Gaming

by Troy Hill

In 2015 I sold off four fantasy armies from my time playing Warhammer Fantasy (up to ver 8). Fantasy just didn’t compete with the uber-meta mentality of the 40K crowd in my local area. And I was downsizing, drastically, in living space. Something had to go.

So, with my move to California, and the downsizing that accompanied it, reducing my miniature inventory to fit into a tiny Los Angeles apartment made sense. I wasn’t playing fantasy, and the latest GW fantasy just didn’t interest me. So I stuck with historical minis.

Then Rick Priestley screwed up my plans.

By Mitch Reed

Kickstarter has been a blessing to the gaming community. So many great games now have a path to our tables from small developers unlike any other time in our hobby. One such game is The Shores of Tripoli by located in Washington DC. Fort Circle is run by avid Nationals fan Kevin Bertram who has a steady social media presence on many gaming threads.

The Shores of Tripoli (SoT) looks at the Barbary Wars fought between the United States and the Barbary Pirates from 1801 until 1805. The game faithfully recreates this conflict with a fun and easy to play game that history buffs and seasoned grognards will both enjoy.

By Paolo Paglianti

The Bagration Russian book allows the player to choose very different tactics and formations. You can play a strong defense army, sitting on the objectives and valiantly waiting for the enemy to come out of cover and taste some Motherland lead; or you can assault opponents with lots of AT14 guns and cheap but effective artillery.

As for any new book release, Battlefront has a for players who want to start a new Russian Late army: we’ve received one of these boxes, and we can’t wait to see what there is inside and to see what we can do with all this steel from the Motherland.

By Paolo Paglianti

is a fast 28mm skirmish game very easy to catch on. Let’s see how it works with a battle report between a Viking raiding party and an Anglo-Saxon army sent to stop the havoc from the Scandinavian invaders. Will you side for the ravaging Axe or roof for the defending levies?

Saga takes a different approach from games like Warhammer – with specific army books for each army, such as Skaven or High Elves. This forces Warhammer players to study a wide variety of books and army lists to know what their opponent can bring to the table during a game.

Saga has a really different concept: all armies can choose between three units – that’s it. Doesn’t matter if you play Dark Age Arabs, Crusaders in the Holy Land, Vikings, or Hannibal’s army crossing the Alps: you can choose between Hearthguard (the elite), Warriors (the average good fighter), and Levies (the guys that will probably flee or die before the end of the day).

By Tyler Stone

has launched the highly anticipated next chapter of ‘Blood & Plunder’ with their latest Kickstarter; . NDNG received an exclusive, early preview of some of the factions and units coming to the game. In response to fellow Tales of the Sail caster , I demand law and order, unwavering discipline and bravery. Hence, I present the British Army.

Raise the Black focuses on this “law and order” era of the New World. In the 18th century, European powers sent their professional armies to defend the wealth of their colonies. Our sneak preview included the British Army (from 1690, to 1750) that I will be sharing with you today.

By Ron Winkler

With the continued COVID 19 restrictions on gaming opportunities, I decided to try another solo game. This time it would be a modification of Team Yankee to represent a rescue operation in Somalia. For purposes of the game, I selected units and concepts from both Team Yankee and ‘Nam gamebooks. The scenario would be based on Hot LZ with US forces attempting to rescue Western newsmen held captive in a Somalia prison compound.

By Mitch Reed

I can admit that I will probably never re-read many of the books in my collection. The same can be said for many of the wargames I own, after playing them a few times I have little interest in re-playing them. However, some games stand out as classics that you just have to keep in your collection and play over and over again.

Battle for Germany is one game that is a classic that not only I have played many times, I even have bought multiple copies of the game. If you love this game as I do, you will be excited that has released a deluxe version of the game that I recommend you pick up even if you already have a cherished copy.

By Glenn Van Meter

The Gentlemen of Fortune over at recently gave us a preview snippet from the new expansion book Raise the Black from their upcoming Kickstarter, which kicks off on October 6th. As the new expansion brings the game into the 18th century and the Golden Age of Piracy, I thought it rather exciting that the first list spotted would be one of the new pirate factions. So, let’s raise the black flag and jump right in to see what it’s worth!

The new faction is the Golden Age Pirates (1690-1730), and they are what you would imagine a pirate crew to be from any Hollywood film. The faction special rules really help give this list the character you would expect in a force of bloodthirsty, throat-cutting pirates straight from the Spanish Main. They get the previous pirate faction rule allowing them to fly false colors when attacking, which lets them come upon their prey and catch them unawares – or at least start a lot closer to the ever-important booty.

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

This is Part 2 of my playthrough of the mini-campaign in the back of the British D-Day Release.

My trusty opponent Shane competed in the “Sieze and Hold” mission last time, and for round two, we are reversing our roles.

I will be taking the Germans and a grenadier company, and Shane will be playing a Cromwell recce company.

The British are counterattacking to try and reach the Paratroopers who landed and held points the night before. let’s see how they fare.