We’re showcasing five Compass wargame preorders today, but there are loads more in the pipeline, too!
1 — Kontact Now: Red Eclipse
Red Eclipse is the first game in the new Kontact Now series by Steve Overton. It is a Card Assisted Fire Team level of tactical combat. The player will control forces of either the United States or Soviet Union in West Germany, 1989.
The game uses a Card Assisted, Command Point system to create a very unique Command and Control system. Various scenarios will test your tactical skills using all the forces and options historically available to the leaders of that time.
Red Eclipse is based on the OODA Loop. The combination of Command Points, Leader Activations and Tactical Event Cards gives a unique Command and Control system. Leadership on the map and their tactical training determine the size and number of CP chits and impulses a side will get each turn.
Men not weapons are the focus of the game. Their state of mind, fear level, is primary as to how they will perform their tasks to accomplish their mission. Weaponry isn’t missing in the game and consists of Infantry Support Weapons, Vehicles, Close Air Support and Artillery. The three dice system shows the differences of weaponry over time. If it was in West Germany with either the US or Soviet military in 1989 we included it in the game.
There are twelve geomorphic map boards, six summer and six winter (printed double-sided on six map sheets) that allows for a wide variety of terrain that can be fought over. A Leader Campaign is included that allows YOU to have your own personal Leader on the map for use in the fifteen scenarios. We put your boots on their ground.
Can you lead your men to victory? We’ll soon know what kind of a Leader you are!
2 — Roma Victrix
Roma Victrix is a grand strategic, moderate complexity wargame for 1 to 6 players, covering a time period ranging from 218 BC to 533 AD in twenty separate historical and hypothetical scenarios.
City. Republic. Empire. Roma Victrix – “Rome Victorious”. Rome was forged in war. Even the story of its legendary founding was rooted in a fratricidal conflict. From her humble origins to her ultimate fall, Rome was either in a constant state of war, or preparing for it. Beginning with the Punic Wars until the deposition of the last emperor in the West, Rome was the dominant force in the Mediterranean basin.
Roma Victrix is a game which endeavors to re-create the conflicts between Rome and her neighbors to achieve and maintain that dominance. A simple interactive sequence of play guides each player through the process of revenue collection, recruiting and maintaining military forces, conducting land and naval operations, diplomacy, field battles and sieges. Special rules are included to emphasize the importance and effects of leadership, cavalry superiority, mobility and attrition. Random events are also represented, adding an element of unpredictability to even the best laid plans and the likelihood that no scenario will ever play the same.
Seventeen historical scenarios range from the 2nd Punic War through the attempted reconquest of the lost Western territories by Justinian in the mid-6th century A.D. The rivalries of the later Republic, the Year of the Four Emperors, Imperial expansion and civil war, the Parthian and Persian frontier, the upheaval of the third century and the Germanic invasions are all represented. Three hypothetical scenarios are also included in which players can create their own history. Of the twenty scenarios in Roma Victrix, two are ideally suited for solitaire play.
3 — Flanks of Gettysburg
Flanks of Gettysburg (FOG) consists of two, two-player games on a company level, simulating the two brigade sized flank attacks on Little Round Top and Culp’s Hill on July 2, 1863. Each assault is a separate game. One player controls the forces of the United States (Union) and the other player controls the forces of the Confederate States (Confederate).
Historically the Union bested rebel forces on both flanks because it fed enough reinforcements in to stem the gray tide, but that is not to say that the rebels don’t stand a chance. They do. Note, the fighting on Culp’s Hill went well into the night and ended the day’s fighting.
Each Flanks of Gettysburg game offers a beautiful Rick Barber map and a low counter mix. Regimental draw chits allow companies to move, volley fire or melee at the player’s discretion. The ground over which the Confederates must assault is rough and at times movement under fire can be distressingly slow. Casualties mount rapidly until the rebels are close enough to exact revenge. Officers are essential to relay orders, to rally broken units and to influence melee. In some cases officers may prove the only way to break or hold the line. Because of their importance and visibility, officer casualties are high. Replacement officers are available but make excellent targets as well.
The designer, John Poniske, is currently working on a sequel, using the same rules, covering the Gettysburg cavalry battles!
4 — Brothers at War: 1862
Brothers at War: 1862 is a quick-playing, tactical wargame exploring civil war brigade command. Units are regiments, batteries and companies of skirmishers. This is a set of four games, each featuring a full-size, 22″×34″ game map and covering battles from 1862: Antietam, South Mountain, Mill Springs, and Bloody Valverde.
In Brothers at War: 1862, Battle Cards introduce an element of uncertainty and excitement to play. Unique off-map displays track every brigade’s reserves and casualties. Once a unit’s reserves are used up, it becomes exhausted and liable to break.
Distinctions are made between formed and unformed infantry, deployed and limbered artillery, mounted and dismounted cavalry. Unit facing is not an element of play. Instead, unit deployment in adjacent hexes can trigger pass-through fire, which simulates flanking fire, or fire on compressed lines (both dangerous situations for civil war units).
Four battles explore how the system can accommodate a variety of civil war battlefields: The meat-grinder of Antietam’s cornfield, in which brigades collide one after another in a brutally confined area, the mountainous terrain of Fox’s Gap, where a Union corps attempts to break through a handful of southern brigades; the sodden fields of Mill Springs, Kentucky, in which green rebels with old-style muskets battle freezing rain as well as their northern enemy; and an all-cavalry Texan brigade confronting union regulars and green New Mexican volunteers at Valverde in the distant western territories.
5 — Interceptor Ace, Vol. 2: Last of the Luftwaffe, 1944-1945
Interceptor Ace, Volume 2: Last Days of the Luftwaffe, 1944-1945, designed by Fernando Sola Ramos, is a solitaire, tactical level game which places you in command of a German day fighter during the last days of World War II. This is the sequel to the popular, action-packed Interceptor Ace 1943-44, designed by Gregory M. Smith, and picks up the action where Interceptor Ace 1943-44 left off.
Each turn consists of several days, during which a combat mission will be flown from one of many bases in Europe, attempting to intercept incoming American Bombers and defend from their escorts. There is a strong narrative around the pilot, as you look to increase your prestige, earn skills, and rise in rank through promotion and receive awards.
While the objective of Last of the Luftwaffe is to conduct numerous sorties in the role of a German interceptor pilot and rack up kills, players will find it extremely challenging to survive the entire war, and will experience the brutal nature of the air war over Germany in 1944-45. Pilots may use the experience gained to improve their odds of success by purchasing skills. As their prestige increases, they may request a transfer to other fighter bases in an attempt to get “closer to the action, request a newer type of fighter or even become an elite jet fighter pilot. Awards and ace status help to narrate the player’s eventual goal – to become one of the Top Guns of the Luftwaffe and survive the war.
[ Check out Volume 1 of Interceptor Ace here ]
Do you have what it takes to become the Top Ace of the Luftwaffe while flying the advanced Me 262 jet fighter, the futuristic Go 229 Flying Wing, or the dreaded Me 163 Komet rocket fighter?
