Gaming

Many of my fellow writers, due to distance or circumstance, will not be able to make the great summer gathering held by HMGS this July 12th through the 15th in Lancaster PA.I am, however, able to attend to, and I am excited to get in some days of intense gaming, catching up with friends, and seeing the sights.

I have been feverishly painting minis in preparation for the events. We will also provide some coverage from the event (on the road podcasting organized by Mitch Reed).  For those looking to find any No Dice No Glory folks to say hi to, this article will give you an idea of where to find me. So come by and say hello!

I am sure many of you are like me and find little free time available to roll some dice with friends. The term “quick game” is a misleading statement and we often feel that games that play quickly lack the details we like and may feel like an “arcade game”.

While I could have picked a ton of games to talk about here, I decided to focus on two new titles I just added to my collection; What a Tanker from Too Fat Lardies and an older title called Gunfighter’s Ball from Knuckleduster. I selected these games because they have a low model count, have easy to learn rules, can have more than two players and can be quickly played in less than 90 minutes.

By John Stafford

Images by the author, or from  (Image above: Napoleonics in 6mm: fictional battle of Pilzn)

In 2010, Mitch Reed introduced me to the  line of games published by Avalanche Press (AP). Their tactical approach to World War 2 filled a longstanding desire for something better than Advanced Squad Leader and Panzer Leader/Blitz by Avalon Hill. I began acquiring titles and reading the postings on their website. Shortly thereafter I began posting ideas for areas not covered by the Panzer Grenadier rules, such as logistics impacts on fighting (low fuel or ammo).

By Robert Kelly

follow up to this article:  

The Canadian M113s had a unique and distinctive camouflage pattern. I might not be the best painter out there, but I always have the correct paint colours, cam patterns, and markings. I will now share my recipe so that you can make your Canadian M113s as accurate as possible using my simple air-brushing method (whether you have a quality airbrush or not and I don’t).
If you don’t have an airbrush, you can do the hand painted version using Vallejo paints (887 Brown Violet – also for uniforms, 830 Field Grey, and Matt Black with a bit of grey mixed in). These colours are a close match and we only started to airbrush our vehicles in the mid-80s anyway.

I always wanted to get a game table to play Flames of War or the countless board games I have but they were so darn expensive. Along came a man named Berky with his . The idea behind the Game Toppers, that you can take something that looks like a game table but without the actual legs part. Something that is portable, and easy to store away in between game sessions.

For me, the draw of the Game Topper was that you can have a table where the dice don’t fall off the table because the table is actually inside the sides a set of rails. Also, I wanted to have a cup holder right at the table.

We are back on the road at the “Trial By Fire” FoW Tournament hosted by the great folks at ” in Chantilly VA.

Segment 1: A chat with Brian “Bocage” Sullivan from Battlefront with Mitch and Ed Sales from the NDNG team

Segment 2: Mitch sits down with Tim McClelland from the Pittsburg crew and Ben Gobel talks about his return to the game

Segment 3: A gaming rarity; we talk to James and Jo Copeland, a husband and wife FoW team

Guest Post By Jörg

Do you want to know where the Iron Crosses grow? Well, is prepared to show you.  While attending Cold Wars, I came across a game of Iron Cross published by Great Escape Games being run.  I was unable to sign up for the game but stood back as a lurker for a short time to get a feel.

Honestly, among the great deluge of WWII game rules on the market, I never really noticed Iron Cross (they have been out a few years). However, after watching the game unfold, they made it onto my convention “buy list”.

Our gaming group likes to play company level actions on our WWII gaming night and we had not quite found the right rules to scratch that itch (or finish games before our local hobby shop closed at night!).  I was able to find a copy in the vendor hall and take the plunge…..  Now that we have actually played the rules, I have a decent sense of how they are intended to work and how they “feel” on the table.  So here goes!