Avalanche Press commits news early and often. We’ll post about it right here.
Holiday Releases: Discount Window Closes Friday
10 December 2025: Between now and Lunar New Year (same day as Mardi Gras this time, 17 February!), we want to bring a lot of fun to your game table and book shelf. It’s an ambitious schedule, but after a year marked by tariffs and chemo and emergency-webstore-switching and parental heart attack and probably more episodes that we’ve blessedly forgotten, we’re eager to release some books and games. This is what we do!
About That Christmas Tree
None of these items will be shipping in time for Christmas. Do not expect to have them by 25 December.
The Deal Expires on Friday 12 December!
It’s a very special discount: 20 percent off these new and upcoming Holiday Season titles. Use coupon code DANA to take 20 percent off.
Order Snowstorm of Steel Here.
Order Ardennes 1944 (full game) Here.
Order Ardennes 1944 (Anarchy) Here.
Order The Emperor’s Sword Here.
Order War Plan Gold (Anarchy) Here..
Order Saipan 1944 (Anarchy) Here.
Order Linienschiffe 1919 Here.
Christmas Gift!
8 December 2025: We’ve got what you want in your stocking: One hundred twenty-seven (127!) books, in stock right now and ready to ship to you. And it’s a great deal for Santa at 30 percent off.
127 Games/Books, 30 percent off!
It’s simple: 127 games (linked right down there), 30 off with coupon code CAROLE.
Join the Sale Here.
Use coupon code CAROLE to take 30 percent off.
Solomons Naval Campaign:
Now Available!
3 December 2025: Following their victory at the June 1942 Battle of Midway, the American high command sought to take the fight to the Japanese. In August they began a campaign to take the strategic island of Guadalcanal and its almost-complete airfield from the Japanese. That touched off the hardest-fought sustained naval campaign of World War II, as Allied and Japanese ships and planes battled to control the seas and skies of the Solomon Islands.
Solomons Naval Campaign is a Historical Study of these air and sea battles, from the preliminary planning through the invasion of Guadalcanal, the attempts to reinforce the island, and finally the Japanese decision to evacuate the island after their useless tactical victory in the Battle of Tassafaronga in late November 1942.
There are plenty of books about this campaign; ours dives deeper into the sinews of war, to explain the events as a chain of decisions. We look at the resources of both sides, the ships and the planes and the men, and of course the battles, too.
Solomons Naval Campaign is a companion volume to our Second World War at Sea: South Pacific game and Ironbottom Sound scenario book. It’s not a game book, but it does explain the events seen in those games from the player’s perspective: what forces, some obvious and others less so, shaped the decisions made by the participants on both sides. It’s filled with history and stories; it’s a standalone book and you don’t need to know anything about the game to enjoy it.
Order Solomons Naval Campaign Here.
Order Ironbottom Sound Here.
The game book. Includes Solomons Naval Campaign book.
Import Taxes
Yes, Again. And This Time They’re Nasty
11 October 2025: Just as I was placing the most recent print orders for new game counters, Donald Trump threatened “massive tariffs” on imports from China and cancelled plans to meet with President Xi later this month. Later, after the stock markets closed for the long holiday weekend (surely a coincidence), the number (an additional 100%, making our rate 130%) and effective date (1 November, “or sooner”) were defined.
You’ll see this described in some media as “230 percent,” which is including the cost of goods. What the numbers mean is this: for every 100ドル worth of imported goods, the importer (NOT “China”) pays an additional 130ドル to U.S. Customs. So the cost is 230ドル total.
Of the counter sheets in question, only one would have been used by the end of this year; we’ll print that one and take the hit. The others were all being stockpiled for use next year. We were trying to get one last shipment in ahead of increased import taxes. We met our deadline, and we still lost that race when the goalposts suddenly moved.
As you’ve read here, we’ve been preparing Avalanche Press to weather this poop-storm since June 2024. The product mix has been adjusted. We have many game pieces stockpiled already. We expected something like this to happen, and we made the hard, necessary choices. And those choices are why I can tell you what other publishers in our niche cannot:
All releases continue as previously announced.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Mike Bennighof
President, Avalanche Press
South Seas Mandate
Now Available!
29 August 2025: Great War at Sea: South Seas Mandate is a complete game with everything you need to play included (except dice). It includes the new Second Edition series rules for the venerable Great War at Sea series, and serves as an entry point to the series for the handful who’ve never played a Great War at Sea game.
The map is from our long out-of-print Pacific Crossroads, and depicts the Central Pacific between the Marianas and New Guinea (the region of Japan’s post-World War One South Seas Mandate). It’s made up of two heavy cardstock panels, for a total playing area of 22 by 17 inches. The pieces are completely new: 50 die-cut and silky-smooth pieces, thirty of them “long” ship pieces, and the other 20 small warships, transports, and markers.
The action is set in 1920, just after the First World War, with the United States Navy having activated its War Plan Orange for an advance across the Central Pacific toward the Philippines. The Japanese hold bases at Saipan and Truk, the Americans have a coaling station at Guam (until the Japanese take it from them) and there’s a neutral but Japanese-friendly port at Rabaul. It’s up to the Americans to slash their way past, but Japanese doctrine of the time called for wearing them down with light forces, and that’s exactly what the Japanese will try to do.
Order South Seas Mandate Here.
Gold Club members can use their max discount.
Broken Axis Returns!
27 July 2025: Panzer Grenadier: Broken Axis is based on the Red Army’s 1944 offensives against the Axis along the border between Romania and the Soviet Union. The first operation, launched in April on the heels of previous advances across Ukraine, met stout opposition and eventually collapsed. The second, better-prepared offensive in August broke through Axis defenses and knocked Romania – Germany’s most important ally - out of the war.
Broken Axis is the model for what we’re trying to do with Panzer Grenadier: history and scenarios interwoven to tell the campaign story, with “battle games” linking the scenarios together so you can play the scenarios individually or in sets. And you can even play it online!
The Germans bring strong armored forces to the party, including Tiger and Panther tanks, Panzer IV medium tanks and the usual array of assault guns. At least that’s what they have when they show up instead of leaving the fighting to the Romanians. The Romanian Army has been rebuilt from its 1941 and 1942 disasters, with German-made tanks and modern Romanian-made anti-tank guns. The Germans do provide the elite Grossdeutschland Division, and its epic stand at Tirgu Frumos is a centerpiece of the game’s scenario set.
The Red Army is powerful: the new JS-2 heavy tanks are in action, along with the first examples of the T34/85. These are the first large-scale battles fought outside the pre-war borders of the Soviet Union, and the Red Army is eager to take the fight to the Romanian “mush eaters.”
The game includes four semi-rigid mapboards, fully compatible with all others in the Panzer Grenadier series (and those from Panzer Grenadier (Modern) and Infantry Attacks, too). Plus 517 playing pieces: silky-smooth and die-cut pieces, a joy just to hold in your hands. And 50 scenarios with five battle games.
Red Storm Package
Broken Axis
Grossdeutschland 1944
Eastern Front Artillery
Retail Price: 139ドル.97
Package Price: 110ドル.00
Gold Club Price: 88ドル.00
Add More Fun!
Grossdeutschland 1944
Twenty new scenarios for Broken Axis (and only for Broken Axis) focused on the German Army's elite Panzer Grenadier Division Grossdeutschland, with four "battle games" linking them together plus 88 die-cut, silky smooth playing pieces showing the Grossdeutschland Division in its own special livery. 32ドル.99
Order Grossdeutschland 1944 Here.
The Book of Armaments: Eastern Front Artillery
It’s all about artillery on the Eastern Front, with new player displays, special artillery rules and 88 new die-cut, silky-smooth playing pieces. For use with Fire in the Steppe, South Flank, Burning Tigers, Broken Axis and Gates of Leningrad. 35ドル.99
Order Eastern Front Artillery Here.
South Pacific Returns!
26 June 2025: This is the greatest naval wargame ever made. And now you can have it, and you can play it (you can even play it online!).
South Pacific is our fastest-selling major wargame ever, and would likely be our best-seller or close to it if we’d had enough stock. And then stuff happened, and we couldn’t make more. Until now. The parts are on their way to us, for delivery sometime in July. South Pacific will move to Playbook status (we’re not reprinting the box, not with a 30% Donald Tax slapped on top of an already-hefty cost).
South Pacific is a complete Second World War at Sea boxed game based on the Solomons Campaign of 1942. It covers the naval battles of Guadalcanal, the carrier battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz, and Savo Island.
South Pacific includes over 1,000 silky-smooth, die-cut playing pieces representing the ships and aircraft of the United States, Japan and Australia that fought in the campaign. The 22x28-inch map includes all of the Solomon Islands plus the surrounding seas, and overlaps with the maps from Java Sea on its western edge.
Unique in the Second World War at Sea series, South Pacific includes not only the standard, generic Tactical Map but also a special Tactical Map showing “Ironbottom Sound” north of Guadalcanal, where so many Japanese and American ships and sailors would be lost.
You get 42 scenarios, organized in our story arc format that weaves the narrative of the campaign into the scenarios, allowing them to tell the story of this pivotal series of battles.
Now Shipping
Great War at Sea: Jutland, The Baltic Sea
23 June 2025: In 1905, the Imperial Russian Navy suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Japanese, with the Pacific Fleet (including much of the Baltic Fleet, sent around the world to reinforce the Far East) annihilated. In the years that followed, soaring economic growth allowed the Navy to begin rebuilding, a process that had not borne fruit when the First World War erupted in 1914.
The Russian Baltic Fleet never had the chance to fight the Germans on even terms, as the war came too soon. But what if the guns of August had waited, or the rebuilding program moved slightly faster?
Jutland: Baltic Sea is an expansion book for Great War at Sea: Jutland, looking at the naval building programs of Russia as well as Sweden and Germany. There are 70 new playing pieces: 50 of them double-sized ship pieces, 20 of them standard square pieces, and all of them die-cut and silky-smooth. And there are 36 new scenarios for Jutland so you can play with them (you’ll need Jutland 2e and Risk Fleet).
While the Swedes get their 1916 fleet expansion program (with new cruisers, armored cruisers and coast defense ships) and the Germans get their proposed coast defense ships, it’s the Russians who get most of the attention. Admiral Nikolai von Essen’s 1914 proposal to hasten the process by building additional battleships in British yards and purchasing foreign dreadnoughts gets full attention, but we also look at Italian-designed battleships proposed for the fleet and the original, full-sized designs for powerful fast cruisers.
It’s a fleet capable of standing up to the Germans, and now you can lead it into battle the way Russia’s admirals wished.
Order Jutland: Baltic Sea Here.
On Import Taxes, And Our Response
3 April 2025: Effective Wednesday 9 April 2025, the president of the United States has unilaterally enacted this country’s largest tax increase since FDR’s in 1942 to fund the fight against fascism. There is now an additional 34 percent import tax on Chinese products, for 54 percent total in our category (74 percent in some others).
We pay these costs. Not the vendor, not the Chinese government, not the magic undersea pixies. We are handed an invoice that must be paid before our products are released by U.S. Customs.
Let me make this clear: This is a moment of profound, existential crisis for the tabletop games industry. Many boardgame publishers will not survive.
Let me make this clear as well: Avalanche Press has been preparing for this moment since last summer. You can’t discount your way out of a crisis like this. It requires a fundamental shift in your business model and product mix. We have done these things.
Over the past few days, well-meaning folks have sent me suggestions to switch production to the United States. This is not an option. Once China joined the World Trade Organization in December 2001, boardgame production moved there. The few American options that remain are frozen in amber, using technology a quarter-century out of date. And they are unlikely, now that they are shielded from competition, to invest in current technology. To revert to the old-school methods, we would have to give up our beloved Golden Journal, and our fantastic silky-smooth pieces (smooth on both sides!). And we will not be switching to mediocre quality. Y’all deserve the very best.
We do produce most of our game parts in the United States, and all of our books. Over the past nine months, ever since Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, we have adjusted our product mix to include more books. But even so, we do face higher production costs: inflation will inevitably affect items “made in the USA,” as these almost uniformly include foreign inputs (inks, paper coatings, printing presses etc.); labor costs will also rise. Our prices will begin rising, between five and 10 percent, spread across our entire line. It will take at least a week to re-program our webstore, and current prices remain valid until then. All Early Orders placed by Gold Club members remain valid as well; we will not be asking for any extra payment.
We will also begin offering special Anarchy Editions (you know, “no rules”) of our series games to the hard-core players of our Gold Club. These cost less, because they do not include the standard series rules packets. If you already own 12 Panzer Grenadier games, do you really need another set of markers?
We will be announcing further measures in coming weeks.
Avalanche Press is an actual small business, with three employees. We will not be moving “our factory” to the United States. We love what we do, and we love bringing you the very best that we have to offer. And we will do what is needed to keep doing so.
Mike Bennighof
President, Avalanche Press
On the U.S. Civil Service
Offer Expanded
14 March 2025: This week, a South African immigrant granted enormous power to re-make the federal civil service compared its employees to the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
This is obscene.
There’s not much we at Avalanche Press can do about this, but what little we can, we will. We’ll extend our outreach to the civil service. Your leaders may not value your service and your sacrifice, but we do.
If you’ve ever been a customer of ours (we have a list!) and are a current civil service employee, if you have lost your position in this frenzy (or lose it when your agency comes into the line of fire), including contractors who have lost contracts or grants, write to me at mike (at) avalanchepress.com. We will add you to our Gold Club, a 75ドル value which in addition to discounts, gives you access to the Gold Club Free Library, 365ドル worth of downloads (including complete games).
It’s not much, but it’s what we have to offer.
Mike Bennighof
President, Avalanche Press
Steppe and Sky: Essays on Ukraine
25 February 2025: Three years ago today, Russia launched an illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. Russian forces have committed many war crimes in the course of this illegal war of aggression. All of this has been well documented.
Never forget. Never let your leaders tell you what to remember.
The stories we choose to tell reveal who we are. As do the stories we choose not to tell. We’re never going to tell you to enjoy the games and not think about the squirmy parts.
Steppe and Sky is just what the subtitle says, a small collection of essays about Ukraine.
On the U.S. Civil Service
Publisher’s Statement
15 February 2025: My father was a Winter Soldier: in the course of the Vietnam War, he refused to take part in actions he viewed as illegal and immoral, and he resigned.
When they make movies about this sort of thing, the music rises in the background and our hero marches resolutely into the future. Real life was not that way. I learned to eat Government Cheese: solid bright-orange slabs of a plastic-like substance that came in long white cardboard cartons. I learned to drink powdered milk. And eat peanut butter out of metal paint cans, that came with a wooden paddle to stir the oil into the sand-like peanut sludge. To this day, I cannot eat peanut butter or orange cheese.
Eventually, another government agency gave my father a new professional life. He found purpose and meaning again; I was able to enjoy a typical middle-class upbringing. I grew up knowing the U.S. civil service as dedicated professionals, spread across every conceivable aspect of modern society. They tend the forests, they feed the hungry, they deliver the mail (in their odd quasi-government way), they fight diseases and they clean up our toxic waste. They inspect everything from old folks’ homes to freshly-slaughtered cattle. They make the trains run on time, and they keep the airplanes from falling out of the sky. And they hand out the Government Cheese.
I hear and read the barrage of childish insults flung at dedicated men and women by their leaders and those who act in their leader’s name, insults flung at civil servants like my father, and this upsets me deeply. There’s not much we at Avalanche Press can do about this, but what little we can, we will.
Our Response
I know that many U.S. government workers play our games and read our website (those dot-gov addresses are right here in the website data).
First thing, thank you for your service and your commitment. That courtesy seems to have been forgotten lately.
Second, if you’ve ever been a customer of ours (we have a list!) and you’ve lost your position in this frenzy (or lose it when your agency comes into the line of fire), write to me at mike (at) avalanchepress.com. We will add you to our Gold Club, a 75ドル value which in addition to discounts, gives you access to the Gold Club Free Library, 365ドル worth of downloads.
It’s not much, but it’s what we have to offer.
Mike Bennighof
President, Avalanche Press
Now Shipping
Second World War at Sea: North Cape
22 January 2025: Adolf Hitler launched his sneak attack on
the Soviet Union in June 1941. The Red Army
reeled back from the assault, losing thousands
of tanks, guns and planes. On 21 August 1941
the first convoy loaded with equipment and
weapons left Iceland for the Soviet Arctic
port of Archangel. For the next two years,
the Royal Navy would force through convoys
to the Soviet far North against enormous risks
and terrible odds.
North Cape covers the Allied attempts to push convoys through the Norwegian and Barents Seas while German aircraft, submarines and surface ships try to stop them. Famous convoy operations like those of PQ12 and PQ17, British carrier raids, German-Soviet destroyer skirmishes along the Arctic coast — all of these and more are included. Like all games in the series, this one come stuffed with scenarios and variations on them.
North Cape follows the same story-arc structure as other new Second World War at Sea games, with history and scenarios interwoven to tell the story. Operational scenarios take place on the huge operational map covering the Norwegian and Barents Seas from Iceland in the southwest to Novaya Zemlya in the northeast, from the Norwegian coast to the Arctic pack ice.
The Germans have the battleship Tirpitz and battle cruiser Scharnhorst, plus cruisers like Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper and a flock of destroyers in support. The Allies have powerful British and American battleships like Washington, Duke of York and Alabama, but it's rare to see more than one of them enter the combat zone by herself. They also have aircraft carriers, but when the weather turns nasty, these become little more than inviting targets for U-boat skippers. And the weather's nasty most of the time.
North Cape includes a huge 22x68-inch map, 550 pieces (210 double-sized ship pieces and 340 normal-sized square ones) and 52 (!) scenarios.
Note: North Cape is a thoroughly re-imagined edition of our old Arctic Convoy game.
You can order North Cape right here.
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Fire & Sword: Uprising
8 January 2025: In late August 1944, the small and badly-equipped Slovak Army, a German ally since 1939, rose against their hated Nazi overlords. For the next two months the Slovaks fought the Germans, ultimately failing to eject them.
In March 1939, the small nation of Slovakia declared its independence from Czechoslovakia and immediately faced invasion from its neighbor Hungary. The Slovak-Hungarian War lasted only a few days, and ended with a substantial part of the new republic falling under Hungarian rule.
Uprising is a Panzer Grenadier Campaign Study, focused on the battles of the Slovak Army against the Germans and the Hungarians. There are eleven scenarios plus the history of each campaign. This is not a complete game; you’ll need Puppet Brigade , Fire & Sword and Broken Axis to play all of the scenarios.
You can order Uprising right here.
Puppet Brigade
Nine scenarios and 88 new pieces bring the Slovak Army’s role in Operation Barbarossa to Fire in the Steppe. The Slovak Army was not very large, and not very good, but it was there! You’ll need Fire in the Steppe and Broken Axis to play all of the scenarios.
You can order Puppet Brigade right here.
Quantities are limited.
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Golden Journal No. 54: Stalin’s Tanks
24 November 2024: Like all other major powers, the Red Army studied and rejected many proposed tank designs during the course of World War II. Some of these were intriguing vehicles that likely would have made an impact on the battlefield, but the Soviet leadership did not make the German error of frittering away their productive capacity on an array of different vehicle types. Instead, they built just a few types of tanks, and built them in huge quantities.
Stalin’s Tanks looks at four of these proposals: the T34/57, maximized to fight enemy tanks. The T34/95, a support tank made necessary by the T34/57’s relatively lesser performance against soft targets. The massive KV5 “Tiger Hunter,” armed with a high-velocity 107mm gun. And the KV220, an early attempt to fit an 85mm gun in the KV heavy tank in place of its standard 76.2mm weapon.
You get 24 new die-cut and silky smooth pieces and new scenarios for Panzer Grenadier: Kursk Burning Tigers so you can play with these tanks in history’s greatest tank battle.
How do you get it? Only by joining the Gold Club – join up and we’ll tell you how to get it.
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Jutland: Risk Fleet
20 October 2024: Your college history books were wrong. There never was a “dreadnought race” between Britain and Germany before the First World War. There was a marketing campaign by the Vickers-Armstrong shipbuilding combine to create a threat that could only be answered by more spending on more dreadnoughts.
Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz did his part to build the myth. Tirpitz’s enemy lay not across the North Sea but rather just on the other side of the Brandenburger Tor in the War Ministry offices. Army and Navy battled furiously for funding, inventing respectively the (possibly mythical) Schlieffen Plan and the Risk Theory (less mythical, but just as detached from reality) to justify ever-higher levels of spending. In the event, neither got what they wanted: the Navy did not build a new class of dreadnoughts every fiscal year, nor did the Army get to muster two dozen new divisions to “reinforce the right.”
But what if Tirpitz had won his real battle? Germany had the financial and industrial resources to build a fleet to challenge the British. What might this fleet have looked like, and how would it have stood up to the Grand Fleet in battle?
Risk Fleet studies this question with background essays, 39 new scenarios, and 70 new silky-smooth die-cut playing pieces. It is not playable by itself; you’ll need our Jutland game (and only our Jutland game) to play the scenarios. You can, of course, just read the essays and fondle the pieces without owning Jutland. We won’t tell.
This is a thoroughly revised version of the former editions, with a new set of pieces with artwork that takes full advantage of the crisp resolution now available to us. And many new ships, like the 1905 fast armored cruiser proposed by Kaiser Wilhelm himself, the enlarged versions of the battle cruisers Lion and Derfflinger proposed by naval architects on either side of the North Sea, German battleships designed but never built like the 1904 semi-dreadnought, the 1905 dreadnought, the 1912 dreadnought with eight 13.8-inch main guns, and the 1913 dreadnought with a dozen 13.8-inch guns. Plus more cruisers and battleships to fill out the classes of the German program, and the full Blücher class of six armored cruisers.
This is a powerful fleet that can stand toe-to-toe with the British Grand Fleet – the fleet of which the propagandists boasted but Tirpitz feared to actually build. Now you can lead it into battle.
Note: This book was formerly to be titled High Seas Fleet Third Edition.
You can order Risk Fleet right here.
Beyond Jutland
Risk Fleet
Journal No. 38: Alternative Dreadnoughts
Retail Price: 54ドル.98
Package Price: 45ドル.00
Gold Club Price: 36ドル.00
You can journey Beyond Jutland right here.
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Golden Journal No. 56: Dragon Rampant
14 August 2024: New Zealand formed the 1st Army Tank Brigade in October 1941, intending it to fight alongside the 2nd New Zealand Division in the Middle East. The Japanese attack on Allied territories two months later caused it to be withheld to defend the homeland. Most of its tank crews eventually saw action in Italy manning Sherman tanks in the 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade.
Dragon Rampant gives you the Valentine and Stuart tanks with which the 1st Army Tank Brigade was equipped, and some extra pieces for our Campaign Study New Zealand Division so you can play those scenarios with proper Kiwi pieces instead of substituting British ones. You get 24 new die-cut and silky smooth pieces and 10 new scenarios for Panzer Grenadier: An Army at Dawn so you can play with the 1st Army Tank Brigade as New Zealand commander Bernard Freyberg wished.
How do you get it? Only by joining the Gold Club – join up and we’ll tell you how to get it.
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Panzer Grenadier: An Army at Dawn
25 July 2024: Panzer Grenadier: An Army at Dawn brings the U.S. Army’s role in the North African desert war to your game table, and covers not only the American campaign in Tunisia, but also the Vichy/Free French (same guys, different sides), British, Germans and Italians. And now An Army at Dawn is back in a new Playbook edition, with four mapboards and 517 die-cut and silky-smooth playing pieces.
When we switched from boxed format to Playbook, that gave us an excuse to re-make the scenario book for An Army at Dawn, since it would have to be laid out all over again. And so designer Mike Perryman had a green light to re-make the scenario set: 35 of them are revised versions of the scenarios from the boxed edition, and five more are brand-new for the Playbook. All (well, almost all) focused on the actions of the U.S. 1st Armored Division in Tunisia.
The Playbook edition has everything you need to play, except for dice, and a box, which you don’t need to play anyway.
You can order An Army at Dawn right here.
Big Red Package
An Army at Dawn
Big Red One
Retail Price: 92ドル.98
Package Price: 85ドル
Gold Club Price: 68ドル
You can order the Big Red Package right here .
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Great War at Sea: Rise of the Dragon
12 July 2024: In 1907, the Imperial Chinese Navy proposed a new building program to provide three regional fleets, each built around a new modern battleship. Two years later a naval commission headed by the Regent's brother, Prince Tsai-hsun, recommended a fleet of eight dreadnoughts and 20 cruisers plus supporting vessels, and began soliciting bids from shipyards around the world.
China never built that fleet, but that doesn’t stop you from leading it into battle against the Japanese imperialists. Great War at Sea: Rise of the Dragon presents the Chinese line of battle as proposed by Prince Tsai-hsun, made up of ships built in Germany, Britain, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Italy and the United States.
Rise of the Dragon is an expansion for the Great War at Sea series, based on battles that never happened. You’ll need Russo-Japanese War and Jutland to play all of the 41 scenarios included.
And you can have it right now.
You can order Rise of the Dragon (second edition) right here.
Prince Chun’s Dreadnoughts
Russo-Japanese War (Playbook)
Rise of the Dragon (2e)
Retail Price: 99ドル.98
Package Price: 80ドル.00
Gold Club Price: 64ドル.00
You can order Prince Chun right here .
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Panzer Grenadier: Dragon’s Teeth
10 June 2024: On 11 September 1944, a patrol from the U.S. 5th Armored Division crossed the German border, beginning a campaign that would last three and a half months and cost over 140,000 casualties as the Americans tried to break through the Siegfried Line defenses, known to the Germans as the West Wall.
Dragon’s Teeth is a complete Panzer Grenadier game based on these epic battles, as America took the fight into Nazi territory. You get 42 scenarios of tank and infantry combat, in six chapters, each of those with a battle game to tie the scenarios together and let you play toward an operational goal. Plus you get four heavy cardstock maps and 495 playing pieces.
Everything you need, except dice, is right there in the package.
Siegfried Package
Dragon's Teeth
Spearhead Division
Journal No. 27: Sherman Tanks
Retail Price: 134ドル.97
Package Price: 120ドル
Gold Club Price: 96ドル
You can experience the Siegfried Package right here.
You can join the Gold Club right here.
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Remember the Maine, Second Edition
4 May 2024: When the American battleship Maine exploded in Havana’s harbor, U.S. president William McKinley demanded that Spain withdraw from Cuba and ordered the U.S. Navy to blockade the Caribbean island. Spain declared war two days later, sending an ill-equipped fleet to the Caribbean to back up its four-centuries-old claim.
The fighting lasted less than four months, with Spain suffering a smashing defeat. It would take three-quarters of a century for Spanish democracy and constitutionalism to recover from the “Disaster of ’98.” The United States, meanwhile, had entered the world stage as a Great Power, completely changing the outlook of Americans both at home and abroad.
The Second Edition presents a completely new set of series rules (the Second Edition) and a completely new set of scenarios to go with them, in four chapters covering the naval war of 1898 as it happened, the war as it might have happened with Spanish reinforcements sent to the Philippines instead, the war as it might have occurred with the ships both sides hoped to build or purchase, and finally the war as it might have happened a few years later.
Remember the Maine is a complete game in the Great War at Sea game series, based on the Spanish-American naval war in the Caribbean Sea. You get 32 scenarios, and everything you need to play, except dice, is right there in the package: a 34x22-inch map of the central Caribbean basin, a 24 x 24-inch tactical map, 100 “long” double-sized ship pieces and 80 standard-sized pieces, all of them die-cut and silky-smooth.
You can order Remember the Maine (Second Edition) right here.
Coming Soon:
Panzer Grenadier: Fire & Sword
25 February 2024: This long-awaited game of the 1944-45 tank battles around Budapest is almost here! It’s the biggest game in the Panzer Grenadier lineup, with five new maps, 913 pieces and 52 new scenarios. Like our newest Panzer Grenadier games, it’s an exercise in storytelling, picking up the action in late October 1944 with the first Soviet advances on Budapest and following through the Hungarian capital’s encirclement and the German attempts at relief, winding up in January 1945.
This is a spectacular game. You are going to want this on your table, and we’ll support it for years to come with expansions. And right now, you can get 20 percent off your order:
Order Fire & Sword here.
Please allow an extra six weeks for delivery.
Now Shipping:
Second World War at Sea: Java Sea
11 February 2024: Second World War at Sea: Java Sea is shipping right now! This is a new title (re-using a few parts from the old Strike South) based on the 1941-42 Japanese offensives against the Philippines, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.
Between December 1941 and March 1942, the Japanese “Strike South” offensives conquered the American, British and Dutch colonies of South-East Asia in a daring series of rapidly-paced, shoestring-resourced operations. The colonial powers’ small fleets and air forces resisted as best they could, achieving some tactical successes, but could not stop the brilliantly-executed Japanese plan.
Each Second World War at Sea game is different than the others; in the case of Java Sea, the over-riding theme is an under-resourced Japanese offensive trying to bluff its way past under-resourced Allied defenders. The risky Japanese plan means that an aggressive Allied defense can definitely put the hurt on the invaders if they strike carefully. The battlefield is huge, and the Japanese are trying to move in many places with wide spaces between their forces.
The Next Big Thing:
Second World War at Sea: Java Sea
14 December 2023: Between December 1941 and March 1942, the Japanese “Strike South” offensives conquered the American, British and Dutch colonies of South-East Asia in a daring series of rapidly-paced, shoestring-resourced operations. The colonial powers’ small fleets and air forces resisted as best they could, achieving some tactical successes, but could not stop the brilliantly-executed Japanese plan.
Java Sea is our new Second World War at Sea game based on these campaigns. It uses the maps and pieces from the long out-of-print Strike South game, with additional new pieces and a completely new scenario set with 30 scenarios in five chapters (Malaya, Philippines, Borneo, Java and the Franco-Thai War of 1940).
Each Second World War at Sea game is different than the others; in the case of Java Sea, the over-riding theme is an under-resourced Japanese offensive trying to bluff its way past under-resourced Allied defenders. The risky Japanese plan means that an aggressive Allied defense can definitely put the hurt on the invaders if they strike carefully. The battlefield is huge, and the Japanese are trying to move in many places with wide spaces between their forces.
Order Java Sea: Wicked Sisters here.
Great War at Sea Second Edition
Cruiser Warfare. Remember the Maine. Rise of the Dragon
14 November 2023: When war came to Europe in August 1914, it left Maximilian Graf von Spee’s German cruiser squadron trapped on the far side of the globe. Their doomed attempt to return home, and the efforts of other German cruisers to attack Allied commerce, are the theme of Great War at Sea: Cruiser Warfare .
In February 1898, the American battleship Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. Two months later, the United States declared war on Spain, sparking a naval war in the Caribbean. That’s the theme of Great War at Sea: Remember the Maine.
We’ve brought both of them back in new editions, with new series rules built on more than 20 years’ experience. Both reflect the intense, interwoven history and game-play that’s become our calling card.
Cruiser Warfare’s Second Edition includes an all-new set of pieces, enlarged from prior editions with silky-smooth pieces and brand-new artwork. More ships, including the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Squadron and more Germans, and twenty ships moved from the small, square pieces to our long, beautiful pieces with top-down drawings. And with more ships, we need more scenarios so you can play with them.
There will be online play, too, so you can play both Remember the Maine and Cruiser Warfare with friends from around the world!
We’re going to support both of these games with scads of expansions, and your old copy won’t work with these and you’ll be sad. Don’t be sad!
You can order Cruiser Warfare right here.
Please allow an extra eight weeks for delivery.
You can order Remember the Maine right here.
Cruiser Package
Cruiser Warfare 2e (complete game)
Russo-Japanese War (complete game)
Rise of the Dragon 2e (complete expansion)
Retail Price: 169ドル.97
Package Price: 140ドル.00
Gold Price: 112ドル.00
You can order the Cruiser Package right here.
Please allow an extra eight weeks for delivery.
Jutland: Second Edition
24 October 2023: On the last day of May 1916, the British Grand Fleet met the German High Seas Fleet off the coast of Denmark, in what would be the largest battle ever fought between dreadnought battleships. That’s the subject of our Great War at Sea: Jutland Second Edition , our best-selling wargame ever.
We’ve brought it back in a new edition, with a new series rulebook built on more than 20 years’ experience. It’s been reborn with the intense, interwoven history and game-play that’s become our calling card.
Great War at Sea: Jutland Second Edition is a spectacular game. It’s focused on the Battle of Jutland and the operations that followed, with scenarios picking up the action at key moments, and scenarios looking at what each side planned, and of course the grand scenario showing the entire operation. Operational scenarios let you play out the movement of fleets; battle scenarios let you fight with them.
You can read a Designer Preview right here.
And you can pick up even more scenarios in Jutland: North Sea 1914, a book and history, scenarios and analysis based on naval operations on the North Sea in the first year of the Great War. Thirty-nine more scenarios!
There will be online play, too, so you can play Jutland with friends from around the world!
The Jutland Experience
Jutland Second Edition (full game)
Jutland: North Sea 1914
Jutland: Dogger Bank
Journal No. 46: Iron Dogs
Retail Price: 209ドル.96
Package Price: 170ドル.00
Gold Club Price: 134ドル.00
You can order the Jutland Experience right here.
Grossdeutschland at Kursk
14 October 2023: It’s got eleven new scenarios for Kursk: Burning Tigers , all drawn from the battles of the Grossdeutschland Panzer Grenadier Division at the Battle of Kursk. And best of all, it’s here and shipping right now.
Grossdeutschland at Kursk is a Campaign Study, one of our small books of history and scenarios. It’s tightly focused on the actions of just one German division, against a variety of Soviet units that at first slowed and then blunted the advance of the German Army’s best unit (in terms of both experience and weaponry). You also get two more “battle games” that tie the scenarios together.
And you get a free download to go with it: Grossdeutschland 1943 has 165 pieces showing the division’s units in their own special color scheme. You’ll have to assemble them yourself (see how right here), but you won’t have to pay for them.
You can order Grossdeutschland at Kursk right here.
Panzer Grenadier Deals
10 September 2023: Island of Death Twelve deals on Panzer Grenadier games plus one for Infantry Attacks. You learn the rules just once, and you get to keep playing!
Island of Death
Fortress Malta
Return to Malta
Back Again and Downloadable
24 August 2023: Island of Death is our game of the planned 1942 Axis invasion of Malta. It’s a complete game, with a 22x17-inch map, 420 playing pieces and four scenarios.
The expansion book Fortress Malta expands that with the 1940 and 1941 plans as well, plus some more variations. The smaller expansion Return to Malta lets the Allies try to take the island back with Poles, Canadians, Royal Marines and U.S. Marines. This was never an actual war plan (although the Axis garrison IS the one they planned to station there) but it is a great deal of added fun.
It's mostly battalion-scale, but due to the subject the company-level breakdown pieces play a bigger role than they did in other games that used this system. Each hex is one kilometer across.
All three of these titles are downloading now: for free, if you belong to the Gold Club. Or you can download them at Wargame Vault for 65ドル.97 for all three.
You can download Island of Death right here.
You can download Fortress Malta right here.
You can download Return to Malta right here.
You can join the Gold Club right here.
All of these are print-and-play: you’re going to have to assemble the pieces yourself.
Now Available!
Steppe and Sky: Essays on Ukraine
24 August 2023: A year ago, I conceived of this book as a way to assist relief operations in Ukraine. Unlike most, I did expect Ukraine to effectively resist Russian aggression, though I did imagine that such resistance would eventually shift to partisan warfare.
I did not expect pushback, but it seems that Vlad has more friends in my own country than I had imagined (though likely, I was deluded in this belief). That was disheartening.
The stories we choose to tell reveal who we are. As do the stories we choose not to tell. I felt it important to tell these stories. I would have thought that by this point, anyone reading this knows what to expect from us. We’re never going to tell you to enjoy the games and not think about the squirmy parts.
Anyway, Steppe and Sky: Essays on Ukraine (the subtitle’s been altered a little to better reflect the contents) is now available. We have some extra copies and we’ll sell those at the usual Campaign Study price (12ドル.99) without a donation, so we can recoup a little of our costs (which, as is always the case, were more than anticipated, so we could use a few sales).
You can order Steppe and Sky right here.
Downloadable Fun!
24 July 2023: We’ve started adding some of our downloadable titles to the Wargame Vault site. We used to sell downloads, long ago, but then the European Union starting taxing digital goods, expecting us to serve as their agents, and it just wasn’t worth rebuilding our webstore to accommodate them.
But the nice people at the Vault take care of that for us, so you can access these downloadable expansion sets:
Great War at Sea: Caribbean Empires
It’s an expansion for Remember the Maine, looking at a Spanish-American War breaking out 10 years later, with more advanced ships and more of them. It’s also a chance to use some of those extra pieces from Remember the Maine.
You can download Caribbean Empires right here.
It’s 19ドル.99, but if you’re a Gold Club member, it’s free to you as part of the Golden Library (there’s no Gold Club discount or freeness through Wargame Vault).
Panzer Grenadier: Peace in Our Time
Panzer Grenadier travels to a war that never happened, the planned 1938 German invasion of Czechoslovakia. You get 176 pieces showing the Czech Army of 1938, plus ten scenarios drawn from the German Plan Green to attack Czechoslovakia. You’ll need 1940: The Fall of France, Fire in the Steppe, Elsenborn Ridge and Broken Axis to play the scenarios.
You can download Peace in Our Time right here.
It’s 19ドル.99, but if you’re a Gold Club member, it’s free to you as part of the Golden Library (there’s no Gold Club discount or freeness through Wargame Vault).
Panzer Grenadier: Changsha Operation
The Japanese 11th Army’s offensive in Hunan Province in December 1941 and January 1942 was turned back by stout Chinese resistance. With 88 new pieces and eight new scenarios. You’ll need Pusan Perimeter and Counter Attack to play all of the scenarios.
You can download Changsha Operation right here.
It’s 15ドル.99, but if you’re a Gold Club member, it’s free to you as part of the Golden Library (there’s no Gold Club discount or freeness through Wargame Vault).
Bismarck: Online Play
21 July 2023: We’ve authorized a VASSAL online play module for Second World War at Sea: Bismarck Playbook Edition, created by Matt Brown. It’s yet another addition to WAS Fleet Command, the exclusive place to play Second World War at Sea online. Nowhere else!
You can request the module right here.
You’ll have to register.
You’ll need a copy of Bismarck Playbook Edition to play the module. It’s not a free computer version.
You can order Bismarck Playbook Edition here.
Bismarck: Force de Raid adds 14 new scenarios to Bismarck: Playbook or Second Edition (you only need Bismarck: Playbook or Second Edition to play them). They’re based on a French campaign to keep the North Atlantic clear of German surface raiders, while Britain remains neutral. 12ドル.99.
You can order Bismarck: Force de Raid right here.
The 1940 Campaign
13 July 2023: In May 1940, German panzer division launched an offensive into Belgium with the ultimate goal of outflanking the French Maginot Line defenses. The German high command expected the campaign to last two years; instead, it was over in six weeks. The French fought hard, but German mobility rapidly bypassed their defenses.
1940: The Fall of France is a Panzer Grenadier game based on this campaign, with 40 scenarios, or separate game situations. The new Playbook edition is a complete revision of the first edition, with re-made scenarios and “battle games” that let you play the scenarios in a sequence with victory conditions that link them together.
All Panzer Grenadier games use the same series rulebook: it’s not a difficult game to play, as hex-and-counter wargames go, and once you’ve mastered one game, you’re ready to play them all. Dozens of books and games, and thousands of scenarios. With online play available through Panzer Grenadier Headquarters, friends you haven’t met yet are ready to play with you.
Not everything we wanted to put in 1940: The Fall of France would fit. 1940: The Last Days of May is what we call a Campaign Study, a scenario book with 11 scenarios. Six of them are revised versions of first edition Fall of France scenarios, and the other five are completely new.
1940: Swallows of Death adds the elite Moroccan regiments to 1940: The Fall of France. They fought alongside the French Army and were the only unit to defeat a German panzer division during the campaign. The book comes with 33 new scenarios plus 88 new pieces showing the Moroccan troops in their own color scheme.
Le Forfait 1940
1940: The Fall of France (Playbook ed)
1940: The Last Days of May
1940: Swallows of Death
Retail Price: 147ドル.97
Package Price: 130ドル
Gold Club Price: 104ドル
You can order Le Forfait 1940 right here.
Voice of the Arabs
25 June 2023:During the June 1967 Six-Day War, the Israeli Defense Forces smashed the Arab armies facing them. While it’s called the Six-Day War, it was even shorter than that, since they fought the Egyptians and Jordanians for the first four, and the Syrians for the last two.
But that’s not the story the public heard from the Arab world’s most popular news program, Radio Cairo’s Voice of the Arabs. According to presenter Ahmed al-Said, working from (and further embellishing) a script provided by the Egyptian General Staff, the Egyptians fought the Israeli invaders to a standstill, and then mounted their own invasion of Israel along with their Jordanian sidekicks.
That fantasy – widely-believed in the Arab world, at least until the broken armies streamed back home - is the basis for Panzer Grenadier (Modern): 1967 Voice of the Arabs . It’s a scenario book for Panzer Grenadier (Modern): 1967 Sword of Israel, our tactical-level game of the Six-Day War (units are platoons, hexes are 200 meters across).
In Voice of the Arabs, the Israelis are still really good at war – but this time, so are the Arabs. The Egyptians and Jordanians can meet them on an equal footing, making for some pretty intense fighting as the Arabs push forward trying to make gains before the United Nations can invoke a cease-fire (much like the Israelis did in the actual conflict). You get 11 new scenarios that let the Egyptians and Jordanians match up with the IDF; you’ll need 1967: Sword of Israel to play them.
You can order Voice of the Arabs right here.
Arab-Israeli Package
1967: Sword of Israel (Playbook)
IDF: Israel Defense Forces
Voice of the Arabs
Retail Price: 147ドル.97
Package Price: 120ドル
Gold Club Price: 96ドル
You can experience the Arab-Israeli Package right here.
Storm Division
8 June 2023: Our newest Golden Journal is all about the German 78th Storm Division, a heavily-armed infantry division that fought on the left flank of the northern German advance at Kursk in July 1943. Equipped with dozens of extra 75mm anti-tank guns and hundreds of extra machine guns, it boasted enormous firepower.
Open in new tab to embiggen the image and be amazed.
Golden Journal No. 49: Storm Division has 24 new die-cut and silky-smooth Panzer Grenadier pieces with Storm infantry and additional heavy weapons, all in the Storm Division livery. And you get nine scenarios for Kursk: Burning Tigers, so you can play with them.
It’s a Gold Club exclusive, just for members. Click here to join the Gold Club .
Bismarck: Force de Raid
25 May 2023: We inserted this Campaign Study into the schedule and brought it out last week without prior fanfare. It’s an expansion book for Second World War at Sea: Bismarck, with France forced to fight a naval war with Germany in the North Atlantic as Britain remains neutral in the fall of 1939. The French built a modern fleet to hedge against just such a possibility, and in Force de Raid (the name of the French rapid-reaction squadron) they’re forced to use it.
You get 14 new scenarios, and you get to use the French fleet from Bismarck, which otherwise doesn’t see a whole lot of play in the standard game. You only need Bismarck to play – this little book lets you refresh a game you already know how to play, that’s already on your shelf. That’s some pretty cheap fun!
You can order Bismarck: Force de Raid right here. It’s just 12ドル.99!
Triple Bismarck
Bismarck (Playbook edition)
Bismarck: Force de Raid
Journal No. 31: Deluxe Bismarck
Retail Price: 112ドル.97
Package Price: 90ドル
Gold Club Price: 72ドル
You can order Triple Bismarck right here .
Swallows of Death: The Pieces
13 May 2023: 1940: Swallows of Death is shipping right now, with a new set of die-cut-silky smooth pieces. These are the wonder of the gaming world: cut with atomically-sharp blades needing minimal force, so they’re smooth on both sides and cut so cleanly that they just fall out of the sprues at a touch. No more game pieces that look like an elephant stomped on them. See the stripe on the flip side? We have to put that there, so you can tell the difference.
Open in new tab to embiggen the photo and be amazed.
You get 88 new pieces, most of them Moroccans that you’ll use in the 30 new scenarios, and can also use them in 1940: The Fall of France. The Moroccans are the toughest troops in the French Army, so you can use them to make Nazis cry.
Open in new tab to embiggen the photo and be amazed.
You can order Swallows of Death right here.
Shipping now - no waiting!
Sword of the Sea: The Pieces
21 April 2023: We’ve received our pieces for the upcoming book, Second Great War at Sea: Sword of the Sea . It’s an alternative-history expansion for Second World War at Sea: Horn of Africa, from our Second Great War background.
Open in new tab to embiggen the photo and be amazed.
You can read about the Second Great War here.
It’s got 180 pieces: 100 double-sized long ones, and 80 normal-sized square ones. They’re our usual die-cut and silky-smooth type, cut with blades so sharp that the cutting leaves no impression. That’s right – you know those trough-like gouges you see on those other guys’ pieces? Not here. Smooth on both sides, so smooth that we have to mark the flip side, or else you can’t tell which is which. Cut so cleanly that they just fall out of the sprues at a touch.
Open in new tab to embiggen the photo and be amazed.
You can order Sword the Sea right here.
Midway Deluxe: Online Play
17 April 2023: We’ve authorized an experiment: a VASSAL online play module for Second World War at Sea: Midway Deluxe Edition, created by Matt Brown. It’s planned as the cornerstone of an online play site much like that hosted by the very popular Panzer Grenadier Headquarters. This will be, like PGHQ, the exclusive place to play Second World War at Sea online. Nowhere else!
You can request the module right here.
You’ll have to register.
You’ll need a copy of Midway Deluxe to play the module. It’s not a free computer version.
You can order Midway Deluxe Edition right here.
Midway: Aftermath adds 11 more scenarios to Midway Deluxe (you only need Midway Deluxe to play them). They’re based on action in the Hawaiian Islands following a mutually-destructive result of the historical Battle of Midway (rather than the one-sided outcome). You can play these scenarios with your new VASSAL Module!
You can order Midway: Aftermath right here.
The Iron Dogs Are Here!
13 April 2023: Our newest Golden Journal (No. 46 Iron Dogs) comes with giant-sized pieces for the battle cruisers that fought at Dogger Bank in January 1915, and a couple extras that could have been there but weren’t. The British get six of them (New Zealand, Indomitable, Lion, Tiger, Princess Royal, and Queen Mary) while the Germans get six as well (von der Tann, Moltke, Goeben, Seydlitz, Derfflinger, and Blücher, which wasn’t a battle cruiser but looks good on the big piece).
The pieces just fit on the Naval Tactical Map, and they’re perfectly die-cut, falling right out the sprue without provocation. They’re cut with a special process using microscopically-sharp blades that slice with minimal force. That means there’s no mark on the back where the die smashed into the sheet. They have incredibly sharp reproduction (see the photo?), rich color and a silky coating that makes them a pleasure to handle. We gave them brand-new artwork and filled the piece for it.
These are the best wargame pieces ever made.
Open in new tab to vastly embiggen the photo.
The Golden Journal is an exclusive little magazine-like publication, just for the Gold Club, that we bring out when we feel like it. It has no ads, so it’s not a real magazine, and you can’t subscribe to it. It’s free when we first offer it, then you have to pay for it, but it’s still only 12ドル.99. Most volumes come with die-cut and silky-smooth playing pieces just like our games.
You can join the Gold Club right here.
And get your own set of Iron Dogs.