Gaming

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

Thanks to John Spiess, and the generous folks over at (who are hosting Historicon in only a few short weeks), a small group of students were able to dip their toes into war gaming this past year.  Back in September,  It was suggested by John and by fellow NDNG writer Tom Burgess, that HMGS might see fit to give these kids some money to start a club here at the high school I teach in.

With the 500 dollars we received, coupled with Brian Sullivan over at Battlefront, The students ordered a full set of paints, all the Midwar books, and enough terrain to get them started.  Brian also threw in some hills and buildings for free with our order. But as the year drew to a close, and with it the 75th anniversary of DDay, I asked if students would be interested in a different extracurricular project.  What you will see here are the results of their efforts.

Embarking on a Great Crusade D-Day Mega-Game

The Huntsville Historical Gamers gathered on 8 June to recreate the Allied Invasion of Europe. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of northwest Europe. The assault phase of Operation Overlord, was known as Operation Neptune. Operation Neptune began on D-Day (6 June 1944) and ended on 30 June 1944. By this time, the Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy. Operation Overlord also began on D-Day, and continued until Allied forces crossed the River Seine on 19 August 1944.

By Jacob Shober

Converting is one of my favorite parts of assembling miniatures; customizing them by changing (whether simply or drastically) from the original model, to create your own flavor of character or pose.

This is sometimes daunting to a beginner, as you see tutorial after tutorial on using green stuff, plasticard, brass rods, and various other extra parts. Sometimes, you end up spending as much as if not more on extra materials to convert your model as you did on the model itself.

This does not need to be the case, however, as this article will show. Sometimes, it is as simple as shaving off a tiny bit of plastic, “cutting and pasting” from other parts on the same sprue, or even using parts of the sprue itself. Below are several examples of tricks I have used to customize my own miniatures, so you too can bring your models to life in your own special way.

By David Garvin

When I went to my first gaming tournament, it was a local Flames of War tournament. About a dozen or so of us showed up and it was grand fun. We played three rounds in a day and I recall not winning a single game, yet having a blast. My force was composed of a Germany grenadier company. It was essentially custom built and I knew how to use it, in spite of not winning (the games were close, as I recall).

I later went to the Canadian Nationals in Ottawa. For this tournament I had an armored infantry company from the US 2^nd Armored Division. It was late war and I did much better. There were two days of play and I got in 6 matches.

We had a great crowd and there was quite a bit of competition that really got me to hone my skills. The next year I did even better; it was early war and I had a German Panzer Company, based around Panzer 38 (t) E tanks.

After taking May off the team returns with a live show from the Advanced Squad Leader Human Wave event put on by the DC Conscripts. Mitch is with the organizer, Dave Garvin and they talk about the game and event.

By Tom Gall

If you enjoy playing Blood and Plunder or other skirmish games in 28mm, the one thing I love to have on the table is all sorts of brick-a-brack to give the scene plenty of flavor. I like my tables to look historic.

For this Blood and Plunder game on land, sure it looks like a little farmstead or a little inn, the fences fit it, the road is great, but I’m wanting a little more on the table top.

Where are the farm animals? How about a little wagon? Crates, barrels, the various things you’d expect to see in this kinda era and besides it can add in some extra places for impromptu cover that your heroes might need as they are doing their daring do.

One of the great sections contained towards the back of the new D-Day American book by Battlefront is the special missions that are thematic to D-Day.  “Shot in the Dark“, “Help’s On Its Way” and “Fubar” model the airborne landings, the daring ranger assault on the coastal defenses and the landing themselves.

Battlefront has structured these such that they can be played individually or as a linked mini-campaign where the outcome of one game influences the next.  It’s not quite a firestorm campaigns of yore, but certainly within the spirit of those past designs.

Protection from who Tommy? Ze Shermans?

(Photo Above: This piece of history sits near Juno Beach, M4A4 Sherman with the Duplex Drive propellor add-on)

Right around the corner, we’ve got the two options for running armour in Late War. It’s been a while since the release of the Late War books for V3. In the new book for the American forces in Normandy BattleFront has delivered a collection of lists I think will get people excited about their models that have been collecting dust for a while.

Some chose to wait and see what V4 would bring in the way of options for Late War, book by book and the addition of cards has once again delivered some interesting choices for the US forces. You might have to wait some more to see some of the lists that are part of this era.

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

David Webster (101st Airborne)[at a passing column of German prisoners]  “Hey, you! That’s right, you stupid Kraut *%&$! That’s right! Say hello to Ford, and General &@#$in’ Motors! You stupid fascist pigs! Look at you! You have horses! What were you thinking?”

For the longest time back in version 3, my least favorite matchup was to be put against an armored rifle company.

Not because the game wasn’t fun, it almost always was.  But because, under V3 rules, I knew it would be an uphill road against a balanced, take all comers kind of force.

The Armored Rifle Company in Fighting First was always a competitive midwar choice in my opinion, but the strength of that list was in the support, not necessarily in the base platoons. It had Green Troops, and poor skill ratings, so many things became difficult. While shifting 14 stands will always present a problem, the Armored Rifles didn’t shine in midwar the way I knew they could. Those days are over here in Late War….