There are no scheduled release dates (when they are done, they are ready, but not a minute before), but the following games are nearing publication.

1. Montcalm & Wolfe. This is a strategic game if the French and Indian War. Based on the Give Me Liberty system, it is a fast paced game of thrust and parry that uses a hex grid rather than the point to point system of GML. Centered around the leaders, the game has 104 counters and a 13" by 19" map. This has been thoroughly playtested and needs only some last minute checks before it goes into print. Realistically, it looks like a September release and should cost $14.

2. Messines, 1917. The first of the Grand Ypres series. This game introduces the Western Front system. It starts with the biggest bang of WWI. The detonation of over 20 mines under Messines Ridge was so fierce that Lloyd George could hear it in London. It was so effective that the British rapidly gained their first and second objectives only to fall back under the vicious counterattack that the Germans would mount, using their tactic of defense in depth to full effectiveness.

This savage battle was the opening round of the Third Battle of Ypres and a fitting beginning to the Grand Ypres Series that will eventually cover all of the battles of the Ypres salient.

Designed at battalion level and 12 hour turns, the low complexity system focuses on the keys to the World War One battlefield. Messines, 1917 has two 13" by 19" maps and 324 counters. With rules for air, artillery. mines, pillboxes, and more, it should be a real player's game. Due out sometime this fall.

3. This Emerald Isle. Part One, Tewkesbury, and Part Two, Bamet. These are the first of a series of games on the battles of the Wars of the Roses. These two were the winners of a poll I took on Consim-L a couple of months ago. As such, I moved them up in dewing time. Both games will feature a common system that is an update of the chit system I began with Royalists & Roundheads for 3W.

Gone are many of the anomalies that distracted from the command system. The command system itself has been changed to reflect more accurately the problems of command during this period. Leaders also have more individual personalities as their historic preferences threaten to override the command you have assigned to them.

The system has also discarded the chit activation system as a relic of the past. instead an interactive system based on command types is in place. Initial response has been very favorable always a good thing when you are the designer. Blindtesting will begin in August. When I'm happy with the results, I'll be releasing these two games. Each has 108 counters and a 13" by 19" map.

4. Vimiero. This is the first game in the Battles of the Peninsula series. The intention is to cover all of the battles of the Peninsula. More detailed than other Markham designs, it is one of the early battles and showed glimpses of the Iron Duke's mastery of the battlefield. Right now, it is in early playtesting. I'll be looking for playtesters this fall.

Next issue will explore other proposed designs and series ( such as a series of games covering all of Stonewall Jackson's battles or a series on 19th century battles from the Crimean War to the Boer War). There will also be extras for the two games in print.