By Robert Kelly

This is my latest museum report from last year’s Grand Tour of Europe. I had always heard that Budapest was a city worth visiting and it didn’t disappoint. Budapest has many things to see and do and is quite inexpensive compared to places like London, Paris, or Copenhagen.  The Hungarian Army Museum is located on Castle Hill near the Buda Castle.

There are two ways to get to the top of the hill.  To ensure that you go right to the museum first, you take the minibus/golf carts that are parked at the base of the hill.  They are inexpensive, rather fun, and will drop you off at the entrance to the museum before it heads over to the castle (with the rest of the family). The second option is the funicular. It won’t drop you off right at the museum but it was impressive.

By Mitch Reed

Recently the folks from Draco Ideas contacted us about looking at some of their games. I have been a huge fan of Draco for some time. One of the first games I picked up from them was Normandy: The Beginning of the End and its solo expansion Alone in the Storm.

I also wrote about their amazing ancients game, Onus Traianus. The two games they sent us, Scope: UBoot and Frontier Wars quickly made it to my table to see what they were all about.

“Squad Leader is a watershed moment in war gaming, offering an unparalleled level of tactical depth and realism.” – Strategy & Tactics magazine.

By Patrick S. Baker

Introduction

Squad Leader was released in 1977 by Avalon Hill and holds a significant place in the history of board gaming. Squad Leader is, perhaps, the classic tactical war-game and also perhaps is as important to war-gaming history as Kriegsspiel.

Simply put, Squad Leader set the standard for the genre by introducing groundbreaking mechanics and providing an immersive gaming experience, giving the player a real sense of commanding troops on the battlefield.

Development

By David Garvin

On the 9th of June, Paxsims hosted Connections North, a conference on professional wargaming. According to its website, it is “…a community of practice devoted to the professional use of wargames (and other serious games) for education, training, and policy analysis in Canada.” There were over 70 in attendance, ranging from military members, and civilian members of the defense community as well as many in various think tanks, government departments, and me. The conference was held at the impressive Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

By Kreighton Long

What is a Bolt Action army project without some big guns?  Even partisans have access to lighter howitzers and anti-tank guns.  There’s probably at least one army that can’t take artillery options but I can’t think of one on my own.  As fun and good-looking as the big guns can be it can be challenging to paint and base the finicky things.  Speaking for myself, I struggled for a while on how best to turn these pieces of pewter, plastic, and resin into gaming pieces that were as aesthetically pleasing on the table as they were influential on the outcome of the game.

By Tom Gall

The weekend of June 10-11th 2023 features the Team Yankee Masters Tournament at Family Time Games in Indianapolis Indiana. This is a special “by invitation” event where in order to qualify you must rank within the top 16 places on BattleRankings.net. It’s a fun affair that Battlefront has sponsored since its inception.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

“GOOOOOOOOD Morning, VIET-NAM!”

With the upcoming re-release of ‘Nam by Battlefront, Scott Roach and I decided it was high time to break out our ‘Nam armies.    We had painted up our forces this winter for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, but we realised we just didn’t have enough jungle.  We had some of the ‘Nam jungle and paddies, but nowhere near enough.

We gathered up everything we had and one Saturday just laid out the drill, hot glue gun, and MDF and made a heap of jungle bases.  Once covered in AK ‘Jungle Earth’ we just added a bit of ground clutter and away we go. I think we still need a bit more, but this will be fine for our first game. We decided to (loosely) play the opening days of the Battle of Binh Ba.

By Richard Steer

Trains are great. I’ve loved trains for as long as I can remember, and therefore it’s no surprise that when Flames of War allows you to stick a giant anti-aircraft gun onto the back of a railway wagon, I’m going to jump at the opportunity.

To this end, I recently purchased four 10.5cm FlaK39 Railway Cars to add to my Late-War German collection. Unfortunately, there are no assembly instructions either included with the kit or on the web, so I’ve written up the assembly process I used in the hope that it will help others.

By Robert Kelly

The National Army Museum is located in a modern building almost next door to the famous Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the famous Chelsea Pensioners.

Home | Royal Hospital Chelsea (chelsea-pensioners.co.uk)

Home | National Army Museum (nam.ac.uk)

While I was visiting London there were a number of transportation strikes on. Some days it was the trains and some days it was the Tube, or Underground. On the day I chose to visit the Household Cavalry and National Army Museums, the trains and buses were running, but the Tube was not. I was able to get close to the Household Cavalry Museum by bus, but it was closed as the staff couldn’t get into work.

By Troy Hill

This weekend (May 27-28, 2023) saw chaos and pandemonium descend on the Detroit suburb of Novi, Michigan as the Death or Glory group of GW gamers hosted Motor City Mayhbem, a Grand Tournament style of game convention at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.

In addition to all of the Games Workshop madness at a GT, Warlord Games Raider Jeff Wiertalla organized two Bolt Action events, which I assisted by playing as the Gumby/Ringer in both.

Other games like Kings of War, Conquest, and Star Wars Legion also had events. Below is my own recap of my action in the Bolt Action tourneys, and a photo-dump of what I saw in the non-GW space.