Today we have Jack and Samuel Gassmann, the brothers behind Masterstroke Game’s Force of Virtue, a 15th Century themed skirmish game that focuses on the Borgia period in Rome. This game is one that you will want to check out and when you listen to this episode you can hear the love of the period and the intimate knowledge the design team has for this period and which is evident in this game.
By Jim Naughton
WILL THE REAL MILAN 2 PLEASE STAND UP?
A regrettable Team Yankee tendency to hand-wave the difficulty of introducing new systems in the middle of a come-as-you-are war has been reinforced by NATO FORCES, the latest offering in the World War III-Team Yankee universe. The source of this is apparently customer pressure to jump into ‘90s technology to counter the appearance of Soviet ERA. Where once tanks immune to defensive fire were the sole province of NATO players, now the Soviets had them too.
So Battlefront has introduced several upgraded missiles as retrofits to the existing lists. The problem is that some of these missiles were the output of several years of research only made possible by the compromise of Soviet KONTAKT-1 technology following the end of the Cold War. Others would require retrofit of surviving combat vehicles with new launchers, and the last would require missiles to be sent back to the United States to return a couple of months later – missiles that already were in critically short supply.
I want to clarify what actually existed in 1985, and show how unlikely these changes were. Players with a historical bent can choose to have ‘mutual and balanced forces’ based on actual 1985 technology.
By Jim Naughton
THERE’S THE HIGHLAND DUTCH, AND THE LOWLAND DUTCH…The Dutch in NATO FORCES
For no specific reason, I was reminded of an old Pennsylvania drinking song when I first read the Dutch section of the NATO FORCES book. I was disappointed (but not surprised) when I saw the new book, which takes fantasy to a new level, postulating things that didn’t happen until the ‘90s (five to fifteen years after the Team Yankee notional date of 1985). And most couldn’t happen in 1985 even if Andropov sent Reagan a memo in January 1985, saying “War in August, you-all come.”
For example, Dutch Leopard 2A5. The Dutch get this beast at a slight discount compared to the West Germans. You could hypothesize that the clever West Germans could slap some prototype applique on their limited production of Leopard 2A4s and produce perhaps a company of ‘advanced’ tanks in 1985. But give them to the Dutch? Leopard 2 production was no more than five tanks a week for the life of the production run.
By Mitch Reed
Recently the folks from Draco Ideas contacted us about looking at some of their games. I have been a huge fan of Draco for some time. One of the first games I picked up from them was Normandy: The Beginning of the End and its solo expansion Alone in the Storm.
I also wrote about their amazing ancients game, Onus Traianus. The two games they sent us, Scope: UBoot and Frontier Wars quickly made it to my table to see what they were all about.
By Mitch Reed
In 2023 two Kickstarter projects came to the mountain bunker from two European companies and after getting them to the table I found that these games shared some DNA that all gamers would appreciate. These two titles appear to be board wargames when you first glance at them, however, they play a lot like miniatures games. Both are excellent titles to add to your collection.
By Mitch Reed
Gamers should be excited that Blood & Plunder: Raise the Black from Firelock Games is now out. For those who love the game, they now have new lists, characters, and models to augment their collections; however, my focus in this article is on the new starter kit that will bring in new players who have been waiting to get into Blood & Plunder.
By Mitch Reed
One of our biggest fans sent me a message about a miniatures game he just purchased that was all about a conflict on the moon. I found that concept very interesting and thankful that it did not trigger my PTSD from the creation of the Space Force. I contacted the creators of the game over at Black Site Studio and they sent me the starter pack to try out. I quickly painted up the models and played a few games and I wondered why there is not a lot of buzz about this game.
By Mitch Reed
My first Flames of War army, which I swore would only be the only one I would ever use, was my late war British (painted as Canadians). While I did collect other nations, I always built and created British or Commonwealth lists as my collection grew. As the game went into V4, I had a lot of later war kit that did not have a new list, now with the British Bulge book, I can now get my Challengers and Comets back on the table.
By Mitch Reed
Years ago, for those who remember my days with WWPD, I did a story on the Giants of the Sky Kickstarter from Ares Games which turned out to be the last release from the company for their Great War flying game called Wings of Glory”. I really liked the game and went “full afterburner” on collecting the many aircraft in the series. Since that 2016 release, the company has been quiet and while I thought they abandoned the series they turned around and released a digital port of their popular tabletop game.
By Mitch Reed
I am unashamedly a “triple gamer”, I enjoy miniature, board, and PC wargames. Which type I play at any given time depends on what kind of time I have on my hands. Some of the games I have been “wasting” my time with may appeal to you as well.
