By Mitch Reed
Native forces have been in Blood & Plunder since its inception and recent books from Firelock Games such as Fire on the Frontier and Raise the Black have expanded their footprint in the game and their presence is now being seen on more game tables.
By Mitch Reed
With Firelock Games release of Blood & Crowns which covers the period of the Hundred Years War, gamers now have the third game in the franchise as it joins Blood & Valor (Great War), Blood & Steel (era of black powder), and the flagship game Blood & Plunder which covers the early colonial Americas.
Gamers who play all three already know that each of these games shares a DNA that once you learn to play one of them, you understand how the others work. This design fungibility is a huge benefit to gamers who like to play multiple periods without having to learn many different rulesets.
Today we have Jack and Samuel Gassmann, the brothers behind Masterstroke Game’s Force of Virtue, a 15th Century themed skirmish game that focuses on the Borgia period in Rome. This game is one that you will want to check out and when you listen to this episode you can hear the love of the period and the intimate knowledge the design team has for this period and which is evident in this game.
Huge treat for you today in this long (but interesting) episode. We have Hermann Luttmann (A Most Fearful Sacrifice and many others) and Ryan Heilman (Brave Little Belgium and many others) and we talk about their new design “Into the Whirlpool” coming out from Blue Panther Games. We talk about so much more, such as game design and the gaming industry.
By Mitch Reed
One of the benefits of my day job is that I get to play games at work for research and recently some co-workers and I tried out Nineveh: We are coming from Nuts! Publishing (a company I really like).
Since I knew two members of the design team, Rex Brynen and Brian Train, I felt that the game would be something special and after we played it one afternoon, I saw how great designers can abstract a difficult concept and bring a solid game to the market.
By Mitch Reed
I wish that my love of history was more well-rounded.
Blood & Crowns is a new skirmish game that covered the Hundred Years War. The kickstarter campaign is still waiting on production of the initial project, and should ship this spring (northern hemisphere).
My journey from never having an interest in this period to becoming excited about it is a wild story.
When it comes to certain periods of history I have little more than a rudimentary knowledge of what occurred and may be able to recognize a few battles, dates, and historical figures. When it comes to the history of the Hundred Years War, I know it lasted more than a century, and other than reading Shakespeare’s Henry V and John Keegan’s Illustrated Face of Battle, both of which I read back in High School, I know little about the conflict.
When I heard that Firelock Games was working on a new game called Blood & Crowns that covered this period, I did not list it as a “must buy”, however after seeing a draft of the rules and especially after my NoDiceNoGlory.com interview with Eric Hansen, the designer, I was hooked and now I have painted over 100 models to play this great game.
Today we have Ian Brown, the designer of the game Maneuver Warfare that will be released in 2024 from the Dietz Foundation. Ian is a talented game designer and if I say myself an interesting guy. If you want to play a game about modern warfare by an “insider” then you will want to check out this podcast.
Today we have Michael Riddick, a good friend of NDNG, who talks about his game Magnum Opus which users in a new way to play ancients miniatures. Even if you do not play this period, you will love Mike’s approach to gaming and writing rules. Find out more in Instagram by looking up magnum_opus_wargaming
We too at NDNG are also fans of some of the games we cover and today was a treat for me. I speak with David Freer from Wargame Design Studios, which now hold the John Tiller Games catalog and so much more. We talk about the whole series which spans multiple decades and conflicts.
If you want to know more about these great games you do not want to miss this one.
By Mitch Reed
I have been hiding a secret from many of you, over the last three years I have not been painting. I have mentioned this on podcasts numerous times and if you ran into me at an LGS or a convention, I probably told you bluntly, “I have not painted in years.” I have no idea what caused this, perhaps from playing too many board games? Could it be that I have all the painted models I need to play the games I love?
No matter the cause, the passion was gone, however recently my passion returned, and the flame was relit.
