New Releases in Stock: For those with the World in Flames lifestyle, America in Flames is a 2-map, stand-alone game of the invasion of the Americas after the Axis wins in Europe & Asia. Produced to the current standards, its a nice looking, relatively moderate sized games. Its available as a complete boxed game or as a zip-locked kit .

WiFers will also need the Carriers in Flames kit, which adds a few rules and a counter sheet separating the aircraft elements from carriers themselves, complete with lots of unit differentiation & tech development.

GMT's Barbarossa, Army Group Center is out. This game is very similar to, and mates with, AG South and Typhoon, with 4 maps & 8 scenarios including the campaign to Smolensk, but includes the heart of the German and Soviet armies. Very nicely done graphically, and designed by Vance von Borries, a personal favorite designer.

GMT's Conquest of Gaul provides 6 scenarios taken from Caesar's campaign to subdue Gaul & Britain 58-53 BC, all using GMT's very popular Great Battles of History system. One scenario covers a naval action in the Bay of Biscay..

The Latest on Avalon Hill

Hasbro has resurrected a very abbreviated web site thanking us for our patience. (Ain't that nice !?!) The key feature, however, is a listing of the AH game stock they have available for sale (direct). This includes a couple of games previously thought to be out of print for good (Circus Max & War at Sea), as well as a number of great games still in demand (Adv 3rd Reich, Age of Ren, Britannia, Hannibal, etc.) What's disheartening is how short this list really is -- 53 board games total -- with No Civilization, no basic Diplomacy, and not a single ASL title or annual. See for yourself at http://avalonhill.com/faxform.html.

Also, Hasbro representatives have been meeting with distributors around the country. Their apparent intent is to sell remaining stock to a limited number of distributors. Of the entire AH line, only the top ~25 games will be maintained and republished. (These would be perennial favs like Diplomacy, Kingmaker, etc.) They are in discussions a well know ASL fan & BB player interested in purchasing the rights to this portion of the line. Stay tuned for the exciting episode to follow...

Board Games Publishers Down and Out. Things hit the fan in 1998, eh? Gamesmith expired in the summer. Avalon Hilll/Victory Games bit it in August. Xeno announced its passing in November. Word from Moments in History is that the designer is intending to scale back to two new games a year while clearing out stock of older titles. As a result, Fleet Admiral & Expansion, and Risorgimento, have been dropped. Also, Clash of Arms has all but formally announced to distributors its desire to sell direct only, apparently as of 1 Jan. If this happens, CoA products will be available from us only as long existing distributor stock holds out.

Hot Pick

War in Europe PC v2.0. If you haven't heard about it yet, you're missing out. Decision Games has published a slick, faithful and seemingly bug-free, DOS-based computer version of SPI's classic monster, War in Europe. War in Europe's (WiE) beauty was in its simple systems combined with its theater wide scope, complete with German and European production, and strategic naval and air war systems. The computer game remains remarkably faithful to the original design. Its DOS-based system avoids Windows bugs while still being highly graphical and mouse-based. This alone is quite remarkable.

The game offers multiple views of terrain, territory control, unit locations, etc, and is generally easy to work with. It comes with a 103pg rule booklet that, itself is remarkable in the fact that it documents the systems imbedded in the game.

WiE does not include any artificial intelligence; someone must play each of the 3 sides (Axis, Western Allies, USSR). But it can be played via email files, or on a single PC by multiple players. 8 scenarios, each lasting till the end of the war, are included, and each allows you to select whether to include the Western or Eastern fronts, or Both. A scenario editor is also included, allowing new scenarios, unit types & values, political statuses, etc.

All in all, I'd judge this to be one of the few computer games likely to survive the test of even a limited amount of time. In other words, a computer game likely to remain on your hard disk for some years to come. And we recommend it.

Only on the Internet do we find strange stuff as this below. All offered for your amusement (only).

Need a quick PhD in "manually intensive heuristic simulations?" Or perhaps a Masters of Dice Manipulation, with Honors? The degree of you choice can be yours for a mere $200 per. Check out this SPAM:

Eminent, non-accredited universities will award you a degree for only $200. Degree granted based on your present knowledge and experience. No further effort necessary on your part.

Just a short phone call is all that is required for aBA, MA, MBA, or PhD diploma in the field of your choice. For details, call 303-480-8252.

Right.

Search Engines

And not all internet search engines are equal. While Alta Vista, Excite, Hot Bot, Info Seek and others do a great job of locating game-related sites, others may send you into space. For example, someone searching for "sex online games" or "free sex games" was directed by Lycos to us at Fine Games. Apparently "Dr. Ruth's Game of Good Sex rates highly. Someone else search for "free XXX" was directed here, apparently because of the XXXenophile card game. Love that internet. AH General subscriptions have been transferred to Computer Games Magazine. With the General folding, many of us have been awaiting word from AH/Monarch Services as to a refund. Instead, the General's subscriber list was sold to Computer Games; subscriptions transferred to this magazine at a one-becomes-three rate (i.e. your subscription is tripled). However, if you're like most boardgamers (the heart of AH's following), this magazine may hold little interest for you. If so, you can request a refund for un mailed issues by calling Computer Games at (800) 283-3542 or FAX (760) 745-7200.

Clash of Arms Games confirmed its intent of dropping out of the hobby distribution system (at least the distributor end of things). Per a release announcement of La B Lutzen, "Clash of Arms Games has changed the way some of its games will be made available to the general public. Because of this, La Bataille de Lutzen [and all other games based on distributor feedback] will only be available from the best [*retail*] stores, and from ourselves."

Fine Games will make every effort to continue to obtain & offer Clash of Arms' games because we respect their qualities in many respects. However, CofA has taken pains in the last 2+ years to control both pricing and distribution of its games, and to exclude Fine Games among other internet dealers. Realistically, we aren't hopeful. We live in exciting times