Following are some map/mat visuals.

Bob:

Happy New Year!

Any further developments as to who will be publishing this? As I've said before, I'm available for playtesting if needed.

Ed,

Happy New Year to you as well! Funny you should ask. I am shifting mental gears to jump back into COS, and will start posting a game in progress in the near future. This will a) shake out the Vassal module Peter Bennett so graciously created, and b) perhaps serve as a focus point to draw in potential playtesters.

The game is not on contract yet, but I have been in contact with Gene B of GMT games, and you may be reading about COS in those venues in the future.

What do you need Bob? Would love to see what you've done with the subject since the CoM days. I don't usually hang out here much but popped by when I heard you were close to getting this one in the pipeline.

Good to hear from you, Barry! I can use some folks who want to test, and, if they are an advanced Vassal map artiste, substitute a properly scaled central European/Italy topo map into the layer currently occupied by my crappy hand drawn "no one will ever see this" :eek: :sheepish: play-it-in-the-basement original map.

Sounds like the classic story of my Vassal module efforts... If you can provide some kind of map, I can do Vassal modifications. Am not good enough a graphics guys to draw things from scratch, but am very handy at manipulating graphics and getting them into Vassal.

Actually did draw a portion of the Imperial Struggle map (under development). Can't take any credits for Bayonets and Tomahawks (also under development) as that was the designer (who is quite handy graphics wise)

I did a last scrub of the rules and set up, and loaded up into the header info.

I found a few more tweaks for our Vassal set, but will push off with what we've got. I've asked Peter B to fold these in, and hope to send out the updated sets to testers, and will swap my game out to that update when it's ready.

I'll try to provide some (but not much -- can't do it all) historical commentary along with game explanation, but Real Life is going to force me to not wax as poetic, or expositionally as I'd like most of the time. I simply cannot afford to imperfectly relay the history of all this; I'd rather hit some important game points and insights in the limited time available.

If you want a great single volume history, which I might call the foundational source on which COS is based, read REED BROWNING'S WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION. Everything you read in that, you will find an attempt to model, or at least touch on, in COS.

Same goes for the Rules -- I will not rehash combat sequence, movement nuances, etc, every time. Please have a read of the rules in the header, so we can stick to the meat most of the time.

Please feel free to post questions here; I may or may not have time to answer them. :-) .

Also, just for fun, I may post and ask YOU -- yes, YOU -- whoever's reading, for your opinion on what a given Power should do next. That might give our game a few twists and turns I might not otherwise consider going solo.

Thanks in advance to those who follow along and contribute!

Frederick left Rheinsberg for Berlin on 2 Dec. He found a society alive with speculation, for the masquerades and balls of the season continued unabated, while the regiments were already on the march with sealed orders. On Sunday 4 Dec the congregations deserted the churches in order to watch the artillery train trundling along the Unter den Linden. All of this uncertainty proved too much for one of Frederick's old tutors, Christoph Wilhelm von Kalckstein, who made so bold as to approach his young master:

K: Your Majesty, am I right in thinking there is going to be a war?

F: Who can tell?

K: The movement seems to be directed on Silesia.

F: Can you keep a secret? (taking him by the hand)

K: Oh yes, your Majesty.

F: Well, so can I!

-- from Duffy, Frederick The Great, a Military Life

Here's the Prus card draw. Starred cards are Guaranteed in hand At Start for each Power. I will play the Surprise Invasion card first, as it's the only round this is allowed, and the card allows for a very effective jump start attack into an unprepared Silesia.

Also of note, several major campaign cards. This card draw serves for 1741 as well, so I'll have a lot of capability next to follow up on the first thrust into Silesia.

Here's the draw for Maria T. Also of note, another good pick of Major Campaign cards. But far more important is the starred Kleinschellendorf treaty card; also more important are the Croat, Hussar, and Hostility guaranteed starred cards.

For full card text (as of today, anyway! :-)) you can download the Deck file from the header.

Bob would it be possible to see the map in its entirety? From the samples you posted I have noticed a few misspellings.

Maurizio,

I may have a file showing the space/line connection Vassal layer at home. I'll get back to you.

For the Record -- I don't have any favorites in this game. I love the era, love the assymetrical forces and geographic imperatives at hand, and am not attached to any one Power's history or morality, etc.

I have had Prussian, French, Spanish, Austrian, British and Piedmont wins in the game, and it's been a blast every time. Let's see where THIS one goes!

In South east France, Briandon should be "Briançon". In French "ç" is prononced as a "s". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian%C3%A7on