Gaming

By Troy Hill

Photos by Troy Hill and Michael Carter

As you might remember from my last piece on Kings of War, I’m at best, a middle-of-the-pack player in any game. I’m not a competitive player, at all. I don’t “Meta” nor “Net list” well.  And I rival Mitch Reed for the bottom of the barrel when it comes to painting talent here on the NDNG staff.

My goal is to field an army that doesn’t look bad on the table, and spend the event time pushing models, joking with my opponents, and rolling a lot of dice. Perhaps even emulating a late Ambassador of the game, Jesse Cornwell, and calling upon “Pizza Jesus” to bless the rolls when I really need that 11 or 12. (OK, I didn’t do that at this tournament, since I was usually pretty far in the hole in each game. One extra set of boxcars wouldn’t have done much good.)

But, somehow, I managed to bring home one of the trophies from the event. It now sits on my fireplace mantle, surrounded by a bunch of “Benchies” I’ve 3d printed over the past few years. Getting a solid Benchie from a 3D filament printer was about the best award I expected in gaming.

So, what’s my secret to winning while losing? Even more important, what did I do to get a trophy?

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 Robert Kelly

Visit Churchill War Rooms – Plan Your Visit | Imperial War Museums (iwm.org.uk)

No matter which travel guide you read, the Churchill War Rooms are always highly recommended. Armed with that knowledge I decided that I had to see it too. I didn’t book in advance online and hoped I had made the right decision. When I got there, there was a small lineup. Turned out that I didn’t really need to buy in advance. Those who bought in advance lined up to the right and those who bought onsite lined up to the left. They then alternated letting people in from the two lines. It cost me 27.25 pounds.  Children aged 5 to 15 pay 13.60 pounds. It seemed that in London, the more expensive the museum, the more people wanted to see it.

“In May of 1941 the war had just begun, The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns

The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea, On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees”

Sink the Bismarck by Johnny Horton and Tillman Franks

By Patrick S. Baker

Computer Bismarck was developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and is considered the first serious war game published for what was then called micro-computers and are now called personal computers, or PCs. Prior to Bismarck’s release computer video games had largely been arcade-style games; in home versions of Space Invaders or Pac-man, etc.

Released in February 1980 for the TRS-80 and the Apple II. The game was developed by Joel Billings and John Lyons and written in BASIC computer language.  Rather than come up with a design from scratch, the two developers liberally “borrowed” (some would say lifted directly) from Avalon Hill’s (AH) board game, Bismarck.  Noting the similarities of SSI’s Computer Bismarck, as well as other SSI titles, to their various board games, Avalon Hill took SSI to court in 1983. In 1984 the companies settled out of court, with SSI reportedly paying AH $30,000 dollars.

By Kreighton Long

On October 7 I had the opportunity to compete in the Bolt Action tournament at the Call to Arms convention in Williamsburg, Virginia put together by veteran Tournament Organizer Kalissa Skibicki.  Eight players competed throughout the day in three rounds of games using the Heartbreak Ridge, No Man’s Land, and Key Positions scenarios.

As always, the tables were a true treat to play on, drawing in many passersby, and creating gorgeous photo opportunities.  The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. Kalissa’s tournament highlights echoed this remarking on the friendly and good nature of all players, an overall feeling of relaxation, and overhearing several suggestions between players giving opponents better cover advantages and better placement of objectives.

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.

“Before Guadalcanal, the enemy advanced at his pleasure—after Guadalcanal, he retreated at ours.” – Adm. William F. (Bull) Halsey, USN

By Patrick S. Baker

In 1982, Strategic Simulations, Inc (SSI) released Guadalcanal Campaign (GC). The game is the first game developed by famed game designer, Gary Grigsby. GC is also considered the first commercially released “monster wargame” for personal computers.

In 1982, Grigsby was a civil servant working for the Department of Defense (DoD). He had long had an interest in strategy and wargame, buying and playing board games from companies like Avalon Hill, Victory Games, and Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI).

In 1979, Grisby bought a TRS-80 to “take the combat systems off of these really complicated … wargames and put them on the computer.” Eventually, Grigsby was trying to develop and program full games using BASIC.  But he had no idea how to contact the two main PC game developers of the time, SSI and Avalon Hill, to get his games produced and marketed.

by Paolo Paglianti

We already had an article about ETC 2023 (you can read it here), probably the biggest and most important FOW tournament of the year. Now it’s time to talk about the six games I had during the tournament. I first attended the ETC in 2022 with Team Iceland – I was the “Italian Viking” mercenary invited to join the Nordic team by Soren Petersen and the rest of the squad. I was very happy and fortunate enough to secure the second overall position.

For my debut with the Team Italy at ETC 2023, I stuck with the British Army, my preferred list in FOW. However, this time I was up against a challenging opponent. While the British army in Late War is a highly respectable list, equipped with all the tools needed to face any adversary, its Desert War counterpart for Mid War is an entirely different story. The British in the desert lacks effective Anti-Tank capabilities with solid AT values. You can acquire some costly 17/25 pound guns, but they are rather immobile. Alternatively, you can opt for the even pricier M10s from our wealthier US counterparts, but they are easily hit (3+) and struggle to effectively counter the formidable armored units of the Russians or Germans.

By Troy Hill

For the first time in almost a decade, North East Indiana in the USA seeing the return of a weekend-long gaming convention in November. With the demise of PentaCon earlier this century, the pre-Thanksgiving game con slot has been empty in this part of Indiana.

True, Ft. Wayne Indiana is still home to the Winter Fantasy role-playing convention every winter (WF now run by Baldman Games), but, in my humble opinion, the Fort needs a late fall convention focussed on tabletop miniatures.

And the Death or Glory (DoG) club is hosting just such an event in the same time slot, and at the same location as the now-defunct PentaCon. They’re hosting Rumble on the Rivers at the Grand Wayne Center in downtown Fort Wayne November 10-12, 2023.

DoG has hosted three successful Motor City Mayhem tournaments so far in the greater Detroit area. Their first was in 2021 at the height of the pandemic. Rolling with the state of the world then, they instituted social distancing among tables, and performed temperature checks by on-site medical personnel.

No Dice No Glory is happy to be a part of the event and is sponsoring two of the historical tournaments. What tourneys are going to be hosted?

By Kreighton Long

Back in August Warlord Games announced their newest campaign book, Case Blue, and made it available for pre-order.  We here at No Dice No Glory were given the opportunity to preview the book and boy-howdie am I ecstatic to share with you what’s in it!

OVERVIEW: Case Blue is a 176 page supplement for Bolt Action written by Alexander Smith and Ryan Smith that covers the southern region of the Eastern Front from December 1941 to July 1943.  Within it’s pages are 19 historical scenarios, 33 new units for 5 different factions, 34 new theater selectors for 6 different factions, and a new army list for any players interested in building a Slovak army.