The CONRAILS system is driven by the literarily colorful decks of cards, from the 24 different rail companies, to Special War cards, to Events, including Collapsing Bridges, unruly Partisans, Cotton embargos, Train Seizures, even Collisions! And, of course the various, historical cargo loads, from Troops to Passengers, from Hogs to shoes ... practically anything that got moved around during the war.
     Each game of CONFEDERATE RAILS includes Rules/Charts, Extensive Historical Background, one sheet of Mike Lemick designed cut-and-paste counters, a marvelous 32" x 21" Bill Ramsay, computer-drawn map (in 4 sections), 165 cards on 17 heavy stock sheets, and enough Confederate Money to bribe a Louisiana governor.

     Richard Berg is to Wargames what Reiner Knizia is to German games and he's been doing it a lot longer

AIRSHIPS AT WAR
a promo piece by Phil Eklund

     Announcing the latest Sierra Madre Game: AIRSHIPS AT WAR, 1914-1941.
     In the 1920's and 1930's, America experimented with Zeppelins that could carry aircraft. The 1921 Naval Treaty severely restricted the naval tonnage that could be produced, but Zeppelins, literally weightless, did not count against these limits.
     A Zeppelin employed as a long distance scout over the Pacific would run grave risk of destruction soon after contact with the enemy fleet, but nevertheless should be able to provide valuable information. Operating three times the speed of a cruiser, and with a range many times that of any airplane, Zeppelin screens could allow the Pacific Fleet to operate in security and relieve its eight cruisers of scouting duty. Alternatively, Zeppelins could operate in the Northwest, to watch for Japanese flanking action from their home islands or Formosa. As the cost of a ZRS4/5 type airship was about equal to a destroyer of that period, the Zeppelin seemed worthy of the cost and risk of development.
     The U.S. and Japan were the second and third largest fleets in the world after the U.K. Both Pacific powers sought to modernize their limited fleet through the use of naval aviation tactics to accommodate the vast Pacific distances. In 1922 each had their first aircraft carrier deployed in the Pacific. Japanese innovations included the first fighter specifically designed for carrier operations (Mitsubishi 1MF) the first monoplane carrier fighter (Mitsubishi A5M1 "Claude"), the first catapult-equipped seaplane tenders (IJN Notoro), advanced dual purpose 5 inch AA guns, and giant long range flying boats (Kawasaki H6K4 "Mavis").
     American innovations included parasitic "skyhook" aircraft that could be launched and recovered on "trapeze" cranes deployed from the belly of a Zeppelin. The ZRS4/5 airships could carry five biplanes. The ZRCV class airship could carry eight skyhook dive-bombers plus two fighters. (This project was cancelled after the crash of the Macon airship.)
     AIRSHIPS AT WAR pits USN flying aircraft carriers against Japanese naval innovations in hypothetical Plan Orange conflicts set from 1923 to 1941. It is played either solitaire or two player. It includes detailed illustrations and specifications for 33 IJN ships, 4 USN airships, and 28 aircraft. Rules cover subcloud cars, helium, water recovery condensers, dive and torpedo bombing, and naval rescues. Included in the game is LUFTSCHIFF, a solitaire game of airships during the Great War, with another 5 airships, 18 ships, 24 aeroplanes. If you already own LUFTSCHIFF, ZRCV may be purchased as a separate expansion.

     Phil Eklund designs games and runs Sierra Madre Games

FALLSCHIRMJAEGER
a review by Peter McCord

     The newest "Standard Combat Series" or SCS game from the Gamers is called FALLSCHIRMJAEGER (FJ), and it features the German combined airborne, air landing and ground assault on the Netherlands in 1940. FJ has one map and 560 counters. The game scale is 1km per hex, 3 turns per day and the units are mostly companies, except for the German assault paratroopers which are broken down into platoons, which sounds cool, but once you play you'll quickly wish they dropped as companies. The rules are short, the SCS rules are barely 6 pages, and the special rules for FJ are barely 7 pages. The game's graphics are very similar to many other Gamers games, you either love it or not, but at the very least the graphics are functional, clear, and facilitate play very well. I like the look

of this game a lot, both the maps and the counters are excellent for my tastes.
     The Game: the Dutch are stuck most unfortunately in their historical deployments, this was after all a surprise attack. Even so, the German player will have a very tough time matching even their historical progress. The game ends on the morning of May 14 (turn 15), by which time the Germans had only cleared a small portion of Rotterdam near the bridges. The Dutch have artillery, anti-aircraft and yes aircraft to attack the German airborne units with, and they even get some small but not completely insignificant help from the British and French. The Dutch even have some armored cars, and some truck units which make their infantry highly mobile (let the ongoing ASL jokes about "Dutch Trucks" commence).
     Essentially, the German task is not clearly defined. You need to take bridges, airfields and other key installations (oil, the queen, the gold, etc.) and take as few casualties as possible. The Dutch need to prevent these things, cause casualties, and evacuate the Queen, their government, etc. However, there are far too may things on the map for the Germans to do attempt taking/destroying them all, and so you can plan a variety of German assaults and corresponding bundles of victory points. Sounds easy right?
     What makes FJ such a great game, besides the elegant system which I'll get to in a minute, is the fact that while it feels very historically accurate, it nonetheless does not by any means guarantee any type of German success. View it if you can as the German Market-Garden, albeit one that just barely worked, as opposed to the Allied Market-Garden of 1944, which you could easily argue just barely didn't work (if you don't believe that, then why so many Market-Garden games?!). The Germans have a similar task: they are attempting to capture 3 sets of bridges over 3 rivers, entirely by airborne invasion, and they have to hold them for 2 and 1/3 days before any ground troops arrive. But the kicker is you don't have complete air superiority! The Dutch and British air forces show up, and your own air arrives only unpredictably.
     German assault units are strong and have the element of surprise, but they are brittle and can easily be whittled down to nothing by Dutch counter attacks and artillery strikes. The only real way the Germans can break up Dutch concentrations during the early turns is through air strikes, but there are never enough of these to go around. On an average turn, you'll get 7 air units to hit ground targets with, not enough to protect 3 bridges from counter attack. Your airborne troops have very few combat steps and thus very little staying power. This tightrope walk continues for 9 full game turns, the German panzers don't arrive until turn 10. The Germans can also land some stronger air landing troops of the 22LL division, these guys land directly onto airfields, which sounds good until you find out that none of the airfields are anywhere near the bridges! So the air landing game becomes a game unto itself. You take airfields to air land strong units, whose only purpose is to hold the airfield. At some point you need to find a way to get the air landing units involved in the bridge battles, and I think therein lay the key to victory, otherwise all those strong units end up as fodder or bait. In any case, the parachute units cannot hold 3 bridges for 2 days by themselves. There aren't enough of them (only 20 companies total at start, roughly 1/3rd the size of the Crete force).
     The System: the SCS "system" is very straightforward, another strength of this game. You resolve air, move, barrage, fight, check supply, exploit and clean up, and that's one player turn. The game has fluid ZOCs, so you only pay +2 to enter. Most units have 6 movement points, and are infantry type, and so it is very difficult to orchestrate an attack against enemy units that aren't within a hex or two. The SCS works very well at this almost tactical scale. You can attack across hexsides you can't move across (simulating ranged fire), albeit at half or quarter strength. Special rules, besides airdrops, include Standing Barrages, Dutch Ships, Dutch Ammo Supply, German Assault Bonus, Leaders, canals, and a lot more. The game comes with 3 scenarios, one is for learning, the other is a half-map battle, and of course the third is the full campaign game.
     As you can probably tell by now, I am quite taken with this game. To date, even though I've barely had the game for two weeks, I've already managed a large number of solo games and one two player game. Because of the wide array of German objectives, the random nature of airborne invasions (scatter), the "thinness" of the German airborne platoons and the incredibly late arriving panzers, this game has high replay value. If all you are about is winning, then take the Dutch! This is the game for players who are sick and tired of playing German dominated games, where the German player mops up the whole map and he either wins or quits before the Allies can come back. Here, the Germans are supposed to win but they have made a key mistake-they have just slightly over-reached their capabilities at this point in the war, just as the Allies did at Market-Garden four years later. The game puts the German player in the position of having to save

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