By Mitch Reed

Gallipoli and the Near East are two campaigns that have become iconic and thanks the many movies, TV shows and books on these campaigns we have some great examples of how the conflict in these theaters went down.

This article will detail the forces in these two theaters and will be the third and final preview on what is in store for you in Blood and Valor from I would recommend that you look over the first article (or second) in this series that explains the construct on the force lists in the game.

By Mitch Reed

In my last article I told you all about the armies you will find fighting on the Western Front in Blood and Valor from Firelock Games. In this article we will go over the forces that fought in East Africa during the Great War. If you did not catch my previous article, I would recommend you do, the first half of the article talk about how formations are built and what units comprise a unit.

Last year when I asked (begged) Rufus and Kai DeVane to help with Blood and Valor it was my intention to include the fighting in East Africa which is omitted from so many games. My love for the theater is due to the many books I have read on the subject, the colorful characters who played a role in the campaign and the fact that it breaks the trench deadlock vision that many gamers have when the Great War is brought up.

Our 50th Episode as we close out our second year in existence.

In our second episode focusing on Glenn and Chairborne are back and they are joined by Tyler Stone. The guys go over what they have been up to and what is in-store for the future. They also talk about historical scenarios in Blood and Plunder

The upcoming Great War game Blood and Valor from covers many different theaters of the conflict and when talking about the forces and factions in the game it is best to detail the force lists in relation to where and at what time they are found in the Great War.

Players will see that the forces in are balanced to fight against all other forces in the game, so it may be fun to have East African German Askari fight against US Doughboys just to see what would happen. The first book for Blood and Valor covers the fighting on the Western Front, Gallipoli, the Near East and East Africa. This article will give you an idea of what forces are in play for the Western Front.

The Great War games keep rolling out and for junkies of the conflict are in gaming heaven. The next big release is coming to your PC and it is a remake of one of my favorite games; Strategic Command Great War. For those of you who have not played any games in the series (WW2 came out exactly a year ago) they cover conflicts at the strategic level, so you not only control vast armies but also control the means of production, diplomacy and technological improvements of the nation you play.

Welcome to our new podcast focusing on all things Firelock Games. In Volume 1 we have Tom “Chairborne” Mullane and a new podcast but a long time friend Glenn “Dutch” Van Meter. In today’s episode they talk all about Blood and Plunder and all the other Firelock products you love!

By Pete Harris, Derby, UK

I have been playing FoW Great War since it first came out and for several years my colleague Richard Robinson and I ran participation Great War games on the UK wargames events circuit. The new Great War V4 book has really increased my commitment and I now have British, German Stoss and American forces. For some months now we have been working on several sets of additional rules to cover areas that GW does not currently address such as aircraft, off-table artillery, and special trench warfare rules. The link at the end of this article will take you to the first set of rules for using aircraft in Great War. Hope you find them interesting.

We are live from HMGS’s Fall-In 2019. We also add a new voice to the NDNG podcast crew, Scott Roach. In this episode we talk to Mike Tunez, Kai DeVane and Rufus DeVane from Firelock Games and we talk about Blood and Plunder, Oak and Iron and the yet to be released Blood and Valor.

Recently I was invited to be a part of a gaming experiment at the home of wargame designer If you are an avid wargamer you already know who he is, for those not familiar with his work you really need to check out some of his games in the COIN Series from GMT Games.

These games focus on counter insurgency operations during conflicts such as Vietnam, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror and focus on politics as much as military operations. The series has won many well-deserved awards and is groundbreaking in expanding our hobby beyond pushing troops around a map.

I recently returned to playing in tournaments of one of the first miniatures games I got into,, and I now have a new appreciation for the game. I wanted to share this rejuvenation with you.

Why did I leave the tournament scenes? It wasn’t that I walked away from the game, I still played FOW socially, ran tournaments for both FOW and Team Yankee (TY). As many of you know I still covered the game here on NDNG.  I just walked away from competitive play for a while. My hiatus came about because I saw some things I didn’t like about the tournament scene.

A month or so ago, when the D-Days books first came out, I wanted to bring a friend who hadn’t played FOW into the scene, and a tournament at a new Local Game Store (LGS) seemed like a perfect opportunity. But, would the tourney scene be a positive experience for a new to FOW player? Or, would the hardened, competitive attitudes of some of the players prove to give him a negative experience?