Fortress Europa, Designer Signature Edition, marks the return of a true wargaming classic by John Edwards, faithfully remastered and updated with this all-new, supersized edition. Celebrated by many as the successor to The Russian Campaign, this two-player game recreates the Allied campaign in Western Europe from D-Day to March 1945.
This edition of Fortress Europa features a super-sized map and counters and is yet another Classic Reborn! by Compass.
The time is: June 1944
For over two years, the Allies have been gathering their forces in England, preparing the final plan and its execution. Over three million men have been assembled in England and Africa. The Allied Strategic Air Forces relentlessly strike at railroads, road networks, bridges, and industrial complexes in Germany, France, Belgium, and Holland, attempting to soften up the German defense and stow German production.
The target is Hitler's Fortress Europa.
The Germans have a million and a half men to protect the Atlantic coast of Holland, Belgium, and France, as well as the Mediterranean coast of France. Believing the war will be won on the beaches, they have fortified much of the coast with mines, bunkers, barbed wire, flooded areas, and weapon positions: The Atlantic Wall.
Fortress Europa recreates this epic struggle during the Allied campaign in Western Europe from D-Day to March 1945. The Allied player must select an invasion site and make a successful landing, breakout of the beachhead, drive across France, and push deep into Germany. The German player must prevent the Allied invasion or else conduct an orderly withdrawal across France, constantly delaying the Allies, and then counterattacking in lhe winter.
In 1965, the United States decided to intervene in the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. This moment shaped the United States more than any other in the 20th Century. From the battlefield to the home front, the United States faced one of the greatest challenges in its history. Using the Operational Scale System as seen in Korea: Fire and Ice, OSS: Vietnam will show the conflict in a playable yet historical manner.
Using at its heart, a blending of two older games, Road to the Rhine and A Victory Denied, players have the ability to move all their units once. However, they may choose to move those units in any of several impulses, if they can afford the supply cost to do so. The opposing player will have to maintain adequate reserves to counter this variable impulse movement.
The Operational Scale System (OSS) is meant to be a fast, accessible way of playing, and finishing, larger games. Finally playing a large “monster game” will no longer require hundreds of hours – now, you can easily complete a game of this size in a weekend. Players will activate HQs, fight off insurgents, bomb and disrupt the infrastructure of their opponents with the unique means available to each side. Whether by bombing raids or insurgents, how your side maintains the ability to wage war will be the key to victory. All the while, players must watch how their actions influence events far from the battlefield.
There are scenarios to allow various campaigns that defined this war as well as a campaign game.
After Fallen Eagles (Waterloo 1805), Rising Eagles simulates Napoleon's greatest victory: Austerlitz.
Game includes 3 short scenarios :
Davout’s stand in the South. The battle for Telnitz and Sokolnitz
Bagration, Lannes and Murat: Stalemate in the North
The Great breakthrough in the center and the battle of the Guards
Each scenario has its own map for a better comfort.
A campaign covers the full battle in a reasonable time..
Tunisia II is an Operational Combat Series game covering the campaign in Northwest Africa from November 1942 through May 1943. This new edition is similar to the original game from 1995, but features a revised order of battle, modified rules, and new maps. We are really happy to get this classic design updated and back in print! The tempo of play is just outstanding, beginning with just a few units in play. Over the next few months both sides rapidly reinforce the theater. The build-up culminates with Rommel’s offensive at Kasserine and tension over the variable entry of Montgomery’s 8th Army. This climax is followed by the slow destruction of Axis forces in North Africa.
The upgrade of this game involved a handful of important decisions. A straight reprint was out of the question, since the original was designed back when the OCS v2 rulebook was fairly new. In Tunisia II we standardize how the game should be played with the latest series rules, and also have updated it to “fit” better with newer OCS games. So units and rules have been changed to conform to games also set in 1942-43: DAK II, Case Blue, and Sicily II. Recent work on Beyond the Rhine is also factored in.
Here are some of the game’s highlights:
Revised counters: The research of Paul Dallas, supplemented by that of Dean Essig and Roland Leblanc (who did a comprehensive check using recent publications) has led to a revised counter mix that better reflects current OCS concepts.
Italians: Some small units were consolidated due to my belief that fewer counters would lead to a better simulation (by reducing the number of “shell catchers” available).
Germans: The Luftwaffe order of battle is much more precise now—many of the air units begin reduced, for example, to account for their low numbers. Increased attention has also been paid to modeling the weakened condition of the Afrika Korps.
French: The French in the game were in the midst of a transformation. Just a week before our game began these units were fighting the Allies; now they are fighting the Germans. Morale and equipment were spotty,and to reflect this we’ve dropped their ARs.
Americans: Several US tank units are included that did not actually fight in the campaign (they were held back in Algeria and Morocco). They are limited to operations in Algeria, acting as are sort of an insurance policy against disaster.
Commonwealth: The Commonwealth’s corps-level guns are clumped into abstract groups, as part of a general decision to consolidate the small stuff. British 5th Corps, for instance, included six small artillery regiments that are shown by three counters: 1 FA, 5 FA, and 5 M. The handling of anti-tank units posed a similar issue. Some divisions have “red” arty units—this is to show these divisions have a towed anti-tank battalion. Normally, the only AT units with actual counters are things like the German 88s and American tank destroyers. This works well overall, but the Commonwealth seemed to be really short-changed by this design approach. So now they have some abstract AT units—one per FA group. There are enough of them to be useful, but not so many as to require another counter sheet.
Juego de cartas en torno al tema del arte de la guerra en la época de Alejandromagno. Incluye 60 cartas a todo color creadas por Rodger MacGowan y Mark Simonitch, que reflejan las formaciones militares más importantes (Elefantes de Guerra, Caballería Pesada, Falange, etc.), y 10 cartas variadas que dan variedad a cada batalla. Para ganar, debes alinear formaciones en tu línea de batalla que sean superiores a las de tu contrincante. Los jugadores tienen siempre elecciones estratégicas que afrontar. Aunque no se trata de una simulación histórica, sí es un gran juego de estrategia. Tú decides cómo usar tus fuerzas: ¿podrás llegar a emular las victorias de Alejandro? Para 2 jugadores. Duración: 30 minutos. Creado por Reiner Knizia.
From the opening of the Archadameian War in 431BC to the Fall of Athens in 404, The Peloponessian War allows YOU to compete against the man in the mirror, as you live through the suicide of Greece. Maneuver your generals, hoplites, and navies to fight battles and attempt to bring the war to an end on your terms. Take heed, however. As you weaken your foe, you create a greater game challenge for yourself. For as you improve in strength, so does your opponent.
In terms of physical components, Mark's enhanced version is getting the full GMT treatment: mounted map and strategy boards, high-quality thick counters, redesigned rules and playbook, all with new art throughout. This will be a product that you'll want to own and play for a long time!
We hope you enjoy this enhanced GMT version of Mark Herman's classic solitaire game design.
The second sequel to the Charles S. Roberts Award-winning game Downtown, Red Storm is a standalone game that utilizes the Downtown game system to depict a hypothetical air war in May/June 1987 over the central portion of the NATO-Warsaw Pact front in central Germany. Like Downtown and Elusive Victory before it, Red Storm is an “operational” level air warfare game where players manage large strike packages and numerous combat air patrols in an effort to strike enemy targets, protect their own ground troops, and secure control of the air above the land battle raging below. Both sides field highly advanced all-weather aircraft, long-range air-to-air missiles, precision bombs, sophisticated electronic warfare assets, and networks of surface-to-air missiles and radar-guided AAA.
As the NATO player, you fight outnumbered in the air, but with a qualitative edge in technology and training. NATO faces the daunting task of claiming air superiority in the face of the initial onslaught from the Warsaw Pack air forces while also delivering bombs onto Soviet and East German ground targets already on the frontline and those approaching in the rear echelons. As the Warsaw Pact player, you must push your numerous but less flexible forces to the absolute limit in an effort to overwhelm NATO forces in the air and destroy them on the ground, all while supporting your advancing ground forces. Both players also must manage air defense networks consisting of overlapping layers of SAMs and AAA.
The day dawns like any other. The sun makes its way low over the misty horizon and stays low in the Autumn sky this morning. All is as it has always been in the fields and meadows of the Steppes. Commander Garrison Dietrich raises himself through the cupola of the Tiger he commands and begins to scan the landscape. He looks left to right, right to left searching the fields for his target. He breaths in deep. The scent of metal and leather, sweat and stale cigarettes, rises from inside the musty tank. He studies the landscape and he listens. With heart pounding and senses alert he is poised…. anticipating. For Commander Dietrich, tank to tank warfare is more than a duel. Beyond the field-rocket artillery, the bombers and U-Boats, the single-seat fighters, beyond the 88mm Flak, is the Tiger. His Tiger and platoon, only the T-34s of the Red Army standing between them and victory!
Suddenly, to his right, geese startle from the tall, drying grass of the field. They fly fast and out of view quickly. Commander Dietrich turns his gaze sharply to the right and there, indistinctly outlined, silent, foreboding...his eyes make contact with it - a Russian T34.
Inside the tank, his team is alert and ready. In the confined space of the tank they are in position. Through the radio they hear the call, "I spot 'em at 1600, 1600!!" Through the narrow rectangular window the driver attempts to locate the T34. An AP shell is loaded into the breech. The gunner yells, "Ready to fire!" His heart, too, is pounding. Loud sounds now, the gears, the clacking of Bogey wheels over terrain, the vibration of the motor...then, "Hull down, hull down," is called out to the driver. The Commander orders, "Traverse, traverse...TRAVERSE!" The turret moves slowly, the sounds of machinery moving but slow, too slow! The alert gunner feels the rush. "I've got 'em in my sights, 1400...1200! Do you see him, do you see him?" The panic, the fear, the adrenaline are palpable. "I've got 'em sir, I've got 'em!!" The anticipated command comes as the tanks advance..."FIRE!" The gunner aims, pulls the lever, and its SHELL AWAY….
