By Troy Hill
What do we eat on the Russian Front during Operation Bagration?
Baggy Rations, of course.
At least, that’s what gamers snack on while playing a historical-themed event this past weekend. Anything to support the FLGS, right? Whatever snacks the store had disappeared as our local Bolt Action players munched their way through three rounds of operational madness.
By Troy Hill
Prolific wargaming and historical author Mark Barber recently sat down via email with me to discuss the ins and outs of writing books for the gaming community. If you’re not sure who Mark is, here’s the blurb from his Amazon Author page:
Mark Barber writes in the military history and wargaming genres. He has written several military aviation titles for Osprey Publishing and spent several years working with Gaijin Entertainment’s record-breaking ‘War Thunder’ software package, acting as a historical consultant, in-game content writer, and article writer. He has also written several titles for Warlord Games’ Bolt Action tabletop game and has written fiction for the Kings of War and Gates of Antares franchises.
Mark has written several of the popular campaign books for Bolt Action, including several of the D-Day series.
by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell
So you know what I really needed? Another game system to get into. Because apparently Italians, Germans, and British in Flames of War, Syrians and US National Guard in Team Yankee, French in Black Powder Napoleonics in 28mm, Prussians in 18mm, Romans in 28mm for Ancients, and 18mm Persians just wasn’t enough.
I’ve been feeling some peer pressure from the likes of Scott Roach and the gang to get into Bolt Action in 28mm, and I took the plunge recently, with Blitzkrieg Germans.
Why Blitzkrieg germans? Rob Kelly has purchased some bicycle troops to defend the Danish frontier for a few hours before capitulating in 1940 so I figured I’d paint something, not from North Africa. This left the grey germans. And we can recreate this scene from the movie April 9th:
I just need some sidecars!
By Andy Allcock
Greetings! Let me introduce myself. I’m Andy, I’ve been wargaming since I was a young teenager. I started with Warhammer 40k (2ed) and moved shortly afterward into historical and fantasy gaming. A buddy and I wrote our own ruleset years ago, and I’ve been known to know where and how to find rules in other games.
For 2022 I’ve decided to start yet another Bolt Action army. I’ve already got early Germans, late war winter Germans, British Commandos, British 8th Army, USMC (which I play as 1st cav), Africa Italians, and regular Italians. With such a widespread of armies, I decided it was time to dive into the French.
My BFF Jon is back and Troy and I try to get some spoilers out of him. While he did not crack (very much), I think Warlord fans know that some cool things are instore for us in 2022.
By Richard Steer
from Warlord Games is an Age of Sail wargame set between 1770-1830. The game, reviewed here, does an excellent job of capturing the feeling of wind-powered naval combat in a fast and enjoyable format.
For many people, the attraction of the game is the thought of recreating the fleet battles of the Napoleonic wars, featuring large ships of the line. It is also very enjoyable when playing engagements with smaller ships such as schooners, cutters, and gunboats, and a great format for these smaller games are using Warlord’s free .
By Troy Hill
The long awaited chance for Warlord Games to get a decent set of army special rules for the Italian forces is finally …. not here yet.
Don’t get me wrong. The new Campaign Italy: Soft Underbelly book is great when you hold it in the context for which it is intended. That being a historical approach to gaming the invasion of Sicily during Operation Husky and beyond.
For those Bolt Action gamers hoping for a new set of Italian Army rules that brings the Italian army into the competitive zone most other armies get in the game… yeah, that didn’t happen here either. In context, a competitive Italian Army wasn’t to be had in the invasion of Sicily nor the Italian mainland.
But, if you’re into a historical approach to your gaming, instead of just pounding away with the meta and special rules to dominate in tourneys, this is an excellent book.
Conventions are back and the NDNG crew attended Historicon 2021 to take it all in. I quickly realized how much I miss the cons, the gamers and members of the NDNG crew. We had a full house of our staff at the event, with Tyler Stone, Thomas Mullane and Glenn Van Meter hosting the Firelock Ironman with appearances from Ben Hudler, Glenn Goddard, Steve Murga-Jones, Dr. Chris Woltz and Howard West playing in many of the games at the event which we will briefly talk about here.
This is a special episode where I talk with my BFF Jon Russell from Warlord Games. Jon is on the road heading to the Twin Cities for yet another convention and took time out to tell us what is new and exciting coming out from Warlord. We talk about Epic Napoleonic, Blood Red Skies-Midway, and all the new Italy books coming out for Bolt Action. A lot of spoilers and let’s hope he does not hit another deer.
By Scott Roach
Before I begin my experience, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr John Stallard, the Managing Director and his excellent staff at Warlord Games for making this first experience a memorable one (Oh and no, I don’t get any kickbacks or benefits from Warlord Games). It was also great to catch up with Jon Russell (That’s us together at the top) who I met (virtually) during a Podcast hosted by my “Valhal Brother” Mitch Reed.
I have, where possible tried to capture the names and responsibilities of the staff in my pictures. Apologies for any I get wrong!
