Gaming

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Those that know me, know that I am a huge plane nerd.    So it might be odd that I did the A-10’s for my Team Yankee Americans last and not first. The reason for this was threefold:  In the previous version of Team Yankee, aircraft were too easily killed by AA fire, even humble vehicle machine guns.

Second, the very high AT weapons weren’t really needed in a game without M1A1s, Challengers and T-80s.  Third, they were the Battlefront resin kits, with the weapons in the wrong spot, painted in a Desert Scheme that wasn’t really used, plus I did not have access to decals even if I did repaint them.

by Troy A. Hill

The Covid-19 pandemic is having both deleterious and beneficial effects on the Table Top Miniatures hobby. From missed conventions and abrupt halts, then sputtering starts to in-person gaming at Friendly Local Gaming Stores (FLGSs), the pandemic has really rocked the table-top gaming industry back on its heels.

But, I’m seeing a trend on many of the social media platforms: either new gamers are entering the hobby, or existing gamers are picking up new armies, or new games to try. One area is in the Napoleonic gaming world. I’ve seen several “New to the hobby, where do I begin?” posts just in the forums and pages with Warlord Games.

I’m in that same boat, and I’m happy to share my trials and tribulations, so any gamers jumping into the great unknown of Napoleonics can learn from my mistakes.

In this piece, I’ll share what I learned about researching, and the models I’ve begun with. I’ll also include images of the Warlord British Line Infantry models, and the process I went through assembling and painting them. You might want to read the image captions separately from the text of the main piece.

by Tom Burgess (standing in as General Ritchie)

The game is afoot…..

Mark from Breakthrough Assault and I finished the operational moves for Turn 1 in the Breakthrough Assault and No Dice No Glory Collaborative Firestorm Gazala Campaign. Several battles have already been reported but there’s still time to get in those first-round fights.

King and Country need you!

As the British C-in-C, I wanted to share some thoughts about how we got to where we are in the turn one battles and what my hopes for each are.

Though we rolled a high number of battles for turn one, miraculously the British won the initiative in two of these against steep odds.  That was the good news. The bad news was that initiative came late and after the main German attacks had already been committed. The opportunities for spoiling attacks were limited to just one option.

See Turn 1 Battles

What a year! While we are halfway through 2020, I think we can make the call that for our hobby this year is not one we wish to remember. Every week we hear about yet another convention being canceled, “indefinitely” delayed, or moved to a virtual setting. How will this effect our hobby? What will our hobby look like when things get better and how long will this last?

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Everyone has that model or unit that is just… well… it’s not your best work. For my Napoleonic French army in 28mm, that unit is my battalion of Old Guard. Here is the story of how they are my worst unit and how I fixed the situation

First of all, in preparation for a big game of a while back, I had decided that I needed an Elite unit to back up my glorious Line infantry, and so painted all 24 figures in one day.  Naturally, the plan was to come back later and re-work them.. so its very basic.. main colours then a wash over the whole model with GW Nuln oil. My pot of Nuln Oil was bad so that it left pools of white residue everywhere and a super gloss finish.

I still used them for the game.  On my way back, I had to slam on my brakes for some lady in a white SUV who cut me off, and I could HEAR my boxes of miniatures in my trunk tipping over.  I could only imagine the carnage. Almost every single model that had rifles facing forwards were broken, and I had to re-glue so many bayonets, that I only used them in one other game after that,

By Tom Burgess

One aspect of playing World War Three Team Yankee that many people enjoy is list building. Trying to design the most perfect list to take on all opponents in all mission is almost a hobby withing itself.  However commanders through history rarely ever get to “design” their force.

Instead, Commanders are generally are assigned units to accomplish a specified task. As much fun as it is to design a force and test it, it also can be very enjoyable to see how well you can do with a set force challenged to contest with specific historical conditions.

We are talking about playing historical scenarios rather than playing generated missions with designed forces.

Though World War Three Team Yankee is set in a fictional World War Three setting, Battlefront has done a great job including “historical” scenarios from this hypothetical war in their  World War Three Team Yankee books.

By Ron Winkler

As the Covid 19 quarantine continues, I decided it was time for another solo game using the rules. Continuing with the War of 1812, I selected the Battle of Chippawa as a game scenario. Again, I used my 15mm figures and Osprey’s excellent Niagara 1814 book as a reference for forces and battlefield maps.

Based on information in the book I rated regular units on both sides equal in quality in terms of Special qualities having First Fire, Elite 4+, and Reliable ratings. However, two of the regular US units 25^th Infantry and a single Company of the 21^st Infantry as small and tiny respectively because of their size which of course affected their Stamina rating. The other regulars on both sides were standard in size.  US and British artillery had equal qualities as did the Light Dragoons on both sides.  Both cavalry units were tiny in size.

By Tom Burgess

I am very excited about the impending release of the new World War III Team Yankee American book. That may surprise many who know me as I have only ever played Soviet and East Block type forces in Team Yankee so far. But the reality is that US forces were my first purchase for Team Yankee and I have quite a collection of US units still boxed and waiting to be built.

I only shifted to Soviets to help the force balance in my local gaming area. By now my Soviets are quite complete and its time for me to go full throttle into Americans for Team Yankee with this new book.

The World War III Team Yankee American book is a significant expansion from the preceding Stripes US Forces in World War III book. All the formations and support that were available to the US player in Stripes are also in the new book. In addition to these, the new book has added the M1A1 Armored Combat Team, M2 Bradley Combat Team, M3 Bradley Cavalry Troop, Combined Army (Heavy) Company, Combined Arms (Light) Company, and the Light Attack Company.

The 28mm size, if you ask me, is the perfect balance between playability and modeling/painting. You can buy and assemble pretty good armies for any ruleset from ancient warfare to sci-fi skirmishing without investing too much money or time to paint them, with striking results. So, even if I prefer 15mm when it comes to competitive games and recreating full-scale battles, I often spend some time to paint and play 28mm miniatures.

However, on gaming tables, I equally often see very good painted miniatures with anonymous green bases. I think bases are so significant for the final look of an army (by the way, here are for Team Yankee, and ). 

By Mitch Reed

We may hate to admit it but gaming is a social hobby, we may build and paint our models in isolation, but the reason why we do this is to meet up with fellow gamers and play the games we love. In the last few months, a pandemic has taken away our social outlet with conventions being canceled and gaming stores closed to gaming. Even as we slowly recover and open up our nations many gamers may be rightfully apprehensive to return to the table. So, we may be faced with a long period where we are deprived of the social aspect of our hobby.