By Mitch Reed

As the crowds head back to their local gaming stores the folks from Firelock Games have released an excellent online campaign for Oak & Iron that adds so much to a player’s experience and it is a free download on their website, firelockgames.com.

By Chris Masucci

Having been out of the Flames of War scene for about ten years now, I was disappointed to find that many of the figures that I remember from years past have long disappeared from Battlefront’s catalog. Being a big fan of the Dieselpunk, alternate WW2, and “Weird War” styles, one of the biggest casualties for me was Battlefront’s collection of what were dubbed “Mid War Monsters”.

This series introduced several experimental or obscure vehicles to Flames of War in its mid-war theaters. The mid-war monsters included everything from little-used but produced vehicles such as the Boarhound and Italian P40, to things that never left the drawing board.

By Troy Hill

Prolific wargaming and historical author Mark Barber recently sat down via email with me to discuss the ins and outs of writing books for the gaming community. If you’re not sure who Mark is, here’s the blurb from his Amazon Author page:

Mark Barber writes in the military history and wargaming genres. He has written several military aviation titles for Osprey Publishing and spent several years working with Gaijin Entertainment’s record-breaking ‘War Thunder’ software package, acting as a historical consultant, in-game content writer, and article writer. He has also written several titles for Warlord Games’ Bolt Action tabletop game and has written fiction for the Kings of War and Gates of Antares franchises.

Mark has written several of the popular campaign books for Bolt Action, including several of the D-Day series.

By Patrick S. Baker

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me

We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot

Drink up, me ‘earties, yo ho

We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot

Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho

–From Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me), by George Bruns

In 1982 Sid Meier and Bill Stealey founded MicroProse and by 1986 the video game company was highly successful by largely focusing on military and vehicle simulations such as Chopper Rescue, Spitfire Ace, and Silent Service. But Meier, MicroProse’s chief designer and programmer, had grown bored with the hyper-realistic games and wanted to do something different.

In a meeting with Arnold Hendricks, a MicroProse programmer, Meier heard the pitch for a pirate game. The game was pitched as an “Age of Sail” ship-to-ship combat game, much like Avalon Hill’s Clear for Action. Meier liked the idea but wanted it to be an open-world adventure game, not just a combat simulation. Meier later wrote: “Pirates didn’t spend all day fighting one another. Pirates had adventures.”

By Richard Steer

The Flames of War army boxes are a great value. They are big boxes packed full of plastic sprues and are the ideal way to either start a new army or reinforce an existing one, at a significant price discount. The new British Crusader Armoured Squadron boxed set for North Africa is no exception. Containing 21 sprues and retailing for US$110, it compares very well to the usual price for a normal unit box.

While the Crusader Armoured Squadron box contains a lot of plastic for your money and a wide variety of models, a closer look at its contents reveals that it is an awkward combination of units. The default army list that is provided with the box is a legal force totaling 93 points, but game-wise it is not a great list.

By Richard Steer

Kickstarter really is a terrible thing for a wargaming magpie. I’m normally pretty good at keeping away from it, but every now and again I’ll scroll through and a project that I just have to back will catch my eye. So it was last year when I saw that Worthington Publishing was running a Kickstarter for a reprint of Malta Besieged 1940-1942.

Despite never having been particularly into board games, the subject of the game, being the Mediterranean theatre during the early years of World War 2, immediately interested me. The game arrived recently, and having completed my first play-through I’m very pleased to have backed the project.

By David Garvin

When playing any game, and Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) is no exception, having readily-accessible material to help you learn the game is a bonus. I have already explained how to improve your play, but in this post, I’m going to discuss what kind of support one can find when learning ASL. Let’s face it, ASL is not an easy game to master.

By researching articles on The Game™, one can find insights that maybe one would never have thought of. This can span the decades since ASL first came out, spanning the divide from the pulp and paper industry of the 1980s through to the bits and bytes of the 21st Century. And it has certainly been quite the journey! Some articles are in fact videos found on such platforms as YouTube. But first, let’s see where this all began.

by Tom Gall

Over the past few years, Battlefront has released several Ace campaign packs. These cover Bloody Omaha, Race for Minsk, and Battle of the Bulge. Each campaign pack retails for approximately $20 and includes a set of playing card sized decks which gives you all you need to run a ladder campaign with missions, rewards, side missions, and a collection of Ace Ability cards.

Recently at D6 Games in Rochester Minnesota, we hosted a Flames of War Late War tournament built around the Battle of the Bulge Aces campaign. This article is going to cover how it worked and served to make the tournament one that will be remembered and talked about for a long time.

For each round of the tournament (there were 3 rounds) we made use of the episodes of the campaign. This set the tone as well as picked the mission and who was attacking. The first episode in the Bulge Aces campaign has the Axis on the attack with Breakthrough as the mission. Further each episode sets forth a set of rewards depending on the outcome. For round one, both players receive a Tier 1 reward.

By Chris Masucci

This week, Chris brings us a battle report featuring the Crystallum rules set, of which he is co-author.

A swirl of radioactive dust swept through the silent streets of East Atana, the border town that had been under Federation control for the past three months until strategic command lost contact with the small division stationed there. East Atana would have been yet another forgettable settlement.

However, its still functional airbase had been well utilized by Federation forces and the presence of an AX-15 Heavy Lifter Craft currently stationed at the base spurred Federation command to send a relief force to East Atana.  Unbeknownst to the advancing Federation column, East Atana had been taken by hostile forces. A mixed platoon of Vlast vehicles and personnel had been stationed in the settlement and awaited the Federation forces to try and retake the city.