~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Fine Games for Players & Collectors | | now located at: 2078 Madrona St., North Bend, OR 97459-2143 USA | ~~~~~~~~ 541-756-4711 866-690-7879 M.Dean@FineGames.com ~~~~ Update #6 16 Dec. '95 HO, HO, HO, MERRY CHRISTMAS! WELCOME once again to another Fine Games electronic newsletter.These updates contain news and other info of interest to active board gamers and collectors. They also explain how you can download copies of any of the many Fine Games' online catalogs at your convenience. C O N T E N T S Fine Games NEWS .......... What's going on at Fine Games - FTP Site Updated 12/16 ~ Clearance '95 & New Game List - DISCOVER Card Now Accepted - Envoy WYSIWYG Viewing Status - Email Address Correction NEW Games ................ Newly released games Pending Releases A Recommendation End-of-the-Year SPECIALS . Great Games, Great Prices! INDUSTRY NEWS ........... S&Ts going OoP in 6 months Price Increases Expected CARD Games ............... Eagles: Waterloo Available How to Order ONLINE CATALOG ACCESS .... FTP Q & A Using a WWW Browser to Access Your SUGGESTIONS ......... Suggested Improvements Welcomed F I N E G A M E S N E W S My online catalogs were updated today (12/16). These are now up to date, including the New Game listing. Please note that I have changed the name of the primary read-me file to "_readme.txt". In particular, the 1995 CLEARANCE LIST was revised; I've added a number of additional items. This list is good thru the end of the year. DISCOVER Card, in addition to Visa/MC, are now accepted as payment. As before, the loss of the cash (check/MO) discount adds 3.1% to the total. WYSIWYG CATALOG VIEWING Status: Early 'beta' tests using the Envoy viewer to provide What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get catalogs had mixed results. The number of purely procedural problems related to downloading is daunting. And clearly I need to design report formats for on-screen viewing (rather than printing). So this project will remain in 'test' mode for the moment. You are welcome to make use of the Envoy files in the meantime. * Military Book Catalog * Clearance Sale '95 Catalog * Magazine-Only Availability & Price List * New Games Catalog * Master Used/Out-of-Print Catalog * Parts Catalog FYI, my email address is simply "M.Dean@FineGames.com". Previously, it was "m.dean@genie.geis.com". Both will work, but if you're using the older address, please update it as soon as you can. Along the same lines, you might consider creating an 'email change of address' listing for than moment when you disappear from the map without a trace... N E W G A M E S Here's the list of new items to date (see also Card Games, below): Microprose Machiavelli $24.50 This game was described in the last issue. However, it was incorrectly identified as an AH game. Maybe I thought that AH was making a smart marketing move by (for a change) releaseing a board game AND a computer game at the same time. Foolish me. AH London Burning $24.50 AH's game of Operation Sealion. Not yet released, but it looks like this one will be out shortly. Really. No, REALLY! Avalance Blood on the Snow $14.70 The battle of Soumussalami in which a scratch Finish division holds off & ultimately defeats two tank-reinforced Soviet Inf. divisions. A bargain at this price, IMO. Avalance Red Parachutes $26.60 Battalion lvl gm of the Soviet attempt to capture the Dnepr River crossings before the Germans could retreat & form a secure line thru a mass para drop. Clash of Arms Kings War $25.20 Strategic lvl game of the 4 years of the 1st English Civil War, 1642-6. By Charles Vasey; likely to be quite good. Columbia Games Eagles: Waterloo $6.30/deck of 60 See CARD GAMES below for a full description. Decision Games Lords of Sierra Madre, 2nd $35 Graphic update & tweak of this popular 2-8 player game of empire building in turn of the century SW US & N. Mexico. Economics, diplomacy, armies, assassins, events, what more could you want? (See special offer below) '45 Scottish Revolt $21 Emperor's First Battles $21 Thirty Years War Quad, 2nd $21 No further info avail; games due next week. Germania #175 $11.90 Wars on Rome's German Frontier using the Trajan system. Games USA Eagles of Empire: Friedlund 1806 $24.50 Grand tactical gm of the battle of Friedlund using area movement & the EoE system. Wizards of the Coast RoboRally, 2nd $28.00 RoboRally, 2nd: Armed & Dangerous Kit $21.00 RR is an interested 2-8 player demo derby between robots armed to the teath with varying capabilities negotiating a maze. Armed & Dangerous adds new capabilities & factory floors (mazes). WWW To the Far Shore $28.00 Spitfire $23.10 WWW Lives!?! Beyond that, no info available. XTR Rommel at Gazala / Death & Destruction #34 $24.50 Small game of the Gazala battles, together with addtl rules , a small map & many counters to extend Proud Monster into 1944. Mason-Dixon #35 (due out this week) $22.40 ?? Two what-if games premised on the South surviving the Am. Civil War. The following games are expected with the month. Prices are tentative until the game is release, of course. CofA Zorndorf: Warriors of Holy Russia $30.80 Command at Sea: Supermarina $35.00 GMT Invasion: Norway $25.20 Glory (Am Civil War) $25.20 A couple of disappointments to note, too. SMS GOEBEN by Avalanche has been postponed until April. Decision Games revision of the DESERT FOX duo has been delayed till February. AH's summer'95 release of GLOBAL SURVIVAL has been delayed yet again until January (at the earliest). GRD's series of reprints and releases continue to be delayed. WAR IN THE DESERT is now expected in February. SECOND FRONT & FIRST TO FIGHT may arrive just before or after this. But winning the Vaporware Award is Pacific Rim's ROAD TO BERLIN, due Spt'94! By the way, where is my Grenadier #36, or my Counterattack #5?? West End Games appears to have dropped any plans to reprint the several popular multiplayer games they once published including IMPERIUM ROMANUM II, KINGS & THINGS, JUNTA as well as their famous counter trays. Call 'em at 717-253-6990 to let them know these ARE worth a reprint. A CHRISTMAS RECOMMENDATION: Another new game, ONCE UPON A TIME, 2nd (Atlas Games, $11.20), came to my attention recently. This game is a small card game in which players tell stories when they play their cards. Other plays try to steal the story by playing their cards. With the 2nd ed, the cards are very nicely illustrated. The first player to play all his/her cards, ending with a 'happy ending' card, wins. While I haven't played it, nor was I able to obtain copies before XMas, this game looks like a really nice family game. It would be especially good with children. Look for it! E N D O F T H E Y E A R S P E C I A L S ! I've selected a handful of games that I believe deserve your attention. And cut the price (for items ordered AND shipped by 31 Dec). You can't go wrong on any of these. Plus, I can ship immediately upon payment, so you can have these just after--maybe even by--Christmas. AWE Europa Universalis $50.00 til 31 Dec This is the MOST BEAUTIFUL GAME I've ever seen. But, since its made in France, I couldn't get if for resale. Until now. The subject is 300 years of exploration, explotation & warfare in both the New World & Olde. For up to 6 players. (An expansion kit is currently out of print & due back next summer.) [Plenty in stock.] AH Machiavelli, 2nd $22 til 31 Dec Graphic update to the board & a streamlined system make this a fun, if treacherous, multiplayer game of Italian unification. [2 copies] ASL Solo $22 til 31 Dec Solitaire ASL. What 'fun'! [2 copies] DecGms Lords of Sierra Madres $32 til 31 Dec See description above in New Releases. [1 copy] Gamers Tunisia $27 til 31 Dec Tense & wild game of the Tunisian campaign, start to finish, operational level. Deserves Game of the Year, IMO. [2 copies] Yom Kippur $20 til 31 Dec Simpler op lvl gm of the Egyptian attack along the Suez, Oct.73. Good Game. [2 copies] GMT Typhoon! Drive on Moscow 1941 $29 til 31 Dec Detailed rgt lvl game of the two pincer attack on Moscow during the desparate days of Fall'41. Designed by V.von Borries. [1 copy] 3 Days of Gettysburg $38 til 31 Dec 3rd edition of Terrible Swift Sword. Further refinements and a rethinking of the leadership system. Still a clean, very enjoyable game. [2 copies] SPQR 2nd Complete Set $72.80 till 31Dec SPQR, 2nd (which is Out of Print), plus all 4 modules. Great Battles series game of Roman tactical warfare. [1 set] Alexander Deluxe Set $44.00 till 31Dec Great Btls of Alex plus Diadochi. Lush game of tactical warfare in Alexander's era. [1 set] SimTac Los Araphiles: Wellington @ Salamanca $65.00 till 31Dec Nicely produced & designed gm in the La Bataille system, with clean(er) rules. This game is back from being OoP. [plenty of copies] Supremacy Supremacy, 3rd $33.00 til 31 Dec 2-6 player game of intl trade, diplomacy, & star wars w/ an inexplicable cult following. Infinitely expandable w/ the many kits avail. [1 copy] ADG World in Flames Master Set $110.00 till 31Dec The whole thing...doesn't come with the time to play it! WIF 5th; Planes, Ships, Mech, Asia & Africa in Flames kits, plus '95 Annual. (Doesn't include Fatal Alliances kit, Days of Decision or '92 Annual.) [1 set] I N D U S T R Y N E W S Print runs of Decision Games' STRATEGY & TACTICS now barely exceed the number needed for subscriptions & initial distributor orders. Thus, most issues are going out of print within 6 months of release. Issues #168 thru 173 (with the exception of #172) are all out of print. #174, which has been out only since August & covers a relatively obscure subject (Indo-Pakistani Wars), is about to go as well. Be advised. Also, the rapid increase in anything having to do with paper will likely result in higher prices across the board for many game manufacturers. Paper, for instance, has increased in price by up to 50%. The Gamers had such an increase in November. I anticipate others following suite with varying degrees of advance notice thruout 1996. Again, be advised. C A R D G A M E S Columbia Games has released its card game of Waterloo, EAGLES: WATERLOO. Basically an elaboration of the DIXIE game system, this card game allows playing of each of the 4 major battles of the Waterloo campaign (plus roll-your-owns, of course). There are 300 distinct cards; each has 3 border color variations. 10% are gold, 30% silver, and 60% bronze, clearly targeting the collectors market. (Don't ya love it...?) EAGLES is available by the deck for $6.30, or the box of 12 for $75.60. 5 or more decks counts as a boxed game for shipping purposes. My NEW game catalogs (New_Gms.txt & New_Gms1.txt) on my FTP site now include a listing of the available Magic, Star Wars and Star Trek card games. Few are available as stock items. Most can be obtained within 2-4 weeks with a prepaid order. For example, Star Trek Unlimited, decks & boosters, available NOW Star Wars Limited, decks & boosters, avail Jan ?? Echelons of Fury / Fire, 2nd, decks/boosters of both avail NOW Magic 4th ed, decks & boosters, avail Jan w/ adv order Ice Age, decks & boosters, avail Jan w/ adv order Please contact me if you're interested in purchasing BOX quantities of any of these collectable card games. F T P S I T E An ever wider variety of catalogs is available to you online at my FTP site. Look for the "_readme.txt" file at the following address: ftp.FineGames.com/pub/vendors/finegms/ In particular, you may wish to download the "all_cats.zip" file (450k) which contains a copy of ALL my catalogs. Also, if you haven't noticed it, there are specialized catalogs that list (1) only newly-listed used/out-of-print games, (2) family & sports games, (3) solitaire games, (4) mulitiplayer games, and (5) games sorted by publisher (rather than historical era). F T P Q U E S T I O N S & A N S W E R S I'm happy to attempt to solve FTP-related problems. But keep these points in mind especially when using any text-based FTP tools: * If your FTP program looses its connection prematurely, try setting your program's time-out threshold to at least 60 seconds. Or try contacting the site at times OTHER THAN evening hours PST. * My FTP site, like most, is CASE SENSITIVE. Use lower case letters unless a directory listing shows the use of upper case letters. * Most FTP sites use a FORWARD slash ("/") rather than the backslash ("\") that DOS users are familiar with in path statements. * Signon via Anonymous FTP. That is, signon with an account name of "anonymous" and a password which is your actual, complete email address. * Use a BINARY TRANSFER mode when copying ZIPped files of any sort. You can use BINARY or ASCII transfers with TXT (text) files. * You must use the current version of PKZIP to UNZIP compressed files. The current version is 2.04g. Earlier versions probably won't work. U S I N G A W W W B R O W S E R WWW BROWSERS such as NetScape can access these files using the path given above. Just enter the URL "ftp://ftp.FineGames.com/pub/vendors/finegms/". This will provide a menu of of available files. Point to any TEXT (.txt) file to read it. Or use your browswer's LOAD TO DISK option to download any file to your hard disk directly. Y O U R S U G G E S T I O N S YOUR SUGGESTIONS that help me improve the service I provide to you via this Update or in any other way are greatly appreciated. Michael Dean Fine Games for Players & Collectors