HMGS CYBER WARS 2020: A Virtual Convention 23-26 July 2020

Like many of you, I am just missing conventions. Many events I looked forward to each year have been canceled due to the pandemic.

Who knows when we will all be able to congregate again.

The folks at HMGS came up with a great idea; why not hold an online convention. That is how got started.

Now a week out, and the event is shaping up to be a good one that features gaming, speakers, shopping, and contests starting Thursday 23 July and concluding Sunday 26 July.

Human Wave 2020: An Advanced Squad Leader tournament in the age of COVID

By David Garvin

Sorry, we’re closed…

is an annual tournament that began only in 2018. It is run by the , an ASL club based in the Washington, DC area. The initial two tournaments saw around 20 or so participants each time come together in Tysons Corner, Virginia to play a four-round tournament. This year was looking to be a bigger tournament in terms of participation when the Pandemic hit.

When the lockdowns and border closings began back in March, everything went into flux. We did not know how long this would last nor what the implications would be. Soon it was evident that it would be impossible to host a tournament in Northern Virginia at the end of June. But the tournament was not dead, thanks to a freeware program called , or VASL as it is more commonly referred to.

Firestorm Gazala Turn 1 Battle 5 AAR – Dust Up at Hill 171

By Ed Hall and Tom Burgess

Continuing with the Breakthrough Assault and No Dice No Glory online Firestorm Gazala Campaign.  Ed wanted to play Battle 5 at area C5 “Hill 171.” Ed selected 80 points, before the addition of Firestorm Troops as the point level for this battle.

We both chose formations representative of the forces committed to this battle.  So for Tom that would be a Motor Co, backed up by a reinforcing Crusader Squadron. Ed wen with an Afrika Korps Shutzen Co. Tom chose a Defense stance to model the situation and Ed chose Maneuver.  Using the Battle Plans matrix this resulted in a Dust Up Mission.

Firestorm Gazala – British Turn 1 Analysis and Turn 2 Commander’s Intent

Battles Generated in Turn 2

By Tom Burgess

Turn One of the Firestorm Campaign was a complete success…maybe not so much for the British effort per say but overall we had 21 games from around the globe reported in. Additionally, Battlefront has risen to the occasion and is now offering two boxed sets each turn as awards for those who submit the most/best written Battle AARs.

So the campaign, as joint Breakthrough Assault and No Dice No Glory effort, is doing exactly what we had hoped it would do, generate themed Flames of War games.  Though Mark, allowed any mid-war forces be used for games in this campaign, the AARs I have seen all have used proper Mid-war Desert British, German, and Italian miniatures on nice desert boards. Huzzah to you all in the field!

So how did Turn One’s 21 battles turn out from the British Perspective?

Firestorm Gazala Turn 1 Battle 4 AAR – No Retreat at Retma

By Tom Burgess

As part of the Breakthrough Assault and No Dice No Glory online Firestorm Gazala Campaign my friend, Charles, and I managed play Battle 4 from turn 1 in the campaign. I’d be playing the defending British with a force themed on the 7th Motor Brigade, while Charles was to roll with a 5th Panzer Regiment force with some loaned support from the 132nd Areite Division’s tanks.

We naturally decided that the British would take a defensive stance while Germans would be attacking. Using the Battle Plans matrix we rolled up “No Retreat’ for a mission. Charles set up the table using my terrain while I finished updating my list from a battle I played on the previous day. Charles set up a mostly open deep desert board. I chose to defend on the slightly more hilly side and where I could have better access to the short table edge.

Team Yankee A-10 Total Refurbishment

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

AF Reserve A-10 painted not-green. These were how my 2nd hand aircraft looked like.

Those that know me, know that I am a huge plane nerd.    So it might be odd that I did the A-10’s for my Team Yankee Americans last and not first. The reason for this was threefold:  In the previous version of Team Yankee, aircraft were too easily killed by AA fire, even humble vehicle machine guns.

Second, the very high AT weapons weren’t really needed in a game without M1A1s, Challengers and T-80s.  Third, they were the Battlefront resin kits, with the weapons in the wrong spot, painted in a Desert Scheme that wasn’t really used, plus I did not have access to decals even if I did repaint them.

Beginning Black Powder Napoleonics

by Troy A. Hill

The Covid-19 pandemic is having both deleterious and beneficial effects on the Table Top Miniatures hobby. From missed conventions and abrupt halts, then sputtering starts to in-person gaming at Friendly Local Gaming Stores (FLGSs), the pandemic has really rocked the table-top gaming industry back on its heels.

But, I’m seeing a trend on many of the social media platforms: either new gamers are entering the hobby, or existing gamers are picking up new armies, or new games to try. One area is in the Napoleonic gaming world. I’ve seen several “New to the hobby, where do I begin?” posts just in the forums and pages with Warlord Games.

I’m in that same boat, and I’m happy to share my trials and tribulations, so any gamers jumping into the great unknown of Napoleonics can learn from my mistakes.

In this piece, I’ll share what I learned about researching, and the models I’ve begun with. I’ll also include images of the Warlord British Line Infantry models, and the process I went through assembling and painting them. You might want to read the image captions separately from the text of the main piece.

Firestorm Gazala – Turn 1 British Commander’s Intent

Iron Tom and the boys?

by Tom Burgess (standing in as General Ritchie)

The game is afoot…..

Mark from Breakthrough Assault and I finished the operational moves for Turn 1 in the Breakthrough Assault and No Dice No Glory Collaborative Firestorm Gazala Campaign. Several battles have already been reported but there’s still time to get in those first-round fights.

King and Country need you!

As the British C-in-C, I wanted to share some thoughts about how we got to where we are in the turn one battles and what my hopes for each are.

Though we rolled a high number of battles for turn one, miraculously the British won the initiative in two of these against steep odds.  That was the good news. The bad news was that initiative came late and after the main German attacks had already been committed. The opportunities for spoiling attacks were limited to just one option.

See Turn 1 Battles