I would like to thank Rob for giving me the opportunity to provide his subscribers with some information about Ivy Street Games. Asa small token of my appreciation, I have postponed my plans to steal his die cutter.

The design goal of Ivy Street games is to produce small, nice looking Civil War games that can be played quickly but also convey a good historical feel. An additional aim is to produce games on interesting Civil War battles that have not received extensive treatment in previously produced games.

My first two designs, Stonewall at Cedar Mountain, and Williamsburg 1862 are Desktop Published (DTP) games packaged in thick ziplocks. The tabloid size (11" x 17" ) maps are printed off a color laser printer on thick glossy paper. The counters, which are also color laser quality, are mounted but must be cut out. The two games use the same brigade level rules which use a chit pull activation system and simplified division level orders system that requires some planning on the part of the players.

Doing DTP games has been a lot of fun - it has been particularly satisfying to hear positive , customer feedback that matches my own design goals for the game. Selling games in a very small slice of a very small historical board-ame market is not a recipe for early retirement.

However, by printing games on demand, I have avoided the need to invest any money in this endeavor. The lack of pressure in designing and selling DTP games allows me to make games on battles that I am interested in - not just what will sell 2,000 copies or so. Of course, I want to make games on situations that I think others will find "interesting," so I do think about "marketing" aspects to a degree.

Right now there are two games in the works: 1) The Thunder at Chantilly which will be on two 11" by 17" maps and will use the Ivy Street brigade level rules from Stonewall at Cedar Mountain and At All Hazards: The Cold Harbor Campaign - a game which uses a new division/operational level rules system. I have the graphics pretty much done for both of these but I will be playtesting these over the next month or two to see how good they are.

At All Hazards is coming along although it has taken longer than the Chantilly game because I am playing around with the new system, making changes, etc. - right now the game is on two 11 " by 17" maps which cover from the Pamunkey south to Richmond/Chickahominy and from the Richmond/Fredericksburg/Potomac RR to a couple miles west of Old Church and Hanoverton. For those that know something about the battle at Cold harbor itself and are scratching their heads about the battle at Cold Harbor game, rest assured that this game does not focus on the Union assault at Cold Harbor on June 3 - in fact, right now, I don't plan on including a scenario for that battle at all.

Instead, the game begins on May 27th with Grant's crossing of the Pamunkey following the North Anna Campaign. The Union player must decide whether to try to get to Richmond, go right after Lee's army, or move to block the Virginia Central railroad. The Confederate player, on the other hand, must defend against all of these possibilities and always look for an opening to attack.

The system emphasizes fatigue and supply (delivered by supply wagons - no trace) these two factors are kept track on a separate chart (no written bookkeeping).

The scale is 1/2 mile per hex. I am aiming for the same kind of design approach as in my first two games - low complexity but capturing the factors essential to decision making we'll see how it goes.

Both games are fairly close to the outside playtesting phase however, the World Cup promises to put a crimp into any design/production schedule (to the extent I have one). Beyond these two games, I have a few ideas but nothing definite. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, ideas.

I can be reached at mmrhn@pop.erols.com