Gaming

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.”

By David Garvin

When playing any game, and Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) is no exception, having readily-accessible material to help you learn the game is a bonus. I have already explained how to improve your play, but in this post, I’m going to discuss what kind of support one can find when learning ASL. Let’s face it, ASL is not an easy game to master.

By researching articles on The Game™, one can find insights that maybe one would never have thought of. This can span the decades since ASL first came out, spanning the divide from the pulp and paper industry of the 1980s through to the bits and bytes of the 21st Century. And it has certainly been quite the journey! Some articles are in fact videos found on such platforms as YouTube. But first, let’s see where this all began.

by Tom Gall

Over the past few years, Battlefront has released several Ace campaign packs. These cover Bloody Omaha, Race for Minsk, and Battle of the Bulge. Each campaign pack retails for approximately $20 and includes a set of playing card sized decks which gives you all you need to run a ladder campaign with missions, rewards, side missions, and a collection of Ace Ability cards.

Recently at D6 Games in Rochester Minnesota, we hosted a Flames of War Late War tournament built around the Battle of the Bulge Aces campaign. This article is going to cover how it worked and served to make the tournament one that will be remembered and talked about for a long time.

For each round of the tournament (there were 3 rounds) we made use of the episodes of the campaign. This set the tone as well as picked the mission and who was attacking. The first episode in the Bulge Aces campaign has the Axis on the attack with Breakthrough as the mission. Further each episode sets forth a set of rewards depending on the outcome. For round one, both players receive a Tier 1 reward.

By Chris Masucci

This week, Chris brings us a battle report featuring the Crystallum rules set, of which he is co-author.

A swirl of radioactive dust swept through the silent streets of East Atana, the border town that had been under Federation control for the past three months until strategic command lost contact with the small division stationed there. East Atana would have been yet another forgettable settlement.

However, its still functional airbase had been well utilized by Federation forces and the presence of an AX-15 Heavy Lifter Craft currently stationed at the base spurred Federation command to send a relief force to East Atana.  Unbeknownst to the advancing Federation column, East Atana had been taken by hostile forces. A mixed platoon of Vlast vehicles and personnel had been stationed in the settlement and awaited the Federation forces to try and retake the city.

By Howard West

This is the fourth article from the NoDiceNoGlory team concerning the new WWIII Team Yankee Warsaw Pact book.

The link for the first article which was a high-level overview of the new WWIII Team Yankee Warsaw Pact book is below.

https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/03/21/preview-team-yankee-wwiii-warsaw-pact-is-back/

The link for the 2nd article which was an overview of the Polish Forces in the new WWIII Team Yankee Warsaw Pact book is below.

https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/03/25/march-team-yankee-preview-jeszcze-polska-nie-zginela-the-polish-forces/

The link for the 3rd article which was an overview of the East German Forces in the new WWIII Team Yankee Warsaw Pact book is below.

https://nodicenoglory.com/2022/04/01/big-changes-in-berlin-east-germany-in-the-warsaw-pact/

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

So you know what I really needed?  Another game system to get into. Because apparently Italians, Germans, and British in Flames of War, Syrians and US National Guard in Team Yankee, French in Black Powder Napoleonics in 28mm, Prussians in 18mm, Romans in 28mm for Ancients, and 18mm Persians just wasn’t enough. 

I’ve been feeling some peer pressure from the likes of Scott Roach and the gang to get into Bolt Action in 28mm, and I took the plunge recently, with Blitzkrieg Germans.   

Why Blitzkrieg germans?  Rob Kelly has purchased some bicycle troops to defend the Danish frontier for a few hours before capitulating in 1940 so I figured I’d paint something, not from North Africa. This left the grey germans. And we can recreate this scene from the movie April 9th: 

I just need some sidecars!

By David Garvin

In any board game, or so I believe, having your pieces ready to play in short order is conducive to an enjoyable time. This is especially true when breaking in a new player. It can be quite frustrating for a new player if an excessive period of time is spent just trying to find the pieces to play. “No, really, it’s a fun game! Just let me find this last piece…” sure isn’t going to get anyone interested. In fact, this is the exact opposite way to make a positive first impression. A better way, perhaps, would be to have the game set up quickly, and maybe – just maybe – impress your newfound opponent just how beautiful the game is. This, my friends, a certain way to impress the newcomer to Advanced Squad Leader (ASL).

Join Tyler, Glenn and Tom as they give some updates on their upcoming tournament in Maryland, and jump in for a deeper dive on the new addition to Blood & Plunder, “Fire on the Frontier” Lists are suggested, new units discussed, and Tom explains what not to do during a Social Studies job interview.