By Steve Murga

I am fascinated by 17th Century European History. I grew up in Spain reading the Alatriste Novels by Spanish novelist Arturo Perez-Reverte, the adventures of a Spanish sword for hire in the backdrop of a decadent and crumbling Spanish Empire. Is the fast-evolving nature of the 17th Century that captivates me the most, a period between the medieval world and the modern era, a time where the last vestiges of feudalism gave away to the modern state.

by Patrick S. Baker

“Take command of men who act like real soldiers” was the tag line on the Close Combat box.

When first released in 1996 Close Combat took the war game world by storm. It was not just one of the first real-time tactics/real-time strategy (RTT/RTS) war games, but also boldly claimed to be an accurate simulation of modern war. The game was developed by Atomic Games and published by Microsoft, and was one of the few games published by the software giant at that time.

It was originally announced as Beyond Squad Leader and was to be a digital sequel of Avalon Hill’s million-selling Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) board war game franchise.  However, the companies’ affiliation was fraught and, eventually, Atomic and Avalon Hill parted ways. Atomic renamed the project Close Combat, and continued the development, with Microsoft coming in as publisher.

By Howard West, Photos by Dane Van Norden

Creative Pursuit Games (CPG) located in Leesburg; VA hosted a Team Yankee tournament on January 30^th, 2021. CPG has been hosting small gaming tournaments during COVID based on the state of Virginia’s COVID-19 guidelines that are in place at the time of the event. Dane and his wife Kaitlin are great hosts and have a very nice and welcoming store.

In my previous article on I mentioned how some tournament organizers (TO) will provide the missions for the tournament, who the Attacker or Defender might be and that the points may vary per round. This tournament was a perfect example of this.

Dane also likes to provide a background narrative for the tournament, this one was called RED BLIZZARD. When Dane created the title for this the event, I doubt that he was giving the attendees a long-range weather forecast, but yes it did snow late Saturday evening thru Monday but it is January and it is winter in VA.

By Mitch Reed

Well before I ever rolled a die, painted a miniature, or put a map under plexiglass I played with little green army men. As my son was growing up, he also gravitated to those green men and played with them for hours. I always wondered what use I would have for the bucket of army men as I grew up. My question has been answered with the game from .

NDNG BattleVault Episode 15 – Hero Shock Rifles, best Late War List ever?

By Tom Gall

The Wargaming Company makers of Et Sans Résultat (perhaps better known as ESR) have started to update and release their line of campaign books. The first in the refreshed line is To Assure My Dynasty, . These new campaign books are collectively called Series 3 to set them apart from past volumes.

With the book in your hands, the very first thing you’ll notice is, it’s a hardback. The prior series were spiral-bound volumes. Definitely a noticeable increase in quality but what about the content?

The campaign guide is 184 pages, all in full color. The book is broken up into several sections, first giving you a bit of background about the peninsular war, the countries, armies, and personalities involved in the conflict.

The next section covers how to use the book, with guidance on the size of the table, players, how to set up the maps, working with rosters, and how to handle scenarios that last for an extended period of time. After that is the campaign, 13 historical battles broken up into two logical parts. Last but not least is an extensive guide to the army uniforms each unit wore.

By Tom Gall

With the new Bagration Germans lists, I’ve been quite eager to put them to the test on the tabletop. Here in Minnesota as the various quarantine rules have been loosening up, in-store gaming is starting to happen in various places. Walker brought his British against my Germans, for a game at D6 Games in Rochester Mn.

By Mitch Reed

When I first heard about this game being ported to a digital format, I was excited and also worried on how some ports from board games turn out. After bugging Dave Thompson for a preview copy, I got the chance to check it out, and it is amazing and will make you salivate to play over and over again.

By Doc Wohlrab

You want to play do you? No, not that one that involves a gamepad or mouse and keyboard, the other one. Yeah, this one! That’s what I and four others did one afternoon.

By Paolo Paglianti

Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) revives one of the best ranges of “ancient” miniatures, the long time disappeared Corvus Belli. Let’s see if they are good, unboxing the packs PSC sent to us.