Gaming

By Jim Naughton

The newest Soviet Ally to join the Team Yankee tabletop is the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FAR); or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba.

The troops represented in Red Dawn belong solely to the Tropas Terrestes with the exception of the MI-24 Hind, the other services are not represented. Which is a shame because the Cubans had their own parachute battalions, marines, and special operations forces, as well as a variety of aircraft.  Cuba didn’t use SU-17/22/25 so in the game, they must rely on Soviet aircraft.

By Troy A. Hill

An author friend of mine, M. L. “Matt” Buchman, connected with me over a year ago at a writer’s convention in Florida. Matt was excited to show off a beta model of his new card game. One that plays like a board game, and is tied into his best-selling Miranda Chase series of political thrillers.

Well, in the midst of the pandemic, supply chain issues, and other issues kept the game from hitting our shores until earlier this year.

Fortunately, I was able to catch up with Matt a year after our first meeting and get a rundown of the game. It’s quick, plays easily, and is a cooperative game, or one fit for solo play. I caught up with him a few weeks later, when he sent a promo copy of the game my way. Read our conversation below.

A series of short video tutorials are available here from Librarium Games and Alexander Massar, the designer of the game.

“How do you make a sequel to a game that covered all of human history?” ~ Brian Reynolds

By Patrick S. Baker

The thunderous success of the original Sid Meier’s Civilization (Civ I) in 1991, today would demand a sequel, and quickly, but back in the dark days of the early 1990s that just wasn’t so. In fact, the game that would become Sid Meier’s Civilization II (Civ II) was the first direct sequel that MicroProse would develop and market.

MicroProse management assigned the sequel development task to Brian Reynolds. Reynolds was no newbie to the game design and development business. He went to work for MicroProse in 1991, developing adventure games like Return of the Phantom. He had also previously collaborated with Sid Meier on Sid Meier’s Colonization. But none of his experience answered the basic question to which he needed a good response: “How do you make a sequel to a game that covered all of human history?”

Reynolds went to the source first, Meier himself. Reynolds later said: “We (he and Meier) sat down and brainstormed about it and hashed out ideas…” but Meier had little else to do with the game which would still bear his name.

By Mike Rafferty

I really like gaming. I mean I write for a gaming blog and I run historicals at AdeptiCon, which probably means I’m at least fond of gaming. As I walk around my house, I have gaming stuff just about everywhere. Some would say I have a problem and should cut down. I say that I should find an excuse to build a new army. Enter Andrew Verticchio.

For those who don’t know him, Andrew runs the Bolt Action events at Adepticon. 2022 was my first year working with him and he’s an all-around great guy. When I found out he was running a tournament near me, I knew I had to go. The only problem was that it was a Bolt Action Tank War tournament, and I didn’t really have a force. Sure, I had some random German tanks that I bought because they were fun to paint, but nothing cohesive. It’s important for me to support the people I work with in their tournaments, and it should be a lot of fun. Plus, it gives me an excuse to scratch that new army itch. There was only one answer, buy a new force based around one of my favorite tanks the Cromwell and paint it all by November.

By Mike Rafferty

The British Bulge book is finally out, which covers the British from post-Normandy Market Garden up to the end of the war. The book adds a lot of new features and army lists for the British and has a special significance for me. Welsh Guards Cromwells were the first army I actually built and painted fully. I still have this force and the Cromwell is my favourite-looking tank of the war, despite the obvious superiority of the Sherman. The new book adds Challengers, so I can finally play my Welsh Guards as intended with Cromwells and Challengers.

By Kreighton Long

When it came time to purchase my Italians I decided to go with Warlord Games. Their plastics have been excellent over the last several years and I figured why not give these a go. I can honestly say I wasn’t disappointed. The kits are easy to assemble with enough variety to have minimal duplications in your platoon. The sculpts are clean with good lines and deep contours that make highlighting that much easier when painting. I picked up one box of plastic infantry and the support teams box to get the meatball rolling. When I get to it I’ll add some vehicles and heavier support to really flush out my Italians into a force ready to take to the table. But first, we need to put paint to plastic.

By Tom Gall

Contained within the new September 2022 issues of Wargames Illustrated is a set of Napoleonic Rules call Valour and Fortitude. Jervis Johnson, Allen Perry and Michael Perry are the authors. The Perrys of course are from Perry Miniatures fame and Jervis Johnson a long-time and recently retired distinguished veteran from Games Workshop.

The rules started out as a 4-page system that expanded a bit after play testing over time. The rules are available online at Perry Miniatures as well as army lists and scenarios. The rules appear to be a living document and have already been updated to version 1.2 since their initial posting a couple of months back. (Edit – And now version 3 has been posted!)

I’m a long-time gamer of the Napoleonic era as well as a re-enactor. (French Fifer) It’s great to see activity for this time period of miniatures gaming. Locally our game group has primarily used Empire for large battles and either home brew for skirmish or Sharp Practice. ESR also deserves mention as it has recently attracted attention with its version 3 release and great campaign books.

By Paolo Paglianti

Ops, they did it again! After having explored “classic” WW2 and D-Day/Bulge scenarios, Spanish 3D Breed creators have launched a new themed Kickstarter about the North Africa theatre. And it’s so cheap, successful, and full of models every wargamer interested in World War 2 with a 3D printer should give it a look.

We already know the quality of 3D Breeds STL files, not only for WW2 models but also for “Ancient” (here is our feature about the Greeks and Persians) and “Western” ages (read about it here) so we already knew North Africa would be good. We received a small “press pack” with some miniatures and we promptly printed them (in 15mm).

Today we catch up the Glenn, Tyler, and Guest podcaster Joe Forster of Blood and Pigment to get the lowdown on the summer of plunder, as well as the September Tournament at the Calvert Marine Museum. Join us for this supersized recap of all that went down over the past few months as The Talesmen discuss Firelock Games and their premiere pirate game.

By Jim Naughton

Part one of this story here

Introduction

The 4^th Edition was published seven years ago.  You may ask why I’m reviewing it now.  There are a couple of reasons.  First, there are new offerings in the figures market in 12mm/15mm scale. Although theoretically aimed at other rulesets, they can be easily applied to Napoleon’s Battles.

And because Napoleon’s Battles (hereafter NB) uses small bases, a ‘sabot base’ or piece of plastic card, a movement tray or similar device can take figures based for NB and apply them to other systems.

In effect, figures are a fungible asset and can be used for multiple rules.  So I recommend those entering Napoleonics for the first time, to have a look at various systems, and base your figures in a way they can be multifunctional.