The Operational Wargame Series: The best game not in stores now

By Mitch Reed

I try not to mix my work on NDNG with my day job since despite them both having “wargame” in the title they are vastly different and done for very different reasons. Last summer I was asked by the USMC Warfighting Lab to help them playtest a game called Assassin’s Mace which is based on the Operational Wargame Series rules and is developed by the USMCWL. I was immediately impressed with the game system and felt that the hobby community would enjoy hearing about it.

The War Has Just Begun – Blood and Plunder Campaign Update

By Glenn Van Meter and Tom Mullane

We are about a week and a half into the Blood & Plunder Global Community Campaign (,) and things are getting heated between the various nations involved. Players all over the world are submitting games they’ve played to to help their favorite nation.

Last week we had an update from Guy over at Blood & Pigment via the Campaign Newsletter, and we found out that with 26 entries so far the French were in the lead with the Dutch and English tied just one game behind them. The Brethren of the Coast were lurking in 4th place. Spain was still getting her ships together and hanging out with the pack of minor nations such as the various Native Tribes, Portuguese, and the Swedes. Scotland had an especially strong showing, leading the rest of the minor powers (and Spain) by one game.

Batrep – Bagration Hungarians – how do they play?

As part of the Minor Nations Bagration book, Hungarians offer an interesting force for Late War now part of the v4 rules. I’m sure you’re eager to know how well they play? Maybe you’re a past Hungarian fan from the days of v3 or maybe you’re looking to put together a new Hungarian force. Let’s play a game and see how they perform.

Let’s start with the setting for our battle, a valley that has already seen plenty of action. I was aiming for something that can serve as hilly area in Hungary towards the end of ’44, early ’45 when the Hungarians were defending their homeland from the invading Russians. The terrain is mostly Gale Force 9 with a bit of Novus Design and some scratch builds.

Painting the Blue and Gray Unit Patch on WWII US Army Uniforms

By Kreighton Long

29th (US) Infantry Division history – Battle of Normandy – D-Day Overlord

In honor of my new home in Virginia, and for a less commonly seen WWII US Army theme, I decided to design my US Army on the 29th Infantry Division.

The 29th was a National Guard division recruited from northern Virginia, Maryland, and southern Pennsylvania.  The division deployed to the European Theater of Operations and took part in the amphibious landing at Omaha Beach, bocage fighting in Normandy, siege warfare at Brest in Brittany, then urban fighting and battles of maneuver in Germany.

Admirals’ War and a Great Afternoon for Landlubbers

By Mitch Reed

As a young wargamer, two of my most favorite games to play was and by Avalon Hill. The games portrayed the strategic naval campaigns in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans respectively and help me fall for naval war gaming as a pre-teen. In 2019 the developers at took both of these games and updated them into a single game called Admirals’ War: World War Two at Sea. Recently I invited my pod of vaccinated gamers over to play the four-player version of the game and Admirals’ War brought back the fun of the Avalon Hill games of my youth.

FOW Cards in the Pocket: Hungarian Command Cards for Late War

By Ian Birdwell

Introduction

With new books and lists comes the opportunities to discuss new command cards, and the Hungarian ones are a doozy for all kinds of gamers. Personally, I’m pretty excited about the expansion into the realm of Axis minors, they add a ton of depth of field for the game on the Eastern Front in terms of gameplay while also opening new doors to explore the complex history of the war in the East. And those two perspectives, gameplay vs history, really characterize the command cards for the Hungarians in a big way.

So let’s get down to business in discuss the nuances and intricacies of the command cards that bring back some crowd favorites while opening the door to some brand new opportunities; through first a brief overview of some of the new units and abilities added into the Hungarian faction, then noting the new formations at hand, before finally bringing it all together in building a list from the cards.

Summer of Plunder: 2021 B&P Worldwide Community Campaign

By Glen Van Meter

This summer No Dice No Glory’s Tales of the Sail podcast is teaming up with the and to bring players the Summer of Plunder: 2021 B&P Worldwide Community Campaign. Members of NDNG and Blood & Pigment are each governing a different nationality and will be encouraging players to not only get games in but will also be able to assign special and sometimes secret missions. For our parts, Tom is the Spanish Governor, Tyler is the French Governor, and Glenn is the Dutch Governor.

No Dice No Glory Episode 95: Tails of the Sail EP17

Join Glenn, Tyler and Tom as they continue their Blood and Plunder journey through a variety of topics. We continue to discuss the art of the sea battle and answer listener questions, make a big announcement about a joint Firelock, Blood and Pigment and No Dice No Glory Venture; A GLOBAL CAMPAIGN beginning on June 10th!  Someone finally loses a bet, and will suffer the consequences. Glenn and Tom also announce a Trivia winner this week along with a new question for those with some solid googling skills. Thanks for joining us for our Tales of the Sail this month!

Review: Stalingrad- Inferno on the Volga

By Mitch Reed

Seems like I am playing a lot of games about Stalingrad recently. I recently wrote a review of the digital port of David Thompson’s Pavlov’s House and that got me to pull out a game in my collection that I have yet to get to the table. Stalingrad: Inferno on the Volga by was a game that was funded via Kickstarter in 2018 and received a lot of buzz. I missed the Kickstarter campaign, but I was able to get the deluxe Kickstarter version unopened from someone on Facebook of all places. I was not only glad to get this game to the table, but equally as pleased to find that the buzz behind it was well deserved.

Flames of War: Mid-War Hungarians Spoiled

By Mitch Reed

Hungarians recently were added to the late-war period with the release of the book for Following the Finnish we now have the Hungarians making an appearance for the mid-war period. The new expansion comes in a 36-page booklet and gives you a lot of options if you want to field a Hungarian MW force.