By Erich Goebel

List building in Blood & Plunder (and any wargame) can be one of the most intimidating facets of learning a new game and delving into competitive and focused, serious play. Blood & Plunder also features over 100 different factions to play under seven umbrella nationalities with fantastic nuance and differences that give each a unique flavor to play and test. These numbers can be overwhelming, as one flips through the one core book and three expansion books available to compare list options.

Luckily, the online force builder tool is utterly amazing and is actually fun and convenient to use.

By Troy A. Hill

On 12-13 August, this Hoosier (aka, Indiana native) convinced his wife to let him travel the seven-hour trip up to Hamilton Ontario, and participate in my first-ever Kings of War tournament. Hosted by Black Knight games, the two-day, five-round tourney had players from New York, as well as many parts of Ontario.

This particular tourney wasn’t just my initiation to Kings of War (KOW) on a competitive level, but also my first experience playing under the constraints of a chess clock. I was worried that I’d face melt-down brain as I watched the seconds tick by, struggling with analysis paralysis.

Editor’s note: This week David takes a look at how the hobby of TT Wargaming helped him through a tough emotional time. In this story, he reminds us that our games are not just about the counters, the figures, the little toy soldiers, but about the people across the table from us. The hobby can be community as well. And that can help us all.

By David Garvin

On the 4th of July this year, my mother died. She lived her last days at a hospice near the shores of the Bay of Quinte in eastern Ontario, Canada. Almost as if on cue after her passing, a pair of CF-188 Hornets of the Royal Canadian Air Force flew overhead as they conducted a series of touch-and-goes at nearby 8 Wing at Astra, Ontario. A fitting tribute, especially how much my mother loved going to the base to watch the air shows.

Personally, I was at my mother’s side in her last days, being able to visit with her while she was still lucid and able to ensure that her spiritual needs were fulfilled and being able to pray in her presence, finishing with an Angelus for her less than an hour before her death.

By Tom Burgess,

Henry Turner continues to amaze with the volume of STL files he creates for 6mm wargamers.  He truly is the master of 6mm scale rank and file STL file creation.  His latest effort focuses on the armies that fought the Battle of Waterloo.  The Kickstarter for “Europe Asunder Waterloo” is open now and remains open until September 9th, 2023.

The figures that Henry Turner has created in 6mm are simply astonishing in the level of detail they provide.  I love that Henry creates these STL files in such a way that they print directly from the 3D printer build plate with minimal, and in most cases, no supports needed.  There are very few supports that need to be trimmed off of the final prints.

Today we have John Chang the designer of Black Powder Red Earth a 28mm ultra-modern tactical skirmish game. We talk about the game and the design process the developers went through to get the game to market.

Dear HQ, are you seriously asking to kill an Elephant with an Elefantino gun? Yours, Italian at front without an 88. 

By Paolo Paglianti

Oops, we did it again! NoDiceNoGlory took part in the most important Flames of War event of the world, as we did in 2022. Each year, the European Team Championship is the moment where the most passionate and strong FOW players meet with their national teams. No easy battle, as here you find the best of the best – and not only from Europe, as New Zealand and US Teams also join the party. An amazing long weekend where I met tons of wonderful people with the same passion for wargames and lots of fun.

By Jim Naughton

A BMP for ALL SEASONS – the BMP-1P

Nordic Forces had a pequena sorpressa [little surprise] when I first read it. The first faction in the book is the Finns, and after shaking my head about a Finnish 1985 tank with KONTAKT-1 ERA I found the ‘Finnish’ version of the BMP-1. No missile, but upgradeable to the 9K111 Fagot (gotta love Soviet names; it means BASSOON) or in Western parlance, AT-4 SPIGOT. The picture was spot on. BMP-1P.

By Kreighton Long

In my previous article, I described my first foray into mold making.  In this article, I’ll share how I took the cured casts and painted them to look like generic cobblestone sidewalks.  I spent some time looking at different cobblestone sidewalks on Google Images to try to find out how to paint mine.  In the end, I decided to go with a basic grey color as a safe neutral to fit most settings.

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

HMGS’s flagship convention, Historicon got underway this past week at the Lancaster County Convention Center and a number of No Dice No Glory writers and gamers were in attendance. Mitch Reed, Tom “Chairborne” Mullane, Matt Varnish, Scott Roach, Glenn Van Meter, and a whole host of other friends, podcasters, game designers, and friendly folks made the trip and had a blast.

Read on to get a peak at all the great games and goings on from the NDNG crew.

The boys are back in town! The NDNG crew went to Historicon 2023 in scenic Lancaster PA. It was a full crew, with Tom, Preston, Scott and Matt gaming and creating mayhem. We have a bunch of guests on the show and we talk about our Firelock Ironman and about wargaming in general.