From: Peter Card Subject: Morse Code by UGG UGG had a stand at the Essen games fair this year and were anxious to talk to random passers by, like me. They had a stack of the Belgian mini-game demo kits available at 5DM each. You would have to stick the counters on card stock and cut them out. However, this was only a demo for the Morse Code game, which would have mounted counters etc when it was finished. Morse Code covers the European Theatre at a divisional level, with both military and econmoic elements. They had a pre-publication example of the game set up, with counters borrowed from another game, and it was _beautiful_ I almost plonked my deutschmarks down there and then for their pre-pub offer. The quality of the Belgian mini game pretty much conveys the look of the map. Then the guy gave me a copy of the rules to read. Oh dear. Oh dearie me ... The game was conceived by a group of enthusiastic wargamers who found themselves disatisfied by the existing WW2 games, like World in Flames, and decided that they could do better. Graphically, they have done pretty well, but the rules they had produced were the most disorganised, rambling, confusing incomplete document I have ever come across. Now, my informant was at considerable pains to point out that this was only a draft, and they were well aware that it needed to be refined and edited. He struck me as someone who really wanted to produced a fine game. However, I came away with the impression that it was a product with more enthusiasm behind it than coherence. They have been playtesting the game for some years, but there is a big difference between playing a game within a group and marketing a product in the wide world. I would love to be proved wrong, but I personally would not buy without some reviews of the finished product, probably not even then as it seems to be a complex military/economic game in the same vein as WiF or A3R, and thus not really to my taste. Uli Blennman of MiH is contributing a historical notes section, and also advising the designers, I was told. The name comes from the famous dee-dee-dee-dah V for Victory call sign, as featured in the film "The Longest Day" which had apparently made a considerable impression on the designers. Personally, I think this name falls foul of Rich Berg's criteria for game titles, "Does it help sell the game?". In this case it is more likely to make the punter go "Duh?" -- ---------------------------------------------------------- email Peter.Card@jet.uk || 100010.366@compuserve.com Milk Floats and Stainless Steel Sinks From: Philipp Klarmann Subject: Re: Morse Code by UGG Hi all, since I helped editing the rules, I can comment on a few things here. Udo gave me the rules after the Essen game fair and I totally agreed with Peter Card: They were not suitable for the market. I finally volunteered to help him rewrite the rules. This took me 2 days (only to eliminate the logical errors and bad examples) but then I had a raw version that was better. Udo now works on a final rules version with paragraphes and in the known WIF style. However Morsecode is not a WIF clone, it has certain new aspects and interesting ideas and... France falls in 6 weeks (if the German player plays competently). I think it has to be viewed as a game not as an exact historical simulation and at that level it is very good. The counters are done by Beth Queman, the maps and charts by a professional wargaming company so expect some high quality there. As soon as I receive the latest rules I can tell you more. Philipp Klarmann -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Philipp Klarmann Ploeck 91 69117 Heidelberg Deutschland +49 6221 184627 "Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination." - Mark Twain PGP available - use PGP5.0! ------------------------------------------------------------------