What a year! While we are halfway through 2020, I think we can make the call that for our hobby this year is not one we wish to remember. Every week we hear about yet another convention being canceled, “indefinitely” delayed, or moved to a virtual setting. How will this effect our hobby? What will our hobby look like when things get better and how long will this last?
Many of our readers know that I am fascinated by the Great War, it was an event that changed the world unlike any other and when the guns fell silent in 1918 society, maps, and military thought were almost unrecognizable from how they looked in 1914.
This passion has led me to help develop a bunch of games that cover the Great War. Back in January I caught a glimpse of a game called Verdun 1916 Steel Inferno (V1916SI) by the French gamers at the Fellowship of Simulations. I was impressed as most gamers are with the sheer beauty of the game and I made sure I was the first backer when the project hit Kickstarter on 21 February, the 104th anniversary of the start of the battle.
During the lockdown we looked at ways we could help our local gaming stores once the hint of normalcy returned. While under lockdown we chatted a lot with our friends from the UK, the staff of , and Mark Goddard came up with an amazing idea, why not kick off another Firestorm Campaign for . When Mark approached me with the idea I immediately wanted to help support this great idea and I even enlisted our Iron Tom Burgess the commander for one of the teams.
by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell
Everyone has that model or unit that is just… well… it’s not your best work. For my Napoleonic French army in 28mm, that unit is my battalion of Old Guard. Here is the story of how they are my worst unit and how I fixed the situation
First of all, in preparation for a big game of a while back, I had decided that I needed an Elite unit to back up my glorious Line infantry, and so painted all 24 figures in one day. Naturally, the plan was to come back later and re-work them.. so its very basic.. main colours then a wash over the whole model with GW Nuln oil. My pot of Nuln Oil was bad so that it left pools of white residue everywhere and a super gloss finish.
I still used them for the game. On my way back, I had to slam on my brakes for some lady in a white SUV who cut me off, and I could HEAR my boxes of miniatures in my trunk tipping over. I could only imagine the carnage. Almost every single model that had rifles facing forwards were broken, and I had to re-glue so many bayonets, that I only used them in one other game after that,
By Tom Burgess
One aspect of playing World War Three Team Yankee that many people enjoy is list building. Trying to design the most perfect list to take on all opponents in all mission is almost a hobby withing itself. However commanders through history rarely ever get to “design” their force.
Instead, Commanders are generally are assigned units to accomplish a specified task. As much fun as it is to design a force and test it, it also can be very enjoyable to see how well you can do with a set force challenged to contest with specific historical conditions.
We are talking about playing historical scenarios rather than playing generated missions with designed forces.
Though World War Three Team Yankee is set in a fictional World War Three setting, Battlefront has done a great job including “historical” scenarios from this hypothetical war in their World War Three Team Yankee books.
By Ron Winkler
As the Covid 19 quarantine continues, I decided it was time for another solo game using the rules. Continuing with the War of 1812, I selected the Battle of Chippawa as a game scenario. Again, I used my 15mm figures and Osprey’s excellent Niagara 1814 book as a reference for forces and battlefield maps.
Based on information in the book I rated regular units on both sides equal in quality in terms of Special qualities having First Fire, Elite 4+, and Reliable ratings. However, two of the regular US units 25th Infantry and a single Company of the 21st Infantry as small and tiny respectively because of their size which of course affected their Stamina rating. The other regulars on both sides were standard in size. US and British artillery had equal qualities as did the Light Dragoons on both sides. Both cavalry units were tiny in size.
The dedicated podcast is back for Ep.6. This episodes special guest is Joe from and they talk about Blood and Plunder and Oak and Iron.
By Tom Burgess
I am very excited about the impending release of the new World War III Team Yankee American book. That may surprise many who know me as I have only ever played Soviet and East Block type forces in Team Yankee so far. But the reality is that US forces were my first purchase for Team Yankee and I have quite a collection of US units still boxed and waiting to be built.
I only shifted to Soviets to help the force balance in my local gaming area. By now my Soviets are quite complete and its time for me to go full throttle into Americans for Team Yankee with this new book.
The World War III Team Yankee American book is a significant expansion from the preceding Stripes US Forces in World War III book. All the formations and support that were available to the US player in Stripes are also in the new book. In addition to these, the new book has added the M1A1 Armored Combat Team, M2 Bradley Combat Team, M3 Bradley Cavalry Troop, Combined Army (Heavy) Company, Combined Arms (Light) Company, and the Light Attack Company.
The 28mm size, if you ask me, is the perfect balance between playability and modeling/painting. You can buy and assemble pretty good armies for any ruleset from ancient warfare to sci-fi skirmishing without investing too much money or time to paint them, with striking results. So, even if I prefer 15mm when it comes to competitive games and recreating full-scale battles, I often spend some time to paint and play 28mm miniatures.
However, on gaming tables, I equally often see very good painted miniatures with anonymous green bases. I think bases are so significant for the final look of an army (by the way, here are for Team Yankee, and ).
By Mitch Reed
We may hate to admit it but gaming is a social hobby, we may build and paint our models in isolation, but the reason why we do this is to meet up with fellow gamers and play the games we love. In the last few months, a pandemic has taken away our social outlet with conventions being canceled and gaming stores closed to gaming. Even as we slowly recover and open up our nations many gamers may be rightfully apprehensive to return to the table. So, we may be faced with a long period where we are deprived of the social aspect of our hobby.
