Work continues on the next campaign for the GQIII Decisions at Sea series. The next one is likely to be for Fleet Action Immanent a WWI campaign in the North Sea. We have a little work still to go on it before publication. But playtests so far have been promising.

more stuff

The next items likely to be released by ODGW are new GQIII Deluxe ship logs, they are not quite ready, but will be available at some point.

Our next campaign

We are busy with our next campaign game.  I try to write a bit each day, though I admit that I have to spend a fair amount of time on plain old reading for research purposes.  Our game playtesters demand a high degree of historical fealty, so even invented events have to be plausible.

SSC in galley

We are now awaiting the printer, as the go-ahead has been given. We hope to see the game soon.

Sudden Storm

Sudden Storm is now in galley and we hope to have a production date soon.  I have posted the timeline for the hypothetical conflict on the front page of our web site, so folks can see just how likely a war could have been.  All of the various events were either actual ones that we moved in time or slightly embellished.  We did thorough research on the inter war period to bring the most fidelity and veracity possible to the projected conflict.

Sudden Storm ad

1937 Sudden Storm

Though it has taken longer than anticipated due to my medical down time, we may have our latest project out by Christmas. First there is the proof copy, but Sudden Storm is in galley now. We will see how it looks when put together by the printer.

Sudden Storm is lurching towards publication. We have just decided on a printer and the price, so you will see it hopefully soon.

General Quarters

We now have three GQ products in development. Only one Sudden Storm is close enough to publication for discussion. But there are busy people ready to bring out more stuff following that.

Sudden Storm news

Our first estimate for printing has come in, so we are getting closer to production with each passing day. We will have news soon, I hope. This will be a large scale campaign, combining sea, aerial , and land combat in one package. We are very excited about this new campaign, one which has dominated our playtesting for the past several months. It is very engrossing and has led to some very good and interesting battles.

Sudden Storm

Here is the back cover which has a more complete list of what the game will contain.  We are very excited about this module, as playtesting has shown it to be a very involving experience, with lots of different strategies possible.

new stuff

y

front cover

Our next project for General Quarters will be a campaign module postulating a war between the U.S. and Japan in 1937.  This is not strictly speaking a War Plan Orange war, but represents a great period for naval wargaming where the surface ship still reigned supreme.  This game contains submarine and nascent carrier warfare, as well as ground combat in and around the south Pacific, notably the Philippines.  Look for details on our website.

new release

ODGW's latest release for General Quarters III is nearing typesetting completion.  It is turning out as a work of art, with absolutely magnificent graphics.  We are very pleased with its layout, yet we are still awaiting blind playtesting results of the game to see if changes need to be made for play balance or perfect strategies.  As a scenario generator, it is quite sophisticated, and we hope that it will reach a broad audience.  More on this title later.

Convoy and General Quarters III

I have just received my copy of Clash of Arms's latest, Convoy, a game of submarine warfare in the Atlantic.  Designed by Mal Wright, a naval gamer extraordinare, it is actually two games.  One is the set of fast play naval rules, Convoy.  The other is the operational game that provides the battles to be fought using the tactical rules, Deadly Waters.  It is the usual attractive package from Clash of Arms, made even more so by their use of color throughout — I believe a first for them.  It also contains a CD with ship forms and a copy of the map, useful for those who want to print additional forms, and have another map that they can blow up to a larger size than the one provided, should someone want to do that at a copy shop. Knowing Mal as I do, he no doubt poured his heart and soul into this project, so even though it is from another game company, I whole-heartedly recommend it, despite what some of the online forums have said.  Anyone wishing to procure additional material should visit the Yahoo egroup, WWIIConvoy.  Mal and the developers have been busily putting up errata, play aids, and new material in their files section.  And of course you can use General Quarters to resolve the combat.  Amendment 1 has all the necessary U-boat logs, and the Royal Navy Ship logs Database has all the ships.


In fact, most of the playtesting was done using General Quarters rules, as can be seen in one of the photographs in the book.  Nice to get some advertising.

General Quarters III Amendments

There has been some discussion — more like an accusation — that Amendment 1 was required to fix a problem with the original rules.  This is incorrect.  The rules work fine in the basic game, and no changes are required to play the game as written.  There was a coterie of gamers that felt that one of the battles of the Solomons allowed penetration of a certain level of armor, and that should be recreated.  There is debate about whether the battleship armor in question was actually penetrated by cruiser fire.  But a new 3000yd range band was created to allow gamers to pursue this close action between ships with greater fidelity.  As with all our rules changes and new material, it was made available to all owners of the game.  This is standard ODGW policy, and represent a business model that does not allow us to charge for new editions of a game, unlike other publishers.  Buy the game once, and enjoy every revision, clarification, and new edition for free via web access.

We stand by our position, and will not start charging for any new material, but continue to make it available through our web site.

Beta test results are in — Ouch!

The first beta test results for our planned GQIII module has arrived, and it is rather tough on us.  Some of the basic premises have been questioned, and there is concern over play balance.  The first game was a failure, due to some last minute changes I introduced as suggestions from local players.  Turns out they had implications well beyond what I originally foresaw, proof positive of the law of unintended consequences.  Fortunately, the system is sound enough that the problem could be fixed easily.  Now the group can get on with take two of trying out the intricate system we have designed.  We like to think it is simple, but complex in operation.  Lots of decision points for the players in this campaign.

New General Quarters module

Our latest offering for General Quarters will be a huge module, offering both a naval and land component.  The design team we have compiled has done an amazing job of researching the various parts of the campaign we are presenting.  It promises to be an engrossing look at a little-known era of naval warfare, and should provide phenomenal replay value.  Concurrent with its release will be Amendment 2 for GQIII/FAI, which will bring the rules up-to-date with the previous Amendment 1 and introduce some additional changes and optional rules.  We are very excited about this new project, which is currently in beta testing.  As we progress further along, we will begin keeping everyone posted about its subject matter and how it is developing.

Now the real work begins

I have literally a ton of unmade paper terrain buildings and fixtures that need to be constructed.  It is time to dig into these and put them together.  The 10mm are for a friend's playtest and development group for his miniatures game.  The 6mm are for my chosen scale, microarmor in WWII, and 10mm everywhere else, though I may be tempted by 15mm's for the War of the Roses project.  So much to work toward now, what with a group that is willing to try out new systems and help me out with playtesting.  The Battlelines system has to jell relatively quickly, so that I can open up space for the GQIII project final work, and the Meine Truppen rules, which are going off in directions that no one planned for.  It is all keeping me busy.

Beta testing for new General Quarters game

Beta test packages are the blind test packages sent to playtesters to see their reactions to your product before you send it out to a paying public.  It is always hard to send them, since they are invariably unpolished versions of what you are going to publish.  They have known rough spots that will be criticized, and that is just the beginning.  Stuff you never thought of will turn up, and surprise you in very dramatic ways.  This is as it should be, since when the game is released to the teeming masses, it will be subjected to even closer scrutiny.  Better to get these humiliating moments out of the way before publication than after.

An author I know was once asked if publishing a book was like having a baby.  He replied that publishing was more like having a teenager.  It takes off in unexpected directions, rarely listens, is argumentative, gets into trouble, and frequently embarrasses you.