PSC

By Ed Sales

Hello there! Today we take a look at the that arrived in the mail.

By Wargamerabbit

Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) released their plastic Valentine Infantry Tank in 20mm and 15mm scales. Back on April 18, 2018, the PSC 15mm kit was reviewed by Troy Hill (NDNG Editor) and this review follows in similar fashion for the 20mm or 1/72 scale model. These model tanks are a welcome addition for any gaming rules using 20mm models, with an eye toward North Africa, the Italian campaign up the long boot of Italy, or even the Eastern Front with Valentines as Lend-Lease.

by Tom Burgess

Models provided by the

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to build and review a box of the Plastic Soldier Company’s 15mm Sextons.  I have an all plastic Irish Guards Tank Battalion but had no fire support to go with this force. So this project would be a perfect fit.

This would be the third set of 15mm armoured vehicle models made by the that I have built.

Before these, I had built Soviet T-70s and German PzKw-IVHs. Both sets were very good and I was very excited to get started on these.

Plastic Soldier’s Company’s timing was great. I recently had the opportunity to host an intro-101 style training session at Gamex, a gaming convention in Los Angeles, California. What should show up in my mailbox a week before I had to submit event details to the convention? Battlegroup: Torch, their latest theatre book.

What follows in this piece is a combination of a look at the book itself, as well as lessons learned from applying it in a training session with players I didn’t know.

By Troy A. Hill
All images courtesy of IronFist Publishing.

When IronFist Publishing and  (PSC) first published their Overlord book in 2013, the tome weighed in at 240-ish pages. The book covered the Western Europe forces in D-Day operations, as well as D-Day+1 up until the defeat in the Falaise Pocket.

IronFist and PSC recently republished a partial re-release of the book:  (BtB) that covers “the battles inland” after D-day. The reprint is slightly over half the pages of the original (at 136 pages).

Plastic Soldier Company has released their and 20mm scales. They were kind enough to send NDNG a set of 15mm for review.

Out of the box, the 15mm sprues are impressive, yet daunting. Two hull tops are included – one with side skirts, one without. The instructions list the side-skirt hull as the Valentine III and IX model.

These tanks are a welcome addition, with both Flames of War and BattleGroup focussing on Desert War in North Africa right now. Players of any 15mm WWII game with an eye toward North Africa, or even the Eastern Front with Valentines as Lend-Lease can make good use of this set.

By Dennis Campbell AKA Matt Varnish

Photos by the Author, except the above and left.

Plastic Soldier Company was kind enough to send us a 1/72 scale (20mm) T-55 kit for review. I decided to build it as an Iraqi T-55A, which my research indicates was of Czech manufacture originally. I almost wanted to make it a modified Type-69 (Chinese knock-off) but decided on the stock variant, which thankfully PSC has the parts on-sprue to make. This kit can make Soviet/Polish T-55, Soviet/Polish/Czech T-55A, and finally, the T-55AM which has the modernized armour on the turret and the better sensors on the main gun barrel (East German Team Yankee).

by Charles Christy and Charles McKellar

The PSC M60 model is really great! I picked up a box just to see how they looked and was not surprised. I’ve known they do great gaming models, and this one is no slacker at all!!!

by Troy A. Hill
Photos by the Author

I’ve recently begun a series that looks at the . This piece will look at some basic rules of the game. All page references are from the Battlegroup Rule Book, hardcover revised edition.

Winning the Game: 

The first question a player asks of any game is: “how do I win” (or lose)? In Battlegroup, there are several ways: controlling all objectives at the end of your opponent’s turn, causing the opposing force to be destroyed or pinned so they cannot use any orders on their next turn, or (as

occurs most often) when your opponent’s Battle Counter Chits sum exceed their force’s Battle Rating.

Battlegroup uses a secret countdown of these Battle Counter tokens as a core mechanic. During the course of the game, players will be required to blindly draw morale “chits” from a bag or cup. These chits range up in value from one to five points each. Typically, there are more of the middle numbers (two and three) than there are ones and fives in the pool of chits. There are also special chits, with beneficial effects for the one who draws them. I will cover these more in a later piece.

By Troy A. Hill
Photos by the Author

This is the first of a series looking at the Battlegroup wargaming rules. This piece originally appeared on WWPD.net and is being reprinted here as part of an ongoing look at the Battlegroup game system.

Battlegroup is The Plastic Soldier Company’s entry into the WWII gaming system. Written by Warwick Kinrade, the rules system is a tight, fairly historical approach to gaming at a variety of force sizes, in either 15mm or 20mm scales.

They have published a core rulebook, and a variety of Theatre of Operations books, including (as of now): Kursk, Barbarosa, Blitzkrieg, Tobruk, Overlord, Bulge (Wacht Am Rhein), Market Garden, and Fall of the Reich.

I’ve had a chance to read the rules and begin some skirmish games at our local gaming club. The rules are different, much different than what I’m used to with other systems. But, they’re not complicated. The biggest challenge I’ve faced has been trying to think inside of the Battlegroup rules, and not applying rules from another game set.

This article will look at the Battlegroup main rulebook, its layout, and how it presents the core of the Battlegroup system. The rules themselves will be covered in later write-ups.

The Rule Book

Battlegroup is published by  and is distributed by Plastic Soldier Company (PSC).  The rules were written by Warwick Kinrade, with assistance from Piers Brand. The rulebook was originally published as a small paperback book distributed with the Battlegroup Kursk theatre book. It now exists as a hardcover, stand-alone product.