By Troy A. Hill

I admit it. I’m a new army junkie.

Whenever a new force comes out, I look at the new faction rules, and the new models to see if either appeals to me.

So when Para Bellum Games announced they were doing a “rebuild” on one of their oldest factions, the Hundred Kingdoms for Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings, this past winter, I was immediately interested.

Yes, the W’adrhun are my first army. And orcs riding dinos are still my first love in the game. But, a gamer needs a second army. Right? And when fellow NDNGer Tom Gall said he was looking to unload his Conquest Hundred Kingdoms army, I jumped at the chance.

But then the reboot of the faction rules hit, and I had some tough choices to make.

By Phil Gurtler

Why Black Powder Red Earth 28mm?

Simply put, it is a hyper lethal, near-future skirmish game set in the middle east and the type of game I have been waiting for. This past year I’ve been craving an ultra-modern skirmish game to supplement my regular diet of WW2 games.  After some research online, I found a couple of potential options. Spectre Operations, In Country (also known as INX and will be showcasing V2 at Adepticon this year) and Black Powder Red Earth 28mm.

Of those, Spectre Operations and INX failed to catch my attention. But BPRE28mm grabbed me by the lapels and refused to let me go for months. Every two weeks I would seriously debate dropping the $300 on the starter set from their website.  Flash forward almost a year, and I am spending a few months at Fort Meade needing something to do. I headed to the local store and found out they have both the starter set and a beautifully painted store demo copy. That’s it; let’s rock this casbah.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Well all right, this is something I’ve been waiting for, the first non-Army book for Bolt Action, the v3 Compendium articles written by the Community. One thing I loved about Bolt Action v2 was the many campaign books and the extra flavour they brought to the game. I wasn’t a huge fan of the many one-off vehicles that became staples of all competitive lists from the old Campaign books, but I mean, that’s what’s expected when they aren’t really playtested?

By Richard Steer

“Why aren’t more people choosing the Manoeuvre stance?”

I asked this question of my friend Bede after a day spent running a Late-War Soviet Forward Detachment at a recent Flames of War tournament. In several games, I had attacked Berlin: German armored forces with combinations of StuGs, Hetzers, Panthers, and Panzer IV/70s. Every player I faced had also chosen to attack, with that combination in the Battle Plans mission selector leading to our games being meeting engagements.

I can see the attraction of the Attack stance. It leads to faster and simpler missions, and you usually don’t have Reserves so you get all your toys on the table. However, I was thinking about the advantages the German forces had over my Soviets: Careful Veteran skill, high front armor, and good anti-tank weapons, and whether the Attack stance was making the most of those.

By choosing to attack, the German players had been forced to advance to take objectives, reducing their Rate of Fire, bringing their tanks towards the anti-tank weapons of my infantry, and allowing my Shermans and SU-76s to get into their side armor.

By Kreighton Long

Last weekend six players assembled to compete in a Bolt Action tournament run by Jacob Kovel at the Williamsburg Muster convention in Williamsburg, VA.  Jacob, a veteran event organizer, kept the tournament running smoothly keeping all players on the proposed timeline.

Throughout the day there were a few instances of rules confusion among the players, of which I was guilty of, largely due to the recent transition from Second Edition to Third Edition.  When a rules confusion occurred, Jacob was quick to swoop in and clarify the correct interpretation, which were well received by the various players.

Jacob’s quick and precise clarifications is a testament to his veteran status as this was his third Third Edition tournament that he has run since the new release.  Competitors brought 1000 point lists and competed in three scenarios throughout the day.  The first scenario was Seek and Destroy, the second was Key Positions, and the third was Hold Until Relieved.

We are back! This episode we have Wes Crawford a friend and local game designer whose game on the hunt for John Wilkes Booth is about to hit store shelves. We also talk about his other games soon to be released, Engine Thieves and the St Albans Raid, both set during the Civil War.  We also talk about Warf Rat Games, his new company with show favorite Ryan Heilman .

By Michael Rafferty

Back in my younger days, we were playing a lot of Pike and Shotte English Civil War in 28mm. A friend of mine wanted to run a scenario at AdeptiCon 2018, which would be the first game I helped run at AdeptiCon, and we needed to find an appropriate battle.

There was a small, local convention that morning that my friend Dustin and I went to. The guy trying to organize the Pike and Shotte game was running a playtest that afternoon. We hurried from the local convention to our local store, The Game Room to play in it.

I’d been trying to get Dustin into historicals for years since the loss of Warhammer Fantasy broke his heart, and I was optimistic he’d like Pike and Shotte. Sadly, historical accuracy was about to ruin our day.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

In my previous article here, I mentioned trying out three lists and seeing what I’ll take to some upcoming events. Troubles at the Kruppe plant (aka 3d Printing issues) mean the Panzer IIs were still on the factory floor, and thus I would take either the gunline army or Mixed Bag list out for a spin vs Scott Roach.

Our order for the new Armies of Germany book and my MMG teams not having arrived yet meant probably not the Gunline list, so I decided to put together a list that had many of my new units painted and I could try out the ‘Hit Squad’ idea:

By Paolo Paglianti

Tomorrow marks the first FOW Nationals of the year! Near Milan, 40 players from all over Europe (plus an American and a Canadian!) will clash in battle to claim the title of 2025 Italian Nationals Champion.

The event is organized by the Milan FOW club, which is participating in full force—with four new players joining in (we’re growing!). They have also been a tremendous help in setting up the 20 tables for the Flames of War MID tournament.

By Phil Gurtler

The new Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) book is here, and as someone who started playing Team Yankee as the Israelis, I am extremely excited to see how this new book will change how I play my “boys in blue!”