By Jim Naughton

Just when you thought it was safe to use or ignore my original treatise on Warsaw Pact artillery, BF introduced new toys. With the introduction of Red Dawn there are two new indirect fire systems – the 2S9 Nona self-propelled gun-mortar and the BM-37 82mm Mortar.

Previously NDNG has published three articles explaining Warsaw PACT artillery: TOS-UP Part 1, TOS-UP Part 2, and TOS-UP Part 3.  I will draw a few insights from previous for comparison but I’m not going to repeat the information. Part I identified the artillery available in Team Yankee and gave the statistics.  The next section furnishes data on the two new weapons.

The 2S9 NONA (Noveysheye Orudiye Nazemnoy Artillerii or Newest Ordnance of the Ground Artillery) was introduced in 1981 to replace towed mortars in rapidly expanding Air Assault forces as well as the towed guns of the Air Assault Divisions.  The NONA began showing up in Motor Rifle Regiments in the late 1980s as production continued.  A variant was built into the BTR-80 and towed versions exist for mountain fighting, and for airmobile infantry units (which have little organic transport).  Battlefront represents the 2S9 baseline, built into the BTR-D hull.

The BF model is sold separately from the generic BTR-D package (which features infantry carrier, BTR-ZD, and BTR-RD variants) and represents an essential component of a ‘pure’ VDV force.  The NONA populates the niche in VDV units that would be filled by the 2S1 Carnation and is also available as a support choice in the same niche of the Support Section of the Force Diagram occupied by the Carnation.

By Mitch Reed

A common question from new Blood & Plunder players is about what ships they should collect to play in sea battles and the most common answer we have is “it depends.”

In playing with the ships in Blood & Plunder over the last few years the best advice I have is that you can go big or go small and a lot of that depends on the force you play and your personal playing style.

By Troy A Hill

I put my preorder in for Warlord Games new Pike & Shotte Epic Battles Push of Pike boxed set, and it arrived this past weekend. Warlord continues their epic streak of 14-ish mm Epic Battles scale releases.

Special shoutout to Morgan, who packed my set. Everything looks spot on, and I couldn’t be happier with the set.

That said, I’m totally confused now. Growing up in ‘Muricah! and only getting to study the American Civil War (ACW), one can imagine my surprise to find out that our British cousins had their own civil war (English Civil War, or ECW) a couple of centuries before ours. So, now I’m wondering who the English versions of Lee and Grant were?

By Mitch Reed

When we think of the past we often tie the notable personalities of that period. In Blood & Plunder, the notables are at the forefront of the game.

Years ago one of the first things I noticed about B&P was that the characters, whether famous or infamous are a major part of the game. Every force needs a leader, so why not gamify some of the names we associate with the early colonial Americas?

By Michael “ACON” Rafferty

AdeptiCon 2023 is in the books!

AdeptiCon 2023 was held March 22^nd – 26^th in Schaumburg, IL. This year we had over 6,500 badged attendees, which is the largest AdeptiCon we’ve ever had. It looks like we’ve fully recovered from the COVID slump and things are bigger and better than ever. This was the second year of having a full second venue at the Hyatt, which grew from just hosting historicals to also hosting Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire.

We also had a 1:1 scale Urbanmech

This is part two of our coverage on War Stories from Firelock Games! In the last episode we rolled up our characters and today we expand the squad by adding the two Phil’s and the designer of War Stories, Gabe Garcia. We play a quick game and then give you our thoughts on this new WWII RPG.

By David Garvin

When I first played Squad Leader back in 1983, I found that 35-page rule book to be rather complex. The rules were laid out in Programmed Instruction in order to facilitate ease of learning. This just meant that the player only had to read a few pages, play a scenario and then progress.  By the time the player had gone through the book, he or she could then play any scenario.

This method of instruction continued through the original series, up to and including GI: Anvil of Victory. By that time, the player could play any of 47 scenarios released with the games, and a number more of officially-released scenarios. There were a few third-party scenarios, including some from On All Fronts and even Dragon Magazine. That said, as I attempted to parse some of the rules while hanging out with my friends, the language was at times dense.

Later as I delved into Advanced Squad Leader, (ASL) I found the rule book to be too much for me to initially comprehend. It was around 1986 and I failed to put any serious effort into learning the rules or the game.  Programmed Instruction was now a thing of the past, and even though there was a learning chapter, my friend Gary and I just never really got into it.

Imagine my surprise then, many years later as I was learning how to play, that not only were many people playing ASL – likely more than at any other point in its history – but also that there was a very large and vibrant international community of players. In fact, one of the first of many third-party producers made ASL scenarios in French!

“This game is so bad it makes Superman 64 look like Doom.” — anonymous game reviewer

By Patrick S. Baker

Okay, boys and girls, please have a 55-gallon drum of hand sanitizer ready for this one. Today gentle readers I recount the story of not only one of the worst video games of all time but also one of the foulest and most atrocious video games of all time. And NO, I’m not exaggerating in any way about what a disgusting piece of work this game is.

Custer’s Revenge, also known as Mystique Presents Swedish Erotica: Custer’s Revenge was one of three ‘adult’ video games released November 1982 in a package of video games called Mystique Presents Swedish Erotica. The other two games in the set were Beat ‘Em & Eat ‘Em and Bachelor Party.

Many sources erroneously report that the games were produced by a game company named Mystique, but in fact is no game company named Mystique. Mystique was the brand name for the line of adult games produced by American Multiple Industries (AMI).

By Mitch Reed

In 2023 two Kickstarter projects came to the mountain bunker from two European companies and after getting them to the table I found that these games shared some DNA that all gamers would appreciate. These two titles appear to be board wargames when you first glance at them, however, they play a lot like miniatures games. Both are excellent titles to add to your collection.

By David Garvin

From March 23 to 26, I attended the 27^th Annual Nor’Easter Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) tournament in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. With the restrictions of the COVID pandemic waning, this tournament saw quite a resurgence. 49 players registered in advance, and in spite of a number of late-notice cancellations, just over 50 players showed up to roll the dice in the field of cardboard combat! That said, there were actually four tournaments: the main tournament and three mini tournaments. As well, and as is becoming more common, there was some ASL Starter Kit (ASL SK) play as well.