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.

Yet another great interview with an author from Casemate Publishers! We have Timothy Fitzpatrick whose book, The Long Shadow of Waterloo is one not to miss. The book is about,  as Tim told me, How Waterloo changed history and how history changed Waterloo.

By Mitch Reed

Recently the folks from Princeps Games in Serbia sent me a copy of their latest design, Freezing Inferno which covers the 1939-1940 Soviet-Finnish War.

I thought the topic of the game was unique and I am a big fan of their previous title, March on the Drina, which covers the Central Powers’ attack on Serbia during the Great War.

Recently I have been playing a lot of games from small European designers and am starting to love the work they do.

In 2020 a group of veteran game designers kicked off the initial Zenobia contest. This is a competition that mentors historical game designers who are underrepresented within the gaming community. Contestants will have a chance to state why they feel that their community needs a voice within the design space.

The contest had over 150 entries and culminated 11 months later with eight semi-finalists and selected Tyranny of Blood as the initial winner of the contest. The Zenobia II contest is now live, and designers have until 14 October to enter a design proposal. This year’s contest opens the gaming aperture with the inclusion of miniatures game designs.

We have another great interview with George Washington University’s  Strategic Crisis Simulations  leadership. Our own Caroline “CWIS” Gilmore is joined by Cormac Brown and Cassandra Micah and we talk all about the excellent program these talented students run.

Today we have Adrian Mandzy who published a miniatures scenario book that focuses on the Ukrainian partisan movement during WWII. We also talk about the great game By Fire and Sword, the use of wargames in academics and historical archeology.

Today we have Eric Hansen the designer of Blood & Crowns, a new game about the 100-Years War from Firelock Games. We talk about the game and the work involved in the design process.

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.

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. 

By Mitche Reed

I hate to reveal my age, but I remember the US withdrawal from South Vietnam in 1975, I remember thinking as they pushed helicopters off the sides of US warships “Won’t they need those?”

Gaming the fall of the South is something that has always interested me; I have played Volko Ruhnke’s Fire in the Lake, Fall of Saigon expansion, but that is a COIN game and I wanted to play just the military aspect of the final act of the Vietnam Conflict. Luckily the designers from Nuts! Publishing has released Saigon 75 a game that covers the topic.