AGE OF NAPOLEON Renaud Verlaque Phalanx Games Age of Napoleon is the first game from a new designer, Renaud Verlaque. It is a strategic game on the Napoleonic Wars, and stands out against a field of big, complex games by being elegant in both look and play. It has a sumptious area map of Europe, 55 cards that drive the game and corps counters which are named (and given values for) generals of the era. The cards drive the game: some hold events applicable for the French or the Allies. All cards function as drivers for corps movement, interception or loss/depletion recovery. Combat involves totalling battle points and card modifiers and die rolls and comparing, the highest total winning. Diplomacy is handled by making Britain and France eternal enemies with the other powers changing sides, via intermediate diplomatic positions. Included are three scenarios, starting in 1805, 1809 and 1811. This is a gem of a game which almost re-invents the card-driven wargame.
	ARDENNES '44 Mark Simonitch & Tony Curtis GMT Games Ardennes '44 takes us back once again to one of the more popular campaigns in wargaming:  The Battle of the Bulge. The game is scaled at Regimental/Battalion with 1.6 mile hexes and 12 hour  turns. The game mechanics are mostly conventional, but with enough added features and specialty rules to make the game fresh and intriguing. The map nicely (and attractively) reflects the restrictive terrain of the Ardennes and the counter graphics combine traditional NATO symbols with impressive silhouettes for the vehicles. The rules are relatively short -- 22 pages -- and are sprinkled with many examples of play, and there is even an 8 page extended example of play that takes you through the entire first day (and night) of a hypothetical game. The game plays nicely and initially instills in the Allied player a true sense of crisis and in the Axis player a true sense of urgency. There is only one set-up for the full campaign, but also included are 2 shorter scenarios that let you play out the first 3 or 4 days of the full campaign.
	CORSAIRS & HELLCATS Dan Verssen GMT Games Volume IV of the popular Down in Flames air combat card game series, C&H is an expansion of Zero! covering the Pacific Theatre from 1942 to1945.  (Zero! is required in order to play).  Complexity is low (dogfight) to moderate (campaign scenario) and action centers on playing maneuver cards to gain advantage over the enemy.  Games are usually fast and furious.  124 cards include a wide variety of aircraft of the mid and late-war period.  Special rules address weapons and tactics such as skip-bombing, air-to-ground rockets, napalm, depth charges and Kamikazes.  New target cards round out a wide variety of missions.   Campaign scenario themes cover Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, Eastern Solomons, Philippines 1944, B-29s in China (a solitaire scenario), and Okinawa.  Campaign scenario victory conditions encourage one to inflict maximum damage on the enemy while minimizing one’s own losses.
	EUROPE ENGULFED Rick Young & Jesse Evans GMT Games Europe Engulfed (EE) is GMT's first foray into the realm of block games. EE recreates the Second World War in Europe from the invasion of Poland to the final collapse of Germany in 1945 in bimonthly turns, with each of the 283 blocks representing a Division, Corps or Fleet from one of the major combatants. The two piece map is divided into geographically and militarily significant areas spanning the entirety of the European Theater of Operations. The 24 page rulebook is accompanied by a 24 page playbook with strategy notes, optional rules, 8 full pages of examples of play and several scenarios. Easy movement and combat mechanics allow players to focus on strategy and game play and make for a fast playing game (the entire grand campaign can be finished in one long day of gaming). Simple rules for  Stratgic Bombing, the U Boat Campaign, Amphibious Invasions, V Weapons, the miasma of politics, Partisans, Airborne Assaults, the Russian Winter, Oil, Lend Lease, etc., make sure that the game has all the flavor of WW2.
	KOREA: THE FORGOTTEN WAR Rod Miller Multi-Man Publishing The Gamers Operational Combat System (OCS) steps beyond World War II to cover the first year of the Korean War.  Communist forces attempt to gain control of South Korea, and are opposed by the UN.  Three 22" x 34" maps cover the rugged terrain of the Korean Peninsula and the bordering area of China.  13 scenarios give players a wide choice of time (4 to 109 turns) and space (1-3 maps) commitment to the game.  Early war scenarios have a low unit density and are particularly challenging.  The UN player has limited resources with which to contain the advancing enemy.  The Communist player must maximize an initial advantage to gain key objectives as UN air, naval and land forces gain strength.  Scenarios covering the UN advance into North Korea account for the likelihood of Chinese intervention and disadvantageous effects of UN forces fighting in the north. The game has moderately high complexity mechanics which reward logistical planning as well as careful unit disposition for both attack and defense.
	LOCK 'N LOAD Mark H. Walker Shrapnel Games New designer Mark H. Walker has attempted to go back to the roots of tactical wargames with Lock 'n Load, which is set in the jungles of Vietnam and is the first in a series spanning several eras. Tactical games started off as quick and fun but slowly accreted rules for greater 'realism'. This game tries hard to stay simple yet capture a significant depth of realism. It also uses a mechanism whereby units in certain hexes trigger 'events'. Not surprisingly for a tactical game, terrain, lines of sight and spotting are crucial. The latter two mechanisms force cautious approaches. Carefully moving units and leaders forward, using the ground, scouting for the enemy, dealing with unexpected events as well as enemy actions all make for a player's game which feels gritty and tense. Production values and company support for this game are excellent. It has the potential to spawn another great dynasty of tactical wargames.
	MEDIEVAL Richard Berg GMT Games Medieval is a multiplayer card game by veteran designer Richard Berg, set in 13th century Europe. The map is created as the game progresses by playing map cards which link together. Players run 'powers', the kingdoms of medieval Europe, which are divided into provinces, each with a money value. In a turn players either tax or play one or more power or action cards. Action cards mostly are nasty and some allow Papal options. Players try to conquer neutral or owned provinces, by a simple comparison of weighted die rolls with hidden money as a bluff element. As the game progresses, map cards are removed by the Mongols from the east.  The game end is also randomly triggered by Mongol cards. The game is full of period flavour and nicely captures the feeling of 'ruling' in the era. The game system encourages much skullduggery and conflict between players. A lot is packed into a small game package. One gets the feeling that this game will launch a series.
	MONTY'S GAMBLE:  MARKET GARDEN Michael Rinella Multi-Man Publishing Area movement games first came on the scene with the game Storm Over Arnhem. Well, things have sort of come full circle with the release of Monty's Gamble: Market Garden (MG:MG). Expanded to cover not just the battles of the 1st Airborne for the city of Arnhem, MG:MG also includes the landings by the 82nd Airborne, the 101st Airborne and the drive by XXX Corps to relieve the landings and seize the much desired bridge over the Rhine. In the 22 years that this system of games has been around, it has been expanded, revised, and refined. At heart it is a fairly simple system, which can be learned fairly quickly. However to master the system takes a bit more thought. A player who just plows straight ahead will quickly find himself  with an army of spent, vulnerable troops. The game includes only 1 scenario, with optional rules to extend the campaign for 6 more days. With MG:MG, you can refight the desperate battles for survival of the Red Devils, hold open Hell's Highway with the All American and Screaming Eagles, drive hell bent for leather up the Dutch countryside with the UK's elite Armoured Corps, leap into the maelstrom with the 1st Polish Para Brigade, or fend off the only strategic use of Allied Airborne troops in WW2 and hold the last natural barrier between the Allied troops and the heart of Germany.
	RISE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC Richard Berg GMT Games The first in a series of planned releases, The Rise of the Republic of Rome (RRR) let's gamers hack and slash out some of the campaigns that led to the ascendancy of Rome in the Italian Peninsula.  With full year turns, armies can pretty much go anywhere they want to and do pretty much whatever they want to, but there is a price to pay. If you march your army through unfriendly territory, or cross inhospitable terrain, you can bet that large chunks of your army will melt away from starvation and dessertion. If you plan on fighting a major battle, you had also better assume that afterwards your army will be disorganized and will require time to recover and recuperate. Sure, sieging a city doesn't generate a lot of casualties like an assault does, but you had better assume that that is all your army will be doing that year. And if you are going to camp for a year, make sure it is in a hospitable location or else your some of your troops might just decide that home is the place to be. The basic rules for movement and combat are fairly simple. The real worry comes with running the Roman political machine: the engine that drives the Roman Army. Unlike most games featuring Rome, RRR shows that Rome's true strength was not due to superior soldiery or even better military leaders, but instead a truly well organized political military complex that was almost always better able to respond to threats and opportunities that fell to her.
	SWEDEN FIGHTS ON Ben Hull GMT Games Sweden Fights On  (SFO) is the second professionally released game in the Musket and Pike Series. It presents four battles from the Thirty Years War featuring the Armies of Gustavus Adolphus after his death at the battle of Lutzen. The battles covered are Nordlingen, Wittstock, Second Breitenfild and Jankau. With Regimental sized units, 100 yard hexes and 20 to 30 minute turns, you will really get into the nitty gritty of 17th Century Warfare. Game play is based on activating leaders, who then hasten their troops into battle. Once engaged, infantry swap musket fire and pike points in a test of skill and steadfastness. Cavalry sweeps in and around the balky, rigid infantry formations and can decide the battle in a matter of minutes. Battlefiled artillery is still not the arm of decision, but, properly employed, can certainly ruin your opponent's day by breaking up an attacking formation or playing hobb with a defensive line. In SFO gamers can learn just how and why numerically inferior forces, under superior leadership and properly employed can readily trounce a larger, less well utilized foe.
	WARPLAN:  DROPSHOT Bruce Costello Schutze Games Warplan Dropshot is one of the first of Schutze Games' “Professional” line.  Published with die-cut counters and upgraded maps and tables from the traditional DTP quality, but still less then a larger publishing house like GMT Games, Dropshot gives great value for its inexpensive pricetag.  Designed by Bruce Costello (who also authored Victory in Vietnam for Schutze Games), Warplan Dropshot plays like an old pulp novel from the same era it represents.    There is no denying the game’s charm.  You’ll be humming “Duck and Cover” and going Eisenhower hunting while smashing your shoe on the nearest table.  Dropshot is great fun and an immensely entertaining game on a long neglected topic.