Gaming

By Tyler

The global campaign is back, and it’s bigger and better than ever!

The Talesmen of No Dice No Glory will be partnering with Firelock Games, Blood & Pigment, and The Plunder Den to present you with another global community campaign for Firelock’s “pirate” games – Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron. Veterans of last year’s inaugural campaign will recall that the Summer of Plunder follows a loose structure, offering a fun way for Firelock gamers around the world to interact, regale with photos and stories of their battles, and compete for the glory of their chosen faction (and prizes, many prizes).

By Howard West

No Dice No Glory has received advance copies of the next force book for the V4 Flames of War(FOW) Bulge German Book from Battlefront Miniatures.

I was asked to do a comparison of the Flames of War V3 Ardennes Offensive vs the new V4 Bulge German Book. and at the same time introduce the new Bulge German Book to our Flames of War followers on NO Dice No Glory.

This will be the first of several articles that will be done by the NoDiceNoGlory Team. The next article will be about “The Big Cats”

By Mitch Reed

I once again accepted the invite from Sebastian Bae to playtest his wargaming student’s final projects at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland. As with my last time doing this I was very impressed with the games the students developed over the course of a semester and feel that some of the projects they had on display were good enough for the commercial market.

“We came to serve God, and to get rich.” ― Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo

By Patrick S. Baker

1984’s The Seven Cities of Gold (henceforth Seven Cities) is generally acknowledged as one of the most successful and influential early “open-world” video games.

In an open-world video game, the player can wander freely through the virtual world and has significant freedom in choosing how and when to approach the game objectives. In the game a player takes on the character of a 15th-century conquistador, sailing across the Atlantic to the New World to explore, obtain gold and make the Spanish court happy.

The name of the game comes from the legend of the seven cities of gold variously called Cibola, Quivira, or El Dorado. The mythical cities were fabulously wealthy and supposedly located somewhere in what is now the American Southwest.

By Tyler

There’s been a bit of a Firelock Games ‘drought’ here on No Dice lately. In that time, the gang from Miami has kicked out the ‘Fire on the Frontier’ expansion, nearly finished their Kickstarter, launched a new game out of nowhere, and teased one more in the works. We haven’t been quite as busy as all that, but we haven’t been idle this whole time either. The Tales-men have jumped out of the digital space and started running tournaments of our own. Captain ‘Chairborne’ will be along to talk about his experience at our most recent event, but today I’d like to share with you how we’ve been doing… well, what we’re doing.

Grabbing a Venue

Choosing a venue is the first step to any event, unless you’re running at a Con. It would been simple enough for us to pick one of the excellent local gaming stores in the area to host us. However, if you can find a venue that stocks the game, that’s an advantage.

Some of you might know that Firelock had to pull out of the 2022 Adepticon. They had their reasons, but it was disappointing to have people who wanted to pick up a new force or jump into a new game without anywhere to shop.

That’s why we chose Critical Hit in Abingdon MD for the ‘Easter Island’ tournament. The store has a great Firelock section, so we were able to grow the community and also help them shift some products. Ask not just what your store can do for you, but also, what you can do for your store.

The Tails-men are back, the only podcast dedicated to all of the fun from Firelock Games! Join Glenn, Tom and Tyler as they chat about their “Plunder of Easter Island” Tournament in Maryland from this past month. Trivia is also back, so join in for a chance at some sweet free prizes!

By Mike Rafferty

This past March, Adepticon returned after a two-year hiatus (caused by “nothing in particular).

The convention once again returned to Schaumburg, IL. This was a different convention from years past, and not just because of the wait between conventions.

While Keyforge was held offsite in 2019, this year historical games were at the Hyatt giving Adepticon its first true offsite venue.

I volunteered to run this offsite venue and historicals to ensure that historical players, of which I am one, received a great convention experience. My long-term goal is that we can use this space to grow historicals at Adepticon and establish our own identity to stand along with the Games Workshop and Star Wars players at Adepticon.

By Chris Masucci

Having been out of the Flames of War scene for about ten years now, I was disappointed to find that many of the figures that I remember from years past have long disappeared from Battlefront’s catalog. Being a big fan of the Dieselpunk, alternate WW2, and “Weird War” styles, one of the biggest casualties for me was Battlefront’s collection of what were dubbed “Mid War Monsters”.

This series introduced several experimental or obscure vehicles to Flames of War in its mid-war theaters. The mid-war monsters included everything from little-used but produced vehicles such as the Boarhound and Italian P40, to things that never left the drawing board.

By Troy Hill

Prolific wargaming and historical author Mark Barber recently sat down via email with me to discuss the ins and outs of writing books for the gaming community. If you’re not sure who Mark is, here’s the blurb from his Amazon Author page:

Mark Barber writes in the military history and wargaming genres. He has written several military aviation titles for Osprey Publishing and spent several years working with Gaijin Entertainment’s record-breaking ‘War Thunder’ software package, acting as a historical consultant, in-game content writer, and article writer. He has also written several titles for Warlord Games’ Bolt Action tabletop game and has written fiction for the Kings of War and Gates of Antares franchises.

Mark has written several of the popular campaign books for Bolt Action, including several of the D-Day series.

By Patrick S. Baker

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me

We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot

Drink up, me ‘earties, yo ho

We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot

Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho

–From Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me), by George Bruns

In 1982 Sid Meier and Bill Stealey founded MicroProse and by 1986 the video game company was highly successful by largely focusing on military and vehicle simulations such as Chopper Rescue, Spitfire Ace, and Silent Service. But Meier, MicroProse’s chief designer and programmer, had grown bored with the hyper-realistic games and wanted to do something different.

In a meeting with Arnold Hendricks, a MicroProse programmer, Meier heard the pitch for a pirate game. The game was pitched as an “Age of Sail” ship-to-ship combat game, much like Avalon Hill’s Clear for Action. Meier liked the idea but wanted it to be an open-world adventure game, not just a combat simulation. Meier later wrote: “Pirates didn’t spend all day fighting one another. Pirates had adventures.”