Well, maybe not for dancing in the street, but hopefully the latest Summer Special will bring a bit of sunshine to even the most jaded of grognards.
I have oft said that one of the great joys of my job is editing the Summer and Christmas Specials, and once again it has been a real pleasure to work on this one.  This Special is a real “red meat” edition, with absolutely loads to get your teeth into.  For a start we have Coastal Patrol, a whole new set of coastal action rules for WWII from James Schmidt down in Georgia.  Charles Eckart in Colorado has been working hard on Storm of Dice, his supplement for using If the Lord Spares Us on the Western Front which is perfect timing as my Pendraken 10mm WWI armies are teetering on the edge of being completed (at last I hear you cry!).
La Longe Carabine, the supplement for Sharp Practice covering the French Indian War, is included with lots of conflict specific add-ons.  Working on this has proved a revelation for me.  It’s a period I had obviously seen before in a “That’s pretty” kind of way, but the research for this has really opened my eyes to what a tremendously gameable period it is.  I reckon that even as few as thirty or so figures a side can give an excellent game, and there are some truly excellent figures out there.  I am seriously considering this as the next TooFatLardies “On Tour” game for 2012.
Charlie Don’t Surf gets the next big treatment piece, with the riverine warfare supplement “Brown Water Delta”.  This was another area where my research spiralled out of control as I found myself utterly immersed in this intriguing aspect of warfare in the Nam.  What I really liked was that getting started on this does not need to be expensive.  Just a couple of PBRs is enough to get some Operation Game Warden forces on the table, after which you can build up to the Mobile Riverine Force stuff.  Again, there are some great toys out there for this, and the added dimension is really very exciting.  Brown Water Delta contains stats for riverine craft, rules to cover these and three new Riverine Missions to add to the missions in the main rules.
Of course there are scenarios galore as well.  For the above we have Black Night for the Coastal Patrol rules, as scenario that demonstrates just how quickly and cheaply you can get a game on the table, which has an appeal of its own in these financially constrained times.  Winning their Spurs for Storm of Dice does a similar thing with just a couple of British battalions attacking to the north of Vimy Ridge in 1917.  I reckon a couple of packs of figures from Pendraken is all you need to dip your toe into the Great War.  I used less than fifty figures a side to do this scenario and had great fun with it.
Nick has produced a Gallipoli scenario for If the Lord Spares Us, with the landings on V Beach, Robert Avery has a couple of IABSM scenarios in there too, one a French counter-attack in 1940, the other an action on the Dunkirk perimiter with a British force holding on against all odds.  The Bridge at Prudyanka is set in 1943 as a German rearguard attempt to hold the Kharkow road in the aftermath of Kursk, and Mors Mission competes Nick’s look at the rescue of Mussolini.
There are a  couple of scenarios for Charlie Don’t Surf, unsurprisingly these are both riverine warfare actions, but at very different ends of the spectrum.  The Forrest of Assassins is a small action with a couple of PBRs assisting an infantry sweep, whilst River Assault is a full-blown company assault into the heart of VC controlled territory.
White Hell is a Rogers’ Rangers scenario for the French Indian Wars (The battle on Snowshoes for those who know the period) and On Company Business is a second scenario set in the Ohio valley as homesteaders hold out against naughty Frenchmen and their Indian chums in the hope that Provincial troops will come to their aid.
Beckwith’s Battle for Le Feu Sacre covers the battle of Sabugal.  The Duke called the action “one of the most glorious that British troops were ever engaged in”.  Can you replicate such a feat of arms?  Estuary Anglais is a small action for Kiss Me Hardy, and Volga Ferryman is a great Bag the Hun scenario set over Stalingrad.
Regular readers will be pleased to know that Sidney Roundwood, award winning blogger, official Pseudo-Celebrity and all-round good egg, joins us again with another excellent piece on terrain building, whilst “Fightin” Joe Legan provides a bonus scenrio card for Platoon Forward.
Last but by no means least is housewife’s’ favourite Max Maxwell who stands on a box to provide us with a couple of excellent scenarios for Through the Mud & Blood set in Iraq in the 1920.  As always Max “pushes the envelope” to show just where you can take a set of rules with a bit of imagination.  The paralells between the Insurrection in “Mespots”  and the recent fighting in modern Iraq are unavoidable.
So, another packed edition, 129 pages in total, and yet again we have held the price at just £5.  I can recall six years ago someone saying that the Specials were the best value in wargaming, and now into our eighth year of producing them we think they are even better value.   Here’s the complete list of contents:
Page 3                   Introduction
Page 4                   La Longue Carabine.  A Sharp Practice supplement for the French Indian Wars
Page 20                A Bloody Morning on V Beach.  A Gallipoli 1915 scenario for If the Lord Spares Us
Page 25                Wave Goodbye.  A French counter attack in 1940 from the pen of Robert Avery for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum
Page 30                Finding, Fixing, Fighting & Finishing.  A background to riverine warfare in Vietnam
Page 37                Brown Water Delta.  A riverine warfare supplement for Charlie Don’t Surf.
Page 47                Beckwith’s Battle.  The battle of Sabugal for Le Feu Sacré
Page 52                A White Hell.  Rogers Rangers face the French and the frost at the Battle on Snowshoes for La Longue Carabine
Page 57                The Bridge at Prudyanka.  A German rearguard attempt to hold the road to Kharkov in the aftermath of the battle of Kursk.  A scenario for  I Ain’t Been Shot Mum
Page 61                The Forest of Assassins.  A riverine warfare scenario for Charlie Don’t Surf.
Page 64                Coastal Patrol.  A complete set of rules for small ships in WWII.
Page 80                Black Night.  A coastal warfare scenario for Coastal Patrol
Page 82                On Company Business.  A French Indian Wars scenario set in the Ohio valley for La Longue Carabine
Page 85                Estuary Anglais.  A Kiss Me Hardy Frigate action
Page 89                Insurrection in Mesopotamia.  Two scenarios for action in Iraq, 1920 style, for Mud & Blood.
Page 95                                Scenario Card R.  A bonus scenario card for Platoon Forward
Page 96                Mors Mission.  Rescuing Mussolini Part Two.  A scenario for  I Ain’t Been Shot Mum
Page 100              River Assault.  A riverine warfare scenario for Charlie Don’t Surf.
Page 103              Storm of Dice.  Rules for using If the Lord Spares Us on the Western Front.
Page 109              Winning their Spurs.  A Storm of Dice scenario from Vimy Ridge, 1917.
Page 112              Sidney Gets Woods.  The maestro gives a master class in modelling woods.
Page 118              The Volga Ferryman.  A Bag the Hun scenario over Stalingrad.
Page 126              A Grave Day at the Canal.  An I Ain’t Been Shot Mum scenario on the Dunkirk perimeter from Robert Avery
The Summer Special is available in PDF format and may be downloaded instantly upon purchase for the amazing price of £5 sterling.