Like many I received my kickstarter copy of Oak and Iron by Firelock games and been beyond eager to get some games on the table top. Enter a slight case of the flu which added just enough delay so I could get some ships painted. Weigh anchor! Sound the drums! Load the cannon and roll out the guns!

We setup the demo game as found in the book, no terrain, but with a slight twist. I a paired up the Fluyt and the Sloop while on the other side the Petite Fregate and Corvette were matched. We didn’t add any upgrades but at this point we noticed that the core game box comes with just one untested admiral card.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Alright, back at it, Team Yankee Americans. In this post, I am outlining my Desert MERDC camo M113 hulls.    MERDC camouflage was designed in the 70s to be a standardized pattern that could have 1 or two of the 4 colours repainted and thus transition from region or season.   In reality, apart from some White added for winter, the camo remained and was eventually replaced.   I like the look of it for my desert forces rather than the blander tan you see on most Desert Storm vehicles.   Since I am doing Texas National Guard units (with Texas-based regforce attached) I loved finding a pic of an M901ITV from Fort Hood at the NTC in this very camo!

Disregard the green M150 TOW in the foreground

By Mitch Reed

Many of our steady readers may be aware of a great new game called that many of our NDNG staff helped play test. The first wave of the game came with the big battlewagons of the dreadnought era and now the game includes the light cruisers which played a major role in the war doing everything from commerce raiding, blockade operations and scouting for the main battle fleet.

The light cruisers were part of our original play test and we loved playing these fast ships with their deadly torpedoes. Game wise they add so much to the flavor of the game and I feel gamers will love this addition to the game.

Once again we sit down with Mike Tunez, to talk about solo play, upcoming releases (Raise the Black!) and what we’ve been painting in quarantine.

By Tom Gall

This is the 3rd in our series of articles on Battlegroup: NORTHAG a set of Cold War gone hot rules set in 1983 published by the and written by Warwick Kinrade. In the prior two articles, and then . In this one, we’re going to play a game and see how it goes.

By Tom Burgess

One of my major projects of 2019 was to complete an all plastic German East Front Mid-War army. I chose to focus on Gepanzert Panzer Grenadiers. To do this I had two boxes of Battlefront’s ‘s and two Boxes of Plastic Soldier Company’s ‘s. So I thought this provided a nice opportunity to review and compare what these two companies offer for the same model.

Both companies provide the SdKfz-251/C in unit boxes of five vehicles. The Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) boxed set cost $29.99 (US) with crews/passengers but only the machinegun armed transport option and no decals.

Battlefront (BF) box set cost $45.99 (US) and comes with parts to build all five models as the transport (with or without 3.7cm anti-tank gun), the 7.5cm short assault gun, or the 8cm armored mortar version. The BF set also the proprietary unit cards, for use in Flames of War, as well as a sheet of waterslide decals.

Like many of you I am under lockdown and I am itching for some gaming relief, well the good people at have finally released a PC port of their iconic board war game Lock and Load called . This project is one I was following for a while since it seems to been in development for a long time and now it is in early-release and has been giving me hours of fun while at home.

For our second article on Battlegroup NORTHAG we’re going to take a closer look at building your force for a game. NORTHAG uses a points-based scheme for force building your, which makes for a great scheme that you and a friend can agree to a number of points ahead of a game and show up at the tabletop with matched forces.

Game Size

There are 3 recommended sizes, 500 pts for a Platoon sized game on a 6×4, 750 pts for a Company sized game on a 6×6 or 6×8 and 1000 points for a Battalion sized game as a 6×10 or larger, but of course, you’re free to choose!

List Building Basics

When constructing a force you utilize the menu of options associated with the nation you’re building for. Currently, within this very first book, the options are limited to Soviet or British. We’ll see further books and unofficial lists via the Battlegroup: NORTHAG Facebook page in time.

This is the latest of my articles on painting and modeling the Canadian Forces for Team Yankee.

When 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group was moved from Westphalia to Lahr on the Rhine frontier with France, some policy-makers apparently sought to do away with Canada’s tanks entirely. For some years, the brigade continued to use their Centurion tanks, an excellent tank in its day but one that could not be used on long road moves.

In 1975, the Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, visited Germany to ask the Chancellor for his support for getting Canada special trade status with the European Common Market. He was told to come back to discuss the matter once Canada had replaced its antiquated tanks. The contract for the Leopard tank acquisition followed quickly.

by Dennis Jensen

On March 12th-15th I attended Cold Wars 2020 at the Lancaster Wyndham (formerly the Lancaster Host.)  As always, I had plans to teach at Hobby University.  At this show I was scheduled to teach one beginner’s painting class using Games Workshop Squigs, host four-speed paint competitions and take part in an interview panel about entering painting competitions.  My wife was scheduled to help with Paint and Take and my boys were going to play games, and paint figures.

There was some concern that the show would be canceled due to the threat of COVID-19 as other, larger events, were being canceled, however, the show went on.  As the weekend progressed more and more events around the country were canceled leading a few of us to refer to Cold Wars as “The Last Convention in America.”