Avalanche Press Military Games

The last Nazi offensive on the Western Front, launched as the Battle of the Bulge tailed off. American troops blunted the German assault and then threw the enemy back into Germany. This game uses the same system as America Triumphant and can be played together with that game or separately.

In December 1805, Emperor Napoleon I led about 67,000 men against about 75,000 Russian and Austrian troops near Brunn (modern Brno) in Bohemia, part of today’s Czech Republic. The battlefield, divided by hills and streams, became known as Austerlitz and would be celebrated as Napoleon’s greatest victory.

After fierce fighting amid the morning mists, the sun broke through the clouds. The French stormed the key Pratzen Heights, and after a bloody bayonet fight with the Russian troops manning the lines forced the Allied army into a disorganized retreat.

The rules are very similar to our War of the States and Rome at War series, and build on our earlier Napoleonic battle games like the now-discontinued Napoleon in the Desert. They are completely new; developer Doug McNair and designer Rob Markham have created a game that retains the older games’ simplicity of play but is far more historically accurate.

After chasing Axis forces out of Africa in the spring of 1943, the Allied armies prepared to return to Europe. After studying several possible landing sites, the British and Americans decided to invade Sicily. Strategically located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, its capture would help secure Allied communications thorugh this vital waterway and de-stabilize Italy’s fascist regime.

In June, the British Eighth Army landed on the island’s eastern coast and the American Seventh Army on the south. Axis forces resisted bitterly, but finally were chased off the island.

The game includes four scenarios, covering various Axis and Allied plans to defend and attack the island as well as the historical situation. The game system, used previously in America Triumphant, Alsace 1945 and Red God of War, takes only a few hours to play.

Game pieces represent battalions, regiments, brigades and divisions. Headquarters are vital to activate units and send them into action; supply is also important to keeping your units at full efficiency and players must choose how to allocate their resources. There will never be enough of them to accomplish everything at once.

When two people sit down over a table to play a historical board game, they're not looking for the same thing every time. Sometimes they want an in-depth study of an event; sometimes it's just the desire for competitive fun. Defiant Russia leans heavily toward the latter.

The topic is the 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union. The map portrays the western Soviet Union from the Polish border to the area east of Moscow, and from the Arctic regions on the north to the Turkish border on the south. It's divided into hexagons, at a scale of 45 miles across each.

Players control the actual units that fought in this campaign. Axis units mostly represent army corps. These include German, Finnish, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish and Romanian units. German tank units provide the real striking power for the Axis, and these are the strongest units in the game.

Starting with the Italian invasion of Egypt in September, 1940, war flowed back and forth across the North African deserts for 18 months. The summer of 1942 found the Axis and Allied armies facing one another west of Tobruk, where the Commonwealth forces had dug in behind extensive minefields. Each army prepared to renew the offensive, but the Axis won that race. On the night of May 26th four mobile divisions turned the southern flank of the British line at Gazala.

Gazala simulates the critical battle in the summer of ’42 that led to the fall of Tobruk and the arrival of the Axis armies at the gates to the Nile delta. We’ve shown the battles before on a tactical level in our Desert Rats game. With 140 game pieces and one 22x17-inch map, Gazala’s three scenarios can be played in one to eight hours. The game system is very similar to that in America Triumphant and Alsace 1945, with the addition of anti-tank fire. Most units are brigades or regiments, with a few battalions as well (usually tanks). Italian, German, British, South African, Indian and Free French units are represented.

Great Pacific War is Avalanche Press’ new strategic-level game of the War in the Pacific. The game covers the entire war from December 1941 through 1946 and includes the forces of all participants. Players are placed in the positions of the commanders of the Japanese, British, Soviet and American forces in World War Two. The system is the same one used in Avalanche Press’ game, John Prados’ Third Reich. In addition to five scenarios covering all or part of the War in the Pacific, Great Pacific War includes rules to link it and Third Reich to play the Second World War, a simulation of the entire conflict with up to seven players. Included in the game are five scenarios for the Great Pacific War and three scenarios for the linked Second World War. One of the Great Pacific War scenarios covers a possible 1931 conflict between Japan and America as postulated by the British journalist Hector Bywater in his book of the same title.

Command the ships that made history!

For five years, thousands of players have re-created historic naval battles with The Great War at Sea series, twice named the year's best historical boardgame. Fleets of 11 nations vie for control of the Mediterranean Sea, with player's ages 10 & up taking command of their nation's destiny at sea.

"We would as soon fight the British as the Germans." Admiral William Shepherd Benson, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, 1917. As the First World War drew to a close, a small staff of American planners drew up "War Plan Red" to prepare to fight the British. U.S. Navy Plan Red allows players ages 10 and up to fight the conflict that never occurred using the actual war plans of both sides. Many ships planned but never built are included. Invade Bermuda, shell Nova Scotia, and (because we know some of you just can't help yourselves) bomb Virginia Beach. Twice, the game industry's leading experts have named Great War At Sea games as the best historical board game of the year. Find out why they're so excited.

For a brief period, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin's giant floating cylinders seemed poised to play a major role in naval warfare. But just as the technology matured, high-performance aircraft, a spectacular accident caught on film and the Great Depression combined to bring an end to military and most civilian use of the rigid airship.

Airships is a supplement for our Great War at Sea series of games, building on the popular Zeppelins to take a further look at lighter than air operations. There are ten scenarios, or separate game situations, based on missions that took place or could have taken place. All are by Ernie Wheeler and Doug McNair.

This module is not playable by itself, but requires ownership of our Zeppelins supplement and Jutland and Mediterranean games to play most of the scenarios, and our U.S. Navy Plan Gold game and Sea of Troubles and Dreadnoughts supplements to play all of them. Each scenario has its own card in a spiral-bound booklet, just like Panzer Grenadier's popular North Wind and Edelweiss supplements.

Great War at Sea and Second World War at Sea have covered naval wars around the world, both those that occured and those that might have but did not. One of the flash points that failed to ignite was at the southern tip of South America, where Chile and Argentina engaged in a heated naval arms race from the early 1900s until the end of the Second World War.

Cone of Fire adds the fleets of South America to the Great War at Sea and Second World War at Sea game systems: Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Both the fleets built by these nations, and the ships planned or ordered but never received, are included. Ships from Britain and Germany are also present.

Cruiser Warfare gives the Great War at Sea series its greatest scope yet: the entire world. British, German, Japanese, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Dutch ships begin as they did in August, 1914. The German player must disrupt Allied commerce and try to get the cruisers home if at all possible. The Allied player must track them down and destroy them before they can wreak havoc.

The entire Japanese fleet of 1914 is present, with new warships never before seen in the series like the battleships Kawachi and Satsuma. The Dutch make their first large-scale appearance in the series, with several coast defense ships plus four battleships never actually completed. These are taken from actual Dutch naval drawings of the two design variations from which the Dutch admirals would have chosen.

The German player has the option of placing a larger cruiser force in East Asia, including the modern armored cruiser Blücher (a proposed addition) and others. Battle cruisers can attempt to break out the join the raiders. There's also an option for a rapid start to the war, which would have found a German summer training squadron of two battleships and a cruiser visiting South America.

This is the crowning jewel of the Great War at Sea series. All naval game fans are going to want it.

In 1906, a new kind of battleship slid into the water at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard. Much larger than previous types, HMS Dreadnought carried more and bigger guns. For a generation, ships like her ruled the world's seas.

For the first time in an Avalanche Press supplement, Dreadnoughts features die-cut, mounted counters: 70 "long" ship counters plus 20 standard half-inch "square" counters.

Articles, scenarios and counters are provided for the Spanish Armada of the World War One era (including its projected but never built second- and third-generation dreadnoughts), the Ottoman Turkish navy, Austro-Hungarian building projects and the saga of South America's dreadnought programs and the many attempts by other nations to purchase these ships.

Before the dreadnoughts, the battleships ruled the seas. Armed with four huge guns in armored turrets, they swept the ironclads into the dustbin of history. Now they take their rightful place on your gaming table. Finally, the scenario book you've been demanding for the Great War At Sea series is here: Great White Fleet. Twenty operational scenarios featuring the battleships and armored cruisers of the pre-dreadnought era. Most are based on actual war plans, including the Russian Admiralty's 1903 wargame that decided the Tsar on war with Japan. For those wanting more detail in their games, also included are Karl Laskas' variant tactical rules for pre-dreadnoughts. Covers arcs of fire, formation movement, and more. An additional map extends the U.S. Navy Plan Orange map southward, allowing players to explore American war plans involving the island of Mindanao and its anchorages.

History’s best-known naval battle was just one part of the ongoing four-year struggle to control the seas around Germany’s coasts. If the German High Seas Fleet could catch and destroy a portion of the much larger British Grand Fleet, the blockade suffocating Imperial Germany might finally be broken.

Great War at Sea: Jutland is a completely new edition of our long-retired North Sea game. It covers not only the signature battle, but also the many other sorties of the High Seas Fleet like the Scarborough, Lowestoft and Gorleston Raids, the Battle of Dogger Bank and Helgoland Bight.

Like all games in the series, this one is packed with scenarios. Along with the operations in the North Sea, the game also includes the bitterly-fought naval war in the Baltic Sea. Here the roles are reversed, with the smaller Imperial Russian Navy aggressively seeking an advantage against the larger German forces. The Russian cruiser raids are all covered, as well as the climactic Battle of Moon Sound.

During the early decades of the 20th century, the United States Navy made plans to fight a host of potential enemies. Some of these future wars seemed inevitable, particularly that with Japan. Others depended on changes in current politics, but Navy planners wanted to be prepared just in case.

One of these plans, labeled “Gold,” studied a potential naval war with France. The United States had stood alongside its “oldest ally” during the First World War, but in the years immediately afterwards the Navy looked at the potential for radical politicians to change France from friend to foe. Also, the peace negotiations which followed the war revealed deep underlying tensions between the Americans and their European allies; some of the more paranoid came to believe the next war would be between Europe and America.

U.S. Navy Plan Gold is based on these plans. American officers believed the seat of conflict would be the same as that of the undeclared naval war against France in the 1790s: the Caribbean Basin.

U.S. Navy Plan Gold includes the ships projected by the Armee Navale but never built due to the Washington Naval Treaty: the large Gilles and Durand-Viel battle cruisers, Normandie and Lyon class battleships, and the very odd “croiseur de combat” battleship-carrier design. And of course the Americans receive a number of new ships, such as the “alternate Omaha” large scout cruiser design.

For a brief period, Ferdinand Graf Zeppelin's giant gas-filled airships ruled the world’s skies. Though conceived as passenger craft, during the First World War rigid and semi-rigid airships performed long-range scouting and bombing missions.

Like Dreadnoughts and East of Suez, Zeppelins includes die-cut-and-mounted playing pieces, but these are special, oversized ones: 2/3-inch by 1-and-1/3-inch large pieces depicting famous airships of Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Italy, Austria-Hungary and France. These are used with the new tactical and operational rules provided; unlike the standard game rules that treat all airships the same, with the Zeppelins module, each airship class has its own range and endurance qualities.

Every airship that played an important role in the First World War is present, both German Navy and German Army machines that scouted for the High Seas Fleet and attacked naval targets. The ultra-long-range “Africa Ship” L59 is present, along with the big, modern L100 class cancelled by the war’s end.

Sitting astride the sea lanes from Italy to North Africa, the island of Malta hobbled Axis attempts to supply their forces in Libya and Egypt. Frustrated Axis planners hatched a series of operations designed to capture the fortress, known as Operation Herclues to the Germans and Operation C.3 to the Italians. Several times the assault seemed imminent, but at each juncture the Axis held back from rolling the dice. Now we let you see what might have happened.

The game includes two scenarios, plus variants covering various Axis and Allied plans to defend and attack the island. The game system, used previously in Red Steel, and in our proposed Classic Wargames Alamein and Sicily, is one of our more involved yet thanks to the island’s small size takes only a few hours to play.

In 1798, Europe's most successful general embarked on one of the most bizarre expeditions ever launched: the French invasion of Egypt. Dreaming of exceeding Alexander the Great, the young Napoleon Bonaparte led his seasoned Army of Italy across the Mediterranean. The world's fiercest cavalrymen, the fanatic Mamelukes, rode out to stop him. In the tradition of our Gettysburg and Rome At War games, this exciting set features the following battles:

Plan Orient. In 1940, the doorway to the rich oil fields of the Middle East lay in the desert sands of North Africa - a doorway barred by the mighty British 8th Army, a.k.a The Desert Rats, led by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Germany’s key to success lay in the charismatic leadership of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and the Deutsches Afrika Korps. Together with their Italian allies, they sought to unlock the gateway to the east, and sieze control of the Suez Canal. Afrika Korps introduces the Origins Award nominated Panzer Grenadier system to a new theater of World War II. Players take command of platoon sized units in the struggle for control of the North African desert. Includes scenarios for battles during Operation: Battleaxe, Operation: Crusader, the Siege of Tobruk, and the battles of Gazala. Includes new game pieces representing German, British & Italian infantry, tanks & artillery. Afrika Korps is a stand alone addition to the Panzer Grenadier system of games.

In June 1942, Japanese troops landed in the western Aleutian Islands of Alaska, the only large-scale foreign invasion of American soil since 1815. In May 1943 the Americans invaded Attu Island, sending 15,000 troops against about 2,500 Japanese defenders. The Japanese fought with suicidal determination: 28 fell into American hands as prisoners with the remainder killed in action.

Two months later the Americans launched an even larger invasion of nearby Kiska Island, only to find that the Japanese had evacuated three weeks before and the Americans captured an uninhabited island.

Alaska's War is a supplement based on the Japan's lone invasion of the Western Hemisphere and the American response.

There are ten scenarios, or separate game situations, based on battles that took place in the Aleutian Islands. This module is not playable by itself, but requires ownership of our Battle of the Bulge, Guadalcanal, Afrika Korps and Desert Rats games. Each scenario has its own card in a spiral-bound booklet, just like the popular North Wind and Edelweiss.

In November 1939, over a million Soviet troops began an invasion of Finland, defended by 160,000 soldiers. The Finns lacked artillery, tanks and aircraft, but made up for it with sisu — Finnish for fighting spirit. The Winter War lasted for four months, but Finns fought the Soviets again in the Continuation War of 1941-1944, and fought the Germans in the Lappland War of 1944.

Arctic Front Deluxe Edition is a Panzer Grenadier supplement adding the Finnish army to the game series. It is not playable by itself, but requires ownership of Eastern Front to play most of the scenarios, and Road to Berlin and Battle of the Bulge to play all of them.

It's a revised version of the original Arctic Front supplement released in 2002, the very first supplement to the Panzer Grenadier system. All of the previous 20 scenarios have been thoroughly revised to take advantage of map boards and playing pieces not available then, and with five more years of design experience and player feedback. And there are 20 more new scenarios as well plus background articles and order of battle charts in a 64-page book just like the popular Sinister Forces and Fronte Russo.

"Battle of the Bulge is the fifth game in the Panzer Grenadier series, following Eastern Front, Heroes of the Soviet Union, Airborne and Afrika Korps. It focuses on the fighting in the southern sector of the battle zone, where German panzer and parachute divisions drove on the key crossroads of Bastogne. American infantry, armor and paratroopers initially gave way, but rallied, held, and drove the Germans back.

The game includes 51 scenarios, ranging in size from small ones playable in well under an hour to large tank battles. There are four hard-mounted game boards showing typical terrain from the Ardennese region where the battle took place. The game includes 465 game pieces, representing tank and infantry platoons, artillery batteries, and individual leaders.

Battle of the Bulge 2: Elsenborn Ridge

In late December, 1944, German armies rolled into the wooded hills of the Ardennes in eastern Belgium, striking a final blow against the American troops forcing their way toward German territory. Elsenborn Ridge covers the fierce fighting on the "north shoulder" of the Battle of the Bulge between the American First Army and the German Sixth SS Panzer Army and Fifth Panzer Army. The heroic stand at St. Vith by 7th Armored Division, the "panzer graveyard" of Krinkelt, the destruction of 1st SS Panzer Division — it's all here, and more.

Elsenborn Ridge is a stand-alone game in the Panzer Grenadier series: You do not need the original Battle of the Bulge volume or any other game in the series to play any of the 35 scenarios. These include fierce tank battles and infantry actions, including the failed drive of Jochen Peiper's battle group toward the Meuse River, 3rd Armored Division's destruction of 2nd SS Panzer Division, the American stand along Elsenborn Ridge and the collapse of the 106th Infantry Division.

Pieces include American paratroopers, German Tiger II tanks, American P47 fighter-bombers, German "Nebelwerfer" rocket launchers, and much more. Both German regular army and Waffen SS troops are present. There are four semi-rigid mapboards, the same type as those found in Airborne and Eastern Front, created by a new artist to the series, video game veteran Guy Riessen.

Beyond Normandy is a Panzer Grenadier game covering the British operations from the end of June to the middle of July and the German reactions to them. Three maps (two 22" x 34" and one 22" x 17") depict the actual battlefield at 200 meters a hex and include individual bridges, villages, tracks, roads, hedgerows and church steeples.

The 583 playing pieces represent leaders, infantry and tank platoons and artillery batteries. They include the weapons employed by British infantry and armored brigades and German SS and Wehrmacht panzer and infantry divisions. New British tank types include the Churchill, Cromwell and Firefly tanks, the flame-throwing Crocodile, and the bomb-throwing AVRE. The Germans bring tough SS grenadiers, Panther tanks and more.

The game includes 39 scenarios and 5 "super" scenarios (combining two or more of the scenarios into a large-scale operational scenario).

When Nazi armies launched their sneak attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, Spanish fascists exulted. Still nursing deep hatreds from the Soviet role in the Spanish Civil War, thousands volunteered to fight alongside the Germans. Spanish dictator Francisco Franco organized them into a “Blue Division” to carry the fight to the Russians and, not coincidentally, send the most politically active fascists far away from Madrid.

Blue Division is a supplement to the Panzer Grenadier series, focusing on the actions of this unit between 1941 and 1943. Organized as a standard German infantry division, the Spanish unit fought well in some of the hardest fighting of the campaign. This module is not playable by itself, but requires ownership of Eastern Front and Road to Berlin to play all of the scenarios.

All the new pieces represent Spanish volunteer forces: infantry, ski, engineer, motorcycle, bicycle and machine-gun troops; anti-tank guns, mortars and artillery, and of course leaders. Scenarios cover actions of these units between their arrival on the Eastern Front in October, 1941 and their departure almost exactly two years later.

Panzer Grenadier: Campaigns and Commanders is a new series of book supplements that adds campaign games and World War II roleplaying to our long-running Panzer Grenadier game system. The series introduces new rules that let Panzer Grenadier players create Leader Characters representing officers in the armies of the great powers that fought World War II. Leader Characters participate in battle scenarios just like normal Panzer Grenadier leaders, but have far more detailed skills and abilities that add a whole new dimension to Panzer Grenadier play.

War in the East includes the campaign games "The September Campaign: 1939," “Barbarossa: 1941,” and “The Battle for Germany: 1945.” It also includes historical articles and strategy tips on how to use Leader Characters in battle. It is not playable by itself, but requires ownership of Eastern Front Deluxe, Road to Berlin and White Eagles to enjoy all of the campaigns.