Within this site you’ll find content that I’ve created for other games. I used to support these games more heavily, but now find myself without the time to do so. You’re free to use what you find here, with my compliments, but please do not republish any of this material without my concent. I may add items to this list down the road.

I hope you enjoy what you find!

DOWN IN FLAMES

Down In Flames is a quick playing card game simulating air-to-air combat during World War II. There are four games in the series, covering both the European and Pacific theaters. The latter games may still be available, but the former are long out of print. Below, you’ll find a couple of play aids I put together to make play a little easier and to keep track of scores during dog-fight style tournaments. I’ve also put together a set of blank fighter cards for those who want to take a stab at designing their own.

1. • Player Aid Card
   

2. • Tournament Score Card
   

3. • Blank Fighter Cards: Front / Back
   

4. • Blank Wingman Cards: Front / Back

ANCIENTS

Ancients is the precursor to the Ancients Battles Deluxe game that I’m currently working on and that has its own dedicated site above. I’m providing the huge list of scenarios previously available for download.

Click here to download the Ancients Scenario Archive.

FLAGSHIP

Flagship is a quick playing science-fiction combat game designed by Dan Verssen, who also did Down In Flames and the original version of Cold War Naval Battles. I always found it to be a neat game, but it did not do very well in the market place. To make it a little easier to play, I put together a set of damage markers (you’re supposed to use dice to track damage, but this proved too cumbersome to me). These markers are designed to be mounted two-sided, but that’s not strictly necessary.

1. • Flagship Damage Markers Front
   

2. • Flagship Damage Markers Back

PACIFIC VICTORY

Pacific Victory is Columbia's game on the World War II Pacific Theater. It uses a variation of their Victory system to provide the fog-of-war absent from all other games on that topic. Unlike most other games on the subject, the entire war can be completed in one extended sitting!

Although the game system is fairly clean, there are a few rules that are somewhat quirky. I've created a few play aids to help smooth play, which are included in two downloadable image files. For best results, these should be printed with the dimensions of 7.5" by 10" inches (preferably on a good quality color printer).

Here is a Battleboard that makes it a little easier to keep track of combat.

Here is a Production Track and some additional combat markers to help keep track of who’s attacking what and in what fashion.

HAMMER OF THE SCOTS

Hammer of the Scots is Columbia's game on the Scottish campaigns of William Wallace (aka Braveheart) and Robert the Bruce during the 13th and 14th Centuries. Like most Columbia games, it uses wooden blocks to represent the various forces in play. These blocks are placed on their side, so the units and their current strengths are hidden from the opponent, adding excellent uncertainty and fog-of-war during play.

Unlike most of Columbia's games, Hammer of the Scots doesn't include a "battleboard" where units can be organized for combat. Although not strictly necessary (the combat system is basically a simple slugfest), we thought the game could use one. The battleboard available here was conceived by blockhead extraordinaire Tony Toglia. For best effect, maximize the downloaded image on letter sized paper and print with a color printer.

Download the Battleboard

WE THE PEOPLE

We the People is Avalon Hill's second strategic level game on the American Revolution (the first being 1776), and is arguably the best simulation of the war yet published. It is also the grand-daddy of the very popular card-driven games.

Unlike other games on the topic, We the People stresses the political aspects of the American Revolution, rather than the military aspects (which were more of a means to an end in that conflict). Players struggle to convert the hearts and minds of the colonies to their side of the war through the play of strategy and event cards. Winning requires that one side have sufficient colonial support when the war ends.

As the first game of its type, it is much simpler to learn and play than its successors. However, some of the mechanics can be confusing, particularly when trying to determine political control of the various towns on the board. To help keep things clear, I created a set of player aid cards that summarize the game's initial setup, victory conditions, and the placement of political control markers.

Download the Player Aid Cards.

UP FRONT

Up Front is Avalon Hill's card game of squad-level combat. The game uses "personality" and "vehicle" cards to represent the men and equipment of the German, Russian, and American forces during WWII. Future expansions added the British and Japansese (Banzai) as well as the French and Italians (Desert War). Using an action deck of 162 cards provide the various actions and terrain usable by the squads in play. Nationality based limitations and advantages, in conjunction with a continuously changing situation provided by the action deck, more accurately simulates the fog-of-war and battlefield chaos experienced by combatants than any other game to my knowledge. It is arguably the most accurate simulation of infantry combat yet published. Although currently out-of-print, Multi-Man Publications is in the process of redeveloping  Up Front, and should be releasing it in the near future.

The antecedent of this web site is the Relative Range newsletter, which was a quarterly publication dedicated to Up Front. Sadly, it was discontinued owing to eventual lack of material. A total of ten issues were published (spanning about three years of effort). The bulk of articles printed within these issues, in addition to several other articles which were too extensive for the newsletter's format, have been consolidated into the Relative Range anthology.

An extensive Up Front website has already been created by Andrew Maly, which includes html versions of the original ten issues of the Relative Range newsletter. The link below will direct you to that excellent site. Included here are the "ghosts" of Relative Range ... notes, blurbs, and whatnot from the files that never made it into print.

Go to the Up Front web site

Andy Maly has "webified" the original ten issues of Relative Range! You can get to them by clicking here!

Below are large graphics files of variant terrain cards for Jungle and Desert terrain.

    * Download the Jungle Cards

    * Download the Desert Cards

    * Download the Oasis Markers

Here is a guide I put together a looooong time ago to determine viable opponent pairings, without having to futz with the Desert War tables.

Download a compressed .pdf file containing the Personality Cards referenced by several scenarios from the Relative Range newsletters and the Relative Range Anthology.