By Jim Naughton

When I originally contemplated writing this article, data points were hard to find.  But BF’s expansion of the game has added additional data beyond the original unit in WWIII TY Soviets.

In RED DAWN  we find  ‘VDV’ and ‘VDV Afghantsy’ units, the first being a battalion with improved skills and assault ratings and the second being veteran paratroopers with NATO-like ratings.

From NORDIC FORCES  we find Finnish troops using (mostly) Soviet gear with ratings like the VDV Afghantsy companies.

“The decline and fall of Rome was a slow and agonizing process, marked by internal strife, foreign invasions, and the erosion of moral values.” – Edward Gibbon

By Patrick S. Baker 

Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion (Barbarian) is the first expansion pack for the critically acclaimed strategy game, Rome: Total War. Released just a year and five days after the release of the Rome: Total War, critics and players have a split opinion about expansion pack.

Some critics felt there was barely enough new material to justify an expansion pack. Others felt that Barbarian could have been released as an entirely new game.

The Imperial Campaign in Rome: Total War starts in 270 BC, when the Roman Republic completed the conquest of Italy and ends in 14 AD, with the death of Augustus. The campaign in Barbarian starts in 363 AD, with the death of the Emperor Julian, concluding the efforts to restore paganism in the Empire and ends in 476 AD with the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

By Kreighton Long

On 21 September, twenty-six players gathered at Titan Games and Hobbies in Timonium, Maryland for another Bolt Action tournament (2nd Edition) organized by Michael Kehs.  Mike was pleased to see his tournament crowd grow since the last tournament back in April to include recurring players from as far away as Ohio and a new player who ventured down from Connecticut.  Mike credits a level of his growing popularity to his success in reaching out to vendors for prize support.  In addition to healthy rewards for the top finishers, Best Painted Army, and FUBAR, players also can look forward to raffle drawings between rounds.  Well-earned credit needs to go to the Assistant TOs, Rob and Chris, for providing invaluable support with setup, break-down, raffles, and pictures.

The three scenarios chosen for this tournament were Meeting Engagement, Key Positions, and Sectors.  This tournament included a new gimmick from the previous one.  While last time players could find their turn ending prematurely if two odd colored Order Dice were pulled from the bag, this time players needed to keep an eye on Secret Objectives distributed prior to each game.  The Secret Objectives forced players to adjust strategies and to think more tactically to score up to an extra ten points, five per objective, each round.  From what I was able to overhear, the feedback from the Secret Objectives was mostly positive, and Mike confirmed that he will look into incorporating them at future events.  One improvement he plans on making is to specifically assign certain objectives to pair with certain scenarios and to balance them with each player receiving one hard and one easy objective.  In my three games, the Secret Objectives did present opportunities for me to play the game differently than I normally would, and added an extra level of intrigue to the game.  For example, in my final game, I had an opportunity to finish off one of my opponents units but instead moved my unit into my opponents half of the table to accomplish my Secret Objective of finishing the game with all my surviving units on my opponents half of the table.  While that choice had no true impact on the outcome of the game, the choice I faced did make it a little more interesting for me and bagged me an additional five points to my overall score.

By Morten

For a couple of years now, I have been eyeing Bolt Action from the sidelines, never really taking the steps to get into the game. I already play Team Yankee, Star Wars Legion and have had a few games of Star Wars Shatterpoint, so I was a bit on the fence about getting into yet another game system.

Then came the news, that Bolt Action was getting a Third Edition in September and I couldn’t help myself, as this seemed like the perfect time to start.

Now, I don’t really know anything about how Bolt Action Second Edition plays or how army building works. I have watched a single game some years ago and all I know about Third Edition, is what Warlord has spoiled in their Intelligence Reports. So far, I like what I’m seeing.

You can check out the Intelligence Reports here:
https://warlord-community.warlordgames.com/category/world-war-two/bolt-action/

By Richard Steer

Late-War Leviathans first came to Flames of War in May 2024 via a free “Early Release” PDF of tanks from Gale Force 9’s alt-history game Clash of Steel. This stretched Flames of War’s timeline into the early years of the Cold War, while also adding tanks that were only prototypes, or in some cases never made it off the drawing board. That early release has now been expanded into a full book, with additional units and new formations.

I liked the Soviet Early Release Leviathans. The ability to add the IS-3, T-44, T-54-1, and ISU-130 as Wildcard units to other Soviet Late-War lists provided some nice options for upgrading existing FOW forces. The new Leviathans book provides even more options, so let’s take a look at what the Soviets get from it.

By Michael Rafferty

Late War Leviathans could be summarized as, “somehow, World War II continued.” Use one of provided scenarios or make up your own, like mine where Kaiser Wilhelm II comes back and overthrow the funny moustache man and then crusades against communism. Let your imagination run wild.

The vast majority of the vehicles in this book were in limited production, prototyping, or having their designs finalized. The reasons they didn’t see the field could be simplified to “the war ended.”

By Tom Gall

Just a few more days until Bolt Action v3 is out and time to dig into the system of missions for playing the game. As you might recall from second edition, there were 12 missions to choose from. Late in the life of v2 there was additionally a tournament package or two that were circulating for playing from.

With the dawn of v3 and the core book, missions are divided into two types, Battle Scenarios, aimed more for a pick up game where both side have similar deployment zones and victory conditions, and Story Scenarios, when you’d like something with a bit more flair. These scenarios are meant to be less even and more situationally designed with one side trying to drive to a particular goal and the other trying to prevent.

We are back with Joe Chacon and Evan Yoak where we talk about their upcoming game Decisive Action from GMT Games

By Michael Rafferty

Bolt Action Third Edition is coming out in a few weeks, and we were fortunate enough to get a pre-release copy. Now that we’ve played three games, we have some initial thoughts about the new version. I haven’t played version two in a couple years, since a Tank War Tournament in November 2022. I kept looking at lists, though I am not up on the meta. The rest of our group haven’t played in years if at all. This lets us approach version three as a fresh ruleset, with only a few inbuilt preconceptions.

The Germans needed to secure vital coffee and donut supplies

Today we have Sean Druelinger, a designer of some great games such as Point Blank: V is for Victory and other designs for Lock N’ Load Publishing.  We talk about his games, games we love and about game design.