Monty's D-Day

This month brings news of a special promotion from ATO that I’ll get into a bit further down in this newsletter.

First up, a checkpoint. Issue #45 of ATO was mailed at the end of April. Every subscriber should have received their copy by now. If you didn’t, contact us at admin@atomagazine.com and we’ll investigate.

Missed the last issue you say? You could call it the "Gettysburg of the Chinese Civil War" but it was more like three Stalingrads, plus Destruction of Army Group Center...rolled into one!

Yes, Red Dragon, Blue Dragon in ATO #45 brings gamers face to face with the series of battles after WW II that finally tipped the balance of power towards a Chinese Communist victory.

Also in issue #45, if you enjoyed the article on 1930s air racing and its impact on WW2 air technology, we have an item you’ll enjoy. By special arrangement with High Flying Dice Games, you can also choose to pick up a ziplock copy of their exciting air race game, September's Eagles by substituting it for any of ATO’s BIG PICK 2 SPECIAL OFFER items listed there. Use the same procedure to order September's Eagles in place of one of our own magazines.

   

What’s next? ATO Magazine issue #46 is at the printers and features No Middle Ground by Paul Rohrbaugh. No Middle Ground covers the most decisive actions on the northern front of the 1973 Arab-Israeli Conflict, from the opening Syrian surprise attack to the devastating Israeli counterstroke.

The interactive, chit-pull formation activation recreates the chaos of battle while still allowing players to deploy and fight their armies. There’s still time to subscribe or re-subscribe to get this one!

After that, our Annual edition gets released. This one looks at why, exactly, did France fall in 1940? "Four Roads to Paris" in this year's ATO Annual edition features four top designers all tasked with diving deeply into the campaign and answering that very question. They’ve each settled on a single overriding theme to focus on. Yes, here is an issue not just featuring a game or two, but four complete simulations that provide hours and hours of challenging play and comparison. Let's look at the designers and their games.

Steven Cunliffe with "Strange Victory" - A solitaire design, this game illustrates how the smaller but nimbler Germans got "inside" the Allied decision cycle to constantly impose small delays and major "rethinks" producing a catastrophic failure on the Allied side - though the better the Germans do may well panic their own High Command into halting them.

Michael Rinella with "Springtime for Hitler" - Explores the angle that the Germans at this time were quite simply at the top of their game. Possessing the best tactical airforce, the best plans and doctrine, and well motivated by National-Socialist ideology, they were unstoppable. Or were they?

John Prados with "The Seeds of Disaster" - Examines how pre-war plans and on-going intelligence and counter-intelligence efforts, deceit and deception, and foolishly projecting one's own motives on the enemy were THE key factors in explaining what happened in 1940.

Roger Nord with "Betrayal!" - The most unusual of the four games, the two players are Britain and France respectively, nominally allies, against an automata German player governed by the game system. Did the French do themselves in by folding up early on? Or were they also done in by their British allies choosing to bug out early without informing their "hosts" and refusing any extra help, instead husbanding their resources for defense of Great Britain? Both players may cooperate to win, but absolutely must position themselves to secure their national interests if France does fall.

"Four Roads to Paris" offers four complete simulations that will provide hours of challenging play and comparison. And as always, the Annual features an "extra-size" magazine, with an in-depth look at the history behind the games, plus other articles. Make yourself the proud owner of this challenging look at the campaign that shocked the West.

Don’t miss it!

And about that special offer...




This month marks the 75th anniversary of the start of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s invasion of Russia. An undertaking designed to bring WW2 to a successful (German) close in just 3 months, just why did it fail? Find out with the 2010 ATO Annual edition which includes four different games by four veteran designers, but all on the same topic, Operation Barbarossa. Each designer looks hard at the reasons behind Barbarossa's successes and failures. Plus, this month only, we’re offering a special deal on this remarkable "4 pack" of games on the subject. Yes, get your copy with upgraded commemorative components including”

· Addenda counters for all 4 Barbarossa games in the package

· Expansion rules, revised score sheet and counters for Codeword: Barbarossa

·  A set of 47 high-quality playing cards for Codeword: Barbarossa

Or, get the above items as a "update kit" only with purchase. Click on the banner or cards image or here to learn more!

No funky promotion codes to enter — make the purchase — you get the goodies!

Plus, grab an extra Pocket Battle Game on your way out during checkout! What's not to like?

Thanks for reading!

Steve Rawling, Publisher, Against the Odds Magazine