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.

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.