Avalanche Press Military Games Page 2

Japan's daring plans to conquer Southeast Asia and its rich resources involved several stages. In the complicated fashion typical of the Imperial Navy during World War II, first the American Pacific Fleet would be knocked out of action at Pearl Harbor. Next, the carrier forces that had fought there would cover amphibious invasions in the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. Finally, the First Air Fleet's aircraft carriers would surge into the Indian Ocean to knock out the British Eastern Fleet.

Eastern Fleet, the second game in the Second World War at Sea series, is based on this third stage of Japanese aggression and also covers parts of the second. There are 70 "long" playing pieces, depicting the major fleet units of both sides: battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers and fleet destroyers. There are also 140 square playing pieces, half the size of the ship pieces, mostly depicting aircraft but also smaller warships and markers.

During the summer and fall of 1944, history’s greatest naval battles raged in the western Pacific Ocean, as the United States fought to finally subdue the Japanese Empire, and the Imperial Navy put up fanatical resistance to the last possible moment.

Leyte Gulf is one of the largest wargames ever published, and it covers both of these battles plus many more. It’s part of our Second World War at Sea series of operational-level naval games.

There are 22 scenarios, five of them battle scenarios that use only the tactical map, and 17 operational scenarios.

The huge number of pieces represent every significant ship and airplane that fought or could have fought in the Western Pacific in 1944 and 1945. Well-known ships like the destroyers Johnston and Hoel, the escort carriers of Taffy Three, and the Japanese super-battleship Yamato are all present. So are some ships never completed, like Yamato’s two sisters or the American Montana-class battleships. And the Japanese even get a handful of jet planes.

Strike South: Japan Invades the South Seas, 1941-42

Japan embarked on the Pacific War for one reason: to seize the oil and metals of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. In a daring five-month campaign, Japanese air, land and naval forces conquered a vast segment of the Earth’s surface from its American, British, Dutch and Australian defenders.

Strike South is a Second World War at Sea series game based on this bold Japanese aggression. There are 140 “long” playing pieces, depicting the major fleet units of both sides: battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers and fleet destroyers. There are also 280 square playing pieces, half the size of the ship pieces, mostly depicting aircraft but also smaller warships and markers.

Panzer Grenadier moves to the Pacific, with this game of tactical combat in the Solomon Islands. U.S. Marines (including Raiders and Marine Paratroopers) battle the Japanese Army and marines. New weapons, tanks and units, fully compatible with the Panzer Grenadier series games.

Guadalcanal includes: 465 playing pieces, 2 maps.

Taking Soldier Kings as its base, Soldier emperor covers the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, 1803-1815. There are 180 huge and thick playing pieces like those in Granada, 165 smaller marker pieces, two large hard-mounted game boards like that in Granada, and 64 cards.

The map stretches from Britain to Persia, North Africa to Norway. Europe is divided into areas, each of them rated for their resources, manpower potential, and defense value. Armies move along the routes that connect these areas, and the object of the game is to conquer and hold as much territory as you can. Soldier Emperor is very true to history but is easily playable by anyone with an interest in games or history.

As in Soldier Kings, the game can be played with fewer than seven players, all the way down to two. Card play drives the action, with players able to play cards at any time and thwart their opponents' plans. Play order is determined by each country's initiative, and generals and admirals move their forces from area to area. And like Soldier Kings, combat is simple to resolve but contains many wrinkles of strategy.

Travel back to where global strategy all began with Soldier Kings, our multiplayer game of the Seven Years War worldwide! Two to eight players take the roles of Frederick the Great, Empress Maria Theresa, and the other monarchs of Europe, vying for glory, empire, and most importantly, MONEY!!!

For 2-8 players, ages 10 & up with 305 playing pieces, two 17”x22” maps, 8 page rule book.

Between 1767 and 1846, war and intrigue dominated the Indian sub-continent. War constantly flared between the Indian kingdoms, both against one another and against the British and French interlopers. The Europeans, meanwhile, also busily fought each other.

Rob Markham's Soldier Raj builds on the highly successful model of Soldier Emperor to portray these conflicts. Over a dozen scenarios cover these wars, from Hyder Ali's defeat of the British in the First Mysore War in 1767 to Britain's final conquest of the Sikhs in 1846. Colorful leaders of the time are all present: Hyder Ali and Tippoo of Mysore. Sir Arthur Wellesley, the "sepoy general" who would become Duke of Wellington. The brilliant Madhav Rao of the Marathas. France's Admiral Suffren. Zaman Shah of Afghanistan, and the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh. These and more lead your armies.

In the spring of 1940, the French Army, generally believed to be the best in the world, again faced her mortal enemy, the German Army. With the last war scarcely 20 years past, this one seemed destined to develop along similar lines. British forces came ashore in strength and both nations made a show of cooperating. Few believed that Belgium could stay out of the conflict, but her leaders continued to act as if it was possible.

When the attack finally came, the speed and ferocity of modern warfare overwhelmed the Dutch and Belgian armies in the first few days and the French and British not long after. Air power, paratroopers and massed armor caught the Allies flat-footed and unable to effectively respond. In six short weeks two more countries fell under Nazi control, the French Army was defeated and the British ejected from the continent. None could have foreseen this strange defeat just a few short weeks before.

Strange Defeat is a sequel to Defiant Russia and Red Vengeance. Like those games, it’s designed as an easy to learn, fun game. The map portrays the Netherlands, Belgium, western Germany and northern France.

Players control the actual units that fought in this campaign; most of them represent army corps with a handful of divisions. The typical Allied unit is as good as the typical German unit, and many of them are better. The German player must play to his or her advantages: an air force designed for tactical support, parachute regiments to assault key points, and concentration of force.

Like Defiant Russia and Red Vengeance, Strange Defeat isn't a very large game. The map is 34 x 22 inches, divided into very large hexes for ease of play. There are 140 playing pieces, and it comes in a small box that's easy to store.

In early 1916, the German and French armies faced each other in what appeared to be a stalemate. The German commander-in-chief, Erich von Falkenhayn, conceived one of the most cold-hearted plans in military history. Fall Gericht, which translates as “Place of Execution,” would bleed France white by a simple battle of attrition, without regard to the suffering of his own soldiers.

For ten months, the German Fifth Army hurled itself against the old fortress city, its commander kept in the dark about the offensive’s true goal. The French Second Army stood firm, commanded by Henri Petain, who issued the famous order, “They shall not pass.”

Verdun’s defenders refused to break.

John Prados' Third Reich is a sweeping game of World War II. One of the best known board games ever published is back in an all-new edition for a new century. Beautiful new graphics and streamlined play will make this game a new classic all over again. Two to six players, ages 10 & up, guide the destiny of Germany, Britain, France, Italy, the United States and the Soviet Union as well as many minor powers. Eight scenarios are included (one for each year of the war), each playable in an evening, plus a campaign game of the entire war in Europe.

Components: three 8.5"x22" hard mounted boards, 840 game pieces, 20 pages rule book.

Third Reich is one of the best-known board wargames ever published. It came to Avalanche Press in 2001, followed by Great Pacific War in 2003, and a Player's Guide in 2005.

Rumors of War is a new expansion for either or both games, with a map stretching from the eastern edge of the Third Reich Deluxe Map to the Ural Mountains, and adding Iran, Iraq and the Persian Gulf on its southern edge. It's at the same size and scale as the Deluxe map, with new objectives and countries to conquer.

There are also 80 die-cut-and-mounted playing pieces, with the Iraqi and Iranian armed forces, Russian nationalists, Irish, Latvians, British, Italian and Soviet marines, German cavalry and mountain troops, Indonesian nationalists, atomic bomb markers and much, much more!

David Meyler brings us variants for Iran, for Romania as a major power, and of course for more things Dutch. Jeff Adams gives us strategy tips for Operation Sea Lion, Tim McBeth makes the dismal science of economics exciting, and William Sariego looks at island-hopping strategies and the French war effort.

Rumors of War is not playable by itself, but instead brings more fun to your gaming table with either or both of Third Reich and Great Pacific War.

When Avalanche Press brought back the classic John Prados' Third Reich in 2001, they always intended that it be followed by a sequel covering the Pacific Theater with the same game system and at the same scale. They brought out Great Pacific War in 2003, and the next step seemed clear: a player’s guide with extra units and scenarios, plus strategy hints.

The book comes with 120 die-cut and mounted counters, just like those in the games themselves.

There are new scenarios covering two very real possibilities that never occurred: a 1936 war between France and the Soviet Union following the Nazi occupation of the Rhineland, and a 1946 war between East and West. Two smaller scenarios concentrate on the Spanish Civil War and the Japanese invasion of China.

In December 1941, Japanese troops landed in northern Malaya as part of their rapid advance into the resource-rich British and Dutch colonies of the South Seas. For the next two months they fought their way down the Malayan peninsula, steadily pushing back the British, Indian, Australian and Malay troops who opposed them.

The heaviest fighting of the campaign began in January, as the Allied defense stiffened in the Sultanate of Johore at the southern end of the peninsula. The Japanese overcame the Allied defenses, aided by some weak generalship on the British/Australian side, and in February launched an attack on “Fortress Singapore.” By Valentine’s Day, the “impregnable” island was in Japanese hands and Britain’s influence East of Suez was shattered forever.

Tiger of Malaya re-creates this campaign, with a major twist. While the battle raged for Johore, troop convoys steamed across the Indian Ocean bringing the 7th Australian Infantry Division, one of the best fighting units of the war, and the 7th Armoured Brigade, part of the crack “Desert Rats” division. They eventually landed in Burma when Singapore seemed lost, but if the Allied player can mount a strong enough defense these fresh forces will arrive to defend Malaya. With them, the Allies stand an excellent chance of not only stopping the Japanese but turning the tables against them.

In the fall of 1863 the Union Armies of the Tennessee and Cumberland moved south against Atlanta, only to be met by the Confederate Army of Tennessee and reinforcements sent from Virginia. The Rebels stopped the Northern advance, then laid siege to the Union supply center of Chattanooga. But in the "Battle Above the Clouds," the Yankees broke the siege. Includes both of these hard-fought battles and a combined campaign game!

On a quiet Pennsylvania summer morning, Confederate General Robert E. Lee gambled his new nation's hopes on a climactic battle at a crossroads town no one really wanted to capture. His troops stood at their peak: battle-tested, used to victory, and eager to end the war. Opposing him, Union General George Meade knew that he could save American unity with a victory. After two years of war, Meade understood that simply avoiding defeat would not satisfy the American people. The Union soldiers had known few victories, yet remained willing to lay down their own lives so that never again would one man own another.