Warlord Games

By Troy Hill

The wait is over!

“This is what you’ve all been waiting for. This September, the fighting intensifies. Warlord Games and Osprey Games are proud to announce a new edition of the world’s greatest World War II wargame… “~ Warlord Games

…premiering late September, 2024.

Warlord has an announcement on their website here.

EDITOR’s NOTE: Since that includes more information than was in the original press release, this story is being updated with additional information.

This seems to be the year for World War 2 action from Warlord Games! The exhaust and smoke from the battlefield of Warlord’s new Achtung Panzer! game is hot an heavy, and now Warlord announces the impending release of Bolt Action 3rd Edition.  Wow!

In a press release from Warlord Games, Alessio Cavatore is tagged as the rules guru behind the new version. Since he’s been at the controls of the game since its inception, that’s no surprise.

By Troy Hill

Images courtesy of Warlord Games

Warlord is doing it again!

What are they doing?

Creating another game that expands into an underserved niche. If you feel the need to run some tank on tank combat in 28mm without all that pesky infantry bogging you down, Achtung Panzer! could be the game for you. 

But we have a ton of WW2 games now!

I hear you. Warlord’s flagship is Bolt Action, WW2 level Skirmish platoon level combat on the tabletop. There’s also Flames of War in 15mm at the Company level. Not to mention the Too Fat Lardies range of WWII games, and countless others available via sites such at Wargame Vault.

Warlord even has their Tank Wars variant rules for Bolt action.

But this is not Bolt Action rehashed.

By Troy Hill (Photos by the author and Jeff Wiertalla except where noted)

Sixteen players gathered at the Rumble on the Rivers game convention in Fort Wayne IN this past weekend (November 11, 2023) for a three-round, beginner-friendly, Bolt Action tournament.

Many dice were rolled. Many FUBARS did occur (four at one table!), and much fun was had.

So, what happened?

By Troy Hill

For the first time in almost a decade, North East Indiana in the USA seeing the return of a weekend-long gaming convention in November. With the demise of PentaCon earlier this century, the pre-Thanksgiving game con slot has been empty in this part of Indiana.

True, Ft. Wayne Indiana is still home to the Winter Fantasy role-playing convention every winter (WF now run by Baldman Games), but, in my humble opinion, the Fort needs a late fall convention focussed on tabletop miniatures.

And the Death or Glory (DoG) club is hosting just such an event in the same time slot, and at the same location as the now-defunct PentaCon. They’re hosting Rumble on the Rivers at the Grand Wayne Center in downtown Fort Wayne November 10-12, 2023.

DoG has hosted three successful Motor City Mayhem tournaments so far in the greater Detroit area. Their first was in 2021 at the height of the pandemic. Rolling with the state of the world then, they instituted social distancing among tables, and performed temperature checks by on-site medical personnel.

No Dice No Glory is happy to be a part of the event and is sponsoring two of the historical tournaments. What tourneys are going to be hosted?

By Troy Hill

Forces are gathering in the Tri-State area of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio for a full-on offensive of Bolt Action tournaments. As lockdowns eased, game conventions, game days, and especially tournaments have blossomed like dandelions across the world. And gaming tournaments in the tri-state area of the Ohio Valley are no different.

Over the next eight weekends, across three states, players have the opportunity to play in one Bolt Action state championship, and three beginner-friendly Bolt Action tournaments in a variety of convention styles and locals. There may never have been a better time to be a table-top gamer with all of the opportunities available.

If you’re in, or want to come to the Ohio Valley area (Michigan, Indiana, or Ohio) between now and mid-November, you’ll find the details for the gaming below.

Even if you’re not a Bolt Action player, each of these events is held at a convention, from HMGS-Great Lake’s Advance the Colors, to GT style (Michigan GT, and Rumble on the Rivers) events, and even a new kid on the block, Hold The Line. 

Details below:

By Mitch Reed

I hope many of you can recall my article from the Connections Wargaming Conference in 2022 and the podcast from 2019 that spoke to this event. The 2023 event held at National War College in Washington DC was yet another for the record books and we here at NDNG were glad to attend in force as well as help sponsor the Dice-Breaker social event.

by Dennis ‘MATT VARNISH’ Campbell

The second Canadian Tabletop Championships (CTC) was held over the Mother’s Day Weekend here in Ottawa, ON, Canada, after a 4-year hiatus thanks to Covid 19.  I attended the first CTC in 2019 where I was the ringer for Flames of War on Day One and wound up winning the Team Yankee event with my Syrians on Day Two.  I would have participated in the two-day Bolt Action event this year were it not on Mother’s Day and my wife’s birthday weekend, but I am assured next year will be earlier in the month, the first weekend of May.

By Michael Rafferty

AdeptiCon is back! After a triumphant return last year, the premier wargaming convention is back in Schaumburg, Illinois.

AdeptiCon continues to grow year after year, with new events and larger existing events. Wizards of the Coast will be in attendance this year with their new game Onslaught. No longer contained by only the Marriott Renaissance, the Hyatt Regency will again host several events. Historical events like Bolt Action and Flames of War will be there again, but we welcome A Song of Ice and Fire and Lord of the Rings to the growing AdeptiCon presence at the Hyatt.

But you didn’t come here to read about how we’re growing. You want to know what’s going to be run at the con! Battlefront will be hosting a one-day Mid-War National tournament. This will be a four-round event at 100 points held on Thursday.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Fresh off our earlier review of the updated Hail Caesar book, Scott Roach and I have played our first game of the new rules.

We decided to run three Divisions for around 500pts each side, and are opting for the classic orders procedure and not the simplified procedures.

Scott had this lovely table set up (above) with a sweet Roman Fort that I would be defending in front of the main gate, whilst his Pyrrhic Greeks would be marching from the Sicilian beaches after debarking from their galleys.

The fort and occupants are just for show.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Here we are, at last, with a new version of ‘Hail Caesar‘ by Warlord Games. I hesitate to say ‘Hail Caesar 2‘ or call this book a sequel since even though this is an update to the original book, the main rules remain pretty much the same.

The original Hail Caesar book came out in 2014, and while it’s certainly time for a refresh, you can easily still play Hail Caesar with either book, though the newer one opens up Sieges and Late Medieval, clarifies diagrams, and includes generic scenarios.  Let’s dive right in.