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What a start to the new year. As we've mentioned previously, we've moved our offices entirely to the East Coast and at the same time, our previous East Coast office moved to a new location. This perfect storm of activity has definitely affected our responsiveness with respect to order and customer response turn-around. We thank you for continuing to work with us as we dig ourselves out of the piles of boxes.

We have lots of news to share, so without further ado.....

http://ossgamescart.com/

High Frontier Arrival Dates!

The final payment is made, the final sample approved, the shipping information provided, and after lots of haranguing we have arrival dates to the US from the importer of High Frontier!

Arrival to US port: February 8
Arrival to our fulfilment house in Nashville: February 18
Shipping to you: immediately thereafter!

As for the shipment going to Europe, the importer did not provide us with arrival estimates for that, but we’ll share as soon as we know. To reiterate from last time, the game will be distributed in Europe by Hexasim, and due to the heavy weight of this game, we recommend customers in Europe contact them if you were not a KickStarter supporter to purchase and save on the shipping costs from the US. 

We thank everyone for their patience during this challenging project.

One important note: if you have changed your address, please email your new shipping information to us so we can make sure your game gets where it needs to go!

Second World War Shipped!

The Second World War has shipped out to all orders and early response has been terrific! Game play and production values are both winning high praise for which we are grateful.  Check it out here.

Still want to see the rules first? Here you go (click me).

CounterFact Issue 5 Shipped

All subscription and pre-order copies of CounterFact have shipped out and response to this issue has been great. If you want to take a closer look, there is a video play-through of the game posted by BigBoard on YouTube. Here’s the link.

CounterFact is one of the best gaming deals in the business right now, with very high production values, a professionally produced game in every issue, a no-risk subscription model, and a cover price of 26 bucks. Check it out.

New Pre-Order Games on Site!

We have added several new pre-order games to the website, in no particular order:

-- America Falling

Game Design: Ty Bomba

Predicting the imminent collapse of the United States is a journalistic and academic commonplace as old as the republic itself. In fact, the first op-ed pieces on that theme began appearing in newspapers--both within the country itself and elsewhere around the world--before the ink on the first copy of the constitution was even properly dry back in 1787. The genre even had a name: "declinism."

Similarly, the reasons given for that supposedly inescapable fall have generally always--from the late-18th century to the present--been divided into three categories: ethno-racial conflict, class conflict, or some mixture of the two. America Falling enables two players to simulate the entire first year of a hypothesized near-future civil war--brought on by whatever is your own favorite reason--across all of the lower-48 states.

One player commands the conservative "Red" forces while the other leads the liberal "Blue" forces. The rules also allow for the possibility of local separatist movements erupting independently of those two main factions, including: The Republic of Texas, The Islamic State in America (ISIA), New Jerusalem, Aztlan, La Raza, Aryan Nation, New Afrika, Ecotopia, and The LGBTQ Rainbow Coalition.

Conflict can take place with conventional armaments as well as Weapons of Mass Destruction. Cyberwarfare is a constant.

No two games will set up or play exactly alike. The initial territorial division between the two sides is based on major cities (chosen randomly) rather than on whole states.

Game mechanics recreate the inescapable dilemmas of fratricidal struggle inherent at the start of every civil war. The keynote centers around the fact one military has suddenly become two. That means things previously taken for granted--chain of command, supply, political loyalties, etc.--have become uncertain. Nothing can be depended on; for instance, movement allowances among the same type of units may vary by as much as a factor of 12.

Play moves rapidly back and forth during each turn, one "action" at a time, in any order the players choose: enter reinforcements from off-map areas; regroup previously devastated units; move a friendly force; attempt to subvert an enemy force to defect to your side; launch a conventional, cyber or WMD attack; move your capital or attempt an airpower surge. In the end, victory hinges on the balance between control of key terrain and accumulated demoralization within the factions.

Product Information
Complexity: 6 out of 10
Solitaire Suitability: 8 out of 10
Time Scale: six two-month turns
Map Scale: 33 miles (54 km) per hex
Unit Scale: brigades, with abstracted air & naval power
Players: one or two, best with two
Playing Time: four to six hours

Projected Contents
- Two 34x22" mated large-hex maps
- Two Countersheets of 5/8" counters
- One Rulebook
- Sheets of Charts & Tables
- Dice
- Game Box

You can pre-order your discounted copy by clicking here.

-- Putin Vs. The Dragon: The Coming Sino-Russian War for Siberia

Game Design: Ty Bomba

This is a wargame in which solitaire play can be fudged, but it's more usually played by two, whereby one (the "Russian player") commands the Kremlin's forces and the other (the "Chinese player") commands the Chinese forces opposed to him. Mongolia is the only other nation in the game. It starts as a neutral that may be invaded--and thereby brought actively into play--by either Russia or China.

This isn't a simulation of the "opaque" or "gray war" techniques recently used by the Russians in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine and by the Chinese in the South China Sea. Rather, it's designed to facilitate the examination of the strategic possibilities inherent in this potentially much larger and more violent situation.

The potential conflict being modeled here, though its possibility isn't yet discussed much in the border media, might best be thought of as the "war after next." That is, with the Chinese efforts to push into the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean being increasingly blocked by new alliance structures, and the "New Silk Road" across Central Asia being inescapably long and therefore vulnerable, Beijing has only one more direction in which to go to secure the natural resources needed for its hungry economy: north to Siberia.

Such a strategy has two inherent advantages for the Chinese. First, Siberia is relatively close by and, once secured, the resources extracted from it need not be shipped overseas in order to get them to Chinese factories. Second, Putin's foreign policy adventurism has left Russia with no friends other than Iran--so no other country would be likely to come to his aid.

Of course, there's one major disadvantage in a Siberian strategy. That is, Russia, like China, is a major nuclear power, with all the danger for a potential holocaust that implies.

Each full turn represents two months of real time. Each hexagon on the map represents 37.25 miles (60 km) from side to opposite side.

Projected Contents:
- One 22x34" game map
- One and a half sheets of die-cut, mounted, full-color playing pieces
- One book of rules
- Dice
- Game Box

You can pre-order your discounted copy here.

-- Holy Roman Empire Repring

This reprint edition will include the expansion books containing battle scenarios for the 30 Years War as well as the English Civil War.

Holy Roman Empire by Mark McLaughlin.

Holy Roman Empire is a political and military game of the 17th Century struggle for empire that plunged Europe into one of its longest and most destructive wars. Up to six players control the major dynasties of the era, fielding armies and navies and engaging in diplomatic intrigue and bribery to decide who will exercise control over Europe.

The year is 1619. Matthias, emperor of Germany, has gone to his grave. A year-old rebellion in the imperial province of Bohemia had divided the empire along religious and political lines. Bohemian rebels have elected a minor German prince, Frederick, elector Palatine, as their king. Protestant princelings rally to Frederick, elevating his status to that of a rival to Em­peror Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, for the imperial throne. As mercenary armies are raised against Ferdinand, the Catholic King of Spain and Duke of Bavaria rally to his side. France and Sweden turn their attention to Germany in eager anticipation of the dismemberment of their great rival, the Holy Roman Empire.

The map represents the states and provinces of Central Europe in 1619. Each State is identified by its coat of arms and its name, in large type (e.g. Venice). Some of the States are divided into Provinces which are delineated by dashed lines. Many states or provinces contain one or more cities, which are represented by boxes composed of dashed lines and are identified by the city name in small type (e.g. Paris). There are also three sea zones: the Baltic, North Sea, and Channel. The map is bordered by an administrative track that is used to record the passage of turns and player. Each of the six major States have stations on the track that provide the headings (Control, Influence, or Conquer) for the stacks of cards they hold. A purple box in the lower right corner is used to indicate alliances.

Each State in the game is represented by a "State Card." State cards have coats of arms symbols and a grid coordinate (first number can be found on the bottom, the second on either the right or left sides of the map using the numbers on the administrative track) to allow players to find their location on the map. All cards are coded for religion and have their income value printed at bottom left. Some cards also have special rules or allegiances indicated. In addition, many cards have a dynastic status and are marked as the reserve, hereditary, controlled, or influenced States of a player. All other cards, unless specified by the scenario, are considered to be Independent.

Holy Roman Empire is a game of complex economic and diplomatic interaction that includes factors such as alliances, military, economic, and diplomatic conflict, naval actions, and even the Turko-Polish war.

The game is played in turns which are composed of distinct phases, at the heart of which are the Finance, Diplomatic, and Alliances phases. Players must design their turn over the course of these phases in order to be effective in the game. Once these phases are complete, the movement and combat phase occurs, the effectiveness of which will be predetermined by the previous planning conducted in turn's initial phases.

The game turn is structures as follows:

1. Random Events
2. Finances
a. Receive Income
b. Pay Maintenance
c. Construction
3. Diplomatic Bidding
4. Alliances
5. Movement
6. End Turn

The game requires considerably more diplomatic skill than it does military prowess, as the design puts players in the shoes of the national leaders (not the military commanders) who must vie for control via all the tools of statecraft.

A turn begins with a random event which may inflict a likely impediment to a state's progress that is in keeping with the sorts of disasters that frequently occurred at the time, to include famines, disease, or more anthropogenic factors.

Once random events are resolved, players add up what resources remain and fill their treasuries via taxation on the realm. They must then pay the maintenance of what public goods they may have such as troops in the field, and also may then purchase additional items that may prove useful, such as mercenary leaders.

It may also prove of some utility to keep some crowns in your pocket so that you can participate meaningfully in the diplomatic bidding that is to follow, in which players will vie for influence into strategic areas. It would also be well to insure that your purchasing and strategic bidding have left you well leveraged among your potential allies, as your alliances can form your defensive bulwark, or your offensive hammer in the movement and combat that is to come.

Combat can be resolved in two ways. If you chose to concentrate on the heart of the game (the economics, finances, and alliances), players can choose to use a simplified combat resolution system that greatly speeds play. If they prefer a more detailed approach, combat can be played out on the included battle board with troops positioned therein and resolved in detail. The choice is yours.

Available for Pre-order here.

-- CounterFact Issue 6

Issue Contents:
The 1938 Czech Crisis: A Huge "What If" By Ty Bomba
The Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12 By Philip Sharp
Analysis: Persian Strategy in Greece By James Bowden
The Russian Civil War & Today's Russian Army By Gilberto Villahermosa
Verdun 1916: The Year of Decision By J.E. Kaufmann & H.W. Kaufmann

Issue Game:
1938: What If? is a low-intermediate complexity two-player alternative history wargame. It investigates the parameters of the first month of the conflict that likely would've resulted had the Czechoslovakians refused to accept the Munich agreement. Had they been willing to fight, the Soviets were pledged to come to their aid as fully and directly as possible. That intervention would've immediately escalated the crisis beyond a Czech-German one and into the realm of (at least) a major regional war across Central-Eastern Europe. That war, in turn, would've cast Poland as at least a co-belligerent of Germany, since the Warsaw government insisted it would defend its nation's territorial integrity against all comers, and the only practical route for a large-scale Red Army advance toward Czechoslovakia ran through Poland. At the same time, the Poles and Czechoslovakians had territorial and political grievances against each other going back to 1919, while Hungary similarly coveted the latter's province of Slovakia.

There's no Anglo-French participation because we now know the Dominions (Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand) had informed Britain's Prime Minister Chamberlain that they weren't going to go to war over Czechoslovakia under any circumstances. Long story short: Britain wasn't going to go into any war without the participation of the Dominions, and France wasn't going to go into any war without the participation of Britain.

Of course, the Germans didn't know all that at time. In that regard, then, the three ad hoc corps-sized groupings (Grenzkommandos) they set up along their western border to deal with any potential Anglo-French intervention have been deducted from their on-map order of battle, just as they would've been in the real event.

The game only covers the hypothetical war's first month of October. That's because all sources are agreed none of the participants had the logistical wherewithal at the time to go on fighting longer than that without a pause to resupply.

Each hex represents 20 miles (32.5 km) from side to opposite side. Each turn represents half a week during October 1938. Each unit of maneuver represents an army, corps or division.

Moderate complexity, solitaire suitable (but not purpose designed).

You can pre-order the issue here (no need if you are already subscribed; remember, all subs are good until you cancel).

-- CounterFact Issue 7

Issue Contents:
The Battle of Tunis, 255 BC: Rome's North African Disaster By Arnold Blumberg
India's Naxalite Insurgency By Jon Cecil
Orwell in the Army: The Military Career of Eric Blair by Brian Train
Marching on Mecca: Analysis of a Near-Future Iranian-Saudi War Maciej Jonasz
The Syrian Civil War By Javier Romero

Issue Game:
Islamic State: War in Syria (ISWS) is a two-player wargame simulating the post-Russian intervention phase of the Syrian Civil War.

In this game, there are two coalitions fighting parallel wars against a common foe: DAESH and Al Qaeda in Syria, with one player (the US player) commanding US/NATO Forces, Kurdish/SDF and non-Islamic Syrian Rebels, and a second player (the Russian player) controlling the Syrian Arab Army (SAA, Assad’s forces) and their allies (Iran/Hezbollah, Russia).

DAESH and Al-Qaeda in Syria are controlled by the game system, although certain game events allow players to use these forces against each other.

"DAESH" is the English-language acronym for the Arabic phrase (also presented here in Anglicized form): al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham, and meaning "The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant."

Each game turn represents about from two to six weeks. The units of maneuver are regiments, brigades, divisions or equivalents.

Islamic State: Syria War is a systemic evolution of IS: Libya. The changes in the game system reflect the fact that the later simulated an all-out proxy and civil war, while the later simulates an intervention/pacification campaign by NATO in Northern Africa, away from Russian or Iranian meddling.

In this game, both powers contemplate the pacification and stabilization of Syria, even though the war is being fought simultaneously in Syria and Iraq, and, in fact, the wars in these two countries feed each other. Neither the Russians nor the USA or the UE are considering the partition of Syria and Iraq along religious and ethnic lines (into Kurdish, Shia and Sunni entities). It is also assumed that the USA and Russia have reached an agreement to share intelligence in the fight against a common enemy: DAESH. The size and time constraints forced to simplify the myriad combatant factions into "Islamist Rebels" and "Non-Islamist Rebels," although the later might include supposedly "moderate" Islamist rebels.

You can pre-order the issue here (no need if you are already subscribed; remember, all subs are good until you cancel).

Miracle on the Marne

We shipped out Miracle on the Marne right at the New Year and have since learned of some print errata in the game. One setup region is mismarked and a couple counters somehow had some critical information dropped off in the print process. We will print some errata counters in the future, but in the mean time, there is an errata sheet that details everything on the game’s order page, here. We thank you for your patience on this.

The 2017 Production Schedule

This year we plan to keep producing games to the highest quality standards our little company can achieve. In no particular order, we intend to release the following games in 2017:

Huzzah! Vol. 2 The Wilderness Campaign
12 Battles from the Age of Chivalry
Fornaldar: Nordic Saga
Putin’s Northern War
If Dragons Fight

Along with at least three more issues of CounterFact, Ares Magazine, and several new Folio Series entries. There are several other boxed games on the list, but the above we’re pretty certain of.

Final Words

We have also added many VASSAL modules as well as links to living rule books for many of our games, including No Trumpets and Great War. These files are available for download from the game's order page.

Thanks!