Warlord Games

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.

By Tom Gall

Warlord Games released their much-anticipated ruleset covering small ship skirmish actions, which they’ve entitled

The core box offers the rules, and a starter set of British Vospers as well as German S-Boats. Perfect to get a game going with a friend. In addition, there are already nine expansion boxes offering more ships from four different nations.

The rules themselves are divided into basic and advanced sections with a set of eight scenarios to get you going. Interspersed are some histories, many a pretty picture, ship/plane stats, instructions to make your own stats and last some rules for campaign settings.

For those who have read my previous on my  (BA) journey, I have just completed my first few BA games in a tourney at the NOVA open. This article will focus on my overall experience in learning Bolt Action and my impressions of the game in general.

With typical beginner luck, I lost my first game 0-4, tied the next game 4-4 and got wiped out in my last game. After a long day of thinking on my feet, playing an unfamiliar ruleset, I walked away from my last game tired. But I loved every minute of play.

Bolt Action has been out since the early Twenty-teens (German 1st Edition Book published in 2012). I have no clue as to how I missed it for so long.

The game uses dice to activate your units. Each unit provides one order die. Each player throws a set of uniquely colored order dice into a bag. One per unit in your force. A die is blindly drawn, and the player to whom the die belongs gets to activate a unit. This mechanic is at the heart of the game, and the random simulation of the “vagaries of the battlefield” effect it provides is one reason, I believe, why the game is so good.

 

Huge episode live from the NOVA Open… We talk to Jon Russell right after my first event. Jon gives us a bunch of spoilers on what is coming out over the next few months for Warlord Games such as the naval game Cruel Seas.

Jon and I talk about a new game he showed me called “”. We are then joined by Steve Smith and we talk about Bolt Action Korea, you will not get better details on this new release anywhere else! During the second act we are joined by Ed Nelson and talk all about Beyond the Gates of Antares.