The “Top Cover” magazine promises be a fantastic house organ for the “Fighting Wings” series, delivering new scenarios and aircraft, along with special articles in each issue.

‘Blocks in the East’ covers the entire Eastern Front of WW2 via multiple scenarios and a campaign. Enemy units’ composition and strength are hidden until combat occurs and some battles are nail-biters.

The ‘hook’ in ‘WWII from Space’ – images shot from space, on which information overlaid – sounds good but isn’t particularly impressive; however, the content and the other visuals make this DVD of a program from HISTORY well worth owning.

“Steam and Iron” is without doubt the most accurate, comprehensive and detailed of any World War I naval game on the market. It is short on fancy graphics but long on historical detail.

“Fox’s Gambit” is a low-complexity board game of the Battle of Gazala, May-June 1942, that can be played in about three hours.

The board game “Bloody April: Air War over Arras, France, 1917″ is unusual. Instead of the one-on-one air battles found in most WWI aerial games, it pits flights of multiple aircraft against each other in the skies over France in 1917.

The second edition of Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! boardgame introduces new units, such as flamethrower tanks, brings the rules up to date with other games in the series, and comes in a redesigned box that is great for storing the components.

“Bushido Denied,” a boardgame of the defense of the Philippines against Japanese invasion in 1941-42, is actually two games in one: the defense of Bataan and the defense of Corregidor, which can be combined into a single game.

The “Axis & Allies World War I 1914″ game shares some common mechanics with its World War II predecessor, but with a number of twists to reflect the situation nations faced in the Great War. It’s a game, not a history lesson, but players will often find themselves forced into the costly frontal assaults that characterized that war.

GMT’s “Commands & Colors Napoleonics: Russian Army” expansion features 20 battles, from the 1806 battle over Poland at Czarnowo to Napoleon’s twilight, Craonne, in 1814.

“Death Before Dishonor – The Battle of Santiago Bay” has unexpected depth and requires a number of tactical decisions be made by the player. At a price of $5.95, it will take gamers back to the days of Yaquinto’s inexpensive Album games.

Paradox Interactive’s PC game “March of the Eagles” combines depth of play with diversity of nations and cultures to provide a grand strategic Napoleonic game that is second to none.

“Panzer Corps: Grand Campaign ’45 West” is an expansion for the popular “Panzer Corps” series from Slitherine / Matrix with 18 historical and six “what-if” scenarios.

“Blood and Sand” is a boardgame of the campaigns in North Africa during World War II. Easy to learn – “bucket o’ dice” rules replace combat results charts – it is suitable for new games but with enough depth to satisfy grognards.

With a greater variety of nations, scenarios, troop types and options, “Birth of Rome” is even more interesting than its predecessor, “Alea Jacta Est,” which was no slouch of a game itself.

As history, the movie “Emperor” is inconsistent. It gets a number of details wrong – often at the expense of Gen. Douglas MacArthur – but overall it succeeds in its attempt to make audiences realize and appreciate the impact of two disparate cultures on a horrific war.