After a drought of six months or so, GDW appears to be on the verge of releasing two fullsize historical games: Suez '73 and The Fall of France. The games are currently scheduled to appear some time in February 1981, and I feel that they might actually show up during that month.

Suez '73 is a Frank Chadwick design and development. Based on the White Death game system, Suez '73 presents some novel twists, mostly due to the change of locale and period from its predecessor (there are few, I suspect, that won't admit there are substantial differences between winter fighting in the USSR in 1942/43 and combat in the Sinai-Suez Canal region in 1973).

The most striking systems change is the disappearance of morale ratings from the units. According to the designer, morale in the sense used in White Death is not a problem for either the Israelis or the Egyptians in 1973. In place of morale, then, is a proficiency rating which affects how well a unit performs in combat (the difference in the average proficiency ratings of each side in a combat is a die roll modifier). As one might expect, the Israelis tend to have higher proficiency ratings than the Egyptians, and certain Israeli commando units are particularly effective. The most important play change from White Death is the increased firepower of units, which results in a high loss rate. Offsetting this, a unit receives only half the inflicted losses if it withdraws from combat (the success of this maneuver depends upon proficiency); however, withdrawing from combat is no way for an attacker to gain ground. Thus, an entire Israeli brigade can go from a fresh formation to a burned-out husk in twelve hours (one game turn) in a determined attempt to capture and hold Chinese Farm. As of this writing, the map and orders of battle are complete, and all that remains is a final rules draft.

The Fall of France is covered in some detail in this issue's "Europa Notes".

Also scheduled for February release are some Traveller items. The Best of the Journal contains the outstanding articles and features from the (out of print) first year's publication of The Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society. Leviathan, Traveller Adventure 4, covers the organizing and exploits of a trading mission seeking adventure and profits beyond the edge of the Spinward Marches. Traders and Gunboats is a supplement containing specifications and deck plans for the ubiquitous scout, gunboat, and merchant vessels plying the starways; sections on High Guard statistics and starship encounters round off the booklet.

One final February offering is the return of Triplanetary. This game was first released by the Workshop in 1974, and it has been out of print for some time. The game mechanics feature a twodimensional (but otherwise precise) portrayal of spaceship orbits and trajectories; the system is easily understood and played. Upon this base is built a multitude of scenarios allowing players a wide range of interactions across the backdrop of the inner Solar System.

Tentatively scheduled for Origins, ETO has reappeared on the production schedule. ETO originally was to be a two-map game covering World War I I in Europe and North Africa at army level. However, the design suffered from being too cluttered, with players having to keep track of convoys and having to operate a plethora of air units of different types and abilities. The design has been recast to cut this clutter and concentrate on the important aspects of this theater: ground warfare and economics. The game now covers the same area using three maps, with the basic ground unit being the corps. Economics covers raw materials (mainly iron, coal, and oil), manpower, and production. Air and naval matters are not neglected, but they no longer dominate the attention of the players.

The revised edition of Drang Nach Osten will hopefully see light some time in 1981. The game is being revised from top to bottom, with new maps, new rules, and new counters. The maps will not only correct the mistakes of the first edition (Voronezh, for example, has wandered back to its correct river) but will also display the revised terrain analysis.

The rules reflect the years of refining, developing, and clarifying the Europa system. The counters incorporate the massive research efforts on the orders of battle. Frank Preiskop and Shelby Stanton have produced a detailed Axis order of battle, and their work is nearly complete at the time of this writing. Rich Banner has been laboring on the Soviet order of battle and claims to have the project well in hand. Once a comprehensive compilation of the orders of battle is made, playtesting the game can get underway in earnest. I suspect that the game will be ready for release some six to eight months from that point.

Assault has been sitting on the backburner for some time now. The project is in the hands of Frank Chadwick and was to be one of the February releases. However, Frank did Suez '73 instead, with the intention of completing Assault some time in 1981.

GDW has been working on a special set of games for the Series 120 line. Two have already appeared: 1942 and 1940. Can you guess what the other titles in the set will be? Each game will cover a particular World War 11 campaign at either operational or strategic level (1942 covered the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and the East Indies; 1940 covered the German invasions of France and the Low Countries). 1939 will cover the Russo-Finnish War. The map excludes the Petsamo region in order to cover the other operational areas in more detail. Research is underway on the orders of battle for the participants. 1941 is in a state a flux, with Frank Chadwick holding out for North Africa while the rest of the staff is rooting for Barbarossa. 1943 is a Marc Miller design. It covers the campaign in Italy. There is a scenario for each separate campaign in this theater, and a campaign game assembles the scenarios into one game covering the events from 1943 through 1945.

This game may be the next one of the set to see print. 1944 is a strategic level game covering the end of the war in Europe from summer 1944. The area of operations goes from France into the USSR and from southern Norway into Italy. A three-player variant is a distinct possibility for this game. 1945 was to be a division level game on the planned (but never executed) invasions of the Japanese islands by the United Nations forces. Several versions of the maps for this have been done, but the project is currently suspended while another possibility is explored. It has been suggested that a strategic level game covering China, Manchuria, Korea, the Philippines, and the Japanese islands be done for the events of 1945. One final possibility for this set of games is 1938, a game on the hypothetical German invasion of Czechoslovakia.

The units would be rated along Europa guidelines, thus giving an Europa-scale Czech Army. However, there are no definite plans as yet to do this game.

The science fiction side of the Workshop is also active. Two projects currently underway are Invasion: Earth and Galaxy. Invasion: Earth is set several thousands years in the future and is part of the Traveller series. The subject of the game is an attempt by an interstellar invader to land on and conquer Earth. This game is to be released sometime in late spring. Galaxy is a multiplayer game concerning the cooperation and conflict of differing civilizations across the expanse of the Milky Way Galaxy. This game is planned for the autumn of 1981. Between the two games' release dates is Origins. While I do not have many details at this time, I know that a host of Traveller materials is being prepared for release at this convention.