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.

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.

Sudden Storm notes

One of the great things about Sudden Storm is the fact that big guns rule.  Though I am a huge fan of naval aviation and love playing out the battles from The Solomons Campaign, I understand that many naval gamers do not want to play with aircraft, this historically based game, gives them the opportunity to see how the technology that would reach its highest form in WWII developed.  It is an alternative history game, but uses only forces that were available in 1937.  Even the Timeline we wrote uses historical events, though admittedly we moved them around a bit and embellished them in some cases.  I am proud of the end result, a games that covers a Pacific war spanning from the China coast to the central Pacific.  The ground combat module, though abstract, delivers accurate results, based upon the actual US and Japanese forces available at the time.

Sudden Storm not forgotten

We have re-submitted the book to the printer and hope to have it in production 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

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 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.

Gaming accessories

The Dial Dude makes great gaming accessories.  I use them for all my American Battlelines games, and will probably adapt them to the Mein Panzer family soon.

Recently, the best maker of paper terrain, Scott Washburn of Paper Terrain, has updated his offerings for 6mm.  That is my WWII scale, so these new bridges along with all his other terrain makes for a very impressive table at a fraction of the cost of resin or metal terrain.

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.

Accessorize well

ODGW used to sell lots of little things — miniatures in 10mm, different sized metal bases, a line of terrain and buildings, etc.  Now we mainly sell rules.  The accessories we carry are very specific to the games we sell, like deviation dice, GQIII turn indicators, and, now, ship bases, of which we are mostly out of stock.  It pays to pick and choose what you bring into your sales line.  Fortunately we have a good distribution system to help us with the details of shipping our products.

Tomorrow I rejoin the MMG (Miracle Mile Gamers) for a Mein Panzer game.  First time in the better part of a year, maybe more.  Hope I remember how to play.  It is, after all, our signature game.  Funny thing about how games are supposedly designed.  It is said that designers design games to fit their vision of reality and so they can win.  Well, I am not going to argue the reality bit, but I lose all the time at Mein Panzer — I mean 100% — so I do not see that part as necessarily true.

There are three separate games in beta test right now, and I am sort of waiting around for what is going to happen next.  As Winnie the Pooh liked to say, "One never knows with bees!"

Another idea that worked

The clear acrylic etched ship bases are selling.  We may have to re-order soon.  This was a shot in the dark idea that came through.  I am very pleased to have yet another product successful, and helping the hobby, especially the naval end of things.  They are quite good looking, and well worth the money compared to other commercial bases.  It also helps me breathe a little easier, now that my idea has been vindicated.

Introducing Ship bases

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!  One of the best products ODGW has had in recent months has not been available because I have not taken time to put it up on the web.  Well, it is up now, and anyone who wants truly fine bases for their 1:2400 or 1:3000 scale ships would do well to take a look at our bargain priced acrylic etched bases.  This picture shows the bow wakes and the etched stern wakes.  At 25¢, 35¢, 50¢, and $1 for the four sizes, you cannot do better with any other product.  If you have a nicely done custom sea mat, these clear bases make perfect sense.

A New Product

ODGW now has available a great new product for owners of 1:2400 and 1:3000 scale ships. These are clear acrylic bases with bow waves and stern wakes etched into the surface. The effect of the clear base allows your colored cloth to come through, instead of clashing with the base already on the ship.  Though we have had it for some time, we have yet to put it up for sale on the web site, for lack of attention by yours truly.  That will change soon.

beta test of a different sort

Time to get up and finish the beta test kit for our next General Quarters offering. We hope for a Christmas release on this one, but I am pretty much convinced that will not happen. It is a big game, and will require quite an outlay of playtesting time to finish properly. Then there is the publishing side of it. With the demise of Quality Print-on-Demand, many game publishers are scrambling to find new printers.  So we are faced with several challenges.  First and foremost is getting the game in the hands of the playtesters.  And that is my job.