Heart of Leviathan: The Play Test

By Mitch Reed

Photos by Author and Image Studios

Note: The author is reviewing an early beta-test of the game and works on the development team for Heart of Leviathan.

You have seen the teases on Facebook and have wondered what this new game is all about. I was lucky enough to have Image Studios send me a beta copy of the game to playtest for the next few weeks. Walter Vail who runs was gracious enough to let me spoil some of the game for you.

I have been working with Walter on the rules for a while now, I love playing with Dreadnoughts, I have a ton of ships in the 1/2400 scale and have worked on some homebrew rules to play with my massive fleets.

Desperate Defense: Hungarians in V4 FOW

By Ian Birdwell

Editor: This week we take a look at one of the first User-Generated Content pieces produced for No Dice No Glory. Author Ian Birdwell on his Flames of War for the Hungarians in WWII:

Hungary and the Eastern Front

By the end of 1942 Hungary was dealt a series of sobering blows by the Red Army, and had lost the entirety of the Hungarian 2nd Army by March of 1943.

In short, the Hungarian Army was in a bad way following the conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad. With their history of continual losing ground, along with their dramatically outdated equipment the moment it enters service, what’s not to love about the Hungarian army?

Especially with mid-war, when it all begins to circle the drain. 

BAR: Batailles de l’Ancien Régime

to its fans is a great horse and musket game for the Seven Years War. This is approximately the years 1740-1763. The war itself started in 1754 and lasted until 1763. As was with the times in Europe it was turbulent with many factions and thus a good topic for action on the tabletop. For those of us within the United States, we know this war as the French and Indian War when the young George Washington was a junior officer with the British Army.

This set of rules is more for Europe, and the author Bill Protz has another set of rules specifically for the French and Indian Wars called

Let’s talk about BAR, what makes it fun and why it might be the game you’re looking for. This period in history has much to offer. Across Europe the political map was complex and the variety of forces involved and their fickle loyalties offer many a what if as well as historical material to plan a game.

NDNG Wants You: User Content for the Community

Gamers are a not a shy breed and they have no problem creating, adapting, expanding, and even re-writing the games they play. New forces, linked campaigns, missions and new rules are some of the things I have seen created to help expand the games we play and bring some excitement into our community. So with this said, NDNG is now asking you to share the ideas you have an some of the content you have created. Starting with the  for written by some of our staff we plan to bring you user created content to expand your gaming experience.

I have been approached by so many gamers who have a lot of great ideas. Well now if you want share what you have created with us please send us a draft of your project to  and we will work with you to make it a good final product suitable to share with other gamers. You will get full credit for your ideas and in return you can have the satisfaction that you have helped other players to enjoy the games they play.

I cannot wait to hear from you and see what great stuff you have come up with.

Kampfgruppes in FOW – Part 3: How to make ‘Desperate Panzers’

By Ed Sales

If it’s one thing I love about painting and making these models, it’s that I have a range of creativity at my disposal. You can really add a lot of character to your tanks. I like to make each of my tanks different from the others, even if they are the same model.

When Desperate Measures came out, this added a whole new dimension of how I looked at modeling tanks. When I modeled my tanks, prior to that release, I might have the stowage a little different on each tank.

Now I can take a StuG Platoon, and paint each tank with a different camo scheme and say that the platoon was thrown together last minute. Maybe one of the Stugs left the factory in primer red because they were running low on dunkelgelb. I could do up a Tiger, and paint the running gear a different color, saying a T34 hit it to track it. You could really go all out and really have fun with it.

IPB Part II Attacking

In the last article, we discussed how a player can use the military technique of Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) to enhance his chances of winning in Flames of War as the defender. This article continues that discussion by applying those same principles to the mission of an attacking player.

For those who have not read it, Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield is a task the planning staff of a unit performs immediately upon receiving a mission from their higher headquarters. It defines the size and scope of the battlefield, how the terrain and weather will affect the unit’s ability to perform their assigned mission, and what the enemy’s most likely and most dangerous courses of action will be.

Test of Honour –The Best $50 Game You are Not Playing!

by Tom Burgess

has become one of my favorite games over this past year. I was immediately drawn to it as I’ve always been a big fan of Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai movies, but a year’s worth of gameplay with it has greatly heightened my appreciation for Test of Honour as a fast and exciting skirmish game.

This is especially impressive as skirmish games as a wargame genre are not normally my forte. This made me wonder why I was not seeing more of Test of Honour being played if it was a game system that could get a non-skirmish guy like me so enthralled with it.

My guess is that many people just have not really taken a good look at it or maybe have not managed to get in a demo game. My hope is that this article encourages some players to consider trying the game and hopefully to seek out a demo game.  So where to start…..?

US Flames of War Tournament Trends

by Tom Burgess

It always amazed me how many comments I have heard over the last year or so about the “collapse” of the US tournament scene. For sure, Flames of War (FOW) tournament play has declined with Version 4, along with other factors. And though I’m sure FOW has completely dried up in some areas, overall I never felt that the situation was particularly as dire as many have portrayed.

So I did some research to get some actual numbers beyond my own or other’s personal perspectives. Fortunately, US tournament data for the last several years can be easily pulled off of the website, to include its predecessor’s Ranking HQ data. I will share here the data for what its worth. I’ll offer my opinions with it, but I encourage all to make up there own minds on what it all means for the current state and future of the game and our community.

FOW BATREP: Stalingrad Mega Game

By NDNG Dane

 The Huntsville Historical Gamers gathered on December 8th (the day after the day that will live in infamy) to recreate the German attack on Stalingrad as part of Operation Fall Blau (Case Blue) and the Soviet Heroic Defense.  The Mega game was the Culminating engagement of our Mid-War Eastern Front escalation league using the Flames of War V4 system.

Our three board Mega Game centered combat action on: Board #1: The Univermag Department Store and Barmaley Fountain, Board #2: The Red October – Tractor Works, Board #3: The Grain Elevator and Pavlov’s House.  Additionally, we added a few campaign specific rules such as sewer movement.  Infantry teams were allowed to use sewer movement, based on a skill roll, to enter and navigate throughthe Stalingrad sewer network.