By Jim Naughton

Four years and forty days ago (approximately) Battlefront continued its Mid-War Journey by introducing Enemy at the Gates and Iron Cross, bringing the Eastern Front to life in Version Four.  A few short months later these books were complemented by Red Banner and Ghost Panzers.  It would take two further years to see Finns, Rumanians, and Hungarians as BF focused on its Late War Journey.

Accompanying those four books were two Firestorm Campaigns.  Our group played both campaigns and continued to play East Front Flames of War up to the release of Fortress Europe.  It was a good run.

The newest release from Battlefront combines eight smaller books – four for the primary antagonists, 3 allies, and one for German paratroopers.  The German paratroopers’ separate book is consolidated into the Ghost Panzers chapter, giving the new book seven chapters.  Others will give you an overview of the big volume or focus on the Axis forces.  My task is to highlight the Soviets – what’s changed, and what stayed the same.  One thing absent from the compilation is the rules on City Fighting and Airborne Assault found in the originals.

By Tyler

Ever since the Scottish nationality made an appearance in Blood & Plunder’s ‘No Peace Beyond the Line,’ players have been asking about the historical validity of kilted Scotsmen clashing broadswords with the pirates and privateers of the New World. And simply put? It didn’t happen. Aside from outliers like the legendary (emphasis: legendary) Redlegs Greaves, the stereotypical Scottish highlander never settled beyond the rocky glens of his homeland. Settlements like the doomed New Caledonia and Stuart’s Town were founded by Covenanters from the lowlands. So if we can’t bring the highlanders to the New World, what if we brought Blood & Plunder, to the old one?

Huge episode! We are live at HMGS Historicon 22. The guys speak to Steve from Lead Pursuit, Lauren from Casemate Publishing, Jason from Military Miniature Magazine, Lee Gaddis from Gaddis Gaming and  the duo behind Blood & Steel, Damien and Edgar!

Battlefront is releasing a new compendium entitled Eastern Front for MidWar Flames of War players. Within this massive 361 page book are the previously released v4 books Enemy at the Gates, Red Banner, Iron Cross, Ghost Panzers, Death from Above, White Death, Hungarian Steel, and Brave Romania.

But wait, there’s more, like the North Africa book that was released this year, they’ve included new units and formations which no doubt you’ll want to consider when composing new armies to field.

It’s also filled with the usual unit histories, great artwork, and polish that makes Battlefront sourcebooks a joy to read.

Join the Army and see…the Universe! – Tagline for the novel Starship Troopers

by Patrick S. Baker

The classic military science fiction novel, Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein was released in December 1959. The book became one of Heinlein’s best-selling books and is likely his most well-known work. Star Troopers won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960. The descriptions of combat in the novel focus on the Mobile Infantry (M.I.).

Dropped from orbit in individual reentry vehicles, the highly trained troopers land on a hostile planet to battle the enemy, in the novel either the hivemind “Pseudo-Arachnids” or “Bugs”, or the humanoid “Skinnies”.

The M.I. wear powered armor suits, which are controlled by the wearer’s movements, but with much-augmented strength, for example, a M.I. soldier can jump for hundred of meters in a single bound or can rip holes in buildings with nothing but his suit. Further, the M.I. are armed with flame throwers, rocket launchers, and even “mini-nukes”.

The combat in the novel made a nifty background for a hex-and-counter wargame released in 1976 by Avalon Hill. The game was designed by Randall Reed, of Tobruk fame, and approved by Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein also provided a description of the game and his signature, which are printed on the back of the box.

By Mitch Reed

I am a huge fan of Mark Walker’s game company Flying Pig Games, they have turned out some amazing games over the years and few companies can match the production value of FPG. The game The Long Road (TLR) recently arrived at the bunker and I was lucky to get it to the table 48 hours after it arrived.

By Tyler

We’ve just wrapped up the first month of the global ‘Summer of Plunder’ campaign, and the Spanish faction has grabbed the lead and ran with it. This left us wondering: how do we reward every player of a faction? Well, with previews, of course! The ‘Raise the Black’ kickstarter is well on its way to a projected September-November release date, and with it will come several new factions to move the game into the early 18th century.

During the June episode of the Tales of the Sail podcast, we looked at the upcoming Spanish factions. Today, let’s take a deeper dive into two of those new factions, connected by one very unique commander – the legendary Amaro Pargo.

By Howard West

Photos by Ian Gall, Chris Fretts, Battle Rankings, and Howard West

Team Yankee 2022 Masters was held at Family Time Games located at 8796 Michigan Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46268 on June 25th and 26th, 2022. Family Time Games is a nice gaming store and has a nice stock of both Flames of War and Team Yankee products. They also stock many other Board Games, RPGs, Miniatures, Cards, and other Gaming supplies. Stop and visit the store if you are in the greater Indianapolis area.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

A game seven years in the making. Story time: when I first met Scott Roach, I visited his basement of doom. It’s dubbed that because he has more stock than most local game stores.  Up on a shelf, he had boxes and boxes of stuff, some of which was a Scottish Covenanter army for Warlord Games’ Pike & Shotte.  Naturally, as my last name is Campbell, I was keen to do them and worked out a ”good deal’, and they were mine.

However, a number of other ‘projects’ came up in between, such as Napoleonics, finishing my Flames and Team Yankee armies, then Bolt Action, then Art de la Guerre, then Covid happened. I finally got to start building and painting and this game is the culmination of roughly six months of painting. Scott, wanting to be the Campbell-murdering scumbags of Montrose’s army, happily obliged, and he painted up some opponents for me. Disclosure: He painted most of this while in the UK and didn’t base them or add pike there for ease of transport, and at the time of this game, they weren’t yet based as he just got back.

By Mitch Reed

Did you fall in love with the mechanics of Blood & Plunder when the game first came out? Did playing Blood & Valor make you love games from Firelock even more? Well then you need to check out Blood & Steel, which uses the same game basic engine as previous titles, but now has you fighting in the Victorian Era.

Many gamers focus on specific historical periods because of an interest in the conflicts that took place during a particular era. Few are as popular as the 19th century, which saw conflicts all over the globe. This period contains some of the most popular game topics in our hobby.