Plastic Soldier’s Company’s timing was great. I recently had the opportunity to host an intro-101 style training session at Gamex, a gaming convention in Los Angeles, California. What should show up in my mailbox a week before I had to submit event details to the convention? Battlegroup: Torch, their latest theatre book.

What follows in this piece is a combination of a look at the book itself, as well as lessons learned from applying it in a training session with players I didn’t know.

By Troy A. Hill
All images courtesy of IronFist Publishing.

When IronFist Publishing and  (PSC) first published their Overlord book in 2013, the tome weighed in at 240-ish pages. The book covered the Western Europe forces in D-Day operations, as well as D-Day+1 up until the defeat in the Falaise Pocket.

IronFist and PSC recently republished a partial re-release of the book:  (BtB) that covers “the battles inland” after D-day. The reprint is slightly over half the pages of the original (at 136 pages).

By Scott Grasse, Kevin Morris, and Tom Burgess

—FLASH —

AXIS OFFENSIVE THREATENS ALLIED HOLD IN TUNISIA – ALLIES FAIL TO BREAK MARETH DEFENSES
Press release – March 1943

Guest Post By Jörg

Do you want to know where the Iron Crosses grow? Well, is prepared to show you.  While attending Cold Wars, I came across a game of Iron Cross published by Great Escape Games being run.  I was unable to sign up for the game but stood back as a lurker for a short time to get a feel.

Honestly, among the great deluge of WWII game rules on the market, I never really noticed Iron Cross (they have been out a few years). However, after watching the game unfold, they made it onto my convention “buy list”.

Our gaming group likes to play company level actions on our WWII gaming night and we had not quite found the right rules to scratch that itch (or finish games before our local hobby shop closed at night!).  I was able to find a copy in the vendor hall and take the plunge…..  Now that we have actually played the rules, I have a decent sense of how they are intended to work and how they “feel” on the table.  So here goes!

Assembly of Mk II finished.

Plastic Soldier Company has released their and 20mm scales. They were kind enough to send NDNG a set of 15mm for review.

Out of the box, the 15mm sprues are impressive, yet daunting. Two hull tops are included – one with side skirts, one without. The instructions list the side-skirt hull as the Valentine III and IX model.

These tanks are a welcome addition, with both Flames of War and BattleGroup focussing on Desert War in North Africa right now. Players of any 15mm WWII game with an eye toward North Africa, or even the Eastern Front with Valentines as Lend-Lease can make good use of this set.

By Scott Grasse

One of the exciting features of a Firestorm campaign is the use of additional “free” units that are added to players’ forces for each battle. These additional troops represent the combat power associated with the units fighting on the campaign map – the more units attacking on the map, the greater the force attacking on the battle table.

Troop types in Firestorm Tunisia: Armor, Infantry, Delaying Force, Fortification, and Roadblock.

By Scott Grasse

Editor’s Note: No Dice No Glory is pleased to host a global Flames of War V4 campaign designed by Scott Grasse. Follow along, post your results, check for the latest updates on

Pre Campaign Battles to get you started,

The terrain in Tunisia is rugged, unique, and had a major influence on the battles fought there.  Several new terrain features are introduced for Firestorm Tunisia.  Get ready to encounter vast Salt Beds otherwise known as tank death traps; Rocky Ground that makes it impossible to dig in; Heavy Scrub that is perfect for hiding an ambush; and entrenched, dry water-ways called Wadis that form a natural and formidable defense.  Heavy spring rains would then transform these difficult terrains to nearly impassable.

Iron Tom Burgess, Chairborne Tom Mullane, and (no nickname) Troy take a look back at the past year since BattleFront premiered Version 4 rules.

What did they like, and not so much? What works? What do they want to see tweaked?

Listen now for commentary on Version 4, a year later.

 By Scott Grasse

NDNG will host Firestorm Tunisia, a global Flames of War campaign beginning on April 14th.  The campaign will run through June and will give players the chance to fight the battles during the last remaining months of Axis occupation in North Africa.

If you are not familiar, a Firestorm Campaign is a series of linked battles that tie to a larger campaign map. Players engage in standard Flames of War battles at their regular gaming venue to represent the engagements that are occurring on the campaign map.

Discuss the campaign on