If your entry is selected as the winning design, you’ll see your creative vision become a reality in a published mini-game expansion AND win a free trip to the 2009 Essen Spiel in Germany!

The Grand Prize in the Small World Design Contest includes:

- Transportation, lodging and entry to the 2009 Essen Spiel Game Fair, October 21-25
- an extra 200 Euros to spend on games while you are there
- Your Small World design published as a mini-expansion which will debut at Essen.
- 24 copies of your expansion (to impress your family and friends)

The Small World Design Contest runs now through the end of July. It’s open to any Small World fan (not affiliated with Days of Wonder) who thinks they can create the best new addition to Small World. All entries must submitted on an official entry form and postmarked by July 31, 2009. Small World author Philippe Keyaerts, and judges from Days of Wonder, will review the entries and select the winner, who will be informed in early September and announced publicly on October 12th. Official contest rules and entry form are available from the Small World Contest Page.

So put your game designer hat on and start bringing your Small World Races and Special Powers to life. After all, how many times do you get to play God?

book your copy now!

Visit the Small World webpage to learn more about the game or the Days of Wonder webstore to pre-order.

You’ll want to have any unregistered web cards or web access numbers available to add to your account before you finalize your conversion so you can earn more online benefits.  To learn more about the new features and get more details on converting your account go to the New and Changed Features - Converting your Account page.

With these upcoming changes you will be given a grace period to convert your existing account to the new model - a simple process that will allow you to setup your new Days of Wonder Online account based on your past purchases and usage. If you have ever registered with us and created an online account, you will receive an email that spells out the conversion process and explains the new benefits to you in detail.

But we wanted to give you a preview of the important changes, so you would know what to expect next week and not be totally surprised when you next visit Days of Wonder Online.

Doing away with Time Credits

Until now your player status was based on time credits, earned from purchasing our board games or buying a web card. This time credit system was confusing, difficult to understand for some and frustrating for many: it forced you to regularly upgrade your account to continue playing online, and made you pay for access to all of our online games, regardless of your own preferences.

The new Days of Wonder Online does away with time credits. Instead you choose which specific games you want to play, purchase them once and never worry about it again. All current players - those of you who have registered web cards in the past (even if these had expired), as well as those with unregistered web cards, will be given credits for those cards that can be used to purchase the online games they want. “Guests”, who have not purchased any of our games in the past will no longer get the “free ride” to play online and will instead be asked to purchase the games they want to play after a limited number of game trials.

Why are we now selling online games on a pay-once basis, rather than giving a time-limited access to everyone who bought one of our board games? The reasons are: simplicity, fairness and support. Players will be able purchase precisely what they want for significantly less than a yearly subscription and get access to it permanently. Doing away with time credits and switching to a downloadable model will also allow us to expand our distribution, giving us the financial flexibility to sustain our services and develop more and better online games. This will become apparent from day 1 when we unveil the new versions of Ticket to Ride Online, Gang of Four Online and the Memoir ‘44 Editor.

New Community Tools and User Defined Content.

In the past, we managed to confuse even ourselves at times regarding which features required a Time Credit and which didn’t: Could I update my avatar? Reply to my Private Messages? Did I need to enter or buy a new web code? So we are now removing this artificial barrier between “guests” and “players”. Instead all Days of Wonder Online Members (i.e. anyone who creates an account with us by entering his or her e-mail address on our web site) will now have access to a wide range of community resources and tools. These include avatars, User Pages to publish your own DOW related content, buddy and ignore lists, access to special content, etc…

New Versions of our Online Games

The new version of Ticket to Ride Online will finally give you many of the features you have been clamoring for, including better game and player management tools, and at least one feature no one expects!

The new version of Gang of Four Online piggy-backs on these same developments to bring you many of the same new game and player management tools.

And last not least, a brand new, downloadable Memoir ‘44 Editor will let you take the art of scenario creation to a whole new level.

What will it all look like? How will it work? You’ll see next week when we rollout the new Days of Wonder Online. So visit us again next week!

The Days of Wonder Online Crew

The Tigers in the Snow expansion features 2 large-scale ready-to-play Overlord Scenarios, 6 Tiger Tanks miniatures and 2 bonus scenarios.

Tigers in the Snow is a Winter scenario set on the Eastern Front and features the tactics of famed German Panzer General Guderian; while Operation Market Garden focuses on General Montgomery’s bold attempt to drop Allied troops behind German lines in the Netherlands. The Market Garden scenario is fought on a unique 11-hex deep map, specially designed by Memoir ’44 author Richard Borg for the occasion.

The Battle Map series is designed to encourage team play and accommodates up to 8 players; each map comes ready-to-play with all terrain, obstacles and unit positions pre-printed, making set-up a snap. Battle Map Volume 2 includes 6 new Tiger Tank miniatures and 2 additional bonus scenarios that are playable on a regular Memoir ’44 board - Villers-Bocage and St-Aignan-de-Cramesnil.

Memoir ’44 Battle Map Volume 2 requires 1 copy of Memoir ’44 and the Operation Overlord expansion, or two full copies of Memoir ’44 to play. It is expected to be available in May in both North America and Europe. Retail price is $18/€16.

- Gimme the rules! Gimme the rules!

- Stop hitting me! They’re on the official website!

Book your copy on our online store!

With 51 new scenarios and 3 different Theaters of Operation - the early word on the Memoir ‘44 Campaign Book is BIG!

“I can’t begin to wrap my arms around the elephantine offering that is the Campaign Book. The number of new scenarios is huge, and the ways that they both combine into larger campaigns and change with each play should provide any Memoir fan with months worth of new playing material.”

- W. Eric Martin - BoardGameNews

So your marching orders are clear. Double-time down to your local game store and get equipped for the big battles by getting your copy of the Memoir ‘44 Campaign Book.

For those who have pre-ordered directly from the webstore, your orders are being shipped later this week to arrive at your door at the same time.

Jesse (rasmussen81), who is a contributor to the Memoir ‘44 Campaign Book, created the Memoir ‘44 History Club at Jewell Elementary School in Bend, Oregon. It meets twice a week after school and has students not only learning how to play Memoir ‘44, but also about WWII history. Recently a local newspaper, the Bend Bulletin published a feature story on the club. Read the Memoir ‘44 History Club article here.

You can also visit the Memoir 44 History Club Blog to learn more about how the students are using Memoir ‘44 to learn about World War II.

Congratulations to Jesse and his students for putting together such a great club!

12 teams registered, you will be able to follow the tournament and support them in the lobby…

More infos on Gang of Four’s forums.

Good luck to all the players and thumbs up to the organization team!