Hi All

Well it has been a horrible year to date, with lots of trouble with the new home and premises. So, where are we at?

1. House – decoration is on going, making it more suitable to live in. Currently the main works in that respect are in abeyance as work has to be prioritised. Let me be clear – we have had to partially rewire the house to make it fire safe. That is an ongoing time soak as every time we find a problem (about 100 so far in wiring issues) they need fixed. The primary circuits are ok, the problem is the idiots that wired 13 amp circuits into 5 amp lighting rings AFTER the house was converted. We keep finding that sort of thing, whilst I am also having to replace every socket and switch as many are defective or damaged. Let me be 100% clear. Fire risk is not acceptable. This sort of fix takes priority as it should for all of you. I will continue to update on this as we find fixes and or problems. I also need to get the house and premises legal in terms of smoke alarms although there is no need for CO alarms as it does not have gas/LPG/oil heating. Finally we need to put in some protection for stock in the house – that is going to happen next week if it kills me!
2. Garden – major works (the plot is quite large) are underway to provide an office in the grounds along with more storage. This is not trivial as the hedge is 10-14ft high and 8-12 ft deep and must be cut back beyond the boundary (so far to get 5m run of hedge back to a decent size it has taken 10 1 tonne bags of cuttings….). The building being put in will be ordered in the next couple of weeks so by then I need to have built the founds and installed some pathwork to make access safe. Not much more to say except thank god for chain saws!
3. Research – TSWW by game:
   1. Vengeance. All done except Soviet infantry and the navy. This is not trivial due to international sanctions which seem to be preventing me getting access to the sources used for Barbarossa (joys). I will be looking at other data sources soon. Once that is in hand I will divert for a couple of weeks to build the Red Navy OB for the balance of the war.
   2. Liberation. More or less all done EXCEPT the German Wehrkriese. This is not trivial but the assets are known. The problem is 2 fold – how to show some of the assets (for example, an armoured training school may have 200 tanks, but few were armed, and many were static demonstrators, the exact totals are as far as I can find unknown) and how to prevent the OB becoming a dire mess of incremental changes. This is in the works (at least in my mind) and I think the solution will be to try and move limited items about to show the primary changes. For example, many training units went west just before the war and were in the western WKs. They then went east after the fall of Poland, returning west prior to the invasions of the Balkans and the USSR. I believe with effort some numbers can be generated for values. Once that is done (and I have no plans to work on it till 2027) the game can be put together. RSI Italy is more or less complete (I need to dig out a few ships but that is not a major task and can wait till the game is in pre-publication).
   3. Mare Nostrum II. Other than mapping the research is complete. Mapping is underway but little progress has been made – getting the premises sorted takes precedence.
   4. Blitzkrieg II. Other than mapping the sea zone, the game is ready for pre-press. The SZ maps are in development and are about 55% done. The balance of the maps including Iceland are in effect, good to go. OBs are able to be created, and new ratings for all ships are in hand. The Axis OBs are updated in terms of ratings. Minor but significant changes to the German OB are likely – mostly the conversion of artillery regiments and brigades to Battalions to align with Barbarossa for example. Lots of typing needed.
   5. Operation Watchtower. All done bar assembly. I started that before the s**t show of a move (honestly, its driven me to distraction, and finding issues like wiring that was (and still could be) a fire hazard has not helped). Looking at it I think it will actually be quicker to start over with the Japanese (they are a patchwork of multiple word files and none look good to my eyes). The US OB needs typed up – as do the Commonwealth forces but they are much easier to sort than the Japanese. I will update once I restart this process – which will happen in the next week or so. Maps are done except the sea zone maps – but they are largely a modification and amendment of the ones in Singapore and Day of Infamy – so that is fairly quick I believe to sort out. The only new bits will be the areas I need to show New Caledonia, Efate, northern New Zealand and so on – and that is trivial in comparison with the rest of the game.
   6. I Shall Return. Short of bashing Dennis over the head I believe he will keep on adding outstanding detail to the OB files he has researched. These Excel sheets are awesome. From a TSWW perspective these are in my view DONE. I have about 85% of the map done as well (which is not trivial – the problem as you may imagine is China given the current regimes refusal to publish old census data). I have some information but need more. I own an almanac which will be used to generate some of the data but that is 1955 not 1939-40. It will be the best I can do. There is one other minor issue – the Philippine Guerrillas. They ended up controlling a number of smaller Islands – pretty easy to deal with but they also provided intelligence for the Allied forces. That is probably ok as well (you can inspect the map and units on it which the allies could not do). What they did not do is switch sides, or fight the Japanese much overtly. As you may have guessed the current partisan rules are built for Europe not the mess in the Philippines. I think the solution is for me to find some sort of book talking about them, provide a rule sweeping up the Guerillas into a new Philippine Army, and to more or less forget about them. More to come on this bitty.
   7. Kamikaze. Well, the mapping is progressing. I have some of the Islands done, and bits of Japan done. The SZ map will be more or less identical to the one in Day of Infamy – not difficult to achieve. Japanese naval and air OBs are more or less either complete, or researched. The Army needs a lot of work as do the naval ground forces (which I believe are present in numbers). If you have good Japanese information email me via info@tkc-games.com. We do have access to the Allied Official Histories and multiple books on the theatre but they only scratch this particular surface. What else do we need? Well I have data on Downfall/Olympic and can generate good what ifs for that. Any help here will be welcomed.
   8. The China Incident. Geoff and I have not attacked this game for a while. That said I have commenced the mapping – its in a rough draft and is not fit for use as yet. The OBs are going to be difficult due to reticence on the part of the Chinese (of any type) as to the actual forces that were available, and those actually deployed (very different things due to artillery being held back as a political tool, the partisans not wanting to be slaughtered, the ongoing but repressed civil war between the communists, nationalists and the various surviving war lords, the lack of Allied input due to the loss of ports, and Burma and due to political interference). This looks to be to be a hard game to work out but we do have enough data to put together a solid Japanese OB in most ways. Again if you have data let me know – and thank you to Lenny who has helped a lot to sift out the gold from the dross in various sources we have. More when I have it but it will remain the LAST game to publish.
4. Research BTW.
   1. Las Malvinas. All done. I need to do the game art and sort out the OB files. Rules in development. Charts are derived from the Rules. Mapping underway. More on this when I get to it.
   2. La Guerra. All done. Ratings in progress. I intend calling Cory next week to get ratings fixed and then will create the OB files. Mapping is more or less done (I will need to plug in some amendments for start lines, and to update city sizes but that is not a big deal). Ships will be provided, but players wishing to use them are referred to TSWW rules set 1.6. I will provide a simple rule set for the game showing the minimal impact the navies on either side actually had and be done with them. More next week.
   3. Korea. Books in hand, no progress except reading them – I do now have the data for both sides air forces. That is not insignificant. Navies are going to be deleted from the game – with carrier mission start points provided. Being blunt, only a lunatic would have tried to attack the UN fleet off Korea, and whilst Stalin, Kim, and Mao were idiotic in thinking the US and Western Allies would back down, they had no desire to find out what the UN navies could do! Mapping is part done – I have good data for the south, less so for the North, but enough to make the game work. More on this in due course.
5. Research TFWW.
   1. Home By Christmas. Geoff has been working flat out to get the various OBs except the British Army DONE. I know he has been updating on Facebook, so please check that out. Mapping is in need of some revision but the big stuff is “fine”. Navies are effectively done. Air WILL be an effect into 1917, and then may well become units. If that is the case I need to get into that in a bit of detail but have the right sources for the British and French. Germany less so but that can be fixed. More on this once I get to chat with him and work out the next steps. Unit ratings are underway.
   2. Armistice. See HBC above.
   3. Eagle and the Bear. I have a lot of data, not in files I can use. More will be done ONCE Watchtower, Malvinas and La Guerra are published.
6. RULES. v1.7 is now “complete” which will ship with Watchtower for TSWW. v1.1 TFWW are in development – the big changes are more or less “deletions” and that is in progress. You would not believe how many times I need to amend Axis to Central Powers or Allied to Entente… nor how much of the rules set are in effect redundant given the simpler technology of WW1. v1.1 BTW are complete (these are in effect a redo of the Battleaxe rules with new political stuff for La Guerra). v1.2 BTW are in development – I need to write up how nuclear submarines, stand off weapons etc work. They are v1.6 TSWW with deletions (lots of them) and a few additions. Charts for all rules sets are developed AFTER the rules so are in development. Martyn and I had a chat last week and are confident we are on the right track here.
7. Box Art. I love doing that – and have Watchtower front and back in hand. More on Las Malvinas and La Guerra in a month or so. That will be real progress towards shipping.

Publication order.

TSWW Order

This has not changed. We are working on Watchtower and La Guerra. Las Malvinas will ship as soon as we can print the thing (see above for work needing doing… never ever say “should be easy” and then expect few issues to crop up…..). After that I am hoping to do Blitz and Liberation at the same time. I say hoping as the cost is astronomic for 2 massive games at once – certainly they make sense to co develop in terms of pre-press and the horrors of the WK system! I Shall Return will then be the next TSWW Game to press. This allows Dennis and I to argue about partisans…

TFWW Order

As before.

BTW

La Guerra and Las Malvinas. Everything else will take time.

Stock and Shipping Update.

I can now ship almost all the games we have published and had in stock prior to the house/premises move. I cannot find, no matter how hard I try, any copies of Operation Merkur. I believe they are buried in the last place I cannot get into (that is a work in progress) and may ONLY be 1 or 2 copies left. If you have ordered that game I will upgrade you to Madagascar or Operation Battleaxe.

Sorry about that – nothing I can do except keep on digging.

Those inhouse print items are on the printer today and tomorrow. Shipping will be booked. Sorry about the delay. I will also be providing some credit to people kept waiting.

Please keep on supporting us. We massively appreciate it and will be updating more in due course. The much promised slide show of the move is under development….. That will go live on Facebook and You Tube. More to follow on that!

Thanks again.

John