Guest post by Jackson “CrackerJax” Horigan

This is part of a new feature where NDNG features upcoming historical wargaming tournaments, gamedays, and conventions for the games we cover.

Hello Players! My name is Jackson Horigan here to bring you the Bolt Action Winter 2023-4 event lineup hitting the Great Lakes region. You may know me better by my moniker “CrackerJax” on Facebook and Discord, but names aside, I have a list of excellent events coming up this winter both as a TO and an attendee that I’d love to share with you.

As some of you may know, I tend to travel a bunch around the Midwest for work and leisure, and more often than not will drive for many hours to sniff out a great Bolt Action scene. This past weekend I had the privilege to attend Troy Hill’s “It’s A StuG Life” tournament in Fort Wayne, Indiana only to find myself in Pittsburgh, PA this weekend for Charles Sherrange’s “Tanksgiving” tournament! It’s been a wild November for Bolt Action, and I am quite excited for the coming months as we approach the holidays and the bitterly cold Great Lakes winter. Grab your mess kit and some Lucky Strikes and let’s see what’s heating up across the Midwest…

By Paolo Paglianti

Imagine an airport hangar packed with tin soldiers: tin soldier shops, tin soldiers demo tables, tin soldiers tournaments. Well, that’s literally what happens at Warfare 2023, one of the biggest and most significant wargaming and modeling shows in the Old World, located south of London. Warfare is a heaven for every wargamer: there are lots of shops selling essentially anything you can imagine: books, miniatures from 6mm to 54mm, and terrain for any wargame from ancient to sci-fi.

It is organized by the Wargames Association of Reading and it’s simply excellent – I know how difficult is to organize an event so huge and complex, and David, Steve, and the Reading Team always do a fantastic job. I really recommend you pay a visit, if you’re in the UK next November.

Today we have Michael Riddick, a good friend of NDNG, who talks about his game Magnum Opus which users in a new way to play ancients miniatures. Even if you do not play this period, you will love Mike’s approach to gaming and writing rules. Find out more in Instagram by looking up magnum_opus_wargaming

By David Garvin

“Summer’s here and the time is right For fighting in the street, boy” – The Rolling Stones, Street Fighting Man. 1968.

I was reading up on some challenges of gaming recently, and the challenge the author was pondering was how to game fighting in built-up areas (FIBUA), or Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). Whichever you prefer. I cannot for the life of me find that article now but suffice it to say that the author couldn’t find a suitable game.

By Tom Gall

If you like to play Flames of War you’re probably aware of what are the two modes of play, casual and competitive play. There is a fairly healthy tournament scene for Flames in the US, it’s been coming back since COVID.

Competitive play isn’t for everyone but it does make for a fun day of getting in a few games,  pitting your skills against other players, and as a result learning how to play better. Often people at tournaments talk about how to play better, make better lists, unit recommendations, painting suggestions, and so on.

Royal Canadian Dragoons photos

In my previous article WWIII Team Yankee – NATO Forces Book – The Canadians – No Dice No Glory  I discussed the new lists for Canadians in Team Yankee. The possibilities for Canadians in Team Yankee are now so exciting that many people are considering doing up a Canadian army. Battlefront has done a good job of showing Canadian camouflage patterns, but not such a good job of getting the colours right and some different ways of painting vehicles.

I realize that Battlefront wanted to come up with a common camouflage pattern for Canadian vehicles, but it’s not that easy. During the Cold War and beyond, Canadian vehicles had different paint schemes depending on the vehicle and when it was in service. The options were German Gelboliv, Canadian three-colour, NATO three-colour, or plain NATO green.  I will discuss my recipes and recommendations for the different colours from the late 1970s onwards. Then I will discuss which colours and patterns to use on each individual vehicle.

By Troy Hill (Photos by the author and Jeff Wiertalla except where noted)

Sixteen players gathered at the Rumble on the Rivers game convention in Fort Wayne IN this past weekend (November 11, 2023) for a three-round, beginner-friendly, Bolt Action tournament.

Many dice were rolled. Many FUBARS did occur (four at one table!), and much fun was had.

So, what happened?

By Troy Hill

Photos by Troy Hill and Michael Carter

As you might remember from my last piece on Kings of War, I’m at best, a middle-of-the-pack player in any game. I’m not a competitive player, at all. I don’t “Meta” nor “Net list” well.  And I rival Mitch Reed for the bottom of the barrel when it comes to painting talent here on the NDNG staff.

My goal is to field an army that doesn’t look bad on the table, and spend the event time pushing models, joking with my opponents, and rolling a lot of dice. Perhaps even emulating a late Ambassador of the game, Jesse Cornwell, and calling upon “Pizza Jesus” to bless the rolls when I really need that 11 or 12. (OK, I didn’t do that at this tournament, since I was usually pretty far in the hole in each game. One extra set of boxcars wouldn’t have done much good.)

But, somehow, I managed to bring home one of the trophies from the event. It now sits on my fireplace mantle, surrounded by a bunch of “Benchies” I’ve 3d printed over the past few years. Getting a solid Benchie from a 3D filament printer was about the best award I expected in gaming.

So, what’s my secret to winning while losing? Even more important, what did I do to get a trophy?

We too at NDNG are also fans of some of the games we cover and today was a treat for me. I speak with David Freer from Wargame Design Studios, which now hold the John Tiller Games catalog and so much more. We talk about the whole series which spans multiple decades and conflicts.

If you want to know more about these great games you do not want to miss this one.

By Mitch Reed

I have been hiding a secret from many of you, over the last three years I have not been painting. I have mentioned this on podcasts numerous times and if you ran into me at an LGS or a convention, I probably told you bluntly, “I have not painted in years.” I have no idea what caused this, perhaps from playing too many board games? Could it be that I have all the painted models I need to play the games I love?

No matter the cause, the passion was gone, however recently my passion returned, and the flame was relit.