1960: The Making of the President (GMT Edition): 643 Orders to Date Enemy Coast Ahead: The Doolittle Raid: 485 Orders to Date

  

In this section, we'll be passing along updated status on a variety of projects, generally direct from the designers or developers. We have several this time:

At Any Cost: Metz 1870 -  Hermann Luttmann

The game has entered a second round of playtesting via Vassal and Sun Tzu modules with a great group of testers. The delay to this point has been my re-design of the game system to a more streamlined approach, closer to what I originally envisioned for the game from the start. So far, the feedback has been 100% positive on the new "look" and that has been very encouraging. This has revitalized my effort to get this game done by mid-summer and we will work hard to meet that goal. At Any Cost is a unique look at the Franco-Prussian War battlefield and we hope that you'll be as intrigued by the situation as we have while designing and playing the game. 

 

-----------

Hammerin' Sickles: Longstreet Attacks at Gettysburg - Hermann Luttmann

The further development of the game has been somewhat curtailed by my need to concentrate on re-designing At Any Cost. However, because Hammerin' Sickles is the big brother to Stonewall's Sword and the upcoming Thunder in the Ozarks, development work and feedback from those two games has automatically been incorporated into Hammerin' Sickles. Thankfully, Stonewall's Sword has been very well received and has developed an increasing and loyal group of supporters who appreciate the "chaotic battlefield" approach of the Blind Sword system. They are eager to see (and assist with) the publication of Hammerin' Sickles. As such, I plan to finish the game by the end of the summer and will dedicate the next months to doing just that.

 

Thanks again for all the P500 support for both of our projects! Fred Manzo and I will do our best to make sure these are fun, accessible, historically accurate and challenging games.

----------

Colonial Twilight -  Brian Train

Playtesting continues, and the testers are reporting a wide variety of game results. This game appears to be tough for either side to win, which I think is a good thing.

We are working through the many final tweaks, corrections and clarifications required so that the rules, playbook, player aids and Event Cards all say the same thing.

Under Mark Simonitch's direction, Chechu Nieto has come up with another stunning map, and Charlie Kibler is now working on the Event Cards.

----------

Labyrinth: The Awakening - Trevor Bender

(From last week) Mark Simonitch has sent the Rule Book and Player Aid Cards to a GMT Proofreader and we expect that review to conclude this week, then we go pens-down on any future edits on 16 May, then it's off to the printer for the Labyrinth: Awakening expansion.

 

Trevor

----------

Wing Leader -  Lee Brimmicombe-Wood (BGG)

It's been a busy month on Wing Leader.

(1) We are producing new scenarios and counters for the next C3i magazine. These will allow us to do two things:

(a) Have scenarios featuring Helldivers and Avengers together. As the Avenger features in the first volume there's been no opportunity to link it up with the Helldiver in the second.

(b) Make counters for some of the new carrier aircraft in British colours. We will have Royal Navy schemes for the Avenger, Hellcat and Corsair. Be still, my beating heart!

(2) Work has been completed on new surface target counters. A problem I have is that we have lots of surface targets and not enough countersheet space. I've managed to cram almost everything in, partly by the expedient of putting targets on the reverse of balloon and barrage markers, but space is tight. Some targets, such as Japanese super-battleships, will not be making it.

(3) On the aircraft art, Ian Wedge has almost completed all his portion of the art. I am, at the time of writing, just waiting on delivery of the B-25 and MC.205V artwork. For my part, I'm cleaning up my master art--mostly adjusting some of the modelling work on the images, before I begin generating the alternate colour schemes. My aim is to have the variant art done by July and I'm currently on track.

(4) No major rules changes this month but a there have been a small number of rules text fixes. The rulebook is looking pretty solid right now.

(5) I've finally got a date for my final surgery--the beginning of June. This is significantly less violent than my surgery last November, so nothing to worry about, but it will take me out for a while--maybe a week or two. I'm hoping it won't affect any of the work on the game.

(6) In short, there's nothing to make me amend my assessment of delivery for September for a 4th quarter release. Though the decision to go to print is very much in GMT's hands. The pre-orders are a fraction lower than I'd like at this stage of the game. (I hoped they'd be at least a hundred higher). We'll see how things pan out over the summer, as people hopefully get to see the game played over the convention season. Anything youse guys could do to help with that--such as arranging demo games--would be welcome.

Lee

----------

Cactus Air Force -  Terry Simo

This has been a very hard project to work on from one standpoint only and that is time!   

Researching this game has been a great experience as I learn something new about the campaign every time I open a new book on the subject.   I was mistaken on a few counts when I began this project; first being that being retired from military and starting a new job would free up more time to design but that has not been the case as I've had less time due to new job and the second being how quickly this would hit its P500 numbers which put me about 2 yrs behind the power curve to begin with as this is a brand new game engine - time goes by so quickly.   Solitaire designs are not as easy to design as people may think as getting the Japanese forces to mimic some level of realism is not as easy as one might imagine.   

Anyhow, enough whining so here is where we stand.   I have finished the layout of the cards for the 1st Campaign  Aug-Sep 30 1942 and am proceeding with 2nd Campaign  Oct 1 - Nov 15 1942.   Once those layouts and cards are done I will begin the final phase of development and testing.   Map is pretty much finalized for what I want on it and rulebook with be finalized after the cards are done.   I will have to wait on my incredible aviation artist Ian Wedge to catch up on artwork but that isn't a big limfac.   

While I'd like to say the game can be completed by this fall, I cannot predict how much time I can devote to it over the summer. But progress is being made, albeit slow and steady.   Now that Eagle of Lille has been published (Expansion to Bloody April), I am now devoting all my game design efforts to Cactus Air Force.   Thanks again to all the encouraging words and support for the game!

Terry Simo

------------

Mr. President -  Gene Billingsley

 

I've only had a few days to devote to  Mr. President since last month's update, but in that time, I have made one significant improvement to the design.

I've replaced the old top down turn sequence with an interactive sequence, where you get to plan and choose your own actions but you never know when or in what order the actions of the world will come at you. It's a mix of a chit-draw mechanic (for all the events you don't have some measure of control over) and a resource-based selection mechanic (for your own actions) that is working really well so far. It also replaces the old "draw three Crisis Cards" mechanic with something much more unpredictable, so you never know how much will be thrown at you, as well (although there ARE governors across a turn so players aren't completely overwhelmed). I love the additional interaction and uncertainty we're getting with this evolution to the system.

The demo at the GMT Weekend at the Warehouse went really well, and the players who participated all said they felt drawn into the evolving story the game created. That was (is) Job #1 for me, so that was gratifying feedback. I have to say, that one aspect of the game was skewed a bit in that NONE of us could roll good intel results to save our lives! So the Middle East, especially, got to be a bit of a "free trade zone" for terror. I learned a few things from the test, and have a dozen or so items to look at and tighten up as a result. Thanks to those guys who played and gave me feedback at the Weekend - it really helps!

This month has been mostly travel and medical procedure recovery for me thus far, so there hasn't really been much time or focus for a lot of design work. I have several reading projects slated for the rest of the month as I look to further flesh out key elements of the game and tie them to the real world.

I'll get back to InsideGMT articles once I get "hard at it" on the design again. - Gene

Here's the current status of all the games on our P500 reprint list. Please help us determine what to print by pre-ordering any of these that interest you (you can click on the name link below to go to the P500 reprint page). Thanks for your help. Here's the current P500 Reprint list - with current order totals and a +/- order growth since last month: