It is with great pleasure that Joe Balkoski and I would like to announce that the Great Campaigns of the American Civil War series has found a new home.

Ever since last August's purchase of Avalon Hill by Hasbro, we have been uncertain about which game company we would be working with as the series moved forward. And yet throughout the year we have been confident that we would find the right home. We have never stopped work on either the Standard Series rules or our 1864 Overland Campaign game,"Grant Takes Command" (Volume 7). The continued devotion of the fans of the series and the interest in the series from numerous game companies has helped us retain our confidence. Now our journey has come to an end, giving us great pleasure to announce our new partnership with Hasbro and Multi-Man Publishing.

With Hasbro and MMP, the Great Campaigns series moves forward without missing a beat. We enjoy the enthusiastic support of the largest game company in the world. We have full access to all of the materials developed for the first six volumes, allowing us to properly complete our treatment of the Eastern Theater. We are launching a magazine this summer entitled "The Skirmisher" along the lines of Advanced Squad Leader's "ASL Annual". In it, we will publish the Standard Series rules to achieve the much-desired unification of the rule set for all games in the series. On our Internet mailing list, we've already seen a surge of interest in replaying the older titles with the new standard rules. In fact, despite our uncertain status, the volume of email we've received and the level of play-by-email activity have done nothing but increase over the course of the last year. It is gratifying to be able to reward that enthusiasm with some great new products: we expect "Grant Takes Command" to follow the Standard Rules out the door and to be available in early 2000. After that, Great Campaigns will move west to cover our first campaign outside the Virginia theater of operations. So come visit us on the web at: http://www.smart.net/~waveland/gcacw.htm .. or visit us during the World Boardgaming Championships (formerly Avaloncon) later this month.

Boulder Games writes...

Now that Avalon Hill is no longer in business, the biggest and argu-ably the best boxed WARGAME publisher, GMT, has already shipped three solid games this year plus their magazine and will soon publish what will probably be a winner, Ted Raicer's Paths of Glory.....

The only "authorized" publisher of ASL products, Multi-Man Publishing (staring Phillies pitcher Curt Schilling) has lots on the drawing board but has so far only produced ASL Journal #1 and Action Pack #2....

In German Games my money's on Tikal to get Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year). We have all the nominees in stock.... Been slow for desktop publishes games, but Markham just got out a new one and a new company by the name of Blue Guidon Games just sprang up. GMT's June 6 covers the invasion of Normandy with four scenarios playable in an afternoon plus the entire June campaign. Victory points decreasing over time for objectives taken force the Allied player to take chances and gives the German player a chance to win. Optional random events provide some interesting "what ifs". Regiment-brigade, 2 days/turn, 1½ miles/hex....

War Galley is Volume VII of one of wargaming's most successful series and the only serious coverage of ancient warfare--"The Great Battles of History." It covers war at sea in the ancient world from the Ionian Revolt (494 BCE) to the Battle of Actium (31 BCE). Fourteen different ship types from Biremes to Dekares. A little easier to play than the other games in the series. 1-4 players, 10 mins./turn, 1-8 ships per counter....

C3i #9 is in stock.... Coming soon: Paths of Glory: The First World War. You can help a great company prosper and influence the selection of games they print by taking advantage of their Plan 500 deal. Call 800-523-6111.

QED's American Civil War card game, Blue vs. Gray is generating rave reviews and comments. The cards alone--wonderfully illustrated and loaded with information--are worth the price of the game (even if you don't agree with some of the leader ratings). Not a collectable, but comes in two decks--North and South. As Charles Vasey, reviewer and editor for Perfidious Albion, says, "Quick to play, full of atmosphere cutting through the bookkeeping that usually masquerade as historical design, it is undoubtedly the game of the year for me." For more information (and improved rules) check out their website at http://www.qedgames.com. Storm over Scandinavia is GRD's reprint of one of the most popular Europa games, Narvik, and includes scenarios that link this game to A Winter War and scenarios that cover the invasions of Norway, Denmark, and the hypothetical invasion of Sweden.... Coming soon: The second game in the Glory series, The Damned Die Hard covers the Japanese conquest of the Philippines.... For pre-pub deals visit http://www.grdgames.com or send email to euroboss@netins.net.

Multi-Man Publication's ASL Journal #1 ($18.90) features a new Red Barricades campaign game and Red Barricades solitaire missions plus articles and twelve more scenarios.... Action Pack #2 contains boards 46 and 47, eight new scenarios, hill overlays, and an "Overrun Flow-chart."

Critical Hit's Scotland the Brave II, Arnhem: the Third Bridge, Platoon Leader, and Leatherneck 3 are in stock. ASLers have been waiting a long time for Arnhem and it's selling quickly. Nice-looking map, 1 sheet of die cut counters, 9 scenarios and a campaign game. Scotland the Brave II includes 10 scenarios, 2 campaign games and lots of tanks. Platoon Leader 2.5 is the latest rules update for the campaign games. Leatherneck 3 is 8 new Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa scenarios.... Pete Phillipps' View From The Trenches #23, VFTT Special '98, and Operation:Neptune are in stock. The Special Issue takes a look at the use of airpower in ASL and contains unmounted aircraft counters. Operation: Neptune is a Platoon Leader CG pack covering the British crossing of the Seine in '44.

FASA's Crimson Skies was recently described by a customer (who likes the game a lot) as Blue Max on acid. It is a game of dog fighting and dive-bombing in an aviation-dominated 1930s when giant zeppelins serve as the lifelines between the independent countries of the former United States. 3-D cardboard aircraft, 3 maps.

Australian Design Group's America in Flames uses the all time most popular strategic level World War II system, World in Flames, to simulate the greatest war that never happened. Moving in on Extra's turf, this game presumes the Axis powers winning World War II in Europe and Asia and now having to invade North and South America. A-merica in Flames is a complete game. WiF is not needed in order to play. 2 maps, 840 counters. Army/Corps level, 2 months/turn, 650km/hex. Good solo or up to 6 players.... America in Flames Update Kit is everything you need to add America in Flames to your World in Flames .... Carrier Planes in Flames is the latest WiF expansion.

Newest Magazines with a wargame in them include Command #51: The Fire Next Time, Strategy & Tactics #194: Murmansk 1941, Vae Victis #25: Kharkhov 1943 , Panzerschreck #2: Nuremberg: Trial of the Century, and Shadis #49: Scotland the Brave.

More and more people are learning that there is something in game stores for people who aren't interested in being a dungeon master or collecting the perfect deck of silly creatures. German Games are board games from anywhere in Europe that emphasize clever design, great-looking components and fun.

You can read about these games on the Internet at sites like Bret & Board (http:/hjem.get2net.dk/svellov/), Westbank Gamers (http://home.earthlink.net/~gschloesser/), Kulkmann's Gamebox (http://members.aol.com/kulkmann/start.htm), The Game Dumpster (http://www.neonate.org), The Game Cabinet (http://www.gamecabinet.com) or in magazines like like Counter and Games Games Games.

Rio Grande's newest games: Lost Cities is two-player card game about gambling limited resources on expeditions to find lost cities. 2 players, 10 years up, 20-40 minutes....

Ta Yue is named for a legendary Chinese hero who saved central China from a flood by creating channels to divert the water to the sea. The components are gorgeous. The board is blue shading into black with golden dragons circling the playing grid.

The playing pieces are a bag full of domino-like tiles with a blue outline of a channel on one side. The object of the game is to place the tiles so that channels divert the flood water off the edge of the board. 2-4 players, 10 years up, 45 minutes....

Cape Horn is racing from New York to San Francisco before there was a Panama Canal. The game board is a map of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans near the southern tip of South America. Players place tiles that represent wind direction and speed to help themselves and hinder others. 3-5 players, 12 years up, 1 hour....

One of the best games of the year, Tikal has players leading expeditions into the Guatemalan jungle to find temple ruins and the Mayan treasures hidden in them. Once again, gorgeous components. 2-4 players, 20 years up, 90 minutes....