Against the Odds Magazine 2016 Holiday News

(Or gives you beautiful cards in your mailbox.)

This December marks the 75th anniversary of the Flying Tigers starting operations in WW II. What better way to remember their efforts than with a copy of our award winning Chennault's First Fight!

Chennault's First Fight (CFF) focuses on air and ground action in the opening days of the US entry to WW II, where, right after Pearl Harbor, the Flying Tigers in China were the only unit able to take the fight to the Japanese. ATO sells expanded deluxe back issues for CFF that already include one expansion. For this month, we are making that offer much sweeter.

Buy any version of Chennault's First Fight and you will receive both the Pukka Gen and the new Chennault's Fist expansions, adding more options and forces to both sides (including a planned, but never executed, pre-emptive strike by Chennault against the Japanese—sort of a Pearl Harbor in reverse).

"But I already have that game!" Okay, then just place any order (including our TPS line of games) with us and receive the two expansion kits for free. Just ask for them in the "Comments" section of the order form at check-out.

"But I'm just not into air/WW II." Okay, we'll give you another option. People have been admiring our new card decks for Beyond Waterloo, Codeword:Barbarossa, and Boudicca. Place any order and you can choose one of those decks on your way out.

Just type "CFF", "Nap", "Barb", or "Booty" in the Comments section of the order form on your way out to select your freebie.

This offer lasts through December 24. Click on the banner below to learn more.

What's upcoming? Our next release will be the Four Roads to Paris Annual

Shortly after Poland was conquered in 1939, Hitler begin urging an immediate attack in the West. The original plans were uninspiring and his generals feared an attritional stalemate. Over the winter the Germans keep taking the measure of their opponents and hit upon a plan was that inspired, risky, and utterly decisive. Ironic of Hitler to assume his remarkable success was simply the new template for all future campaigns. His eyes turned east....

But why, exactly, did France fall? This ATO Annual edition features four top designers all tasked with re-examining the 1940 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. Don’t miss it! The games inside are:

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 indeed "supermen" at the top of their game. Possessing the best tactical airforce, the best plans and doctrine, well motivated by National-Socialist ideology, and/or possibly sky high on "panzer chocolate," (Pervitin) 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 too early on? Or were they also done in by their British allies? Choosing to bug out quickly without informing their "hosts" the British then refused the French any extra help, instead husbanding their resources for defense of Great Britain.... In this game 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.

Thanks for reading!

ATO Magazine