Two more war games with cards are on their way from GMT. Fields of Fire is a solitaire game that follows the U.S. 9th Infantry (motto “Keep Up the Fire”) through World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The game uses one deck of cards for resolving actions and separate decks of cards to build terrain maps unique to each campaign. Unhappy King Charles covers the English Civil War of the 1640s and is based on the design of the Avalon Hill classic We the People.

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If you’ve followed this site for any period of time, you’ve probably noticed that I’m pretty fond of Richard Borg’s Command & Colors system.  For those who aren’t familiar with it, the C&C system is a light-weight set of rules using customized dice that can be applied to just about any warfare scenario: including ancient warfare (C&C: Ancients), medieval fantasy warfare (BattleLore), WW2 (Memoir ‘44) and even the American Civil War (Battle Cry).  Now its very possible that many of you weren’t even aware of that last title – it was put out in 2000 by the “new” Avalon Hill (i.e. after Wizards of the Coast was acquired by Hasbro) and didn’t really generate a large following.  Over time though (particularly after the release of Memoir ‘44), people really fell in love with the C&C system and started looking for this gem, only to discover that it was not only out of print, but really hard to find.  But never fear!  The shockingly awesome folks at GameTable Online have somehow gotten the rights to this classic and have implemented an online version using their board game engine.  The game looks great and plays well and is definitely worth spending some time with!

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War for Edah by sggc Warrior Elite sounds like a very interesting confrontation game packaged into a compact card game. The game already sold out for this Christmas, but you can pre-order for after the holidays delivery. Plenty of expansion packs are also planned.

It has a clever combat mechanism, and a whole lot of optional rules (100 pages worth, but you only need to use a few of them to play). Tom Vasel gives a review.

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Summer Heights High is a popular Australian mockumetary TV series, and is now a board game.

The Summer Heights High board game is, amazingly enough, a Monopoly clone, where you buy hangouts with popularity points, and earn points from other players when they hang out in your areas.

It also comes with a free DVD trivia game.

(info)

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That’s “Friendly Local Game Store,” the brick-and-mortar kind.

Far be it from us to put down the online merchants, but if you’re shopping for gifts this holiday season, consider a visit to your local hobby retailer. Besides the satisfaction you’ll receive from supporting a local business, the FLGS may provide the opportunity to demo a game (at least handle the box up close), advice on games suitable for different occasions, space to meet new people and play games, and a source for last minute gifts or for immediate satisfaction (when you just can’t stand to track that UPS shipment as it makes its way across the country).

Dream Wizards in Rockville, Maryland is what you might call my home store. But others I’ve visited recently include Watch Tower Family Games & Comics in Hagerstown, Maryland and Borderlands Comics and Games in Jacksonville, Florida.

Tell us. What other traditional retailers would you recommend?

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Role Play Gamers can play their games and get into the Christmas spirit at the same time.   Here are some examples:

- This YouTube video is brought to us by SpikeTV.  A nativity scene is interrupted by overzealous RPGers.

- Dave Roman writes a comic strip mixing the holidays with RPGs called Holiday Story Cards.

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Cute monstrous dice bags (AKA Dice Goblins)! Each one custom designed and assembled by hand. $19.99 plus shipping.

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