FREE GAMES, SCENARIOS AND VARIANTS Here are some complete games and scenarios/variants I have designed, yours to download and use. I'd appreciate if you would send me any comments you may have, provided they are constructive and/or adulatory. (as always, I am not responsible if any of these files make your machine go **SPUNG**)

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Free Games

Scenarios and Variants

Free Game One: BATTLE OF SEATTLE (2000)

A mini-game inspired by the anti-WTO riots in Seattle November 30 - December 3, 1999. Sort of a hybrid of my Civil Power game and Joe Miranda's LA Lawless, this one has 96 counters, an 11x17" area map of downtown Seattle, and the usual 3-4 pages of rules and charts. It came together very quickly and I think you'll like it, that is if you like this sort of thing. Was published in the March 2000 issue of Strategist, the newsletter of the Strategy Gaming Society.

But hell, you can have a copy of your own right here right now! Download these files and print them out, and simulate urban mayhem at home! Beware though, the graphic quality is not as nice as the hard-copy versions I made.

Battle of Seattle files
rules and charts
Game rules and charts, in .html format.
counters
Counter images, GIF file, 28K.
map
Game map, grayscale, GIF file, 106K.

Free Game Two: PARANOID DELUSIONS (2006)

In the game, each player adopts simultaneously two roles: the Paranoid;, who represents a lone conspiracy nut; and the Enemy;, who represents a network of real or unreal groups hiding a nefarious secret.

Each Paranoid must struggle with his own weakening grasp on sanity to reveal the Groups, Methods and Goals used by the other players' Enemies. Meanwhile, the Enemies do their best to mislead the Paranoids, betray their competing plotters to them, or just drive them insane (for purposes of entertainment only, though some people do take their games much too seriously). There are two ways to win the game, and part of a winning strategy is attacking yourself!

Game files
rules
Game rules, in MS Word format, 58K.
counters
Counter images, PDF file, 58K.
player aid
Player aid, PDF file, 7K.

Free Game Three: FINNISH CIVIL WAR (2010)

FINNISH CIVIL WAR is a simulation game of the civil conflict in Finland in the early months of 1918. The game is for two players, one representing the recently elected government of the recently independent state (the White player) and the other the perhaps-irresistible forces of proletarian revolution (the Red Player). The game comes in two versions:

1) a company/battalion scale one that has 280 counters and uses a system heavily modified from my previously published games Freikorps, Konarmiya and War Plan Crimson; and
2) a brigade scale one that has 60 counters and an even more heavily modified system.

Both games use the same map (hex grid of southern Finland, at 12 map miles/ 20 km per hex). Special units and chromy bits include: variable-strength Red and White Guard units; Armored Trains; the spring thaw that occurred midway through the war; peace negotiations, German intervention and Russian withdrawal (including the Future Guilt Clause!); General Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim; German Tactical Agility; White guerrillas; and the Swedish Talent Agency. Game files

rules
Battalion-scale game rules, in RTF.
charts
Battalion-scale game charts, in RTF.
counters
Battalion-scale game counters, in colour, PDF file.
counters
Battalion-scale game counters, black and white version, PDF file.
rules
Brigade-scale game rules, in RTF.
charts
Brigade-scale game charts, in RTF.
counters
Brigade-scale game counters, colour and B&W versions, PDF file.
map
Game map common to both versions, PDF file.
Free Game Four: GUERRILLA CHECKERS (2010)

A hybrid of Checkers and Go, for two players. The "Guerrilla" player, using small Go stones, plays on the intersection points of the checkerboard squares to surround and capture the enemy pieces. Meanwhile, the "Counterinsurgent" player, using checkers, moves on the checkerboard squares to jump and capture the enemy. Equipment required: checkerboard, six checkers, and 66 small flat pieces (buttons, glass beads, small Go stones, etc.)

rules
Game rules, in RTF, 89K.
VASSAL module
Link to a VASSAL module for the game, by Joel Toppen.

Scenarios and Variants

Operation Sword o' Dubya!
A variant for my Somalia game postulating a quick American strike into that unhappy land later in 2002, looking to uproot Al-Qaeda elements there. At the end of 2001, it really looked as if Somalia was next on the list, though investigations have not supported the rumours, which looked good at the time. Anyway, try it out if you happen to have the game.
Desert Leader and Steppe Leader
Two major variants that use the rules and mapboards from Avalon Hill�s Arab-Israeli Wars game. Follow the link to the rules and scenarios. Desert Leader covers the war in the North African desert 1940-43, and includes 14 scenarios. You will need copies of Arab-Israeli Wars, Panzer Leader, and the Panzer Leader 1940 variant kit to play. Steppe Leader covers battles on the Manchurian steppe, with seven scenarios ranging from 1938 to 1969. You need copies of Arab-Israeli Wars and Panzerblitz to play. Finally, here is the graphics file for the new units you will need to play both games, together on one countersheet: ldrctrs.gif
The East in Shreds
A major revision of The China War (SPI 1979), postulating a six-way civil war in the People's Republic in the near future. This was published in MOVES magazine #93 with full colour mount-your-own counters, but here is the graphics file for the counters you need to make in case you don't want to mutilate your copy. The rules also contain an important addition to section 9.0 concerning combat - the "Big Socialist Push" - that was somehow left out of the MOVES article.GIF
The East in Shreds Redux
A revision of the revision, done at the end of 2007. Reworked rules and counters, for an updated the order of battle for the Chinese Army. Note that the top four rows of the countersheet are for the front and back sides of the first-line Chinese divisions. The bottom three rows of the counter sheet are foreign units, also two sided. The third row from the bottom are Taiwanese (ten units total, two-sided) and the two very bottom rows are American (twenty units total, two-sided). You will still need to print out the counter sheet for the original revision above, to make up appropriate control flags.

The Italo-Greek War
A new scenario for Balkans '41 (DG 1997), for the 1940 curtain-raiser to the main campaign. Also published in MOVES magazine #90.
La Raza
A new scenario for the old SPI Minuteman game (SPI 1976).
Macarthur's Other Gambit
A scenario using the map, rules and counters to When Tigers Fight (XTR 1994), on a Nationalist Chinese invasion of the mainland in 1951. Also published in MOVES magazine #91.
Stalin's Tanks
A host of additions and revisions, not to mention three new scenarios, to this 1980 Metagaming micro-game on tactical Eastern Front combat. The first two parts were published in Vindicator magazine.
Stalin's Tanks Plus One This article introduces rules for aircraft, some new units, and lists three new scenarios.
Stalin's Tanks Plus Two This article introduces a points value system and suggestions for Design-Your-Own scenarios, as well as rules for morale and command control.
Stalin's Yanks Yet more rules and notes for Lend-Lease vehicles on the Estern Front, as well as some wee Soviet tankettes and light vehicles.
Graphics - Here is the graphics file for the counters you'll need to make up, for all three variants: GIF Print out and mount on cardboard.
Test of Arms
Additions and revisions to Test of Arms (GDW 1985)

Hey! Lemme outta here, you warmonger!