WWII

By Scott Roach

Photos by the Author

The Royal Tank Museum of Jordan

For most of us as gamers in the world of miniatures, I think for the majority of us we love sitting at a desk painting up our latest acquisition, be it a Leopard 2 for our Team Yankee West Germans, or a Cromwell for that added punch to a British Bolt Action Platoon.  Either way, we always take the time to look at pictures on Google, drag a book of the shelf or reach out to the forums for advice.

For me, I have been fortunate enough to travel.  This has provided excellent opportunities to get to those out of the way Museums around the world and actually reach out and touch some of this living history.  The aim of this article is to allow me to share one of those opportunities with you.

By Jacob Shober

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you…

—Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, 6 June 1944

The Allied forces faced one of the most difficult tasks ever undertaken by military forces in the assault on Fortress Europa.

D-Day became one of the events which through its incredible bravery, sacrifice, and test of the human spirit, will never be forgotten for generations to come. Among the other Allied forces, the American landings and paratroopers overcame immense odds to secure the beaches and important inland targets. This allowed the Allies to plant one solid foot that could not be shaken off on the European mainland; the first step towards Berlin and ending the war. The American forces, selectors, and special characters in the D-Day rulebook are a great addition, to both thematic-based forces, as well as providing new tools at your disposal.

By Jacob Shober

The first twenty-four hours of the invasion will be decisive. . . . [T]he fate of Germany depends on the outcome. For the Allies as well as Germany, it will be the longest day.

—Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, 22 April 1944.

D-Day has finally come to , and I can definitely say that the campaign book does it justice. At least from the German perspective, one can definitely feel the gravity of the situation, the desperate hold on the beachhead bunkers and fortifications as wave upon wave of Allied troops storm the beach, drop from the skies, and rain high-caliber naval shells on top of them.

It also shows much of how the Germans appropriated French armor and guns for their own purpose after the successful invasion in 1940. From both a historical and gameplay viewpoint, this campaign book has a lot of content to offer, from the units, to the fortifications, and lastly, the theater selectors.

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.

 4^th Battle of Kharkov – August 1943

Mega-Game

by NDNG_Dane

The Huntsville Historical Gamers gathered in April to recreate the Soviet offensive that aimed to recapture Kharkov and destroy the German 4th Panzer Army.   The 4^th Battle of Kharkov was a series of battles between 3 and 23 August 1943, following the Battle of Kursk. After their defeat at Kursk, the Wehrmacht was clearly on the defensive, with the Soviets launching a massive offensive. The 4th Panzer Army conducted a fighting withdrawal to fighting positions around the city of Kharkov.

The Kharkov Mega-Game was the culminating engagement of our spring Ghost Panzer – Red Banner, Eastern Front Campaign.

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 Ian Birdwell

By mid-1944, the Red Tide sweeping across the plains of eastern Europe had finally begun to lap the borders of Hungary.

By August, Romania had switched sides, Hungary was being invaded, and it looked like Germany wouldn’t quite be able to get everything under control.

The fighting in Hungary represents one of my favorite periods in WW2. It’s the junction of almost every nation fighting in Europe. Hungarian infrastructure was destroyed by US and British bombing after all. Taking center stage was the fighting in and around Budapest.

This is the setting for warlord’s latest theater book for in Fortress Budapest.

Now as far as this review goes, I’m going to be taking you all through the broad strokes of the Hungarian section of the book. I’ll go through the new units added into the Hungarian arsenal and the brand new theater selectors able for the Honved!

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 David Garvin

As gamers from across the country and around the world settled on Bowie, Maryland last month, there was a buzz in the air. The numbers showing up seemed to be greater than ever and this was to be confirmed by the organizers: 190 registered players. This was by far the greatest Winter Offensive held by (MMP).

Winter Offensive is the annual gaming tournament held every year by the publishers of Advanced Squad Leader (ASL).

It is an open format tournament that features many games into the ubiquitous ASL. Many of these cover various battles of the US Civil War. But there is no doubting the fact that the big draw for Winter Offensive is ASL.

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.