Warlord Games

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Hey everyone, what’s going on? As if I didn’t need a new project, but I’ve jumped right into Black Seas, by Warlord Games. This is their 2nd naval game, hot on the heels of Cruel Seas, Black Seas takes place in the Age of Sail, 1770-1830, including the Napoleonic Wars.   With my good buddy Scott ‘Obsidian23′ Roach picking the British, I would once again be painting blue and playing the French, much like my Black Powder army. I’ve decided to use Warlord Games’ suggested French Navy paint set, with a few tweaks of course.

 

 

 

By Troy A. Hill

Brad at the Cast Dice podcast is fond of saying that we are in a gaming renaissance right now. Our choices for where to spend our hobby dollars and hobby time in the table-top gaming world have never been greater.

I’m crediting Warlord Games with a large selection of where I’m spending my hobby dollars and time now. They just won’t stop churning out the great games. Their latest, is no exception.

When I first began playing games from Warlord, I had no idea that within a two-year span I’d move from a single WWII game into:

Bolt Action, Konflict 47, Warlords of Erehwon, Hail Ceasar, SPQR, Black Powder, Cruel Seas and now their latest release, Black Seas, in such a short time. I’m so far behind on my painting, I’m not sure where to go next with all of these games.

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)

Recently my best friend Jon Russel from told me about a new addition to the game . Warlord’s WWII aerial combat game introduces well-known historical aces. In a shift, they are about to release a new ace in the line-up. The ace?

Johnny Red, a fictitious character from the comic series of the same name. Not only do I want to tell you about this new release and the Johnny Red Series I also want to talk to comics in wargaming.

First, before I get started, it’s important to note that a was released on April 3rd. Be sure to pick it up and have a look!

As the game Cruel Seas continues to mature, one of my friend Chuck Hiner and I got together for him to try out his new Japanese fleet that he had just completed painting. We decided to play at 1000 points which would allow both of us plenty of options.

Chuck had picked up the , and was wondering how he would approach building a fleet. Included in the fleet box is one Hei minesweeper, four Sampans, six T-14s, a Val, and of course the six of the little kamikaze boats. Chuck decided to get an addition Hei minesweeper and use two of them as the backbone for his force.

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.

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.

By Tom Gall

Warlord has released for Cruel Seas navy fleet boxes for four different countries. The US, Imperial Japanese Navy, British, and Germans are all covered. Sometime this month we should see the addition of the Soviet and Italian navies.

Within the Core Box, along with the rules, counters and other necessities are four British Vospers and four German S-Boats. This is a good starting force but what might you want to pick up next?  What plays well?

This set of four articles will explore the navy boxes that Warlord has released starting with the German Kriegsmarine.

By Tom Gall

Now that our local group has a few games of under our belts, we wanted to get in a larger game that was scenario and point driven. Each side built a 650 point list and cast away their lines. Set off the coast of France, British airmen are in the water and our little flotilla needs to go and pick them up. We played this one at D6 Games in Rochester Minnesota, USA.

The Allies were sporting three type II Vospers, with two having regular crews and 1 having an inexperienced crew. Last we have a Fairmile with a regular crew.