World War Two for Everyone!

If you look at which war game subjects seem to sell the most, World War Two wins by a landslide. It was the last global war fought with conventional weapons and using recognizable modern weaponry, tactics and strategies. It involved many many nations and was a true crusade against evil and those that truly wanted to dominate the world. It created out modern world in so many ways. The generation that fought that war is passing way quickly, but the battles they fought and the struggles they went through are well-remembered and we hope are never forgotten.

This being so, Power Play Games is developing a game of World War Two.  In my personal gaming experience so many table-top games are either too abstract or too complex. Often they are too tactical or too strategic in scope. While it's a blast to be able to jump into the shoes of a squad leader or a battalion commander, sometimes it would be fun to play an entire operation of the war, such as the Invasion of France in 1940, or Sicily or the entire Normandy invasion. It would also be nice to have a game that can allow players to experience World War Two at both Operational level and Battalion level and everything in-between without any major complexity and still simulate the battles as closely as possible. It would be nice to be able to sit down and play a major battle or operation in an evening in a casual manner. It would be nice to be able to play almost any historical battle and even create hypothetical ones or completely abstract and fictional ones! And finally, it would be nice to be able to play the game with your 12-year old son or another adult or with someone who isn't necessarily history-savy. It would be nice if even a grognard (someone who is very serious about historical accuracy) could enjoy the game.

Looking around at the marketplace, I realized that there simply were no such table-top board games available like this anywhere. So Storm of Steel is that game. I decided that it was time to create such a game experience. Here's a list of things that I determined had to be included in such a game:

• Playable for ages 12 and up
• Play historical battles at operational down to battalion level
• Simple and streamlined combat mechanic
• Historical battles play as close to history as possible
• Flexibility to play any battle
• Some team play allowing more than two players and simulation the difficulty of the alliance system
• Simple streamlined combat mechanic anyone can understand
• Flexible hex-based game board
• A good balance between historical accuracy, simplicity and fun
• Heavy re-playability
• Modest playing times
• Allow players to use historical World War Two battle tactics and strategies
• Allowance for completely random or fictional battles
• Ability to simulate historically-hypothetical battles (Sea Lion, Isabella, Calais, etc.)
• Allow some randomness using event cards and dice
• Some "fog-of-war"
• Great history teaching tool
• Modest price
• Casual and serious players can both enjoy!

While the game is only in early stages of development we feel that this game will develop quickly and be on the market soon. We are targeting summer 2014 for release. Hopefully so!