GGWITW coming to Steam 3rd August!!

 

We are pleased to announce that one of the most acclaimed wargames on the Western Front of World War II, Gary Grigsby's War in the West, is going to be released on Steam on August the 3rd!

Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasion of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

On August the 3rd you will also be able to purchase the expansion "Operation Torch", that introduces 10 new challenging scenarios, including both historical and what-if operations like the "Battle for Tunisia", the "Operation Dragoon" and the "Breach of the Gothic Line".

I.A.F. Israeli Air Force Leader

by

Dan Verssen Games 

 DVG ( Dan Verssen Games) has been offering a large amount of solitaire wargames to us for a few years now. These are:

Field commander Alexander

Field Commander Napoleon

Field Commander Rommel

Fleet commander Nimitz

Gato leader

U-Boat Leader

Tiger Leader

 Then there is a bunch of airwar solitaire games:

Hornet Leader

Phantom leader

Thunderbolt Apache Leader

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader 

 Mike reviewed their 'Tiger Leader' for us, and I had the pleasure of reviewing 'Phantom Leader' and 'B-17 Flying Fortress Leader'.

http://www.awargamersneedfulthings.co.uk/2017/05/b-17-leader-by-dan-verssen-games.html

 http://www.awargamersneedfulthings.co.uk/2017/05/phantom-leader-for-pc-by-dan-verssen.html

http://www.awargamersneedfulthings.co.uk/2016/12/tiger-leader.html

 If I had to use only one word to describe I.A.F. it would be 'scope'. The sheer amount of aircraft and campaigns is truly exceptional for a wargame. The campaigns are:

1948 War Of Independence

1956 The Suez Crisis

1967 The Six Day War

1973 Yom Kippur War

1981 Operation Babylon

1982 Lebanon I

1991 Desert Storm

2006 Lebanon II 

2022 Armageddon

 The plane selection is even greater. They are:

Mustangs

Czech built AVIA S-199 ( BF 109G frames new engine)

Spitfires

Meteors

Mirages

These continue  all the way to the F-35 Lightning II. The weapons you can carry fill up 2 1/2 pages, from the simplest iron bombs to the newest guided ones.

 The campaigns range from as short as three days to the longest of twelve days. DVG's airwar games seem to have a common skeleton that they all possess. The designer then builds upon it to give each of the the simulations its own historical feel. The main point of the games are to put you in the shoes of an Air force commander. You will not only deal with logistics, but also with pilot stress, etc. Your job is not only to destroy this mission's target, but to have planes and pilots for the next.

 Just like 'B-17 Leader' the target display, counters, and cards are of the highest quality.  The counters drop out like butter with no bits of cardboard attached. For those of you who cannot play any other way, they even come clipped. The game pieces alone are worth the price. The fact that you get a world class solitaire game along with them is simply outstanding.

 For those of you who have not picked one up yet, the game play is pretty much the same in each game.  You pick the campaign you want to play. Then, following the campaign rules, you pick your pilots and planes. You are given 'X" amount of each of the following pilots:

Newbie

Green

Average

Skilled

Veteran

Ace

 Each campaign has a different amount of SOs (special options) points that a player can use to purchase special weapons, aircraft, or priority options. Event Cards, escalation cards, and Pilot loss penalties cause you to lose your 'SO' points. This is important, because if you fall below zero 'SO' points, you automatically lose the game. You then have your pick of 'target cards' to attack. Some of these also have special rules that apply only to them. Then the real fun starts. You have to destroy the target or call off the mission due to losses etc. You have to keep track of your pilots with a written log. As I said in the 'B-17 Leader' review the process is not an onus.

 I would recommend I.A.F. to anyone interested in these historic scenarios, or anyone in need of a great solitaire wargame. "Phantom leader, "B-17 Leader', and I.A.F etc. all fit the bill. In a very nice touch, all of the Kickstarter buyers are on the outside of the box.

This is a pic of my latest campaign during The Six Day war. I became enamored of the Vautour even after I found out it is French for vulture. It actually used a Norden bombsight, and could only be used in clear weather and daylight.

Robert

 

One of the most popular boardgame video reviewers, Marco Arnaudo, has a saying, "In every boardgamer there is a wargamer screaming to come out." I happen to agree and I am on a crusade to help bring more gamers to the wargaming hobby.

You may wonder who am I to try to teach publishers about doing their job, so I will briefly introduce myself. My name is Ania B. Ziolkowska and I’ve been a freelance graphic artist in the wargaming industry since 2014. You may say this isn’t very long. It’s not, but I believe that I have a fresh perspective, not only from an industry insider point of view but also as a trained ad specialist. And, what’s probably most important, from a casual gamer-turned-wargamer point of view. So bear with me and I guarantee you that following these five simple and (mostly) free steps, will not only attract new customers to your business but will also increase loyalty to your brand.

1. MAKE THE RULEBOOK AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE.

If your reaction to this point is "doh, it already is", but before releasing the game only your team (playtesters, designer and developer) read your rulebook, then I bet you I will find at least five things in it that may be improved to serve gamers better.

The common oversight is to give the rulebook to only industry insiders to review. The designer and the developer have good knowledge of their game’s rules, so they may easily miss some unclear paragraphs. Playtesters and proofreaders are a great asset, there’s no doubt about it, but they are usually wargamers themselves. Give your rulebook file to a few casual gamers and ask them to use the commenting tool (which is built into text editor). Have them write down all their questions and doubts while they read along. Also, ask them to mark if and where later in the text they’ve found the answer to their previous concerns. This will give you a good understanding of what needs to be fixed, rearranged and explained in more detail, or simply calls for an annotation in your rulebook.

In general, try to avoid acronyms and abbreviations. There is a lot of military jargon in wargames as is, so don’t make it harder for newbies by adding to this acronyms. If you can’t (or won’t avoid them) then provide a glossary in the front or back of the rulebook. Explaining an acronym or abbreviation just once in the text may not be enough - you can’t assume that a reader will remember all the definitions right away. Or that they will remember where in a sixteen page- rulebook the acronym was already mentioned.

Use many illustrations.This may cause the rulebook to be longer but will help gamers understand the rules better and will also make pages look less intimidating (by breaking blocks of text into more coherent parts).

Insert a lengthy example of a play in the rulebook and make sure that it doesn’t follow the simplest choices the player may take during their turn. Also, ensure that it doesn’t include that one exception to the rule in the whole mechanics.

And finally, post your rulebook online. Assume that at some point gamers who have never heard about your company may consider purchasing your game. Now, their decision may be to check out the artwork, the reviews and other players’ opinions and/or the rulebook itself. Artwork is a powerful tool, it may be eye-catching but most gamers need at least one extra incentive to purchase - either they know and trust your brand, or they are interested in the particular topic your game covers, or they had positive experiences with other games by that designer. Those who are new to wargaming won’t have the benefit of any of these. They may read or watch some reviews or ask around. However, reviews may not exist yet and some gamers want to judge mechanics and complexity for themselves - especially if they’ve never bought a wargame. So post it! Post that rulebook on your website and on Boardgamegeek (because this is the place where the people who you want to attract hang out).

2. WATCH YOUR PLAYTESTERS PLAY.

Playtesters are one of the most valuable assets in the game development process - they are passionate, self-motivated, methodical and they are usually working in exchange for the product and (yes!) appreciation. It’s really impressive that tests can be conducted by people all over the world thanks to the internet, but I would strongly advise you to have a small group of playtesters that you can actually watch while they play. This may be done via webcam, but watch them closely: Are they having fun? How many times do they need to consult the rulebook? How do they use the turn track, holding boxes and tables on the map?

I’m often surprised how differently players actually use tracks and holding boxes in contrast to how the designer or developer intended it to work. I see many pictures of games in play with counters piling up on a track, sitting outside playing areas to avoid covering important information, or crowding in small holding boxes. These are easy to avoid mistakes in the design process if you just simply watch how people play and interact with your prototype.

3. SEND YOUR PRODUCT TO THE RIGHT VIDEO REVIEWERS.

You may ask, who the hell is the "right" video reviewer?! That’s a fair question. If your game targets grognards and people already well acquainted with wargaming, then just send your copies to those with high recognition and well-earned respect. In that case, even the old-school wargame magazine review would be a great and very useful promotional tool.

If you however produced a lighter wargame, a solitary piece or a wargame with cards, then your target customer is beyond the scope of grognards. You need to reach younger people, wargame newbies and casual gamers looking to expand their horizons. In that case, video review is the way to go.

Did you know that Google owns YouTube, and a Google search will always select YouTube video over any other content which may be related to your game? If you really want to have a wider impact with your game, try to look for those reviewers who make well-filmed, well-edited, dynamic videos which are a maximum of 10-15 minutes long.

In the era of the internet, social media and smartphones, we all have shorter attention spans and we tend to switch to another video after a couple of seconds or minutes, unless there is something which is dynamic enough to keep us interested. Fortunately there are some reviewers who balance the art of the boardgame review really nicely. To illustrate what I mean check The Discriminating Gamer YouTube channel.

4. SHOW UP AND BE PREPARED.

Go to conventions. You don’t have to show up at each and every one of them, but try to attend at least some that are near you. You don’t need to have a huge booth. You don’t even need to have your own booth - many publishers share their space to lower the costs and that’s perfectly fine.

Show up, lay your games on the tables and set them up ready to play. Your game may be too long to play at the convention, or even to explain all the rules in just a couple of minutes, but show the game itself in action.

Prepare a short description of the game - what it’s about and why this particular subject is so interesting. If this is not a strictly wargaming convention, then don’t go into too much historical detail - be brief and focus on the things which capture imagination, stuff like ‘’In the 15th century knights were mostly nobleman and they despised archers for not fighting honorably by killing enemies from afar. On some occasions, like during the Battle of Creҫy, knights even rode through lines of their own archers. However, at Agincourt, where the English were outnumbered 4-1 by the French army, archers played a huge role in the English victory.” Those kinds of details will stick in the listener’s mind better than numbers and dates.

Also prepare a super-simplified version of the rules - a basic structure, so you are able to give at least an impression of the game’s flow. Don’t improvise, convert rules into script, try to read them out loud and time yourself - this is not a lecture, this is a convention, you have to be reasonably quick.

When you have both scripts ready for your product there is nothing simpler than reaching out to your fans and asking for help. How many people will your company send to the event? Are they sociable people? Are they eager to share the product with a wider audience? It is always better to anticipate a bunch of enthusiastic fans, who may even know your games better than you do, than to show up at the convention and just sit behind the table and not interact with visitors. When you have scripts ready, give them to your volunteers and you are ready to go.

When I say "show up", I don’t mean only conventions. I mean show up on Consim World, BoardGameGeek and at least some other social media. And do it regularly! You cannot just appear once in a while with a copy of your newsletter. First and foremost you need to give value to your audience. Share images of your upcoming games, pictures from the process, designer’s notes, but first and foremost answer gamers’ questions.

When you publish a game this is not over yet If you don’t show up to answer questions about the rules (or instruct a designer to do this) the game quickly becomes a rotten egg and sadly your company image suffers too. This is especially important when you are a small company and you cannot assume that one of those hundreds of players, who already purchased your game, will know the answer. No, you haven’t sold that many copies yet, so make it a priority to help gamers understand those rules. Gamers who are left alone with their questions unanswered may not trust that your next game will be worth buying.

5. RESPECT AND APPRECIATE.

Does it seem to you that I’m being silly now, assuming that you may actually do the opposite? I don’t suspect you will, but do you do enough to make your customers and especially loyal fans feel appreciated? The more you acknowledge your audience, the more connected they will feel and they will also be more likely to purchase your games.

When someone posts a good review on any of your products thank them by leaving a comment or simply hitting the like button. When someone tags you in a post or a comment which recommends your product, at least leave a like. If someone posts a picture of your game in play on Facebook and tags you in it, share that picture on your page (I mean share by hitting the share button, not saving the photo and posting it as your own). Those small gestures mean a lot to many gamers and builds a loyal group of fans and ambassadors of your brand.

When you are at a convention and anyone (and I mean literally anyone) stops at your booth to take a look at your game, assume that this person may end up buying it. Don’t dismiss a person based on their appearance, age, gender or other popular stereotypes about what wargamers look like. Always engage with people, even those who show only the slightest interest.

If a fan helps you at the convention, give them some games in exchange for their time. Thank them by name on your social platforms. And never, ever forget to include playtesters and proofreaders names in the credits!

You may wonder how your relationship with your fans, volunteers and playtesters may help you attract more casual gamers. The answer is, we don’t live in a bubble. The better you treat those customers you already have, the wider the net you cast in the sea.

---------------------------------------------------

These are just few examples of how to attract new customers to your brand and most of them involve only your time and effort. The best thing is, by concisely following these steps you will provide not only better games for all of us - no matter grognard, play-it-all or a newbie – but will also strengthen your own brand, gain a loyal audience, customers, fans and ambassadors - something which no money can buy.



THIS IS A REPOST WITH SAD NEWS Parusski aka David has passed on. Miss you.

I am David, AKA Parusski from the Matrix forum.  Jason invited me to help WNT grow, so here I am.  Looking forward to doing some good, and fun, work here.

Cheers,
David


Editor Note: Welcome David. David is a good friend of mine over at Matrix forum and I know he will be a valued asset to the blog. David will be helping review PC games and I hope contribute in others ways, if he feels like it! Expect to see his Bio go up soon over at GHQ, so you can all learn a bit more about our new weapon in the WNT arsenal. It's great to have you on board. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do at WNT.



Edit No2: It's with such sad news that I announce David AKA Parusski died before he got a chance to contribute to the website. It seems he died only a few days after posting this Hello article.

He is sorely missed.

RIP Parusski

 CMBN AAR  -Siege- by Pericles

 

CMBN AAR -Iron Horse Vale- by Pericles

 

Images Of War 

 Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) At War 1939-1945

by

Ian Baxter 

 The 'Images Of War' books are exactly that. These are mostly rare photos of the LSSAH at war, and sometimes at peace. These are just photos of normal soldiers and lower ranked commanders. There are no press shots of Peiper or Dietrich. 

 The author does a good job of giving you a condensed history of the division. He also does not shy away from the LSSAH's many war crimes. That is one of the problems with studying or reading and writing about the German forces in World War II. How do you give them credit for their splendid war records, while still remembering at times it was they who were the subhuman monsters.

 This is one of the striking differences when I look at this book. You will see soldiers at war, and sometimes even see groups of them as friends laughing at an unheard joke. The pictures don't show us werewolves or vampires or other monsters, but in reality these men slaughtered men, women, and children. I am not talking about killing POWs here. Many good soldiers on both sides of conflicts have done this, usually in the heat of battle. These men fought and died like lions, yet still they committed unheard of atrocities. 

 The book's chapters are:

 Training For War

 Baptism of Fire 1939-41

 Barbarossa 1941

 Kharkov and Beyond 1942-43 

 The last year 1944-45

 The appendices are:

 SS Infrantryman 1939-1942

 Combat Uniforms of the Waffen-SS 1943-45

 The Second Model of The LSSAH Standard

 Waffen-SS Order of Battle

 Each chapter starts with a written piece on the background history of the year or campaign that the pictures shown took place. As is usual with the 'Images of War' books, the photographs are mostly newly found unpublished ones from the war.

 For model makers and others, the book is a great source on uniforms, weapons, and markings of the LSSAH. As you can see, their insignia was a skeleton key, but it was also a play on words. Their first commander was Sepp Dietrich, and Dietrich in German means skeleton key.

Robert

Book: Images of War: Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) At  War 1939-1945
Author: Ian Baxter
Publisher: Pen And Sword
Distributor: Casemate Publishers

Interested in space 4x strategy games, but just don't have the time for a marathon gaming session? Take a look here at Space Tyrant, a new title from Blue Wizard Digital that just released onto Steam early access.

From the developer: "Space Tyrant is a fast-paced roguelike-lite 5X game set in a grimly grimdark future of eternal war. Build a terrifying space fleet, make enemies and disintegrate peaceful extraterrestrials in your relentlessly unpleasant march to total domination!"

Watch me conquer the galaxy on YouTube

I'll write up a written preview of the game as well in the coming days, as I watch it continue to develop. As it is though, the game is very much playable and fun.

Official Website: http://spacetyrantgame.bluewizard.com/


- Joe Beard

Cobi's World of Tanks


MAUS

 The Maus is in the house, and it is Tanktastic! To be more descriptive you could call it the Behemoth. Too bad, because I like the word Leviathan better, but we are not dealing with ships here. The Panzerkampfwagen VIII was nicknamed the Maus (mouse) in a bit of ironic jesting. The Maus is the heaviest armored vehicle ever produced at 188 tonnes. Strangely, its turret frontal armor was not much thicker than the Ferdinand/Elefant. Its armor thickness is listed here:

 Turret Front  - 220 mm

 Turret Side And Rear - 200 mm

 Hull Front  - 200 mm

 Hull Side - 180 mm

 Hull Rear - 150 mm

 Its main armament was a 128 mm KWK 4Gun  L/55 and its secondary armament was a 75 mm KWK 44 Gun L/36.5, and a 7.92 machine gun.

 For a long time Porsche was trying to build large tanks with a petrol motor that would run a generator to two electric motors, one for each track. Like the Ferdinand/Elefant, the Maus had this drive system. Only two were built and of those only one was fully constructed. Amazingly they were able to get a speed of 22 km (14 MPH) out of this beast.

 Enough of the history, we will now talk about Cobi's magnificent brick beast. I have been drooling over this since I saw the first teaser ad on Cobi about it. I built the M4 Sherman from Cobi and I was and am mightily impressed with that kit. However, the ads of the Maus just blew me away. Every one I saw looked like a $100 plus plastic model kit.

 The Maus belongs to the Cobi 'World Of Tanks' lineup. the sheer size of the box is impressive. Most Cobi tanks run in the range of 400-600 piece size, with the Koenig Tiger at the top of the scale at 600 pieces. The Maus is a whopping 900 pieces. 

 I cannot state strongly enough that once built, these Cobi kits are well put together and will not fall apart into their separate bricks by looking at them. You can actually play with them on a carpet or a floor, and you will not have to be rebuilding the kit. The sheer heft of the Cobi kits, once they are together, tell the whole story. The Maus, when put together, seems almost indestructible like the tank it represents was supposed to be.

 The instructions for the kit are straightforward, with no real questions, as long as you take your time and follow them. The Maus has shown me that Cobi kits are, as far as looks and construction, just getting better and better.

 With its 900 pieces it is a longer build that others, but that is not a knock on the kit. It means you have that much more time to enjoy actually building it. The kit also comes with rubber tires to put on the road wheels.

 The Maus is an excellent addition to my World War II vehicle collection. I included some pictures of it next to Cobi's Sherman so that you could see the actual size difference.

 The tank commander that comes with the Maus once again shows Cobi's attention to detail.

 In one way I couldn't wait to finish the Maus, and in another I didn't want the building part to end. Construction was just so easy and I was so engrossed in it. As I stated in my first review, I cannot get over how putting a Cobi block tank or plane together really gives one a sense of accomplishment, just as building a glued together model. The Maus now sits proudly next to some of my other models. Thank you Cobi for bringing the world a more affordable choice in excellent block military kits.

 Most, if not all,of Cobi's kits are available in the U.S. from Amazon.


Robert