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Airborne Assault: Conquest of the Aegean Announced

PC

(Press Release)

Woodbridge, NJ, June 11th, 2004 - Matrix Games and Panther Games (www.panthergames.com) are pleased to announce the development Airborne Assault: Conquest of the Aegean, a new wargame covering the battles for Greece, Crete and a hypothetical Malta operation during World War II. Designed by the talented historical wargame specialists at Panther Games and planned for release during fall 2004, Conquest of the Aegean will bring to life 20th Century warfare on ancient battlegrounds. A preview of Conquest of the Aegean will be shown in the Matrix Games booth at Origins 2004, starting June 24th.

Conquest of the Aegean is the third wargame released by Panther Games in their critically acclaimed Airborne Assault series. Reviews of the second game, Highway to the Reich, had this to say: "revolutionary", "extraordinary", "the new future of wargaming". At its heart is "the best AI ever seen in any game". As one GameSpot reviewer put it "It's hard to convey just how cool this system is, because not only does it eliminate the massive amount of micromanagement inherent in most wargames, but it does so in a way that makes it feel like you're really commanding forces in the field."

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said "The genre of wargaming is lucky to have designers and developers as talented as the guys at Panther Games. We are proud to be publishing Conquest of the Aegean, which expands and enhances the Airborne Assault series in ways that gamers will love while covering some great battles from an often neglected theater."

Conquest of the Aegean covers the entire Greek Campaign, where German, Greek, Italian, British and Commonwealth forces fought to halt the oncoming blitzkrieg before the start of Operation Barbarossa. Also included is the follow-on airborne-led assault on Crete, which proved to be a gamble for the Germans, but a very successful one. This tough island campaign pulls no punches as both sides fight tooth and nail to achieve success by holding the critical airfields. Finally, the road not taken... Malta was a thorn in the Axis side in the Mediterranean for the entire war. Planes based on Malta proved crucial to protecting British supplies and hindering German and Italian supply routes. While plans were discussed to attack this bastion, they were never executed. Conquest of the Aegean gives you have the ability to give the green light to the attack on Malta and fight as either side to see how things might have turned out.

In Conquest of the Aegean, players get to take on the role of either the Allied or German commanders and pit their wits against either a computer controlled opponent or a human opponent via LAN or the internet.

List of Planned Features

(Please note that this feature list is not final and may change before release.)

· New Campaign Mode: Fight a series of scenarios where the outcome of each scenario affects the subsequent path of the campaign and the forces involved. Choose which forces to use in each engagement, including the ability to place units in reserve for rest and refit or commit them from the reserve for action.

· Improved Interface, AI, Scenario and Map Maker

· Enhanced Map Terrain Effects and New Map Graphics

· More Terrain and Altitude Layers

· New Weapons and Units

· New Exit Tasks

For more information, check the main Matrix Games page at http://www.matrixgames.com for future press releases and discussions.

ABOUT PANTHER GAMES

Panther Games Pty Ltd design and develop state of the art computer wargames. Based in Canberra, Australia, they have been in the games business since 1985, when they launched their first board wargame Trial of Strength. They released their first computer wargame, Fire-Brigade, in 1988 and won many awards including the prestigious Charles S Roberts award for Best 20th Century Computer Wargame. In 2003 they launched Red Devils over Arnhem, the first in their new Airborne Assault series, which was followed quickly by Highway to the Reich. Their games are now published by Matrix Games of New York. For further information see www.panthergames.com.

ABOUT MATRIX GAMES

Matrix Games produces, markets and publishes historical wargames as well as other computer gaming products. Since 2002, Matrix Games has published several award-winning games, including Highway to the Reich, Starships Unlimited, Uncommon Valor and Korsun Pocket. Matrix Games is based in Woodbridge, New Jersey. For more information, visit the Matrix Games website at http://www.matrixgames.com.