Vendor: Decision Games
Type: War Games
Price: 77.99

Coral Sea was the first of the Pacific War’s great carrier versus carrier battles. It was the result of an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) offensive into the South Pacific, with their South Seas Fleet transporting invasion forces to Port Moresby (at New Guinea) and Tulagi (off Guadalcanal). Their strategic objective was to cut Allied lines of communication to Australia. The US Navy (USN) moved to counter and inflict a defeat on the Japanese fleet. The ensuing actions saw each side launch aircraft carrier strikes against opposing task forces. While the battle ended in an IJN tactical victory, the USN won strategically as the New Guinea invasion force broke off and returned to its base. Coral Sea set the stage for carrier battles which would pay off at Midway a month later.

Coral Sea Deluxe Edition is a one-player (solitaire) wargame of the decisive aero-naval battle that took place between the USN and the IJN in May 1942. The Coral Sea Deluxe Edition design is based on the system used in World at War magazine #2’s Solomons Campaign; however, there are significant differences owing to the different scale of the Coral Sea operation and the rules required for a solitaire design. The game system controls IJN forces via naval and air doctrine tables which initiate a range of strategies.

The player controls various Allied forces, collectively called the USN, through an operational system based on US military staff organization which provides a wide range of actions that can be conducted on the game map. The player can react to various threats and launch counterattacks to exploit opportunities as they occur. This is your chance to fight and win one of the decisive battles of World War II in the Pacific.

Vendor: Vento Nuovo Games
Type: War Games
Price: 36.00

Vendor: Vento Nuovo Games
Type: War Games
Price: 85.00

Vendor: Compass Games
Type: War Games
Price: 79.99

Historical Wargame for 2 Players

On December 16th 1944, Germany launched its last, desperate offensive in the West. The result was The Battle of the Bulge, a brutal struggle in a dismal winter landscape set against an enemy imbued with a fanatic conviction that victory could be snatched from defeat. It was the United States Army's greatest and fiercest battle of World War II. Over a million men and thousands of guns, tanks, and other fighting vehicles were engaged. In those 'Bitter Woods,' fighting against heavy odds, the American soldier slowed and then stopped the spearhead of two elite Panzer Armies, forever emblazing themselves in the annals of military history.

Compass Games presents the Designer Edition of this Charles S. Roberts and ORIGINS award nominee. New to this edition are updated unit counter graphics, additional scenarios, and an extended campaign game to allow the Allied counterattack to be fully realized. In addition to the 6 and 8 turn tournament games, Patton's famous relief of Bastogne can be recreated via scenario play. Specific rules include: Mechanized Exploitation Movement, Hidden Fuel Dumps, Leader Units, Reserves, Random Events, Bridge Demolition, Kampfgruppe Peiper Breakout, Skorzeny Infiltration, Air Power, and Artillery Support.

Designer Edition Bitter Woods is the premier edition of this highly acclaimed regimental level Battle of the Bulge game and includes all aspects of the original game plus the expansion edition. The potential for mechanized exploitation movement and an appropriate Allied counterattack capability ensure an exciting challenge for both sides. Designer Edition Bitter Woods is highly playable, yet historically accurate, further ensuring a game you will want to revisit for years to come.

Vendor: Decision Games
Type: War Games
Price: 79.99

Vendor: Multi-Man Publishing
Type: War Games
Price: 330.00

The Greatest Day: Utah Beach is the second of three volumes in the Grand Tactical Series that covers the Battle for Normandy in June of 1944.

The Greatest Day: Utah Beach includes a wide array of scenarios from the beach landings, to airborne troops seizing Carentan, to cutting the Cotentin Peninsula. There are small 8.5”x11” scenarios up to full campaign games stretching across the entire peninsula.

Vendor: Multi-Man Publishing
Type: War Games
Price: 59.00

Operational Matters: An OCS Guide is a support booklet devoted to the Operational Combat Series. Editor Mark Milke has selected a nice mixture of game-specific strategy articles on many of the games in this series, and also some generalized analysis of the system’s nuances.  Novice players will especially enjoy the blow-by-blow examination of the Primosole Bridge scenario from the game that is included in the magazine, Sicily II. 

Sicily II is a full-sized game covering the amphibious invasion of that island in the summer of 1943. This new edition is quite different from Dean Essig's original game from back in 2000. It features a revised order of battle, modified rules, and a new map. The most obvious change is in scale: hexes are now 3.5 miles across and there are two turns per week (the original had 2.5-mile hexes and four turns per week). This makes for a smaller, faster game that conforms to the scale chosen for Beyond the Rhine and the upcoming games set in Western Europe. We think Sicily II is a perfect way to give new recruits their baptism in the fire of OCS, and is also a worthy entry in the series for players who have already earned their stripes. 

Here are some of the game’s highlights:

The entire campaign lasts just 16 turns.
There are six scenarios in all (three using the entire map, and three using just a portion).
The Allied airborne fiasco is recreated with simple scatter rules. 
The amphibious landings can be played out using standard OCS naval rules, or players can mostly skip these and begin with the bulk of Allied forces already ashore.
The Luftwaffe’s Do.217K makes its series debut, armed with exotic Fritz-X missiles.
Rules for Italian unit wavering and surrender make every game different.
Several interesting options are provided, including revised Axis deployment and variable entry of the 29th Panzergrenadier Division.

Components:

• 80-page magazine (includes the game rules for Sicily II)
• 2 sheets of counters
• 1 map (22” x 34”)

NOTE: the OCS Series Rulebook and Charts are not included; these can be downloaded from the MMP support website if you do not already have these. The 2024 reprint incorporates some minor errata, but is not a new version of the original game.

Vendor: Phalanx Games
Type: Board & Card Games
Price: 37.99

Vendor: Phalanx Games
Type: War Games
Price: 79.00

Assume the role of a legendary Allied commander of World War II, keep the logistics chain working, advance your armies towards the Rhine, and strike at the heart of Nazi Germany. Outshine and outpace other Allied generals – and change history by winning the war in 1944, before Christmas!

Keep’em Rolling: Race to the Rhine features Race to the Rhine, a unique, logistics-focused euro-style wargame for 1-4 players (including a solitaire mode as well as optional cards and rules), and a standalone solitaire game – These Are My Credentials – covering the Allied liberation of Brittany.

As one of the historic Allied Commanders, you control several Corps that you must move along predefined, point-to-point routes, liberating cities from Axis control as you do.

Unlike many other wargames covering the liberation of Western Europe, in Race to the Rhine the focus is on planning and logistics. Moving your Corps requires fuel. Defeating Axis units and garrisons en route requires ammo. Feeding your armies as they move forward requires food.

The slower you are in moving to the Rhine, the longer you give the Axis to form a strong defense. But move too quickly and you risk overwhelming your logistical capacity to supply your advance. Whichever Commander can best manage these dual challenges will win the game.

Vendor: Phalanx Games
Type: War Games
Price: 29.00

For 2 players, ages 14+, playing time is around 60-90 minutes.

Iron, Blood, Snow & Mud is a quick and easy to learn two-player hex and counter strategic wargame simulating the Eastern Front of World War II. Poland and France have fallen, Greece and Norway have surrendered and Yugoslavia is no more... Now it’s time for the Soviet Union to suffer the same grim fate. Will the vaunted German blitzkrieg prove its invincibility once again? Or will the Soviet Union endure the onslaught long enough to rebuild its might and push back the enemy? The fate of the war is in your hands!

Lead the combat-hardened forces of Wehrmacht through mud and snow and unimaginably vast territories of the enemy, all the while trying to protect your overstretched supply lines. Or take control of initially outnumbered, but slowly building its might Soviet Red Army, hamper the lighting quick panzer attacks, harass the enemy’s supply lines with your partisans and bide your time for a bloody and devastating counteroffensive. This is the war of iron, blood, snow and mud

Iron, Blood, Snow & Mud is both asymmetrical in its overall design and simple yet surprisingly unique in its approach to the Eastern Front. The game is played over the course of four years, each consisting of three markedly different seasons, two of which – the aptly named Mud and Snow – inhibit the use of some actions and units. The movement and its range is predicated on the current season, unit type and the ability to create and maintain a chain of units. The Germans have to either hold a set of objectives by the end of 1944... or capture the Soviet leader, Stalin himself. The Soviets too can achieve a sudden victory, but only if they manage to seize one of three initially German-held cities.

Vendor: Osprey Games
Type: Board & Card Games
Price: 32.00

For 2 players, ages 14+, playing time around 45-60 minutes.

The RAF faces the Luftwaffe in this two-player deck-building game of aerial WWII combat.

Summer, 1940. The German war machine has rolled through the continent in less than a year, crushing all before it. Britain is all that stands in the way of German victory in Europe. Command the pilots of the battle-tested Luftwaffe who are looking to extinguish all resistance and pave the way to invasion, or the resourceful and determined RAF opposing them at every turn.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain is a standalone game in the Undaunted series, adapting the core gameplay of the previous games to recreate the dynamic dogfighting of aerial combat. Maintain cohesion between your pilots, evade anti-aircraft artillery, and leverage talented aces to win the battle for the skies!

Vendor: Multi-Man Publishing
Type: War Games
Price: 45.00

Operational Matters Volume 2 w/Luzon is a 40 page magazine focused on players new to Operational Combat Series games. The eight articles help players learn or even improve on their OCS knowledge. This also includes a set of six double-sided cardstock Reference Cards to help learning and experienced gamers as well. We've also included a small OCS game, Luzon: Race for Bataan, which is a low-density, quick-playing game.

Luzon: Race for Bataan covers the mobile campaign during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, from December 22, 1941, when the main Japanese forces landed in Lingayen Gulf, to January 7, 1942, when the U.S.-Philippine Army completed its retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. New designer Matsuura Yutaka has created a five-turn OCS mini-game that recreates this period of intense manoeuvering. General Wainwright, commander of the North Luzon Force, conducted a brilliant retreat against the advancing Japanese blitzkrieg, and succeeded in getting a large number of troops to Bataan. In Luzon: Race for Bataan, the U.S.-Philippine Army must delay the Japanese advance and gather forces in the Bataan peninsula. As directed by Imperial General Headquarters, the Japanese priority is to capture Manila. However, if the U.S.-Philippine Army can be outmaneuvered, the Japanese could both occupy Manila and deal a devastating blow to the U.S.-Philippine Army. The game pits a small-but-elite Japanese force which must make fast progress against a larger, less-effective opponent.

Luzon: Race for Bataan has a single 22" x 34" map, fewer than 50 combat units, and is played at a scale of 5-miles per hex and 3.5 days per turn. There is only one scenario, with an option for random changes which alter play each time.

Operational Matters #2 contents:

• Luzon Example of Play by Chip Saltsman. Detailed walkthrough of the first turn of Luzon with explanations and illustrations of key system mechanics.
• Tony’s Top 10 Tips on OCS Strategy by Tony Zbaraschuk. Accumulated wisdom on your strategic plan for an OCS game.
• Tony’s Top 12 Tactical Tips for OCS by Tony Zbaraschuk. Recommendation on the most efficient tactical play.
• Best OCS Scenarios for Beginners by Matsuura Yutaka. Good next steps for OCS players.
• Common Beginner Mistakes in OCS by Antonello Salvatucci and Paolo de Francesco. Benefitting from other’s hard-won experience.
• OCS Combat Results & Retreats by Chip Saltsman. Detailed illustrations of how the system implements these concepts.
• Fog of War and Enemy Stacks by Chip Saltsman. You can’t look at enemy stacks in OCS, but what can you see, what can’t you examine, and what is legal versus “gamey?”
• Most Overlooked OCS Rules by Chip Saltsman. What even experienced players miss.
• 16-page Luzon game-specific rulebook insert.
• 6 Reference Cards:
  • Air Missions (two pages)
  • Key Game Definitions (one page)
  • Mode Reference Guide (one page)
  • Transport (two pages)
  • Supply (six pages covering concepts, Trace Supply, Combat Supply, Fueling, and a complete supply network example)

Luozon: Battle for Bataan Components

• Game-Specific Rulebook with Scenarios, Historical Commentary, Designer's Notes, Developer's Notes, Random Events and Players Notes. (included in the magazine)
• One Full Colour Game Map (22x34)
• One Game Specific half-countersheet (units and markers) – 140 counters

Note: The OCS 4.3 Series Rules and OCS 4.3 Charts and Tables are not included with this magazine, they can be downloaded from the Gamers Archive on the publisher's website.

Vendor: Compass Games
Type: War Games
Price: 99.00

Storm of Steel: Ju-87 STPolandA, Eastern Front is a solitaire tactical air wargame where you take the role of a Staffelkapitän – Flight leader. Select, equip, and fly your aircraft, lead a squadron of Stuka dive bombers, and execute close air support missions along the Eastern Front from the opening day of Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, up to the Kursk offensive in 1943.

Take command of the legendary Stuka dive bomber on combat missions over the vast battlefields on the Eastern Front. Select and equip your Stuka Staffel with individual and historically named pilots and gunners or create your own. Lead your unit during the opening days of Operation Barbarossa, targeting Soviet airfields, troop concentrations, rail lines, convoys, tank formations, and more. Attempt the final drive on Moscow during Operation Winter Storm. Continue your career to participate in Case Blue and the offensive on Stalingrad. Use the newly converted Ju-87G Stuka tank killer during Operation Citadel to destroy enemy armor. Conduct maritime missions to sink, and disrupt the Red Navy on the Gulf of Finland and the Black Sea utilizing specialized ordnance.

Manage StG-1, 2, or 77, and fly with your Staffel of up to ten Stukas deep into enemy territory. Avoid enemy fighters, bad weather, and murderous anti-aircraft fire to deliver your deadly payload accurately to its target. Log your missions, and scores, gain experience for yourself and your unit. An experienced-based promotion system provides an increased level of proficiency for your crew. Between missions; manage replacements and repairs of aircraft as well as wounded crew and pilot/gunner replacements.

Vendor: GMT
Type: War Games
Price: 54.99

France '40 contains two separate games - Sickle Cut and Dynamo. Both games use the same rules and share many game pieces, but each has a separate full size map.

2ND EDITION
France ’40 2nd Edition is a major upgrade to the original game. The rules for Extended Movement, Combat, Advance After Combat, Breakthrough Combat, and Determined Defense have been updated so they are more in line with the recent games in the 19XX series (such as Stalingrad ’42 and Salerno ’43). A new scenario has been included designed by Mark Merritt that combines both maps.

In addition, many new units have been added and some old units modified to provide a more accurate order of battle for both Sickle Cut and Dynamo. A few minor cities, some roads, and a fortified hex were added to the Dynamo map.

And most importantly, both scenarios have been sent through the playtest cycle again to make sure they are better balanced than they were in the first edition.

This game has long been one of my favourites due to the exciting situation and short playing time. I’m really pleased with this 2nd Edition and excited about the new features it has.

Vendor: Worthington Games
Type: War Games
Price: 69.99

Rommel's War is a 2 player game about the first year of the war in the desert, from March to December of 1941.  One player takes the role of Rommel in command of Axis forces, and the other player takes the role of the British commanders (Wavell and Auchinleck).

The game only has 8 pages of rules and a playing time of 1 hour so you will be picking the sand from your shorts in no time in this exciting, fast paced game of decision in the desert.

Vendor: GMT
Type: War Games
Price: 139.99

Vendor: Multi-Man Publishing
Type: War Games
Price: 160.00

Vendor: Don't Panic Games
Type: War Games
Price: 59.99

For 2 players, ages 14+, playing time is around 120 minutes.

Relive the fury of air and sea combat in the Pacific during World War II.

Direct each plane in multiple fighter and bomber squadrons to lead attacks on the enemy’s carriers and island bases. No dice, no rulers, only dozens of planes and ships! A fast-paced and streamlined game mechanic that plunges you in the heart of the battle. Move each plane individually on a hex grid. When you maneuver to get an enemy plane in your sights, it must try to dodge or else take damage. Some planes can use torpedoes and bombs do destroy ships and ground installations. Stay in formation to keep the initiative and dominate your opponent. Each plane has its own attributes in terms of speed, armor, and special abilities.
Each piece is illustrated as close as possible to its historical model to maximize your immersion!

The Fighters of the Pacific series includes a CORE GAME, and TWO EXPANSIONS.
The CORE GAME contains everything you need to play hours of battle over the Pacific Ocean: a huge modular board, 4 aircraft carriers, 4 destroyers, 94 aircraft tokens, 91 game tokens and 8 reference cards. The complete rules and 10 scenarios are also included of course. The carrier and aircraft tokens represent the forces of 4 real aircraft carriers fighting in 1942, with a ratio of 1 token to 3 aircrafts. For the Japanese, the AKAGI and KAGA form the 1st aircraft division that participated in the attack of Pearl Harbor and the battle of Midway. For the Americans, the USS HORNET and USS YORKTOWN were participating in the Doolittle Raid and the Battle of Midway too.

The first expansion, BATTLE OF MIDWAY contains enough tokens to complete the base game to have all the forces present in this battle, including the aircraft at the base on Midway Island. This includes 3 new American aircraft models, the old F2A Buffalo fighter, the B-26 Mitchell bomber that launched the very first counterattack on the Japanese forces, and some brand new TBF Avengers. Most importantly, this expansion includes 5 scenarios to relive one of the most unpredictable and decisive battles of the war as if you were there. The tokens are laid down, the story is in your hands!

One month before the Battle of Midway, the first ever naval air battle took place. It is known as the BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEE. Relive this battle with this expansion pack that provides 3 new Japanese aircraft carriers, the Shokaku, Zuikaku and Shoho, the USS Lexington forces and 4 exciting scenarios. Will you manage to save the Shoho and the USS Lexington?

Vendor: Tompet Games
Type: War Games
Price: 49.99

For 1 player, ages 14+, playing time is around 70-90 minutes.

From an abandoned mountain fortress you command a group of Norwegian volunteers fighting numerically superior German forces in the early days of WW2.

Halls of Hegra is a solitaire-only wargame in the same vein as "Robinson Crusoe", "This War of Mine" and "Dead of Winter". The mechanics are worker placement, bag building, and area control/ tower defense.

You play as the commander of the Norwegian forces during the three stages of the game.

1. Mobilization.
Explore the fortress while you dig your way through mountains of snow and broken equipment. New recruits are joining your growing force while you plan supply routes for the coming siege.

2. 1st. attack
The village below the fortress is attacked. You try to defend it while you do the final preparations before the Siege. Send out patrols behind enemy lines to secure enough supplies.

3. Siege
The Siege of fortress Hegra begins. You have to endure constant bombing and infantry attack while keeping the morale up amongst your men. Will you survive?

Vendor: Ares Games
Type: War Games
Price: 49.99

Quartermaster General: East Front is a two-player game that depicts the deadly struggle between the Soviet Union and Germany.

In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, along with Finland, Romania, and other nations. Germany was seeking another lightning victory, like those attained in Poland, France, and elsewhere; four years and millions of lives later, Soviet troops captured Berlin and forced the German surrender.

Quartermaster General: East Front provides an in-depth look at one of the major operational theaters of the World War in less than two hours. The game is played over 16 game rounds, each representing three months, starting in Summer 1941 and ending in Spring 1945.

Vendor: GMT
Type: War Games
Price: 54.99

Downfall is a two-player game on the conquest of the Third Reich in World War II. One player controls the Western Allies and the other the Soviet Union in their joint effort to destroy the Axis. Though the two players share the goal of defeating the Reich, each seeks a victory that favors their dominance in post-war Europe. To this end, each player controls two factions:

• The Western player commands the Western Allies faction and the OKH faction, that is the German and minor Axis armies battling the Soviet Union in the east (Oberkommando des Heeres).
• The Soviet player commands the Soviet faction and the OKW faction, that is the German and Italian armies facing the Western allies in the west (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht).

Gameplay is driven by Downfall’s innovative initiative track. The faction with the initiative chooses an order, pays its initiative cost by advancing their marker along the track, and performs the order. Then, the faction with the initiative (based on the updated positions of the markers) chooses the next order. There is no set sequence of play; initiative expenditures determine who goes next. The progress of faction markers along the track also trigger strategic events, changes in weather, and advancement of game turns.

Vendor: Multi-Man Publishing
Type: War Games
Price: 99.00

Crimea covers the series of campaigns in the Crimean Peninsula during the war on the Eastern Front. Several scenarios cover the period of Axis ascendancy during the period September 1941 – July 1942. The Soviet resurgence is represented by scenarios from September 1943 – May 1944.

The map area covers all of Crimea, the Taman peninsula as far east as Krimsk, and southern Ukraine from Kherson to Mariupol.

Crimea can be played as a set of standalone scenarios or as an addition to the OCS game The Third Winter, where it considerably changes that game’s southern map boundary.

Crimea is a low-counter density, small OCS game. There are 560 combat units, and one 22x34 map at a scale of 5-mile hex/3.5 days turn. Seven scenarios are included so players can start at different points in the action.

Scenarios:

• Rite of Passage (Initial German offensive, 28 turns), 26 Sept 1941 to 26 Dec 1941.
• Tiger by the Tail, (Soviet counteroffensive, 20 turns), 26 Dec 41 to 1 Mar 42, can be combined with Rite of Passage scenario.
• Eviction Notice (Operation Trappenjagd, 4 turns), 8-19 May 42.
• Operation Störfang (Assault on Sevastopol, 10 turns), 5 June 42 to 5 Jul 42.
• Cross of Iron (Taman peninsula, 36 turns), 26 Sept 43 to 22 Jan 44, also the setup to combine with The Third Winter 26 Sept 1943 campaign start.
• Sword of Damocles (Crimea setup for combining with The Third Winter 26 Jan 1944 campaign start).
• The Liberation Offensive (Soviet reconquest, 11 turns), 8 Apr 44 to 12 May 44.

Vendor: GMT
Type: War Games
Price: 62.00

Vendor: Decision Games
Type: War Games
Price: 315.00

Wargame for 2-4 players

Vendor: Multi-Man Publishing
Type: War Games
Price: 26.00

The ASLOK XXXII pack builds on the success of the ASL Oktoberfest XXX pack, and highlights the design and playtesting talents of Ohio’s finest. Guided by veteran playtesters and tournament directors Bret Hildebran and Bill Hayward, the expert scenario designers Bill Sisler and Pete Shelling bring us eleven scenarios ranging from 1939 Poland to 1945 Hungary, with stops in Ukraine, Russia, New Guinea, Burma, Italy, France, and Belgium along the way. Place names like Vistula, Balta, Luga, Bougainville, Myitkyina, Elba, Caen, Falaise, and Bastogne will all ring a bell. These scenarios will stretch your tactical knowledge and skills, with many different situations (although no night actions—so sad). Some are infantry only, one is armor only (almost), but most feature combined arms. Assault engineers with all their toys are featured, and the King of Battle makes its appearance in the form of offboard artillery in several scenarios. Along with the “typical” Russian, German, and American battles, these scenarios also involve Poles (both 1939 and 1944 versions), British, Japanese, Chinese, the Free French, and the SS (of all different squad types).

The two new boards bring added flexibility to the system and are integral to most of the scenarios. Board 78 is a true wilderness board (no buildings) featuring a brush-covered ridge along its length. Board 79 provides a new river, three to five hexes wide, with a village strung out along both banks. Both highlight the steady skills of Charlie Kibler and are sure to see wide use in future scenario design. With great boards and great scenarios, Action Pack #13 is sure to be a big hit.