Gaming

By Jim Naughton

TWO-BEE, or NOT TWO-BEE, THAT IS THE QUESTION

Zwei-bae, oder nicht Zwei-bae, das ist heir die Frage…somehow the pun doesn’t work in German. But it is an important question for PACT players. When you buy your new T72 battalion for BattleFront’s Team Yankee system, you can build your T72 models as the older T72/T72M variant or the brand-spanking-new T72B variant. The layers of reactive armor look awesome. The T72B brings missile capability along with the reactive armor, as well as advanced penetrators.

If you buy the AT-8/AT-11missiles for long-range engagements the T72B makes NATO come to the party by outranging their tanks and is a threat to hunter-killer helicopters. The move-and-shoot capability of the AT-8/AT-11 ensures that even from reserves, the T72B is a credible threat to any visible target. The ERA gives the tank the ability to crash lines of Irish Guards, an ability the Soviet/PACT has been sadly lacking. My heart, be still.

by Paolo Paglianti

When the man with a 3D printer meets the man with the right Kickstarter, the man with the 3D printer will print a lot! You can’t say 3DBreed, the Spanish STL files producer, sits on their hands at all. After the launch of the Persian/ Greek Kickstarter, they now time travel to the XIX century on the wild west frontier.

By Tom Gall

Now that the Bulge German book, command cards, and unit cards are starting to flow out across the planet, I’m sure you’re like me, plotting what to buy and wondering in general how things will play. This article is about a 100 pt game featuring Volksgrenadiers vs American Airborne with tank destroyers and Pershings.

I like the Volksgrenadier formation as it offers fairly cheap German Infantry that can be improved partially depending on what Command Cards you may or may not choose to field.

Some feel yes you can just upgrade a portion of the formation, others feel that no you can’t and must have the 12 Volksgrenidier cards for all unit types you field. Phil Yates from Battlefront did take some time out of his busy day and make a ruling on this which was that you can’t mix the units.

By Tom Mullane

This past April I turned 39. And when my wife asked me what I wanted to do with my birthday weekend, I told her I had it all planned out. I would be heading down to Maryland to play in my first Blood and Plunder tournament in nearly six months.

Glenn Van Meter, Tyler Stone, and I had been plotting and scheming for months to put on a land tournament at Critical Hit Games in Abingdon Maryland.

The cards had been printed, the terrain had been made, and the invites sent. Heading into the weekend we had 24 signed up but expected a few would drop for the usual reasons. Since I was traveling the furthest, Glenn and Tyler generously told me I could play in the tournament without acting as a TO. (I would not be taking any prize money obviously, because I’m an eagle scout who wouldn’t break the sacred vow we all took as Tournament Organizers).

This tournament I would be bringing my Spanish, to see if my multitude of games getting my clock cleaned might finally pay off. My friends Niguel and Shane get credit as my sparring partners in the lead-up to this Tournament.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell, additional photos by Mike Abbott and Tod Creasey

The local gaming club, Ottawa Miniature Gaming (OMG), held a two-day Art de la Guerre (ADLG) event over the May long-weekend. I decided to sign up after only one practice game.

I could only attend the 15mm 200pt Roman-themed event, but was able to drop by and snap some pics of Day Two’s 28mm Dark Ages era tournament, stayed tuned for a future post.

We had 15 players attend, which is a great turnout, despite the gigantic summer storm knocking out power. With an odd number of players, I opted to take the third round bye so I could take some pics.

Join Glenn, Tyler and Tom as they talk about Historicon’s upcoming events, the new Raise the Black about to wash up on our shores, and earn some free stuff by answering some trivia.

By Glenn Van Meter

Last year at Historicon, No Dice No Glory ran a very successful Ironman Tournament for Firelock Games. The gaming spanned three systems, two days, and dozens of competitors. All three sub-tournaments were the largest Firelock Games tournaments to date for each system. We even had demo tables on-hand for passers-by to try out what they were seeing. So it was no surprise that Firelock Games has asked us to help them make this year another overwhelming success.

By Troy Hill

Well, Warlord did it again.

They released a new game. That uses rules from their other games. For an entirely new game. Or something like that.

Combined Arms is both a stand-alone board game, and a campaign set for Warlord’s suite of World War II games, Bolt Action, Blood Red Skies, Cruel Seas, and Victory at Sea.

And my gaming group in Indiana has been salivating for a campaign system we can use. Warlord timed the release of the game well, right as gaming is ramping up across the globe after two years mostly in pandemic lockdowns.

By Tom Gall

With the release of the Battle of the Bulge German forces by Battlefront, the German player is granted a luxurious set of choices for new units to play with for version 4 of Flames of War. This article is about putting together a Volksgrenadier formation with the addition of some of the fun thematic late war German super weapons and playing it against Americans on the tabletop. What works well? What doesn’t?