28mm

By Jacob Shober

The first twenty-four hours of the invasion will be decisive. . . . [T]he fate of Germany depends on the outcome. For the Allies as well as Germany, it will be the longest day.

—Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 22 April 1944.

D-Day has finally come to , and I can definitely say that the campaign book does it justice. At least from the German perspective, one can definitely feel the gravity of the situation, the desperate hold on the beachhead bunkers and fortifications as wave upon wave of Allied troops storm the beach, drop from the skies, and rain high-caliber naval shells on top of them.

It also shows much of how the Germans appropriated French armor and guns for their own purpose after the successful invasion in 1940. From both a historical and gameplay viewpoint, this campaign book has a lot of content to offer, from the units, to the fortifications, and lastly, the theater selectors.

By Troy A. Hill

Images from the book and/or the

The latest addition to Warlord Games series of campaign books for Bolt Action, Campaign D-Day: Overlord (D-Day), lives up to my expectations.

Almost every WWII game with an ongoing campaign or theatre of operations book is releasing something this year. The year of 2019 marks the 75th anniversary of the breaching of Hitler’s Fortress Europe. Warlord has a fitting combination of games for their soon to launch

That campaign is to combine results of their three flagship WWII games: Bolt Action, Cruel Seas, and Blood Red Skies.

While Warlord has not released details of that campaign yet, the book for D-Day is sure to figure into their plans for the campaign.

By Dennis “Matt Varnish” Campbell

Napoleon.   Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:   “Man takes over country, then takes over Europe, and has grand ideas of marching to Moscow, but is then thwarted by logistics and winter”

Scott’s place on a Saturday, with some Sharpe’s Rifles on the tele

Napoleonics? Why? Well, for me with my gaming background starting mainly with sci-fi and fantasy (Games Workshop) I had never really looked at historicals, and certainly not Napoleonics. I knew who Napoleon was, and the era, mainly from watching Sharpe’s Rifles, a series where A: Sean Bean’s character doesn’t die, and B: Has Elizabeth Hurley in it (see header pic)

, in sunny (and smoggy) Los Angeles California was recently home to a 28mm scale face-off between Rommel’s DAK and a mixed band of allies. The event was hosted by NoDiceNoGlory.com, with prize support from , and , and the chapter. This event was played with the Bolt Action rules set and featured armies primarily from the Western Desert book released last year by Warlord Games.

The event was inspired by Brad at the and based loosely on his event, Suns Out, Guns Out down in Australia, as well as inspiration from the gents at the . Even though we ran the event with tournament style, one-on-one games on 4×6-foot tables, the goal of this was for to compete for the overall victory of one’s side, and not try to dominate each game to be the top player.

We’ve recently seen how : a deep simulation for ancient/medieval warfare, with a manual written in a precise, . Now it’s time to go easier, with a fresh, modern set of rules you can read and understand without Britannica encyclopedia support, and be able to play at a decent level in a couple of hours – and we also had a chat with Simon Miller, the author behind the rules. Time to have a look at To

By Ian Birdwell

By mid-1944, the Red Tide sweeping across the plains of eastern Europe had finally begun to lap the borders of Hungary.

By August, Romania had switched sides, Hungary was being invaded, and it looked like Germany wouldn’t quite be able to get everything under control.

The fighting in Hungary represents one of my favorite periods in WW2. It’s the junction of almost every nation fighting in Europe. Hungarian infrastructure was destroyed by US and British bombing after all. Taking center stage was the fighting in and around Budapest.

This is the setting for warlord’s latest theater book for in Fortress Budapest.

Now as far as this review goes, I’m going to be taking you all through the broad strokes of the Hungarian section of the book. I’ll go through the new units added into the Hungarian arsenal and the brand new theater selectors able for the Honved!

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.

to its fans is a great horse and musket game for the Seven Years War. This is approximately the years 1740-1763. The war itself started in 1754 and lasted until 1763. As was with the times in Europe it was turbulent with many factions and thus a good topic for action on the tabletop. For those of us within the United States, we know this war as the French and Indian War when the young George Washington was a junior officer with the British Army.

This set of rules is more for Europe, and the author Bill Protz has another set of rules specifically for the French and Indian Wars called

Let’s talk about BAR, what makes it fun and why it might be the game you’re looking for. This period in history has much to offer. Across Europe the political map was complex and the variety of forces involved and their fickle loyalties offer many a what if as well as historical material to plan a game.

by Tom Burgess

has become one of my favorite games over this past year. I was immediately drawn to it as I’ve always been a big fan of Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai movies, but a year’s worth of gameplay with it has greatly heightened my appreciation for Test of Honour as a fast and exciting skirmish game.

This is especially impressive as skirmish games as a wargame genre are not normally my forte. This made me wonder why I was not seeing more of Test of Honour being played if it was a game system that could get a non-skirmish guy like me so enthralled with it.

My guess is that many people just have not really taken a good look at it or maybe have not managed to get in a demo game. My hope is that this article encourages some players to consider trying the game and hopefully to seek out a demo game.  So where to start…..?

by Troy A. Hill (Photos by the author, graphics courtesy of Warlord Games)

I’ve managed to get my US Bolt Action army into a playable state that I’m not embarrassed by. I do still need to finish my various vehicles for it (a few are still in boxes).

My sell-off of models from my previous games garnered me enough hobby dollars to hit up my Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) for a new box from Warlord. Combine this with the new Western Desert book for Bolt Action, with some additional forces, and I’ll be good for the upcoming Duel in the that No Dice No Glory is sponsoring this February at Orccon in Los Angeles.