Gaming

By Ian Birdwell

Having been a relatively recent convert to , getting into it at the start of Version 2, I was ecstatic for the publication of Saga’s Age of Magic Universe. Essentially, Age of Magic opens the doors for players to explore any fantasy universe they’d like with any forces they’d like using the already existing Saga rulebook (which already has two existing historical universes for Viking and Crusades periods).

To me, a refugee of the Old World and not thrilled with Age of Sigmar as a warband sized game, Age of Magic was almost exactly a dream came true.

I know I’m terribly excited about this new Saga Universe, but I’ll contain myself for now to an overview of the main rulebook.

The main Age of Magic rulebook is divided into three sections, the introduction of new rules specific to this Saga Universe, descriptions of the various factions, and the grimoire of magic.  So we’ll take a look along those lines.

By Dennis “Matt Varnish” Campbell

Napoleon.   Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:   “Man takes over country, then takes over Europe, and has grand ideas of marching to Moscow, but is then thwarted by logistics and winter”

Napoleonics? Why? Well, for me with my gaming background starting mainly with sci-fi and fantasy (Games Workshop) I had never really looked at historicals, and certainly not Napoleonics. I knew who Napoleon was, and the era, mainly from watching Sharpe’s Rifles, a series where A: Sean Bean’s character doesn’t die, and B: Has Elizabeth Hurley in it (see header pic)

By Mitch Reed

As many of you know I am all about anything dealing with the Great War. I have always felt that the Great War is underrepresented in the gaming community so I am quick to promote any new game that truly captures the war on my gaming table.

Blood and Valor is a new game that will be out later in 2019 that gives the Great War an amazing skirmish level game and since it by the guys from you know it is going to be an amazing game that will be a must for your collection.

Here is my truth in advertising statement, as soon as I heard about the game I begged the developers my services as a playtester. While my statements in this article are based in fact, they are also from helping out the developers. Another caveat to this article I want to bring up is that this article is based on a version of the game that is still in the draft/playtest phase of production, so things may change.

By Tom Mullane

As a teacher, my gaming time is limited due. Spring Break is a time where I try to get games in and catch up with friends in the hobby. This spring, I got to connect with a friend I haven’t had a chance to play a game within a long while and made the most of the opportunity.

Joe and I played four games over the course of the afternoon and evening consisting of one Flames of War MW at 109 pts, and three Team Yankee West Germans Vs West Germans.

By Paolo Paglianti

Images courtesy BattleFront

Whatever you play sci-fi Warhammer 28mm games or 15mm historical ones, half of our hobby is painting miniatures. If you are like me, you have tons of unpainted metal and plastic miniatures in the hobby room. Those Orks you bought because that fantasy soccer was so good. The space marines you collected because sooner or later you’ll do that WH40K army. And obviously boxes of WW2 tanks and Alexander phalanxes in 15mm.

Something that can’t miss in the wargamer’s shelf is a book about painting techniques. Before the Internet, they were precious as gold. Although you can now find plenty of online written and video tutorials, a good colour reference book is still quite useful.

In my painting “career” I have read books from Games Workshop and the awesome , but Battlefront’s is something unique, because it’s one of the few (actually the only one, as far as I know) totally focused on 15 mm armies. As one of the best and most inspiring lines in the book, it would be crazy to paint a full Russian 15mm WW2 army with the same definition as a 54 or even a 28 mm miniature. Colours of War is totally aimed for your twentieth century armies.

Recently my best friend Jon Russel from told me about a new addition to the game . Warlord’s WWII aerial combat game introduces well-known historical aces. In a shift, they are about to release a new ace in the line-up. The ace?

Johnny Red, a fictitious character from the comic series of the same name. Not only do I want to tell you about this new release and the Johnny Red Series I also want to talk to comics in wargaming.

By Matt Varnish

Hey everyone, as I mentioned in the podcast and on my Syrians article, Battlefront neglected to show off the cool Syrian paint schemes and left newer players high and dry in terms of cool pictures.   I am here to fix that.   We will look at building a killer HQ tank with ERA armour blocks, then general painting of vehicles and the 3 main schemes, then infantry at the end.   All paints are Vallejo unless otherwise noted.   Yalla, let’s go!

By Mitch Reed

When we got the preview copy of the Oil War book from I was very interested in the possibility of playing a small IDF force so I can get the Pereh anti-tank platoon on the table, This unit has the ability to shoot anything on the table without needing line of site and uses a new special rule called NLOS.

Besides trying to get this unit on the table I also wondered what this model would look like, since it is a missile shooting platform that was disguised as a tank. The Pereh was in use secretly for over 25 years and was finally declassified in 2015 before being pulled from service in 2017.

My first attempt to make a small IDF force from Oil War used a small formation of Magach 6 tanks backed up by the Pereh platoon, so when I was sent these boxes to review I was excited to get the chance to try this force out on a table as bring you my review of these two new releases.

By David Garvin

In any calendar year, there are a number of regular Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) Tournaments. From the at Winter Offensive in January to the unofficial ASL Oktoberfest, () in October, there are more tournaments than months in a year. These span the globe, though most are in the US. There are even a number of online tournaments using (VASL), a freeware game that allows for online live play as well as for the somewhat cumbersome play by email (PBEM). A quick and incomplete check of the shows 19 tournaments in 2019 alone. The number is closer to 25.