battleships Dreadnought and Iron Duke, the inaptly-named battle cruiser Invincible, and early aircraft carriers like Engadine and Argus are all here.

The German High Seas Fleet has all the ships that challenged England, from the tiny coast defense ship Siegfried up to the huge battleships Sachsen and Württemburg. The Germans have zeppelins and submarines to help redress the balance somewhat, but it will take skilled play to overcome Britain’s sea dogs.

Russia has modern dreadnoughts, but will depend on her armored cruisers and a squadron of older battleships for most missions.

As with other games in the series, the tactical map is a generic blue field of hexagons, used to resolve surface combat. There, ships maneuver and fight using their gunnery and torpedo factors. Each player rolls a number of dice according to the ship’s capabilities, hitting on a result of 6. Gunnery and torpedo damage tables give the results: ships can suffer damage to engines, hull or armament.

$64.99

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Second World War at Sea: Bismarck

If there’s one ship every naval wargamer knows, it’s the German battleship Bismarck. Forty thousand tons of menace, unleashed into the North Atlantic in the spring of 1941 to wreak havoc on Allied shipping.

The British Home Fleet tried to stop her, but Bismarck’s guns ripped apart the battle cruiser Hood. The pride of the Royal Navy went to the bottom of the Denmark Strait southwest of Iceland and Bismarck disappeared into the fog. But HMS Prince of Wales had managed to hit Bismarck below the water line, and she left behind her a slick of fuel oil. The British Home Fleet relentlessly tracked the German warship, and she finally sank beneath a hail of gunfire.

Bismarck: Commerce Raiding in the North Atlantic is the latest installment in the Second World War at Sea series, and the one wargamers have demanded since the series debuted. The game covers the famous hunt for the Bismarck, but also all of the other German commerce raids into the Atlantic between the fall of 1939 and the summer of 1941. The breakout of the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau is here, the raids of the cruisers Admiral Hipper and Scheer, and much more. Like all games in the series, this one is packed with scenarios.

The German player is trying to sneak past the British picket lines, and then seek out and destroy the vital convoys that bring troops, food and supplies from the rest of the world to Britain. The British player has vastly superior forces, but the Atlantic is a huge place. There’s plenty of open ocean in which a German raider can hide. When more than one of them is loose, the task facing the Royal Navy is even more daunting.

The Germans receive all the raiders that entered the North Atlantic, famous ships like Prinz Eugen, but also some that could have but did not, like the battleship Tirpitz and the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. The Royal Navy contingent is very large, and there’s also a large part of the United States Navy involved. Though the Americans did not fight the Germans, on more than one occasion American task forces joined the hunt for German raiders with orders to engage them if located, even though the two nations were not yet at war. There are several French ships involved, and the proud Polish destroyer Piorun as well.

If the Germans are operating close to land, they do have formidable air support available, though this appears in a semi-random fashion similar to Bomb Alley. But the real prizes are found far from land, where the ships are on their own. Submarines play a much larger part in this game than in previous titles in the series as well.

The game has one of the larger operational maps in the series; the North Atlantic is a big and empty place. There are two 34x22-inch maps, covering the area from north of Iceland south to the latitude of Spain. The tactical map is a generic blue field of hexagons, used to resolve surface combat. There, ships maneuver and fight using their gunnery and torpedo factors. Each player rolls a number of dice according to the ship’s capabilities, hitting on a result of 6. Gunnery and torpedo damage tables give the results: ships can suffer damage to engines, hull or armament.

Air attacks are resolved in similar fashion. The combat systems yield results rapidly but in a historically accurate fashion, giving a good balance of fun and insight.

$49.95

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Strike South: Japan Invades the South Seas, 1941-42

Japan embarked on the Pacific War for one reason: to seize the oil and metals of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. In a daring five-month campaign, Japanese air, land and naval forces conquered a vast segment of the Earth’s surface from its American, British, Dutch and Australian defenders.

Strike South is a Second World War at Sea series game based on this bold Japanese aggression. There are 140 “long” playing pieces, depicting the major fleet units of both sides: battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers and fleet destroyers. There are also 280 square playing pieces, half the size of the ship pieces, mostly depicting aircraft but also smaller warships and markers.

The two operational maps depict the South China Sea and the East Indies, including all the major ports and airbases. The area covered stretches from Formosa on the north to Australia on the South. The maps overlap with that from Eastern Fleet on the west edge, and stretch to New Guinea on the east.

The tactical map is a generic blue field of hexagons, used to resolve surface combat. There, ships maneuver and fight using their gunnery and torpedo factors. Each player rolls a number of dice according to the ship’s capabilities, hitting on a result of 6. Gunnery and torpedo damage tables give the results: ships can suffer damage to engines, hull or armament.

Air attacks are resolved in similar fashion. The combat systems yield results rapidly but in a historically accurate fashion, giving a good balance of fun and insight.

Strike South includes 15 scenarios, or game situations, re-creating the battles and campaigns that took place in these waters. Eight of these are “battle scenarios,” useful for learning the combat system or for a quick game of 30 minutes or less.

The other seven are operational scenarios. Players form their ships into fleets, and plot their movement across the operational map. When contact is made between fleets, play moves to the tactical map to resolve combat. The scenario instructions give each side a set of specific tasks that must be accomplished to win the game: launch amphibious invasions, escort troop convoys, bombard key enemy positions, or seek and destroy enemy fleets. These tasks are the same ones given to the admirals on the spot.

Operations include the last mission of the British battleship Prince of Wales, the Battle of the Java Sea, the Battle of Sunda Strait, and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.

The scenarios give each player varied and difficult tasks. The Japanese player usually has more and stronger forces, but is under a very stressful timetable and has been given a very aggressive set of objectives. The Allied player faces divided command and weak forces, which must carefully strike at just the proper moment.

Strike South includes:

• Two 32"x22" strategic maps
• 11"x17" tactical map
• 420 game pieces
• 12-page rulebook
• 12-page scenario book
• 2 player aid cards
• 1 organizational card

$49.99

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Brute Force: The War in the West

Clash of Arms' latest addition to the "A Struggle for Europe Series" is the sequel to our highly popular War Without Mercy! Brute Force contains 3 scenarios: Norway Invasion Scenario (5 turns), Blitzkrieg in the West (9 Turns) and the Overlord Scenario (11 Turns)

Contents: 

• Second edition series rules
• Exclusive Rules
• Two 22x34" maps
• 840 full color counters
• Charts and Tables
• 2d6

$70.00

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Second World War At Sea: Bomb Alley - The Mediterranean Naval War, 1940-1943

For four years, Britain's Royal Navy and Italy's Regia Marina waged a ferocious battle for control of the Mediterranean Sea. Fifty (yes, 50!) scenarios re-create these struggles: the battleship duels at Cape Teulada, First Sirte, Second Sirte and Cape Matapan. The convoys to Malta. The Italian torpedo boat Lupo's defeat of two British cruisers. This is the ultimate World War 2 naval game, from the team that gave you SOPAC and Midway.

$64.95

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Zero!

Volume III in the Down in Flames card game series moves to the Pacific Theatre of Operations in WWII. Players will recreate the first six months of furious aerial combat between the might of Imperial Japan and the surprised forces of the United Kingdom and the United States. Zero! includes the important early-war fighters and bomber of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army, Royal Air Force, United States Navy, United States Army Air Force, and the American Volunteer Group (the famous Flying Tigers). Fly the fearsome A6M2 Zero against the F4F Wildcat, Hawker Hurricane IIb, Curtiss P-40B and E Tomahawks, and the ill-fated Brewster Buffalo. As a pilot with the Japanese Army, take Ki-27 Nates and Ki-43 Oscars to the skies against the Allies over Malaya and Burma. Match your skills with American aces Wagner, Thach, McCuskey or their semi-mercenary countrymen of the AVG, Hill and Newkirk. The Japanese can counter with Sakai, Anabuki, Kato, and more.

As with the previous games in the series, Zero! includes the Campaigns covering the major aerial events of the December 1941 to June 1942 period. Each consists of multiple missions aimed at a variety of targets, for which you must wisely allocate your resources of men and material. New to Zero! are Carrier Campaigns, which give players some control over the carrier groups their naval squadrons fly from. Do you go all out for a decisive strike or hold your fighters back and let the enemy overextend himself? Campaigns included in this volume are: Pearl Harbor (solitaire), the Philippines, Malaya, Burma, Coral Sea, and Midway.

Both Down in Flames veterans and newcomers to the series will enjoy this latest volume. All the components needed to play are included - ownership of the first two volumes is not necessary, but the three games are completely compatible. Beautiful, newly-designed, full-color action cards drive gameplay, while cards representing the major aircraft of the period and counters of the famous aces allow players to explore a wide range of scenarios. Besides the new Carrier Campaigns, historically significant missions have been added to the standard campaigns and the rules have been updated and expanded.

Are you ready to relive history? Can you sweep the skies in the cockpit of the Zero, delaying or even stopping the appearance of American industrial might? Or will the Allies, in their outdated machines, halt the Japanese onslaught much earlier?

COUNTERS: 88 full-color, die-cut counters. 

CARDS: 150 full-color Playing Cards 

OTHER:

• 6 Campaign Map Displays
• One Bombing Display
• One Resource Sheet
• One 16-page Rulebook
• One 20-page Campaign Booklet
• 8 Target Displays
• Three Campaign Logs

$45.00

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Von Manstein's Backhand Blow

Southern Russia, early February 1943 -- In Stalingrad, the surrounded remnants of the once might German Sixth Army are being slowly and methodically exterminated. Hundreds of miles to the west, two powerful Soviet Fronts are moving west and south against a patchwork German line, intent on destroying the remaining Axis forces in Southern Russia. Operations Star and Gallop have begun.

Six weeks later, the shocked, battered remnants of these two Soviet Fronts are running for the collective lives from powerful German panzer spearheads. What had happened? Soviet overconfidence was responsible in part for the disaster, playing into German hands, but by far, most of the credit for the amazing reversal belonged to Field Marshal von Manstein. Holding off the Soviets to his front and Hitler at his back, he managed to accumulate sufficient panzer formations to allow the Germans to regain tactical and operational superiority.

Von Manstein's Backhand Blow is a low/intermediate complexity two player game using the well-received Turning the Tables system pioneered in earlier East Front games produced by Moments in History. The game system itself is easy to learn and master. No two games will ever play out alike because a great deal of uncertainty and randomness is injected into each combat due to the Combat Chit Draw and Random Events Table. This uncertainty makes von Manstein's Backhand Blow ideal as a solitaire game since combat results cannot be accurately predicted.

Dirk Blennemann, the designer, has the reputation for creating excellent Orders of Battle for East Front simulations. Using detailed Russian and German language sources, he provides a broad array of maneuver units - Soviet divisions and corps on one side, and German units ranging from regiments down to the multitude of ad hoc German kampfgruppen thrown into the battle to stop the Soviet advance.

COUNTERS: 342 full-color die-cut counters. 

MAP: One 22"x34" full-color mapsheet 

OTHER:

• Two 6-sided dice
• 12-page Standard Rulebook
• 20-page Exclusive Rulebook
• 7 Player Aid cards

$45.00

GG002034

Third Reich

The Second World War in Europe, 1939-1945

Debuting in 1974, Third Reich has sold well over a quarter-million copies in several editions over two publishers. The Avalanche Press edition, released in 2001, brought the old game into a new century with a complete upgrade to graphics and game play. The result is a smooth-playing game with a minimum of charts to consult but a deep grounding in the historical background of the Second World War.

Third Reich interweaves not only the land, naval and air struggles, but also the equally important economic and political battles. Players must guide their nation to victory by capturing key objectives while making sure no one else — in particular their allies — gets there first.

Players take on the leadership of Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the United States or the Soviet Union. Each of these major powers, in turn, can influence smaller countires like Turkey, Greece or Romania to join the war on their side. They can offer bribes or territory, and sometimes it’s more important to decrease someone else’s influence than to build up your own.

The currency of the game is the Basic Resource Point, or BRP. This represents the financial, industrial and agricultural production needed to wage war. BRP’s are used to build new units, to pay for offensives, to replace losses suffered in battle, to bribe minor countries, and for a host of other purposes. Each country’s production can be affected by conquering or losing territory, or through strategic warfare (chiefly, attacks by submarines and bombers).

Once activated (usually at a cost in BRP’s), land, naval and air units can move and attack enemy units. Combat is resolved by rolling dice, with a result of 6 usually equalling a hit. There are no Combat Results Tables; every factor counts and there are no “perfect numbers” of units to commit to battle as in some wargames. When a land unit is hit, BRP’s can be used to absorb some of the damage, but too many hits and it is reduced in strength or destroyed. Naval and air units pack a greater punch, but don’t bounce back from damage as easily.

Scenarios, or game situations, begin the game in 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 or 1945. Political markers are randomly chosen to determine what events might take place outside the players’ control: Poland might capitulate to Germany in 1939, Mussolini, Churchill or Hitler might unleash some stupid scheme the Italian, British or German player will have to execute, oil could be found in Libya, the French navy could rally to the Allies or the Axis, jets can be developed, good Germans might kill Hitler — dozens of such events are possible.

Components: Three 8.5"x22" hard-mounted boards, 840 game pieces, 20-page rule book.

$64.99

Player's Guide to Third Reich / Great Pacific War

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