New

The Fan

January 30, 2012 More than 3 months without any new stuff! Yet the Fan is not hibernating: Here is a preview of the new "The Pass" map for the Horse Raiders extension. It displays a small pass between 2 hills with an isolated sheepfold.
And there is more to come. I prepare a series of new maps that should go to print by June. My focus is now on terrain maps, with the possibility to revive sold-out official maps without infringing any copyright laws. Here is what I have in mind:
> A map named "The Marches", representing these unused lands between 2 provinces. It will be a combination of marshes, woodland and fords with trails. 
> Another map named "The Reef" (or another name that would be more appropriate for the waters of the English Channel). In a nutshell, a "Sea" map with a few emerging rocks to avoid having a map that would be too similar to the original "Sea" map. A few overlays will let you hide the rocks to play on a plain sea map.
> A map "Sherwood", which will be very close to the defunct "Forest" map but yet different: There will be less trees, but you will be able to add overlays to get closer to the original number of trees.
> A set of overlays with various elements like hills, trees, buildings, etc. 
> A new "Nefs & Galleys" map with hand-drawn sails to avoid the current display of pixels. The first print run is almost sold out and I want to make this change before the next print job.
     
Oct 20, 2011 October is Scenario month on Cry Havoc Fan! Here are two new scenarios for Basileus as well as the translation of the rules to use the specific counters created for this extension. With 5 scenarios, counters, maps and rules, this extension can now be considered (almost) complete... finally!
Oct 16, 2011 Scenario galore! Here are 13 scenarios in various sections of the Fan: A brand new one for the Basileus extension (2 more should be translated from French shortly) and 12 others that were published in various French magazines in the 80's and 90's. They were translated by Bob Gingell a while ago but I reformatted them with my standard layout for them to be better looking and easier to find: I included the 4 scenarios of Claymore 1, 4 others from Claymore 2 and the 2 scenarios plus the special counters and rules for the Reconquista extension published in Claymore 9. Finally, 2 scenarios from Casus Belli magazine.
Oct 12, 2011 Three new scenarios for the Montjoie extension featuring Eleanor of Aquitaine and based on historical events. William the Marshal is a special guest star in the first scenario while the other two are linked and depict one of the rare military action of John Lackland: The battle of Mirebeau.
Sept 15, 2011 Here is finally the new Cry Havoc module v3.1 for Vassal: It includes all the maps and counters of the various games of the franchise including the latest Saxon Harbor and most extensions published on this site (including the 15th-century characters of Orleans, the wild animals of Hallali and the Fort of Mont-Briton in Horse Raiders). All tables have been revised and enhanced as well and are fully compatible with the new Magna Carta rules. Sounds have been added to many actions: Check them out, as they really add to the game play!
Sep 11, 2011 A few new 15th century counters for Orleans 1429, as well as rules to use the bombard, the arquebus or handguns.
Note that a complete Vassal module for Cry Havoc will be released in the coming days and will let you play with these counters.
August 29, 2011 Three new naval historical scenarios for NEFS & GALLEYS that will rejoice the community across the Channel: These are 3 English victories over the French during King John's reign (Damme 1213 and Sandwich 1217) and King Edward's (Winchelsea 1350). I like the latter two a lot: Sandwich 1217 will require the best use of the sailing rules as taking advantage of the windward position is critical. Winchelsea 1350 is original as the King's nef is sinking and a 2-page game sheet is provided to show the water limit for each of the 15 turns of the scenario. Have fun, and remember that the French can win these scenarios as well ;-)
July 11, 2011 The Magna Carta is the compilation of (almost) all the rules published for the Cry Havoc series so far in a 115-page document with attractive, full color diagrams and explanation graphics. This is still a beta version for your viewing pleasure and to get your feedback. My intent is to go to print by the end of the year.
June 2, 2011 The Templar Castle is now sold out and has been removed from the Shoppe.
June 1, 2011 Another scenario by Roger Deal set in the Second Crusade.
April 4, 2011 A new scenario created by Roger Deal about an episode during the Second Crusade.
February 16, 2011 The original playsheets for Cry Havoc and Siege have finally been added.
  We only have 2 of the 4 maps of the Fortified Town left, therefore we decided to take it off the Shoppe. Our inventory of the Medieval Ships and Walls under construction "maps" is getting very low. You'd better order them now if you want them as they will be sold out fairly soon.
January 10, 2010 All Horse Raiders counters are available as individual GIF files for an upcoming Vassal extension.
January 7, 2011 I just realized that their was no full screen view of the maps of the original games. The mistake is now corrected.
December 16, 2010 Here is my Christmas gift: An interview with Gary Chalk, the original designer of Cry Havoc! Gary shared with me how he came up with the various game concepts and elaborates a bit on his future projects, that are tightly related to our favorite game.
December 13, 2010 The following sold-out articles have been removed from the Shoppe: The Coast 1 and the Dark Blades countersheet. I should still get from Duccio Vitale a new inventory of the maps The Ford, The Open Field, The Coast 1 & 2 sometime in Q1/2011.
  Stay tuned for a BIG surprise, hopefully by the end of the week (or it will have to wait until early next year, as I will be taking 2 well-deserved weeks of vacation with no access to this site editing tool).
October 6, 2010 Updated scenario toolbox. Version 3 adds the counters of Samurai Blades and Dragon Noir 1, an Excel worksheet to automatically calculate your point purchases and thumbnails of the Saxon Harbor map and its variants. This toolbox can also be used as a source file to get details about each character in the series.
October 4, 2010 A new scenario freely adapted from the movie "The War Lord" with Charlton Heston. It is an opportunity to use both the Saxon Harbor and the Medieval Town in one of the assemblies that were initially anticipated by the game designers. 
October 3, 2010 Slight modifications to the Medieval Town and Crusader Harbor pages with links to full screen pictures of the various terrain combinations.
July 23, 2010 More than 2 months without any updates! I'm actually in the midst of multiple professional changes and relocations that have been keeping me away from my favorite game. But I should be able to resume normal operation in August. In the meantime, I have updated the "About" page with links towards the magazines that have commented on CH Fan recently.
May 19, 2010 Slight modifications to the 3d scenario of the Siege of Lisbon campaign.
May 1, 2010 Following a remark by one of the members of the French community, I edited the shooting table of the stone thrower in the 3d scenario for Nefs & Galleys as 2D10 will never result into 1!
April 21, 2010 Here is an update that was long overdue: The rule booklets and siege record sheets of the Templars' Castle and the Fortified Medieval Town didn't exist in English. Bob Gingell made a translation but he didn't have the tools (or the patience) to format them in the same way as the French versions. Using Bob's texts, I relayed out these new documents that now look (almost) as if they had been produced by Eurogames.
  I carried on and produced the siege record sheets for both the Fortified Village and the Fort of Mont-Briton.
April 20, 2010 Another scenario in the Edward's Raids tactical campaign. I got the inspiration from an excellent book about the Hundred Years War (in French unfortunately) that focuses on the economic whereabouts of the showdown. The setting is in the early days of the war when Edward orders to seize the belongings of French monasteries in England. This is the opportunity to provide the first scenario using one of the maps of the Orléans 1429 extension.
April 19, 2010 An interview with Tony Webster who wrote the original rules of Cry Havoc almost 30 years ago. He comments on the genesis of the game, the essential contribution of Gary Chalk and gets his point of view on 2 rules that have been generating a lot of debates from Day 1.
April 8, 2010 New 15th Century counters for Orléans! A mounter archer and a couple of arquebusiers. Feel free to share with me any idea you may have for the use of these primitive fire arms.
April 2, 2010 The 3d scenario of the Siege of Lisbon campaign, using the belfry. I have also slightly tweaked the 2nd scenario.
March 27, 2010 The original Siege scenario booklet has been uploaded
  The pages of the website detailing the background of the fort of Mont-Briton and the pictures of its scale model have been translated into English.
March 14, 2010 At last the first scenario using the new Viking/Saxon counters and the Fortified Harbor map. After difficult researches on the web, I found a very short account of the sack of Southampton in 980 by a Danish fleet. It gave me the opportunity to create a pillage table that can be used in other similar scenarios.
March 13, 2010 Here are the first 3 scenarios using the new Saxon Harbor map (yet none of them use the new counters: I'm still struggling to find historic scenarios with Saxons and Vikings in a harbor...). The first 2 scenarios are part of a tactical campaign that will represent the various phases of the siege of Lisbon in 1147. I strongly recommend the second scenario whose setting is very original, yet fully authentic! The 3d scenario is part of the Basileus extension and depicts the conquest of Cyprus by Richard the Lionheart. I recently created 4 additional Basileus scenarios that I will translate shortly.  
March 3, 2010 The maps of the Fortified Harbor and the Fort of Mont-Briton have finally been delivered. Shipments have started today, so if you were waiting for this announcement to place your order, now is the time.
January 29, 2010 Revision 2.3 of the Horse Raiders rules. They now include rules for the batters at the base of the fort towers as well as their wattle and daub walls.
January 28, 2010 The image of the Fortified Harbor that was posted on this site so far didn't include the final texts, and the hex grid was not perfectly adjusted. Here is the final version, similar to what will be printed... soon.
January 24, 2010 Some news about the much anticipated new maps of the Fortified Harbor (Eurogames) and the fort of Mont-Briton: The first print run we received about 10 days ago had a technical issue: Instead of one single vertical bending mark, the print shop added another horizontal one! We decided that this was not acceptable from a quality standpoint and have asked the shop to launch a new run. Second issue: the paper is now in backorder and won't be available until another 2 weeks. That's why we don't expect to be able to resume shipments until mid-February. Sorry for these delays.
  Slight homepage updates to highlight what people are the most interested in: The Forum and On Line Games boxes have been replaced with the Saxon Harbor and Horse Raiders.
January 3, 2010 All 4 Dolphin & Cross scenarios are now translated and adapted to take advantage of the latest counters available.
  The additional counter sheet for Vikings is now sold out.
January 2, 2010 Translation of one of the 4 remaining scenarios created for Horse Raiders and part of the Dolphin & Cross series. The 3 other ones should be translated in the next few days.
January 1st, 2010 I wish you a very happy New Year! 2010 will be another great year, with the imminent availability of the Saxon Harbor (it is now printed and on its way to our garage. Shipments should start mid-next week). There will probably be new counter sheets as well, now that we have an economically viable process in place.  Foulque is completing its collection of 15th Century characters and we have a lot of 11th Century Normans as well. Byzantines and Rus could also be part of the release. Another project for this year is the English version of the Magna Carta, the compilation and consolidation of all Cry Havoc rules available so far: Only 120+ pages to translate... Anyway, lots of projects as you can see; so don't forget to check this site frequently during the year.
  Eurogames unsold inventory is drying out quickly. The following articles are now sold out: Dark Blades and Dragon Noir 2 Rebel counters sheets, as well as the underground maps of the Marsh and the Maze.