Bruce Harper is the designer. His quest for the perfect simulation of WWII is unending.	This year's weeklong slugfest featured signs advising passers by of the current turn.

A World At War attracted its largest number of players ever, with 25 in a year when its long serving GM was absent. One has to go back to the event's roots in the days of 1998 when it flew its flag under the nom de plume Advanced Third Reich at the last Avaloncon to find a larger field. This allowed for six full campaign games of protracted battle in a game so involved that it is played in teams. A couple of new players joined the grueling six-day, 60 plus hour event. The spectacle always attracts a lot of onlookers, and this year new table markers were added indicating the time frame and turn for each game. This allowed spectators to easily tell at a glance how each game compared to historical results. Two of the games were very decisive Axis victories, one was an Allied decisive victory, two were very close Axis victories, and one game did not get far enough to adjudicate. Most games generally followed the historical pattern of attacking France, followed by a Barbarossa attack. However, there were some unusual twists, including a Russian attack on Japan in Manchuria, an aggressive Mediterranean campaign along with Barbarossa, and several games which had great success with German advanced submarines. Nuclear strategies were more varied than usual, with one game not producing them at all, and several games producing large numbers of bombs, most of which were used tactically. The new rules regarding submarine warfare generally worked, but they need further tweaking. The new rule for ground attacks on fortified cities and islands, which guaranteed some losses for the attacker, worked very well.

As usual, play revealed several areas where rule changes were needed. The first was in Russia, where standard play had been for the Russians to run away in the summer turn, instead of defending as they historically had done. Penalties were added if the Russians allow key objectives to be captured without a fight. The second area was for Italian forces, which defended in mid war much more effectively than they did historically. Consequently, the Italians almost never surrendered in fall 1943, as they actually did. New rules now weaken the Italians after they have been pushed out of Africa, and also prevent the fortifying of Italy before its surrender. In submarine warfare, the research rules have been modified to prevent the large imbalances that have been experienced in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Mike Crowe will return to Gamemaster duties in 2011 after a one year sabbatical.

Trays of magetic counter reinforcements await their turn for entry into the game.	Magnetized units allow the giant games to be portable. This game's fans are truly fanatic.