Advanced Tobruk System

ADVANCED TOBRUK is a detailed new game SYSTEM that allows you to recreate the war in North Africa during World War II. The ultimate tactical-level game presentation is coupled with easy-to-understand and use rules and charts to enable you to re-create all the facets of the decisive Gazala battle—Rommel’s most spectacular victory that led directly to his defeat at El Alamein only a few months later. Unlike its predecessor, ADVANCED TOBRUK allows you to experience Gazala AND the entire war in North Africa. ADVANCED TOBRUK includes scenarios from Gazala, Crusader, Battleax, the 1940 campaign and action in Tunisia.

Your investment in the Advanced TOBRUK SYSTEM (ATS) will be rewarded with new ATS MODULES, each covering a different battle during the war in North Africa. And that’s not all! The ATS will be used to depict tactical-level warfare in other theatres of World War II, including Finland, the Eastern Front, Normandy, the Pacific Theatre and others.

ADVANCED TOBRUK delivers breathtaking action and suspense at the scale and detail true tactical-level enthusiasts demand—individual squads, weapons and tanks. All the subtle nuances of tactical-level combat are provided by the system: gun duels; separate pivoting turrets; AFV indirect fire; coaxial machine-guns; melee; smoke; armor penetration morale; AFV overruns; and more. And it is all accomplished using a detailed and intuitive system that models tanks using discrete armor values at turret, superstructure, lower hull and track aspects and front, side and rear facings and allows for the realistic use of High Explosive, Armor Piercing, APCR and HEAT ammunition. All this without the need for side notes or plotting moves and in a SOLITAIRE friendly presentation.

If you have already made the choice to become an Advanced Tobruk 'Desert Rat' (by purchasing Advanced Tobruk) then we think you may just be the guy/gal with the desire to play the game, and play it well. This applies to you SOLO guys and gals too.

The first in a series of detailed handbooks for ATS players filled with illustrated examples of play and instruction articles. Each issue is about 40 pages.

The first issue of ATS WARFIGHTING GUIDE #1 also includes a bonus multi-turreted tank play aid for owners of ADVANCED TOBRUK + a free bonus GOODY..

Articles cover analysis of machine-gun and mortars in ATS, a look at Panther Tanks in the system, compared to US Army data, and a couple of new variants...plus we hear more from the Hal Hock correspondence collection...and more!

ATS Warfighting Guide #2 contains 52 pages of ADVANCED TOBRUK SYSTEM material aimed at making the ATSer a system expert. Included in the new issue is George Anderson's ATS Robot, a card-based system for playing ANY ATS scenario solo with a random generation of actions by the 'enemy'.

The ATS Robot includes a set of over 50 cards (provided on cardstock for you to trim out) for use with George's solo rules.

Also included in the issue are the first installment of Drew Dorman's 'ATS Set Ups', suggested set up data for all six D-Day Ranger scenarios. You can set up either side Drew's way, then use the ATS Robot to hammer it out. Alone. Just like you like it! What's more, Drew uses the D-Day Rangers NEW Edition scenarios, which also happen to be included in the issue as a FREE bonus!

The FREE bonus approach continues...with a strip of funky new ATS leader counters bundled with EACH copy of ATS WARFIGHTING GUIDE #2.

So this is it. And this is NO DRILL. The expert ATSer needs his warfighting, and he (or she) needs it now.

Basic Game Ia is an all-new presentation of the 101st Screaming Eagles in Normandy 1944 and depicts their battles against the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment and other German units around Carentan. And in a departure from Basic Game I, this new edition includes tanks and AT-guns, while continuing with a super-easy to assimilate rules-set.

BG II: Streets of Stalingrad aims to hit all the marks—new map and scenarios for die-hard, veteran players to latch onto and a Basic Game to bring beginners in.

Basic Game II is an all-new presentation of the Battle of Stalingrad 1942 and depicts pitched battles that include T-34 tanks against Panzer III's and IV's. This new BG edition includes tanks and AT-guns, while continuing with a super-easy to assimilate rules-set.

The new publication for ATS enthusiasts is here! We call it a Sourcebook because each issue will include a brand new ATS Expansion inside!

Sourcebook #2 includes a an awesome and unprecedented look at the actions that took place during the Arab Israeli Wars of 1948 and 1956.

This is a large-scale and important new expansion (ownership of ADVANCED TOBRUK required) that provides new combatants including IDF, Palmach, Moslem Brotherhood, Egyptian Army Regulars, Israeli Paratroopers and MORE! Much more.

IN SOURCEBOOK #2 YOU GET:

The ARNHEM: DEFIANT STAND | SCOTTISH CORRIDOR GAMERS GUIDE covers BOTH games in fine style. A move-by-move Arnhem scenario replay, replete with analysis by the players, AND a scenario re-cap for Scottish Corridor are provided. You also receive a rare excerpt written by a 1944 British soldier, and the third in a series of unpublished letter of Hal Hock in the 'Hock on Hock' series. And more, as in a focus on material by reknowned British designer (and now author for Battlefield Books; Leo Cooper Publisher; UK), Ian Daglish!

AVANTI SAVOIA! (ATS) brings the disaster of the Soviet Winter Counter Offensive of 1941 to the fore with German, Russian, and Italian combined-arms operations playing across two historical maps. All the early Barbarossa toys are there, Stug IIIB, T-26, Pz IIIG, conscripts, and more. It is December 1941 and the looming Moscow offensive has caught the Axis by surprise.

The Axis commanders hurl Bersaglieri and Panzergrenadiers into the maelstrom while Hitler demands ‘not one step back’...while YOU, the gamer, experience what that order means to the men and machines at the sharp end in amazing detail.

Includes six brand new scenarios that play on TWO historical maps, plus Battlefield Walkaround. Also includes one sheet of Italian Eastern Front Personnel + one sheet of Russian AFVs/Guns, provided FREE. As an added bonus, ALL AFV Cards needed for play are also provided!

The River crossing at Udarnik was the stepping-off point for the Blue Division’s baptism of fire against the Soviet forces. The 269th Regiment of the 250th Infantry Division was ordered to cross the Volkhov River in an effort to support the 126th Division driving on Tikhiv with the aim to surround and cut off Leningrad. The hamlets of Russa and Sitno sat alongside the Volkhov River and acted as a major anchor point for the Spanish forces as they operated across the Volkhov River.

BERLIN—RED VICTORY is a detailed new ATS system game that tells the story of the Battle of Berlin at the most detailed level in the history of wargaming!

The street-level map at 50-yards scale is simply unprecedented. The ATS gamer will be able to fight his way across the urban Berlin battlefield literally from house-to-house. Red Banner squads, fanatic Hitler Youth, Officers conducting firing squads to bolster the troops, foreign-born SS, giant Konigstigers, Soviet Assault Guns and Katyusha barrages. You will find this and a lot more in Berlin—Red Victory and then some.

In keeping with the ATS approach you will receive a stack of small, fast-playing scenarios to get you on that gorgeous map right away. But this is also a monster game that will include a super-sized supply of counters, all you need to play a giant, full-map scenario!

You will also receive a copy of the new ATS Campaigns Rulebook, a separate addendum to the system that will allow you to recreate the long, bitter struggle, replete with ebb-and-flow, reinforcement decision making, and outright battle fatigue as you push your cardboard soldiers—and yourself—to the very limits of endurance!

The place is The Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works—where we put you in a German squad, poised to dash across the street, a street covered by an unseen Russian machine gun. Or among the crew of a buttoned-down Sturmgeschutz IIIB, rattling across the railyards, the smoke and dust of battle obscuring your view through the periscope? Or part of a platoon of desperate Soviet Guardsmen, dug into a partially collapsed factory with a Commissar making his orders to hold to the death stand up by aiming his Tokarev Model TT33 at your back.

The Combat Stalingrad ATS Upgrade contains everything you'll need to find your way into the hell of Stalingrad to find out, first hand, what it was like. All the counters, rules, and play aids are provided. All the famous units are there, from several varieties of Panzer to the dreaded KV and T34 model tanks, not to mention flame-throwing OT-34 models of the famed medium.

D-DAY RANGERS allows you to recreate the classic struggle of the 2nd Ranger Battalion in the hedgerows south of Pointe du Hoc from D-Day to June 8, 1944. Six different scenarios are provided to enable you to experience all the facets of the grim struggle in the most incredible historical detail. The scale of RANGERS is 50 yards per hex and the system depicts action on a SQUAD and INDIVIDUAL WEAPON level. Move your BAR man to the flank. Take on a German machine-gun nest with a bayonet charge. Wait until the last possible moment to fire your Panzerfaust as a Sherman tank bears down on you and your men. Lob mortar rounds into a suspected enemy position in a distant copse. All these actions and more can be simulated using the game system that is both easy to learn and a challenge to master.

THIS IS A COMPLETE GAME! All you need is a ten-sided die to get into the action. Everything else is included. What’s more, this is the ideal starter set for newcomers to the Advanced Tobruk System (ATS). And now that ATS has moved OUT of the desert, you can replace the ‘T’ with “tactical” as the long-awaited advance for the system from the sands of North Africa to the battlegrounds of Western Europe is HERE! Released by Critical Hit in 2002, Advanced Tobruk was a total make-over of the classic AH title by the same name. Nominated for BEST HISTORICAL SIMULATION OF 2002, the game and system were widely acclaimed. Now the action moves to 1944, and all new challenges await in hedgerow country. They await YOU.

Begin play almost immediately! The included BASIC GAME gets you up and running fast. And there are no rules to ‘unlearn’. All the Basic Game concepts flow right into the main rulebook. The fast-moving action is built around the acclaimed ATS system. The new edition of the rules builds in more ease-of-play, and consolidates different types of combat for easier reference. Move that Sherman down the hedgerow-ed lane, or fire off your Panzerfaust...or bring down an artillery strike...in the ultimate detail. That's the freedom to create your own tactical-level work of 'art de combat' using the ATS system. Action for RANGERS enthusiasts continues with the publication of the D-Day Rangers Gamers Guide. This publication will include a complete, move-by-move scenario replay, ‘L-Rod’ Petty’s unpublished D-Day recollections, and articles about the ATS system, weaponry, and all things ‘Normandy ‘44’ for the enthusiast of the ATS system.

DARKEST DECEMBER is a detailed new ATS system game that tells the story of the Battle of the Bulge from the perspective of the dogfaces of the American 3rd Armored Division, facing down an onrushing German 116th Panzer Division during 20-24 December, 1944. The ATS gamer is hurled into the height of the most dangerous period of the Battle of the Bulge, in pitched battles that play out over three historical maps, covering Hotton, Melines and Quatre Bras crossroads portions of the battlefield.

The entire battle-site was mapped on foot by designer Pedro Ramis and the detail is incredible! Scenarios bring you into the ranks of the 23rd Armored Engineer Battalion, Kampfgruppe Bayer, Task Force Mize, CCR, and other hard-fighting combat elements. You have never experienced The Battle of the Bulge like this before. And may never again!

Positions at ‘Eliane 1’, DIEN BIEN PHU, FRENCH INDOCHINA, 31 March 1954: The morning following the opening of the battle for the ‘Five Hills’ was one of desperation for both sides. The weather temporarily cleared up, allowing both air support and re-supply, but no airborne reinforcements. While E4 and E2 (Champs Elysées) were both secure, the occupation of E1 could not be allowed. It had fallen with barely a fight when its Moroccan garrison deserted. From previous experience, the French knew that they could not allow the enemy to entrench himself on that hill. The 5th Vietnamese Parachute Battalion was selected to retake the lost strongpoint. They were especially determined to make up for a failure at the Gabrielle strongpoint, nearly two weeks earlier. By now, E1 was devastated by bombardments. There were no shelters, no dugouts, no barbed wire—just the pockmarks of shells, shattered corpses, and the stench of rotting human flesh. With great élan, the 5th BPVN charged from E4 over to E1. They completely routed the enemy from the heights, suffering greatly as Viet Minh counter-battery fire slammed into them on the newly reconquered hill. There they endured and awaited relief which never came. When the enemy pressure forced the French to abandon the nearby strongpoint of Dominique 2, Eliane 1 was then outflanked and exposed. Just before dusk, E1 was again abandoned.

The above is just one of the gripping historical summaries you'll find in the brand new ATS DIEN BIEN PHU. Phew! I'm sweating already, just thinking about those Viet Minh hordes and the pressure I'll feel defending the honor or France and that's just while I am enjoying the massive solo-play friendly experience, sans and other of my fellow ATSers.

Okay, let's get to the nitty-gritty. This is a COMPLETE GAME in a ziploc that pits French paratroopers against Viet Minh in this famous battle. Just bring your own ten sided die. The soldier art is ALL NEW and created just for this game. What's more, the map is 100% new and remastered, bright, crisp and easy to read, and printed on that ultra 'secret paper stock' CH has been using for years to make what many consider the best tactical-level game maps in the business.

What do the Canadian Army and Panzer Ace Michael Wittman have in common? They both makes appearances in the new ATS ‘Hot Stove Mini Pack 1’ from Critical Hit!

The year is 1944 and the fate of World War II in the west hangs in the balance, to be decided at heretofore unheard of places like Villers-Bocage, Bardenberg, Verrieres, and Authie. Men and machines from storied Commonwealth units like the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, Mont-Royal Fusiliers, 43rd Wessex Division, and the 4th London Yeomanry literally crash headlong into die-hard Waffen SS soldiers, Tigers, and Panzergrenadiers hell-bent on defying the will of the West, aimed to crush Hitler’s empire.

Mighty feats of war all boil down to the individual soldier and his weapon, or crews behind their all-to-vulnerable armored shield and no system brings the historical gamer close up to the sound and fury like ATS. And things are hotter than ever on this ‘hot stove’, but be warned: if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the cauldron of war—you’ll only get your fingers burned!

HOT STOVE PACK 2 follows in the footsteps of its predecessor based on popular demand and we think this new batch of scenarios will get your dice rolling, and how!

In addition to a brand new map you receive FOUR scenarios to use on it. The terrain features HILLTOP ACTION and multiple heights will be contested like never before. The versatile new map included with HOT STOVE PACK 2 is not only perfect to depict HILL 75.9 (aka “Devil’s Hill”), Nijmegen, but serves just as well as the setting for the classic struggle at HILL 253.5, PONYRI.

Another hilltop, just outside of ROMNY, RUSSIA is the setting of a new scenario utilizing the AFV Card provided for the Pz Sf IVa tank-destroyer, aka ‘Dickermax”. The fighting at MALTOT is also recreated with Tigers aplenty.

This wouldn’t be a HOT STOVE PACK if there wasn’t a special bonus included and this time around ATSers have the opportunity to MAX OUT their purchases of NIKITOVKA and TOKTONG PASS with two new scenarios, one pitting Italian APLINI against elite French S.E.S. troops in the French Alps. The other brings a swarm of N.K.P.A. troops against US Marines, Pershings and recoilless rifles at OBONG-NI RIDGE 1950.

HOT STOVE PACK 2 consists of FOUR new World War II scenarios PLUS TWO BONUS SCENARIOS for a total of SIX, printed on cardstock. Each scenario is playable on the new HOT STOVE PACK 2 map, with one bonus scenario requiring the use of HOT STOVE MAP 1. This series is meant for the serious ATS player and should not be missed!

This is a complete boxed ATS game that depicts Eastern Front warfare that has literally been hidden from wargamers in the west...until NOW.

Designed by Finnophile Ray Tapio, combatants including Finland's 1918 War of Independence, 1939-40 Winter War, and the so-called Continuation and Lapland Wars of 1941-45 are all faithfully recreated. The game models unique bunkers of the Mannerheim and V-T Lines, complete with color renditions of each bunker type...all fighting on four maps depicting the dark, wooded, watery countryside of the embattled Eastern European nation as Stalin and Hitler hurl everything from JS II tanks to cowardly SS Reservists...against one another and against the Finns.

OOSTERBEEK PERIMETER is a ground-breaking product that allows you to recreate the classic struggle of the Battle of Arnhem on a never-simulated-at-this-scale rendition of the battlefield. And to do it in the ultimate detail, house-by-house, at 50 yards scale. This game does not purport to answer whether Monty’s bold gamble to cross the Rhine and break into the heart of Hitler’s Third Reich could have succeeded. Nor does it have anything to do with whether ‘Market Garden’ aimed one or more bridges ‘too far’. Instead, OOSTERBEEK PERIMETER puts the gamer literally inside the hexenkessel, hammered by two Waffen SS panzer divisions day after day. There is no escape nor respite and this game is not suggested for the faint of heart. If you are ready to travel back in time, to recreations of the very places in history where most of the Arnhem Victoria Crosses were earned in pitched combat, while staring down the dark menace of massive King Tigers, Sturmgeschutz, and a smorgasbord of captured AFVs ranging from Dutch armored cars to French flame-throwing tanks—then this game is for you.

PANTHER LINE: ARMY GROUP NORTH 1944 is a detailed new ATS system game that tells the story of the Russo-German War on the Eastern Front from the perspective of the soldiers that faced off during the Summer of 1944. The ATS gamer is hurled into a pitched battle, with German defenders clinging to a line of hills, amid forested terrain. Staring Soviet might in the face with only a local Tiger Abteilung to hurl into the fray and stave off the collapse of the entire front.

Another unique ATS battlefield is provided in all its glory. The scenarios bring you into the turrets of the Pzkw VI Panzers of the 502 Schwere Panzer Abteilung, 94th Grenadier Regiment, and 1st Shock Army and other hard-fighting combat elements. You have never experienced war on the Eastern Front like this before. And may never again!

PARKER’S CROSSROADS—The Battle of the Bulge contains a highly-detailed and on-site researched game map depicting the Belgian countryside along the Baraque de Fraiture crossroads. This hotly contested battlefield was the scene of a collision between Americans and German Waffen SS and Volksgrenadier units during the Battle of the Bulge. It was later to be known as “Parker’s Crossroads”, named after Major Arthur C. Parker III, the Commander of the 589th Field Artillery unit assigned to this sector.

Another historical map researched on site by Pedro Ramis and brought to you with the cooperation of hobbyist Nadir El Farra and his FRONT LINE PRODUCTIONS, PCBOB includes 8 new scenarios and a sheet of new counters, all used on the 24" x 26" map.

Ownership of DARKEST DECEMBER or German Personnel, US Personnel, US AFVs, German AFVs, and the LATE WAR GERMAN AND AMERICAN AFVS sheet (DD_1) is needed to use this expansion.

The D-Day Rangers Gamers Guide provides a fascinating combination of game and history with the emphasis on...both! The Gamers Guide brings the perfect combination of history and game to the enthusiast of the game system and Normandy hedgerow battles.

A must-have for readers ready to immerse themselves in the nuances of Bocage warfare in a way only the Tobruk system can deliver. Unpublished veteran' accounts and a scenario replay with move-by-move detail make this a unique publication.

SANTA MARIA INFANTE: THE ROAD TO ROME tells the nitty-gritty story of the mud-caked grunt, slogging forward one patch of beat up ground at a time. One German machine-gun nest at a time. And a new one always seems to come on line after your buddies got it taking the last. The 22" x 34" map is simply un-precedented in tactical-level games - a ridgeline runs down the middle of the length of the map - with spurs off to sides and a small Italian village perched on the ridge at the 'top' (toward Rome) of the map.

ATS SEMPER FI! (aka Ucommon Valor Upgrade Edition) is the new COMPLETE GAME that depicts the battle for Iwo Jima. Three years into the Pacific war the United States Marine Corps had mastered the art of the amphibious landing. The landing force at Iwo still had much to learn about the enemy. Senior intelligence officers did not know until 27 February that General Kuribayashi was in fact personally running the show from his headquarters on Iwo Jima. As the Marines regrouped after their landing, it was obvious that something was different on Iwo Jima. No dense jungles, just ash from the island’s volcano, Suribachi. Steam could be seen rising from the natural sulfur water wells which bubbled to the surface all over the island. Worse, the dug-in defenders actually numbered half again the original estimate of 13,000. Kuribayshi was particularly pleased with the quality of his artillery and engineering troops. The Japanese defenders waiting for the advance of the V Amphibious Corps were well armed and confident. The game depicts the confrontation at Motoyama Airfield #2, a war waged with the most vicious weapons available to the combatants, including flame-throwing ‘Zippo’ Shermans and Japanese heavy artillery. Everything is included to play!.

No. of Players: 1 - 2
Duration: 120 minutes

GL Price: £26.99        (RRP is £29.99)

North of Brécourt Manor, Normandy, 6 June 1944 0830 Hours: After linking up with his parent unit at the hamlet of Le Grand Chemin on the morning of June 6, 1944, 1st Lieutenant Richard Winters was ordered up front away from his company. With minimal instructions and no briefing, Winters found himself tasked to destroy a German artillery battery. The battery had initially been reported to be 88 mm guns firing onto causeway exit #2 leading off Utah Beach thereby disrupting the advance of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division inland on this route. It turned out to be four 105’s, with support elements nearby. Several other units had stumbled into the enemy position earlier in the morning and had been repulsed. Winters collected a team of thirteen men from his own and other companies and developed a quick plan of attack. He positioned a pair of M1919 .30 caliber machine guns to serve as a base of fire and sent several soldiers (2nd Lt. Lynn D. Compton, Sgt. Joseph D. Toye, and Sgt. William J. Guarnere) to one flank to destroy a machine gun position with grenades and provide covering fire. Sgt. C. Carwood Lipton climbed a tree, which exposed him to enemy fire but provided an excellent view of the enemy. He opened fire, but return fire caused him to return rapidly to the ground. Winters then led an attack down the hedgerow leading to the first gun position. After the four guns were disabled, Winters’ team was low on ammunition and withdrew...

And with that exciting account CH is pleased to welcome GILES TIMMES to the ATS design team! His effort depicts the 101st Airborne as they take on the German battery at Brécourt Manor, a scene right out of the book and movie “Band of Brothers”. To make things even more enticing, the new historical map features LARGE hexes PLUS we include THREE bonus scenarios AND a 100% FREE GIFT in the form of a sheet of 56 color die-cut 101st Airborne ‘shoulder patch’ Personnel counters, each adorned with the ‘Screaming Eagle’ emblem.

To enjoy this product you’ll need to own the German and American standard ATS Personnel counter sheets and Late War German AFVs as well as the standard American AFV sheet. To enjoy it to the fullest, we suggest you get FOUR German 105s, the leFH 18 H|HOW counter, two of which are found on the PARKER’S CROSSROADS counter sheet.

STONNE HEIGHTS is a detailed new ATS system game that tells the story of the Battle of France with incredible detail. The game zeroes in on the village of Stonne, a vital cross-roads along the Meuse River and the objective of the elite Grossdeutschland Regiment, assisted by elements of the 10th Panzer Division. Unlike the eventual outcome of the Battle of France 1940, the outcome in Stonne was anything but certain. No sooner did the dark silhouettes of German AFVs emerge from the Bois de la Grande Côte than the bark of a 25mm anti-tank gun was soon heard and the first panzer set ablaze, beginning what would be a massive armored confrontation. The clank of massive Char B1-bis tanks was soon heard as these behemoths were hurled into the fray. The game cartography is unprecedented in detail and was created on site by designer Pedro Ramis. No effort was spared as unpublished photos were used to create accurate renditions of every building in the village of Stonne.

Your investment in the Advanced TOBRUK SYSTEM (ATS) will be rewarded as an unprecedented library of new ATS MODULES, each covering a different World War II battle, is published. The ATS depicts tactical-level warfare on numerous battlefields of World War II, including Normandy, Arnhem, the Italian Front, and others. Each boxed ATS release is a complete game. There is nothing more to buy to immediately begin enjoying tactical-level wargaming like never before.