I’ve seen preview art for a lot of these games. Some of the map art is fabulous and very clean, others look less appealing. I think the price point and game play here is pretty appealing given the topics covered.

I’m curious to see what these actually play like and would be keen for anyone who has copies or buys the game to drop a line here @ The BigBoard, so we can share your impressions. I’d love to pop some AARs up for this new company and their interesting designs.

Folio Series
Announcing Eight New Games in Pre-Order

Store Link: http://ossgamecart.us9.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=8429d95c23ecd5586c389c769&id=1ebc6279a0&e=96728b0556

NEWSLETTER:
We would like to tell you about our new Folio Series of games. One Small Step is working on the launch of our new folio series of games. These will be small foot-print, low-cost boardgames that pack a punch. It is our intention that this series not be composed of stripped-down and reused systems, but rather be unique games in their own right, with depth and weight. The first eight games in the series are in various stages of art production now, and cost between 20 and 25 bucks each. The first game, Shining Path, is expected to go to press in December, with one per month to follow.
Shining Path
The Sendero Luminoso insurgency against the government of Peru, 1980-ca. 1995 (though it is still sputtering away today). Guerrilla fronts and cadres engage in a vicious insurgency against the government’s corrupt and untrained security forces. Chrome includes narcoterrorism, the MRTA (a rival guerrilla movement), and United States support. One 17×22″ area-movement map of Peru, 140 double-sided counters, abstract troop and time scale. Originally from the Microgame Design Group, now with updated rules, counters and map.
Green Beret
1964-5 in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, in the period before the first United States Army and Marine units arrived to bring the war into a new phase. Montagnard tribesmen of the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups, raised, trained and advised by Special Forces A-teams, try to prevent the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army from controlling the population and opening supply routes to the coast. The game focuses on processes of progressive recruitment, population control, evasion and detection. One 17×22″ area-movement map of the Central Highlands region, 140 double-sided counters, company to regiment scale.
Kandahar
A game on the conflict in this province of southern Afghanistan, 2008-10. Players take the role of regional commanders (Afghan National Security Forces and Taliban, yes not the ISAF) striving for the resources to allow them to earn Victory Points, which are granted in accordance with objectives set them by the same higher authorities that provide them with those resources. Players will find themselves in the position of having, if they wish to continue to get high levels of support, to follow courses of action that are maybe not the most effective in opposing the enemy but are more valued by their superiors, and which themselves change from time to time during the game. When you run out of support, the game ends (the war continues but with a different regional commander!).
Operation Whirlwind

OPERATION WHIRLWIND is a simulation of the situation in Budapest in November 1956. The Soviet-imposed Communist government of Hungary has fallen. Newly inaugurated President Imre Nagy, swept along by the momentum of the popular revolution, has declared an end to the one-party system and threatened to pull out of the Warsaw Pact and to declare neutrality. The Soviet government cannot allow this defection and launches “Operation Whirlwind,” a military intervention in Hungary to restore order, culminating in a desperate battle in the streets of Budapest.
Lone Jack
American Civil War: both sides saw the other as “invaders,” so the fight quickly escalated to one of extreme violence. The fight seesawed up and down the main street of Lone Jack, and when the rebels fired the Cave Hotel, a Yankee stronghold, their advantage appeared decisive. Foster now wheeled his only two artillery pieces forward, blasting the gray attack with double-shotted canister. The Confederates owned the field as well as the dead. They quickly gathered the remains of the fallen, already spoiling under the torrid sun. Friend and foe alike they buried beneath the arching shade of the Lone Jack oak.
Middle Creek

American Civil War: In a fight that largely determined the fate of eastern Kentucky, two small armies clashed along the swollen tributary of Middle Creek. An officer of some promise, Humphrey Marshall, generaled the CSA. A relative unknown commanded the USA by the name of James A. Garfield. At the end of the day, Marshall had no choice but to withdrawal. His supplies were thin and he was fearful of his army deserting. The battle unmade his reputation and he was barely heard from again. The Federals, conversely, celebrated a victory. Colonel Garfield earned a brigadiers star, and took the first step along the road that eventually led to the White House.
Battle of the Atlantic
World War II, Solitaire: With the British and French entrance into World War II on September 3, 1939, the German Kriegsmarine moved to implement strategies similar to those used in World War I. Unable to challenge the Royal Navy in regard to capital ships, the Kriegsmarine began a campaign against Allied shipping with the goal of cutting off Britain from the supplies needed to wage war. Overseen by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, German naval forces sought to employ a mix of surface raiders and U-boats.
Fall of Berlin

Starting on 12 January 1945, the Red Army breached the German front as a result of the Vistula-Oder Offensive and advanced westward as much as 40 kilometres (25 miles) a day through East Prussia, Lower Silesia, East Pomerania, and Upper Silesia, temporarily halting on a line 60 km (37 mi) east of Berlin along the Oder River. When the offensive resumed, two Soviet fronts (army groups) attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. The Battle in Berlin lasted from 20 April until the morning of 2 May.