By Kreighton Long

Gamers have a variety of means of marking progress and mechanics in their games. The means of doing so range as wildly as the reasons we need to track them. Whether the game calls it stress, fatigue, or pins, we can use tokens, dice, or counters.

Players of Bolt Action deal with pins, a game concept that functions against a unit’s morale.

Marking pins on the table can be as simple or fancy as the player wants it to be. For my games, I decided that I wanted to create a way of tracking pins that would blend into the table and compliment the aesthetic as much as possible.

After some digging around I came across appropriate casualty markers from .

For this project specifically, I used a . The core idea here was to create a scenic looking marker combining a casualty model with a slot where a 9mm D6 can be turned to represent the number of pins on a unit. After completing the test piece shown below I’m committing to working on a set for personal use with my WWII German armies.

I am joined by Liz Davidson (Beyond Solitaire) and we talk about the Zenobia Awards, which looks to add diversity in the historical gaming community.

By Robert Kelly

I had been to the in Aarhus, Denmark on a previous visit, but when I found out that they had spent about $1.5 million dollars on a refurbishment, I figured it was time to check it out again. The most striking thing about the museum is that it is housed in the former Gestapo Headquarters. The Germans invaded Denmark on 9 April, 1940 and by the end of the day, Denmark had capitulated. You first had to reserve a spot in the museum (its very small) and then pay just under $12 USD on entry.

By Chris Masucci

It is time again to revisit the lands of the far future, to a land of galactic civil war. Star Wars legion has been growing at a rapid rate in my area, its small but tight squadron based combat offers a reprieve from the mass amounts of figures of Warhammer and other micro-scale games. Repurposing a lot of mechanics from Fantasy Flight’s other games such as X-wing, any players familiar with the more ship-based star wars offering will be able to jump into legion without much issue.

It is no secret that I love and even before the game came out, I had a few armies ready to go for play testing and when the game finally came out. One of the things I pleaded with Rufus and Kai to make sure that the game was not all trench warfare. I have always felt that the Great War was under-gamed because many just think of static trench warfare. When I gave demos of the game, I stated that I have no plans to build armies for the western front. However, as I talked about the game more to potential players, I noticed that many of them wanted the mud and blood of the trenches and by picking up some great kits I gave in, well almost since I still do not have any trenches.

Tom and Ed are back to talk all about Flames of War and Team Yankee

By Mitch Reed

I have long been a fan of John Tiller and the newest release from covers one of the forgotten campaigns of World War Two, the campaign to open the port of Antwerp that took place in October and November 1944. The took place right after the failure of Operation Market Garden and before the Battle of the Bulge, so it does not get the rightful attention it should. In their new title Scheldt 44, the designers change that with yet another great addition to the Panzer Campaigns Series.

By Tom Gall

This article is about how to make your game table bigger, by fearlessly going to a smaller scale. In my case, I’ve been gaming in 15mm for Team Yankee and Battlegroup NorthAG, but want to convert to 10mm to get more gaming space for the same sized table. 3-D printing is a major portion of my success getting into another scale.

With NorthAG, the Plastic Soldier Company has a good line of models that continues to expand. Other companies of course can scratch the 10mm itch as well. The great thing about a 15mm to 10mm conversion is the smaller vehicles, infantry, and so on paint a lot faster. You’ll get to the table sooner and not have to invest tons of time in detail.

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of visiting Critical Hit Games in Abingdon Maryland to host some demo games of Blood & Plunder at the invitation of store staff member Matt Maggitti.

The store had only started carrying it a few weeks ago and the community of gamers were just getting into the game. A friend of the Tales of the Sail podcast Preston Jacka met me there to assist in running multiple demos at once.

Phil and I had a chance to talk with legendary game designer on his upcoming Great War Card game that is on Kickstarter now.