Gaming

By Glenn Van Meter and Tom Mullane

We are about a week and a half into the Blood & Plunder Global Community Campaign (,) and things are getting heated between the various nations involved. Players all over the world are submitting games they’ve played to to help their favorite nation.

Last week we had an update from Guy over at Blood & Pigment via the Campaign Newsletter, and we found out that with 26 entries so far the French were in the lead with the Dutch and English tied just one game behind them. The Brethren of the Coast were lurking in 4th place. Spain was still getting her ships together and hanging out with the pack of minor nations such as the various Native Tribes, Portuguese, and the Swedes. Scotland had an especially strong showing, leading the rest of the minor powers (and Spain) by one game.

As part of the Minor Nations Bagration book, Hungarians offer an interesting force for Late War now part of the v4 rules. I’m sure you’re eager to know how well they play? Maybe you’re a past Hungarian fan from the days of v3 or maybe you’re looking to put together a new Hungarian force. Let’s play a game and see how they perform.

Let’s start with the setting for our battle, a valley that has already seen plenty of action. I was aiming for something that can serve as hilly area in Hungary towards the end of ’44, early ’45 when the Hungarians were defending their homeland from the invading Russians. The terrain is mostly Gale Force 9 with a bit of Novus Design and some scratch builds.

By Kreighton Long

In honor of my new home in Virginia, and for a less commonly seen WWII US Army theme, I decided to design my US Army on the 29th Infantry Division.

The 29th was a National Guard division recruited from northern Virginia, Maryland, and southern Pennsylvania.  The division deployed to the European Theater of Operations and took part in the amphibious landing at Omaha Beach, bocage fighting in Normandy, siege warfare at Brest in Brittany, then urban fighting and battles of maneuver in Germany.

By Mitch Reed

As a young wargamer, two of my most favorite games to play was and by Avalon Hill. The games portrayed the strategic naval campaigns in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans respectively and help me fall for naval war gaming as a pre-teen. In 2019 the developers at took both of these games and updated them into a single game called Admirals’ War: World War Two at Sea. Recently I invited my pod of vaccinated gamers over to play the four-player version of the game and Admirals’ War brought back the fun of the Avalon Hill games of my youth.

By Ian Birdwell

Introduction

With new books and lists comes the opportunities to discuss new command cards, and the Hungarian ones are a doozy for all kinds of gamers. Personally, I’m pretty excited about the expansion into the realm of Axis minors, they add a ton of depth of field for the game on the Eastern Front in terms of gameplay while also opening new doors to explore the complex history of the war in the East. And those two perspectives, gameplay vs history, really characterize the command cards for the Hungarians in a big way.

So let’s get down to business in discuss the nuances and intricacies of the command cards that bring back some crowd favorites while opening the door to some brand new opportunities; through first a brief overview of some of the new units and abilities added into the Hungarian faction, then noting the new formations at hand, before finally bringing it all together in building a list from the cards.

By Glen Van Meter

This summer No Dice No Glory’s Tales of the Sail podcast is teaming up with the and to bring players the Summer of Plunder: 2021 B&P Worldwide Community Campaign. Members of NDNG and Blood & Pigment are each governing a different nationality and will be encouraging players to not only get games in but will also be able to assign special and sometimes secret missions. For our parts, Tom is the Spanish Governor, Tyler is the French Governor, and Glenn is the Dutch Governor.

By Mitch Reed

Seems like I am playing a lot of games about Stalingrad recently. I recently wrote a review of the digital port of David Thompson’s Pavlov’s House and that got me to pull out a game in my collection that I have yet to get to the table. Stalingrad: Inferno on the Volga by was a game that was funded via Kickstarter in 2018 and received a lot of buzz. I missed the Kickstarter campaign, but I was able to get the deluxe Kickstarter version unopened from someone on Facebook of all places. I was not only glad to get this game to the table, but equally as pleased to find that the buzz behind it was well deserved.

By David Garvin

In May of every year since 1997, the (CASLA) has hosted an (ASL) tournament. This started as the brain child of the late of the Winnipeg ASL club. Last year’s event, won by Carl Nogueira of Massachusetts, was to be held in Fredericton, New Brunswick; however, Mother Nature had other plans and we are still feeling those effects.

COVID-19 wasn’t enough to completely stop the tournament, and through the use of the freeware program , the show indeed went on. This year, the 25th n (CASLO) was once again hosted by the crew out of Winnipeg. Where last year’s tournament was a last minute effort by the tournament director, this year’s online tournament was a full-on plan by CASLA’s committee as a whole. As such, the event was not held over a single weekend, but rather throughout the month of May.

By Scott Roach

I know for a lot of players out there, the long awaited Hungarian Late War Book for Bagration is out. As a long time Hungarian player, my second Army I ever put together I believe, I have been eagerly awaiting this book update.This article will look at and talk about the base formations within the Bagration Book. It will look at the different base styles of formations and the support options that are available. The article will not look at the Hungarian Cards. These will be provided in a separate excellent article provided by Ian Birdwell from No Dice No Glory.

So lets get started. Firstly lets talk about the Hungarian Special Rules. There are only the two. Firstly, Huszar. Teams with the ‘Huszar’ special rule have a reduced motivation rating when testing to use the follow me movement order. The second rule is ‘Home Defence’. Teams with this rule have an improved last stand rating.

By David Garvin

Games that create memories are what we as wargamers strive for. Such games capture the imagination and immerse the player in the game. No longer is are the players sitting by a table at home, but rather their imaginations have taken them to some far away battle! For my money, no other game captures the imagination like . This game, first released in 1985 by the now-defunct Avalon Hill (but perpetuated by ), is a tactical wargame of the hex-and-counter variety.

The battles are primarily from the Second World War; however, it has since expanded to include the Korean War. Each player maneuvers his squads, crews and AFVs and guns across generic and historical battlefields in games that can last anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours or even days. Practically every game will end up with a narrative that will leave an indelible mark in the players involved.  Allow me to illustrate.

The date was 14 September, 1942, and as the German battalion commander, , I was leading an initial attack in Stalingrad in the historical scenario “In Sight of the Volga”. The simulated battle was noteworthy for several reasons. My opponent, Will, ended up being reluctant to try for his Molotov Cocktails (A 22.6).