Gaming

By Kreighton Long

No World War Two military incorporated camouflage as extensively as Germany. Most rivet-counters/armchair historians can eyeball camouflaged German infantry and reliably tell you what branch of the German armed forces the camo-clad trooper served.

This is especially true for the Waffen SS. From their first actions in Poland in 1939 through the fall of Berlin in 1945, the SS was equipped with camouflage uniforms that visually set them apart from the Heer and Luftwaffe ground troops.

Unfortunately for tabletop wargamers, painting the different camouflage patterns of the Waffen SS can be an intimidating challenge. Personally, I held off painting my first SS infantry for years after entering the hobby due to a lack of self-confidence.

Since working up the courage to attempt painting SS camouflage, I completed numerous iterations, each time learning how to suck less next time.

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

It’s been a long journey for me over the past 2 years. Travel down the rabbit hole of a new game system never comes cheap, and I’ve found myself pretty immersed in Blood and Plunder since Mitch Reed showed me how to play all those years ago. Since I started playing the game, both with friends and in tournaments I’ve had a tremendous amount of fun. I’ve made new friends, gotten to interview a premiere pirate historian, started a podcast, and even run demos for a company for the first time at a con. But one thing has eluded me. Over countless games and demos, I have never won a game. But this past weekend, I felt a change in the air. Maybe this weekend was my moment. Maybe the curse Tyler Stone put on me by talking to that witch in the Denny’s parking lot could finally be broken? I’d have to play the game to find out….

By Tom Burgess

Motivation to finish models when you are facing a huge backlog of miniatures can be daunting. It has been for me over the years and I had to come up with a system to keep ahead of all the new stuff I was buying. I do buy a lot of kit from Battlefront each year.

Even before the COVID impact on 2020, I resolved to complete 365 teams from my huge backlog of Flames of War, Team Yankee, and ‘Nam boxes. As a means to motivate myself to chew through that backlog, years ago I started keeping a log and posting it on the WWPD and then the No Dice No Glory forums when I finished models. It always felt good to post pictures of what I had completed and to mark them done on my tracking spreadsheet.

By Kreighton Long

No World War Two military incorporated camouflage as extensively as Germany. Most rivet-counters/armchair historians can eyeball camouflaged German infantry and reliably tell you what branch of the German armed forces the camo-clad trooper served.

This is especially true for the Waffen SS. From their first actions in Poland in 1939 through the fall of Berlin in 1945, the SS was equipped with camouflage uniforms that visually set them apart from the Heer and Luftwaffe ground troops.

Unfortunately for tabletop wargamers, painting the different camouflage patterns of the Waffen SS can be an intimidating challenge. Personally, I held off painting my first SS infantry for years after entering the hobby due to a lack of self-confidence.

By Howard West

I started playing in 2016 and attended my first tournaments in 2017. I had been playing for several years earlier and have been playing other miniatures games since the mid-seventies.

My first Team Yankee army was British and really enjoyed playing that army and decided to take it to two tournaments. In these tournaments, I faced five NATO opponents and one Warsaw PAC opponent. I played against two West German, two British, one American, and one Soviet opponent. At those two tournaments, the mix of armies entered was about 60-70% NATO vs the Warsaw Pact. Also at that time, the Oil Wars and Free Nations books had not been released.

Soon after playing in those two tournaments, one of the gamers at our local store put his partially painted Soviets up for sale and I scooped them up for a great price and had the basis for a decent starting Soviet Army. Fifty tournament games later I’m writing this article.

By Robert Kelly

I have been going to Copenhagen for years now and always wanted to visit this museum. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground a few years back, so I had to wait for it to be rebuilt.  Then it was closed due to Covid-19, but fortunately, it had re-opened when I found myself in Copenhagen for a couple of days in September of this year. Much like an iceberg, most of the museum is built underground with the exception of the entrance and the canteen.  This was intentional they told me and I think the effect is striking. To me, it looks like the conning tower of a submarine.

It is set up very similar to the Occupation Museum in Aarhus, which I described in my previous article. Instead of getting a coded set of “papers” you receive a receiver to allow you to listen to the interactive displays.

When I get a new army book from our friends at Battlefront, I really like to try it out as soon as possible at my club in Milan. Since we are still under lockdown, it’s almost impossible and unsafe to meet and play in the real world, so we decided to do a match with the new Bagration German book army and its natural enemy Bagration Soviet using the PC/Mac digital game Tabletop Simulator.

By Kreighton Long

The morning dew glistens, reflecting the light of the dawning sun. A nondescript crossroad in the countryside is quiet for now. The day before, a farmer moved livestock along the dirt roads. Today, officers and NCOs hasten soldiers towards a fatal encounter. Under the cover of darkness, British paratroopers jumped out of soaring aircraft as flak exploded around them, lighting the sky.

Throughout the night the paratroopers moved through the darkness, slowly gathering more and more men into their merry bands. A few small vehicles roll out of gliders to the delight of the Red Devils. Some miles away, a German commander receives reports of British paratroopers landing and maneuvering in his area of responsibility.

Looking down at his map, he guesses at the paratroopers’ objective, a town labeled on the map as “Colline de L’église”. As reports continue to come into the German headquarters, the officer takes the initiative and dispatches what men he has available to the crossroads hoping to stall the British advance to enable him to organize a stronger defense of the town. 

By Tom Burgess

Though I already have plenty of BRDM-2s, SA-9 Gaskins, and Spandrel AT launchers I could not pass up the great deal that the new World War III: Team Yankee (WW3:TY) Soviet army box was.  This gave me five BRDM-2 sprues that I was not sure I needed. I considered selling them or giving them away but decided I’d go ahead and build them to help get me to my goal of completing 365 Flames of War and WW3:TY teams in 2020. I also thought I could do a decent review article since I could compare these new plastic models to the older resin-metal models.

By Kreighton Long

A little while back a follower of mine on Instagram asked me how I base my miniatures so I put together a little tutorial to share with anyone curious.

There are two parts to a painted miniature when it’s on the gaming table. There’s the miniature itself, then there’s the base.

Depending on the scale and how the miniature is represented in the game both parts are essential to a jaw-dropping gorgeous army. Most of us may be able to recall instances of walking around convention halls, tournament tables, or gaming clubs and seeing that almost gorgeous army. I say almost because every so often one of the two aforementioned parts is a bit below the standard set by the other part.