By Patrick S. Baker

1996’s Close Combat was a roaring commercial and critical success. Based on that accomplishment, in 1997, Atomic and Microsoft released a direct sequel: Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far. This follow-on game was set during 1944’s Operation: Market Garden. Close Combat II (CC II) featured not just American and German army units, but also British, Polish and Waffen-SS units.

The game had the same mechanics and modeling as the first Close Combat game, but with better graphics. CC II was as well received as the original game. The two Close Combat titles outsold Atomic Games previous releases by a factor of ten and CC II was Atomic’s most successful game by far, to date.

The game was also favorably reviewed with one reviewer saying that A Bridge Too Far was “improved in every way over Atomic’s original Close Combat.” The game was voted seventh in GameSpy’s “Top Ten Real-Time Strategy Games of All Time”. It was an Editor’s Choice and runner-up as the Best Wargame of the Year from PC Gamer Magazine. It was also a runner-up for Computer Gaming World’s 1997 “Wargame Game of the Year” award. The Computer Game Developers Conference nominated CC II for its “Best Strategy/Wargame Spotlight Award.”

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

I was in the market for some of the little things that make Blood and Plunder games look so gorgeous. And while there are plenty of wonderful buildings and larger pieces on sale at Firelock’s site, there are other sources for some of the smaller stuff. And as someone whose tables are typically overflowing with terrain, I wanted to get my hands on some Market stalls and barrels.

Here is an overview of the haul I had delivered from , I’ll go over some of what they had in stock, how well it went together, and how easy it was to paint up.

On Irongate’s site, you’ll find sub categories for different types of terrain. the Aztec Ruins looked appealing, but I’ll save them for another article. I focused right in on the . I wanted to have a Bazar worth raiding and fighting over. So I grabbed a few of these.

By Howard West

Hard Knox Games located in Elizabethtown, KY hosted a Flames of War Tournament on March 13th, 2021 as part of WOLFKRIEG 2021. This year due to the state of Kentucky’s COVID-19 event size restrictions WOLFKRIEG 2021 was been broken into two consecutive weekends. Weekend #1 for Wolfkrieg 2021 took place, March 13th, 2021 was Flames of War and March 14th was Team Yankee. This report covers the Flames of War for weekend #1.

Hard Knox Games has been hosting small gaming tournaments during COVID based on the state of Kentucky’s COVID-19 guidelines that are in place at the time of the event. Chad and the team at Hard Knox have a great store and is like walking into the vendor area at a gaming convention. This is the 12th year that WOLFKRIEG has taken place.

By Paolo Paglianti

One of the most played “ancient” and “medieval” ruleset, L’Art De La Guerre (ADG), is getting a new version later this month. Easy to play but deep and difficult to master, ADG has a very well-written (and well translated in English, Italian, Spanish, and French) manual, with a lot of examples that clarify almost all situations.

Most players use 15mm armies, but you can play also with 6mm or 28mm. The already good and smooth rules now get an improvement, made listening to the feedback from players all around the world. NoDiceNoGlory didn’t miss the opportunity to sit down with the author and have a chat about the incoming changes. Who better than the author, Hervé Caille, can explain the new changes? 

First, things firsts: you can find info about L’Art De La Guerre on the official site: . This is the main resource to find news and advice on how to play the game, or the preorder the ruleset of the new V4 version, which will be available later in April. If you live in Europe, you can preorder the ruleset also on

Phil and I sit down with the prolific game designer Herman Luttmann. We talk about his latest game “A Most Fearful Sacrifice”, game design and all of his amazing previous titles.

By Paolo Paglianti

Since arrived, we’ve seen four new books coming in place of the “old” (still valid) ones. Every new book has some sort of new equipment (as the BMP3 for the Soviets or the Warrior for the British), maybe some new formations (like the Gebirgsjager Brigade for Germans). But the new leading stars are definitely the new super heavy tanks. Each of the four new books has a new super-tank we can field, with armor so strong they can face almost any unfriendly attention without worrying to be killed. Are they worth their price?

By Troy A Hill

One of the joys and pitfalls of moving into a new area, and joining a new gaming group is that many of the local players in the new area already have their army builds done. When I lived in Southern California, there were a mix of players and armies. In my regular gaming group, no one was playing British, so I picked it up to compliment my US and my German Armies.

But, when I returned to North East Indiana in the States, and looked up the local crew, the most popular nation to play in the new local gaming group is… yep, British of one flavour or another.

What was I to do? Americans are the vanilla “easy mode” according to the Juggernauts. In my 15mm WWII wargaming days, I began with Americans and soon tired of them. Germans are definitely challenging. And with my grandmothers coming from lineages of Kaiser and Sigsbee surnames on one side, and Bechtel on the other side of the family, the German army seems like a good fit for me. So far, though, my interest in all things German seems limited to the DAK.

Well, when I played Warhammer Fantasy, I loved the horde armies of the goblins. Guess I should look at… The Soviets?

We are back with the Final 4 games of our contest. Part one can be found

by David Garvin

Sometime back in the mid 1980s, I went to my friend Stephen’s house for the weekend. He was one of the first people who had a personal computer. On it he had a game called War in Russia. It covered the Eastern Front in its entirety, and between the two of us, we spent hours on it, using its now quite-dated graphics. We were not strangers to games on this level; however, the designer, Gary Grigsby, found a way to have the battles resolved down to the lowest levels.