The staff here at NDNG is so excited that is updating the Great War book for all of those like me who love all things Great War. As you have seen in our previous articles the new book is bigger and better than the previous version; all the rules are updated to the V4 standard and you have a lot of new forces to play with.

I had the honor of helping the crew at Battlefront put together this book and I want to share some of the amazing forces you can now play on your table. In this article, I will go over the changes to the French and American forces as well as introduce the Belgians to the fight.

By Tom Gall

Saturday February 23rd, seven of us gathered at D6 Games in Rochester to play some Cruel Seas. Seven became eight, then nine as people watching became interested in the action on the table top.

We used the to play some games. We didn’t call it a tournament, but I was looking to validate a number of the missions to continue to try and eek out any bugs. (Note this document is player generated and not official by Warlord games.)

The great attribute of this kind of play is, people can just show up with an agreed to point costed fleet for a day of Cruel Seas gaming.

Across the Flames, Star Wars Armada, X-Wing and other communities, it’s a pretty popular and fun style of play.

Here Chuck getting in his first game with his Germans is taking on Pat’s scratch built Finns.

The mat is by F.A.T. mats and you can purchase from the firelock games website. It’s 4’x6′ which in my opinion is a perfect size for Cruel Seas.

Mega episode for a mega book! I am joined by Tom Gall and Austin Copeland to go over the entire Great War book for Flames of War. Almost two jammed packed hours of mud and blood to the green fields beyond.

By Tom Burgess

The British forces in Version 4’s Great War return with new options. Cavalry and Armored Cars bolster the already solid British infantry formations. The British now have four formations they can take; Line Division Rifle Company, Elite Division Rifle Company, Canadian or ANZAC Rifle Company, and the Cavalry Squadron.

by Tom Burgess

As Battlefront expands its Version 4 rules back to the battlefields of the Great War, Germany still remains the only representative of the Central Powers in the new lists. Though not as well equipped with tanks and armored cars as many of the Allies in the book, the German lists offer some interesting options for both previous and new German players.

The two lists options in Version 3’s Great War for the Germans has now been expanded to four list types in Version 4. These are the Infanteriekompanie, the Stosskompanie, the Jägerkompanie, and the Siegfriedstellung. The fist two of these will be familiar to previous German Great War players.  The Jägerkompanie is an elite “light” infantry unit while Siegfriedstellung is more of an economy of force unit used to hold defensive positions.

By Troy A. Hill

Images courtesy of and ©Osprey Publishing Ltd, Warlord Games 2019

I have to admit that I had only a casual sideline historical interest in Europe’s eastern front in WWII. To me, Hungarians and Romanians were always the armies of minor nations that gave the Germans some “cheaper” allies to play in campaigns or tournaments depending on which game system I was playing. How wrong I was.

Thanks to taking the challenge of reading and reviewing new Fortress Budapest Campaign book for Bolt Action, I have a new appreciation of just how important this section of the late war period was to Hitler’s war machine, and why he and Stalin invested so much time, blood and resources into battles that lead the Red Army to conquer Hungary.

In this episode we welcome Nate and Phil to the NDNG Crew. We talk about their first Blood and Plunder game, board games, life as a pro war gamer and we talk about hot upcoming game DEFCON Zero.

Coming up in March Battlefront will release the v4 update to the . Great War, of course, refers to WWI. For those living through the times, they knew it as the Great War.

I’m excited to share with you some of the details about this new book and Battlefront’s plans. The update is absolutely huge, in size and treatment. It features new army lists, new figures, new units types for existing armies, new army boxes, a v4 update to the rules and a whole lot more.  It adds up to a wonderful well crafted set of rules that offer a very fun time.

I hope you have seen the article on NDNGs narrative Team Yankee event we are holding at Cold Wars. This article is meant to get you thinking about what lists you may want to bring to the event.

First of all, as long as you keep to the same side, you can change your lists each game, how many events let you do that? Actually, changing lists is key to the event and I hope I can spell this out to you here.

I know many of you felt 55 points is too low for an event. Well, this would be true if it wasn’t for the fact that for each game you will be teamed up with a partner. This partner will be based on what lists and players will work well together during each round, and your commanders (Chris Jackson is SACEUR and Tim Hladon will be the GSFG commander) will pick teams each round.

Both commanders are great guys so if you wanted to play with a particular partner, I am sure they honor your requests. By picking partners at the event we can have newer players learn from some of the old sweats.

I walked out of the movie theater about three hours ago, and my heart is still thumping. No, it wasn’t Scarlett Johansson or some adventure flick and it wasn’t the next Fast and Furious installment. It was film taken over 100 years ago, of the men who served in the Great War. This blog features a lot of posts about historical wargaming from different eras and genres, and they are read and shared.

But something we don’t write much about is about the real people we are recreating on our tabletops. This isn’t a recount of some historical battle or a game I played, or a system tried out. Rather it will be my attempt to put into words, the images and stories I experienced at the picture show.