The Naval Way of War Pack

Three ziplock games from ATO and TPS for a great price!

Each game in the Naval Way of War package provides insight into key moments that changed history and alternative approaches. The Invincible Armada lets you explore ideas on what the world would look like today had the Armada succeeded. There Must Be a Victory lets you play just the decisive battle or the entire campaign. And Sea Monsters includes four distinct games modeling naval actions from the late 19th Century up through WW1 and WW2. Plus magazine articles that make the games come alive and provide good starting points for further study.

What a great way to introduce yourself (or a friend) to ATO and TPS games, or catch up on releases you've been meaning to get. A price like this is almost "buy 2, get one free." Don't miss it!

The Invincible Armada

It is hard to imagine what the world would look like today had the Armada succeeded. And yet, looking at the planning and logistics, it is also hard to imagine that the project could ever have succeeded... or hard to imagine it succeeding unless Spanish King Phillip II was correct, when he said they proceeded "in the confident hope of a miracle."

Author and award-winning Game Designer Mark McLaughlin brings us a look at the Armada situation with genuinely break-through mechanics. Players will use both a Strategic and a Tactical map. There are very few physical counters in play but many information chits and dozens of "Event Chits" that influence play. The game allows players to examine different operational plans, and includes a series of optional rules that highlight how various historical changes could have tipped the balance either way.

The Invincible Armada includes:

There Must Be a Victory

Sailing ships with broadsides - the last vestige of "wooden ships and iron men."

They mingle in a fleet action with iron-plated steamships, speedy armored rams, and a few ships with armored turrets.

Mobile Bay? Charleston?

No, it's the Adriatic, in a short and violent naval war between Italy and Austria-Hungary. Yes, you heard right. Finally, you'll have a chance to see the Austro-Hungarian navy in action. Historically, they did very well. How will you do?

The "Seven Weeks War" of 1866 is also known as the Third Italian Independence War. The Italians want Venice. The Austrians have it. But the Italians are allied with up-and-coming Prussia, and the Austrians have a hard time on land. On the Adriatic, the Austo-Hungarian fleet is outnumbered and outgunned, more to 2-1 in both categories. But they have aggressive commanders and a willingness to "Ram anything painted grey!" That was the signal from the Austro-Hungarian flagship (the Italians would be the folks with gray ships). The same signal included the sentence, "There must be a victory at Lissa."

There Must Be a Victory and issue #26 of ATO

Maps - One 22"x34" tactical map and one 11" x 17" full color fleet operations map
Counters - Over 200 full color 1/2", 5/8" and 1" x 1/2" die-cut pieces
Rules length - 12 pages
Charts and tables - 2 pages
Complexity - Medium
Solitaire suitability - Average
Playing time - Up to 6 hours

Design - Paul Rohrbaugh
Development - Lembit Tohver
Graphic Design - Craig Grando

Sea Monsters

To face monstrous ships at sea, possibly harboring radical technologies, can make any sailor's blood run cold. The 4 games in this issue feature designers who have drawn on their own nautical fears and fascinations to explore what really (or could have) happened....

Iron and Fire is a moderate level complexity game covering the battles fought by the Peruvian Ironclad Huáscar during the 1879 War of the Pacific against Chile. It outclassed everything it met but there was only one (think of the SF classic, Ogre, but on the waters this time).

First Strike looks at, well, the "first strike" by British naval aircraft. This solitaire game examines the events of Christmas Day, 1914, when float planes were brought near the German port of Cuxhaven by the earliest "seaplane tenders" and turned loose. Formally an "air reconnaissance" by planes looking for Zeppelin sheds, they just also happened to be carrying bombs and the rest is history.

Under Ten Flags starts early in 1939 when the German merchant raider Atlantis made its way into the South Atlantic to sink and capture Allied cargo vessels. Its crew used their skill in disguising the appearance of the vessel to aid its encounters or avoid enemy warships. The journey of the raider Atlantis lasted for over 600 days and traveled over 100,000 miles.

XXI is a solitaire game set in 1943 that challenges the player (acting as both Speer and Dönitz) to organize and complete construction of a fleet (or at least “enough”) of the new German Type XXI submarine. However this new sub is far larger, more complex and more expensive, and requires much more manpower and scarce resources than previous submarines. Just a few of these new Type XXIs will do nothing. Can you enable this “wonder weapon” to arrive in time....

Sea Monsters! and the 2018 ATO Magazine Annual

Maps - Six full color assorted hex and PtP mapsheets
Counters - 420 full color die-cut counters
Rules length - From 8 to 12 pages each
Charts and tables - 4
Complexity - Medium
Playing time - Varies by title, from 2 to 4 hours per game
How challenging is it solitaire? - Varies by title, Excellent to Poor

Designers - Paul Rohrbaugh, Steve Cunliffe, and Paul Stuhlfaut,
Development - Russ Lockwood
Graphic Design - Mark Mahaffey

See a larger image of The Invincible Armada graphics above.

See more There Must Be a Victory game graphics.