Gaming

An army marches on its stomach: Napoleon Bonaparte was right, but speaking of our games, we should misquote to “our armies march on their rectangular bases”. There is nothing more disappointing in seeing a well-painted army on poorly rendered bases – I’ve seen with my eyes tournament armies with their infantry merely stuck to the brown Battefront bases!

Basing your miniatures is not that difficult. First of all, you need a plan. For example, all my Flames of War Mid armies and my Team Yankee lists have two infantry platoons, as I really like to play with massed infantry. For this reason, I try to base the two units with a different “landscape”, so I can tell them apart at a glance, even when they assault the same target and mix up. For example, my US Armoured infantry platoon 1 is mounted on “urban” bases, while Platoon 2 is on “rural” ones.

By Chris Jackson

I think the Italians are one of the most fun nationalities to play in Flames of War. The light tanks, the so-called “medium” M14/41s, and all that glorious, glorious infantry. Awesome artillery, good support options and plenty of hulls, and even more bodies to throw at your enemy or just place in their way.

Paracadutisti are the best the Italians have to offer. There is no check on the 8 Million Bayonets table for these guys. They simply take the best ratings available.

By Tom Burgess

Fallschirmjägers are the second army I did for Flames of War some ten years ago. Since then they have been one of my most played forces. Though I have not been above running them as Grenadiers in Mid-War, now we can officially play them as a Mid-War Version 4 force option.  The new Death From Above books adds Fallschirmjägers to our Africa, Sicily, and even East Front  Mid-War Version 4 battlefield where they certainly are characterful and truly elite units.

By Benny Christiansen

The long wait is over!  Airborne forces in MW has arrived!  Along with it, we get the Rangers formation. I will share my thoughts and considerations with you in this article, as well as making the providing lists with the forces I would like to test.

It surprised me to read that the idea of an airborne force was inspired by Soviet Airborne forces and further focus came from the German Fallschirmstruppens success. I was not aware of any Soviet Airborne forces that had managed anything, so the history in the book once again provided me with new information and insight into the history of airborne envelopment.

By Paolo Paglianti

After years of Mid-War tournaments, finally we have some change.  Thanks to the books Battlefront published this summer we can play Late War with full V4 rules and point system.  Since I like to play with Allied forces, Mid War tournaments have always been on the “stay low” profile: with too many Tigers and Ferdies around (in Italy we saw the infamous list with 5 Ferdinands and the Italian L6 ally), Mid War US and British forces constantly faced tanks they can’t beat head to head, almost invulnerable armour that can only be avoided.  In Late War, as we foresaw, things are going to change.

By Tyler Stone

I recently finished up a collection of ‘Blood & Plunder’ terrain for demo games at my local game shop. I gleaned more than a few insights during the labor-intensive slog (tile grout makes better sand than actual sand does!) but I’d really like to start at the foundation; choosing a surface to put your terrain on.

Thanks to Mitch Reed, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to build and review a box of the new . My German vehicles are all resin and metal to date. This is my first delve into doing any of the new plastic kits. Okay so let’s get going.

By Tyler Stone
Photos courtesy of Rick Casler, Anthony A. Monroe-Warren & Firelock Games

There’s a new ship on the horizon, from . She made her debut at Hurricon 2019, and her victims – err, Firelock Fans – got to see her in action. However, No Dice No Glory got a sneak peek of her stat cards, and I’m here to share them with you. And while everyone else was raiding Area-51, I was able to sneak into the dockyards at Firelock and get some pics of a finished model from the incredibly talented Rick Casler of . So, pour yourselves a mug of grog, and let me regale with my tale.

When PC gaming first became available, I like many of you, played the many games of the Close Combat series. is now releasing the seventeenth title in the series, Close Combat: The Bloody First which takes the classic series to a new level and uses a completely new game engine to make this new edition an instant classic.

By Robert Kelly

My first article talked about the correct way. Well, the M113 was just the platform for a whole family of vehicles, some of which can be found in Team Yankee, ‘Nam and Fate of a Nation.

In Bosnia, we mounted American style ACAV (Armoured Cavalry Assault Vehicle) shields on our M113s. The shields originally came in green and most were eventually painted white. We were always a bit of a ragtag army, so you can paint them either way or even mix them up within formations. The vehicle is then painted all white and I added the letters “U” and “N” that were leftover from my TL Modellbau decal sets mentioned in the previous M113 article.