Messines, Prelude to Hell is the next Markham Designs release. It is the most ambitious project to date with 336 counters and two 13 by 19 inch maps.

Playtesters outside Markham Designs' underground play test facilities try to get into the spirit of a Monday night's session of Messines. Added realism of live rounds periodically shot by Rob over their heads was a mood setter.

It covers the British attack at Messines Ridge in 1917. It was the first step in a plan that would eventually become the Third Ypres. Liddell Hart wrote that this was the one siege warfare masterpiece of the war, although time has tended to lessen the impact of the battle as later developments in warfare would pass it by.

Even so, it is a battle long neglected and never gamed to my knowledge. In the real battle, the British worked for over a year mining the ridge and on the day of the battle set off twenty two mines that devastated the German frontline. The sound was so great that Lloyd George could hear the explosion in London. The initial charge carried the British into the secondary trench line before the German counterattack began pushing grinding the British attack to a halt.

Messines Prelude to Hell is the first game to cover this battle and serves as an introduction to the Grand Ypres series that will eventually cover all of the battles in that area from 1914 until 1918. When complete, players will be able to game all of the battles as well as conduct a campaign game of epic proportions. The system itself is deceptively simple. With a straight forward double impulse system, the game focuses on the tension of the battle and not on the tension of whether you remember all the various rules. With a basic rule book of 5 pages and a battle rule book of 7 pages the game offers a clean streamlined system that presents battalion level combat on the Western Front. Strong emphasis is placed on artillery, and the game also includes rules for tanks, air, pillboxes, supply, gas, and the effects of bombardment on the drainage system of the battlefield. The game also gets high marks for the ease of its solitaire play.

With 336 counters and two maps (each 13 by 19), Messines is the most ambitious project that Markham Designs has yet undertaken. Due out on Feb. 15, I expect that this will become our most popular game yet!