Wo 33

Issue #33
IABSM3: A Review
Summer/Fall 2012
For one reason or another here and there, they

I’ve had a fascination with were easy to figure
WW2 skirmish games. It out. Our fist game
started back in the 70s was a huge success
when I used my Airfix and and with only three
Atlantic 1/72nd scale fig- of us playing we
ures/vehicles with Angriff couldn’t wait to try it
rules. From there it pro- out with the rest of
gressed to the WRG 1925- the group. However,
50 skirmish rules (does when we played it
anyone still remember with our full group it
those?) and over the last was met with less
two decades I’ve tried vari- than enthusiastic
ous other sets. These were success. The reasons
very clockwork like rules for this were proba-
with an IGOUGO system bly many, but they
WASATCH FRONT HISTORICAL GMAING SOCIETY
and pretty straightforward. included a wide vari-

ety of gamers who
The rules sets in the
had differing ideas
late 80s and 90s included
about WW2 skir-
Arc of Fire, Battleground,
mishing, wanted more Since I have access to
and more that added com-
detail, Flames of War was a good color printer I chose
plexity, but with a large
just getting popular so why the PDF route, then had a
group bogged down. They
Warning Order
try something new, and so local print shop add a comb

were good rules, but play-
on. binding along with vinyl
ing with 7-8 players and a
covers. In my opinion this
few squads each could From there we moved
definitely saves on costs,
easily take 6-8 hours per on to other sets, but when
plus you have a PDF of the
game! We needed to find we played Sharp Practice,
rules for quick access or if
something fast playing, which uses a similar sys-
you have to print off any
produced some chaos, and tem to IABSM, we noticed
charts and/or tables.
that would allow us to use that some things had been
vehicles without bogging changed and for the better. The first question natu-
the game down into too So, when IABSM3 recently rally is, “What exactly is
much detail. came out I figured it was IABSM?” It definitely is a
time to get back into WW2 set of rules for WW2 skir-
I purchased a set of I
skirmish actions and armed mish actions, but at the
Ain’t Been Shot Mum
with several boxes of Plas- high end. By that I mean
(IABSM) from a company
tic Soldier Company WW2 you’re not talking about
called Too Fat Lardies, or
Russians, I ordered the two squads attacking a
TFL as they are affection-
IABSM3 package which position defended by a fire
ately known. The rules at
included the cards and to- team and two MGs, but
that time were pretty basic
kens for the game. rather a large (cont. on p3)
and despite a few questions
Inside this issue:

Special points of interest:
Arnhem area BKC2 Battle Report 6
 Review of the new IABSM3 rules.
Red Dragon/Green Crescent Game Review 8
 Several reviews of plastic figure sets as well
Fireforge Games Teutonic Knights Review 11 as some 1/48th armor kits.
VI Corps at Chancellorsville Mini-Campaign 12
 Battle reports for GDB, BKC2, WMA, and
WMA Battle Report 20 F&F games.
BKC2 East Front Battle Report 24  Editorial on new rules sets and regular
features.
GDB Three Night Slugfest Battle Report 26
IABSM3: A Review (cont.)
(cont. from p.2) battle with rulings in the book. My TFL rules they use a concept called Big
multiple platoons of infan- biggest complaint is that Men where one figure can activate a
try and armor. In fact, go- the drop shadow on the number of units when their card is drawn
ing through one of the sce- bold text on some pages or the unit can activate when its own card
nario books (sold separate- and objects on the exam- is drawn. This essentially gives the play-
ly) for the early Eastern ples of play have a lot of er/side two chances to get their units acti-
Front shows many scenarios bleed/fuzziness to them. vated during a turn. Big Men can get
with upwards of 70-80 in- I’m not sure if was just units to move, direct fire, remove Shock
fantry and 6-10 vehicles a that they were trying to be points (another central theme to the rules-
side! This is definitely a too clever, too artistic, or explained later), and should be seen as
change from the earliest it didn’t come out right in the heroes of WW2 movies that you often
version of the rules that I the end, but in future ver- see in film! Additional cards can be add-
originally tried and almost sions it needs to be ed per scenario for armor platoons, for-
at the operational end of the dropped. It doesn’t de- ward observers, anti-tank units, human
skirmishing spectrum. It tract from the ideas that waves, and much, much more. Gamers
may also explain why there are presented, but it’s just can tailor certain cards to scenario objec-
are so many pictures of one of those little annoy- tives or to represent a higher quality
15mm figures and vehicles throughout ing things that gets to you after awhile. force, so there is basically no limit to
the rules as in 25mm playing some of the what can be done with scenarios.
The other annoying little thing is that
scenarios isn’t going to be cheap!
yes, another set of rules that focuses on Basically, cards are drawn until you
The good thing for the gamer is that Normandy for the orders of battle that hit a Tea Break card, which ends the turn.
these rules can be used with any figure come with the rules. No, there’s no Rus- Our group uses two of these cards, so
scale and whatever basing you are cur- sians, North Africa, early war French, but when the second Tea Break card is drawn
rently using. You can lose single figures there are Americans, Germans, and Brit- that ends the turn. The drawing of the
if they are based that way, or just mark ish orders of battle in this set of rules. I first one tends to provide some anxiety
the casualties on a stand if you have mul- realize that there was a lot of fighting in for the players to get as much done as
tiple figures based on one stand. Vehi- the Normandy area and it was one of the possible as they know the end of the turn
cles should be individually based and few times in 1944-5 where German units could be just around the corner!
most of the scenarios operate with pla- were close to their actual TO&E strength,
Another concept you see in several
toons of 3-5 vehicles, so once again, but what if you wanted these rules to play
TFL rules is Blinds. Blinds are markers
15mm scale would seem to be the ideal early Eastern Front with your Germans
(usually 3-4 inch ovals) that mark where
choice, but it will play just as well in any and Russians? Yup, you’re in trouble.
a unit or dummy unit may be on the
other scale. You’ll need to buy one of the scenario
board. It’s a simple and very effective
books (only a few have been converted to
For your money you do get a quite way to simulate hidden movement with-
the IABSM3 format), so there will be an
sizeable book. Checking in at 106 pages out a lot of record keeping. There is a
additional cost to those gamers who don’t
for the PDF version it certainly isn’t try- card for the Blinds and the spotting rules,
want to play Normandy battles. Again, I
ing to short change the buyer! The rules while pretty thorough, are easy to use.
don’t understand why rules designers
are very easy to read and the layout really We’ve found that the Blinds add greatly
can’t include just generic OBs for other
helps with learning the system. There is to the game without taking up any extra
nations’ units so that gamers can at least
nothing here that many gamers haven’t time.
use the rules once
already seen before, so complexity is
they’ve bought them Firing is pretty straight-
definitely not an issue. There are numer-
instead of having to wait forward, with each unit roll-
ous examples in this version, so they’ve
for additional supple- ing a number of dice corre-
learned their lessons well and these are of
ments or purchase extra sponding to how many ac-
immense help to the gamer. I would go
products. tions they wish to use for
so far to say that if you just went through
firing, the cover of the ene-
the book and only read the examples of OK, on to the rules
my unit, what weapons
play you would probably get a good idea themselves and an analy-
they’re using, etc., then roll
of how the system works. sis of the systems that
on a table checking it against
they use. IASBM is a
The rules are written in an easy to the three range bands. This
card driven game with
understand style. Not quite as old fash- produces a number result
basically one card put
ioned/folksy as Black Powder/Hail Cae- along with possible pin or
into a deck per platoon
sar, but it’s obvious that these guys are suppression effects. The
along with one card per
gamers and are talking to gamers, so firer then rolls a number of
Big Man. If you’re fa-
don’t expect any type of SPI case by case D6s equal to (cont. on p.22)
miliar with any of the
Page 3 WARNING ORDER

The Tide at Sunrise Game Review
If you’re looking for results table can be bloody at times. first few turns in that they need to set
interesting games on The sequence of play is pretty easy aside points for the Port Arthur area as
unusual topics, then The to understand and gamers should be once it gets cut off you cannot allocate
Tide at Sunrise from able to set up a game pretty quickly. any replacements to units there. Each
MMP will definitely suit The first turn or two will take some unit has a cost printed on a table on the
you. The game covers getting use to, especially the re- map, so bringing in two brigades instead
the Russo-Japanese War placement/reinforcement phase, but of a division will be one of the choices
of 1904-5, from the ini- after that the turns fly by. that needs to be made each turn.
tial Japanese incursions
In the basic game the siege of In the first turn the Japanese begin
to where Russian rein-
Port Arthur and the naval rules are with a short blitzkrieg against the Russian
forcements have built up
done with a few dice rolls at the defenders, followed by on the second turn
to a point that there will
beginning of the turn. This will cutting off Port Arthur from the main rail
probably be a massive battle towards the
determine if the Russian fleet sorties, line. From there it becomes a race to see
end of the game near Mukden as it was
how many transport points the Japanese
historically.
can spend that turn to bring in reinforce-
In terms of components you get a ments, and where the Japanese can land
beautiful 22 x 34 map with several of the or ship their forces. If you play with the
necessary tables and record tracks in the optional naval rules then you actually
unused corners of the map. The counters fight a fleet battle, which may add or
are also well done, with graphics of in- subtract from the Japanese victory point
fantry, artillery, and cavalry for the com- total. My advice is that for the first game
bat units along with well drawn ships for or two use the simplified/abstract naval
the ship counters. If system as using the optional
you’ve seen any of naval system will add at least
the counters for the another hour to the length of
Avalanche Press time it takes to play the game.
naval series of
In my opinion the crux of
games then these if the Japanese can take Port Arthur and
the game is the use of rein-
will compare favor- hold off the Russian forces that are ship-
forcement points (for the Rus-
ably to those. The ping in via Siberia and the Far East. Both
sians) or transport points (for
rules are in full sides have so many options in terms of
the Japanese). In both cases
color with several where to defend, what types of units
this determines what units will
examples, so again, should be brought in, etc., that the game
be able to come into the game
MMP has produced a quality product and should have very good replay value. I’ve
as reinforcements. You also need to set
the last several games I have purchased played face to face once and solitaire
aside points for units that become disrupt-
from them have been at this high level. twice, with both games going around just
ed (basically having lost a step) to bring
over three hours, so it’s ideal for a one
The one thing that was truly baffling, them back up to full strength. This can
night gaming session.
however, is that you get 40+ beautiful be a real balancing act and will probably
ship counters, markers for maneuver, hits, take a few plays to get it right. The Rus- Overall, this is a pretty good game on
spotting, etc., but there were no naval sians have some tough choices on the an unusual topic. Even if you know noth-
rules in the game! Yes, I was ing about the period it is pretty
as amazed as I’m sure a lot of easy to get into and see what is
gamers were when they going on with the era and the
flipped through the rules try- system itself. The rules are pret-
ing to figure out what to do ty basic, there are some interest-
with the ships and assorted ing concepts, and by adding in
accompanying counters. the optional naval rules you can
MMP did release an optional add more detail and complexity.
set of naval rules, but I cannot For a 3-4 hour two player game
ever recall seeing anything it is surprisingly fast playing and
like this in the 35+ years I’ve there’s not much down time. I
been in the hobby. think MMP did a good job here,
but the missing naval rules is
The rules are pretty stand-
still a mystery to me on how that
ard in terms of movement and
happened. Still, try this game if
combat, although the combat
you get a chance.
ISSUE #33 Page 4

Plastic Soldier Company 28mm Russians Miniatures Review
The next set I ordered was the Rus-
sian infantry boxed set. You get 57 hard
plastic miniatures on several sprues.
There is a wide assortment of officers,
infantry in helmets, infantry in soft hats,
figures with SMGs, and several LMG
teams. As with the 45mm AT gun set,
the assembly required for most of the
figures is minimal, with a few optional
heads, rifle poses, etc., that have to be
When we decided to get back into glued to various figures. These are in no bang for the buck and painted up quickly.
WW2 skirmish gaming with IABSM3, way, shape, or form similar to the Victrix Not as detailed or impressive as compara-
we were looking for a new period as the plastic figures where it could take 15-20 ble metal figs, but they look great on the
1944-5 U.S. vs. Germans was getting a minutes per figure, but some figures tabletop.
little stale. Since I still had a load of might only need a head glued on while
Finally, I bought the Russian heavy
1/48th early war German armor the most others need the arms attached.
weapons boxed set. This set has a wide
obvious opponent would be 1941-2 Rus-
You do get three LMGs with one fig- variety of things in it that feature two anti
sians. I looked around for deals on
ure firing and one loading, pus you get -tank rifles, two HMGs, two 50mm mor-
28mm Russian WW2 figs and while there
tars, and two 81mm mortars. As with the
are quite a few available, the cost to do
LMGs in the infantry set, the HMGs and
several platoons with heavy weapons
ATRs come with firing and travelling
would be prohibitive.
figures, which is naturally a great idea for
I then came across some threads on skirmish games.
TMP for some new 15mm plastic kits/
The HMGs are a bit fiddly to assem-
figs so I went to the Plastic Soldier
ble, but as with the other boxed sets there
Company site. Not only do they have
is nothing here that will take longer than
an ever growing line of 15mm plastics,
a few minutes. There is a wide variety of
they have several offerings in 28mm. I
crew poses that can be used with most of
saw that they had three Russian boxed
the weapons.
sets; infantry, heavy weapons, and anti-
tank guns. I ordered the anti-tank gun Overall, there isn’t too much to com-
set and decided I would try this small plain about. The sculpting on the faces,
set before buying any of the others. inability to exchange arms/weapons, and
the same figures standing up carrying the lack of “personality” type figures are
The anti-tank boxed set is very inter-
weapon/ammo, which was a nice touch. nuisances, but they don’t detract from the
esting in that you get a variety of parts to
The figures are carrying the standard overall value. So, for basically $80-85
make either two 45mm anti-tank guns or
Russian “sack of stuff” rather than a (depending upon where you buy these) I
two 76mm infantry guns. The set also
backpack that most countries had and a was able to build two 45mm AT guns w/
comes with eight crew in a variety of
few have blanket rolls. All figures have crews, two HMGs w/crews, two 50mm
poses. The figures are hard plastic,
belts and canteens, but beyond that the mortars w/crews, two 81mm mortars w/
sculpted reasonably well with average
equipment is kept to a minimum, which crews, two ATR teams, plus about five
faces, and need very little assembly. The
in my opinion makes these figures very infantry squads with some leftover figs.
guns were quick to put together although
easy to paint up. Not too bad!
I had to do an online search for some
45mm AT gun images to determine As with most plastic boxed sets
where one of the parts actually went as in any scale you do get some weird
the instructions were a bit unclear. poses or figures that you probably
won’t use, but there
All in all, it was a very
are enough of them to
good little boxed set that
make several squads
produced two good looking
anyway, so it’s not as
45mm At guns with eight
if these posed will
crew. The figures and guns
prevent you from
painted up quickly, so this
quickly crating a pla-
whetted my appetite to try
toon of 40-50 men.
some of their other offer-
Overall I thought that
ings.
these figs were great
ISSUE #33 Page 5

BKC2: Arnhem Area Battle Report
One of the complaints we sometimes and inexperienced forces.
get in our group is that we don’t focus on The Germans would defi-
infantry during our WW2 BKC2 battles. nitely have the edge in
Mark set out to remedy this by setting up numbers, mobility, and
a scenario that would not only focus on being able to determine
the infantry, but one side would have no where they would attack.
vehicles whatsoever! The British paras had the
huge advantage of being in
The setting was in the Arnhem area
good defensive positions on
during Operation Market Garden. A Brit-
one end of the board.
ish para battalion has seized a village, but
However, they would have
German forces control the village on the
to attack across some open
other side of the board. A second British
ground to take the second
para battalion would be coming on in a
village.
randomly determined area and try to seize
control of the second village. The Ger- The game started out
mans started with an understrength infan- well for the British as the
try battalion holding one of the villages second para battalion moved onto the
and were hit hard by the German defend-
board quickly and towards the
ers. After a few turns the British were
village, taking up shelter in a large
right back where they started.
wooded area. The Germans
moved on some infantry and start- On the other side of the board the
ed slowly moving towards the Germans moved into the woods and be-
woods towards the British held gan to engage the paras. Several fire-
village. The Germans also brought fights erupted on the outskirts of the vil-
up some infantry guns and posi- lage, but for the time being the British
tioned them to support the attack were holding on pretty easily.
towards the woods. Seeing the
Then the Germans brought on their
numbers coming at the woods, the
mech forces and decided to attack the
British pulled back into the town
British held village. The panzergrena-
and hunkered down, waiting for
diers rolled up and dismounted to begin
the attack.
their attack while the Stugs and other
Here’s where things started to armor set up support positions. The Brit-
and they would have some mechanized
fall apart for the British attack on the ish began shifting around their reserves to
forces coming on later.
second village. There was a series of meet this new threat. Two of the 6lb. AT
The British paras were rated as very command rolls that were failed by the guns began to engage the German armor
good troops with an above average com- British paras when they tried to launch a as the Germans began to set up their at-
mand rating. The Germans, however, major assault. Instead of the entire battal- tack. This prompted the other British
were a mixed lot, consisting of some SS ion plus its support units going in at the para battalion to try a second attack on
troops, but also a lot of training battalions same time, the units went in piecemeal the German held town. (cont. on p.7)
Page 6 N E W S L E T T ER T I T L E
BKC2: Arnhem Area (cont.) Battle Report
The British once again tried to tacks. The Germans finally got into had cleared two sides of the village and
emerge from the woods and were met by some close combat and cleared the ap- were making moves to bring overwhelm-
an artillery barrage and the fire from the proaches to the village and the outer sec- ing firepower down on the remaining
German defenders. The attack quickly tion of buildings, but at a heavy cost. defenders. The British moved to consoli-
bogged down as the British command date positions as they still held half of the
Back to the other side where the Brit-
rolls failed several times with the flank- village, but the end was in sight. With
ish paras, despite heavy odds, were now
ing forces. The British paras, however, half of the village now in German hands
on the outskirts of the village and pushing
continued the attack and actually started and with no hope of seizing the other
to actually take it from the Germans.
to make some headway. village the game was declared a German
There were a series of desperate attacks
victory.
On the other side of the board, the by both sides with some critical die rolls
British had knocked out some of the Ger- that were watched with interest by all A great scenario with lots of action,
man armor and scores some successes on players, which shows you how important that proves you don’t need a lot of armor
the panzergrenadiers. However, the Brit- they were in the game! In the end the to have fun with WW2 gaming. Also,
ish were slowly being cut down and had Germans held onto the village and the keeping the forces fairly small makes
to abandon a section of the village. Three British paras fell back once again. Both everyone focus on what they have, learn
of the four British AT guns were knocked sides were nearing the 50% loss threshold the rules for infantry combat, and players
out, but the Germans failed several com- and had been worn down by the fighting. are less likely to “throw away” units. It
mand rolls at crucial times, saving the was so much fun that we are now think-
The Germans were gaining the upper
British defenders from coordinated at- ing of doing a Market Garden campaign!
hand in the other village as well. They
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 7

Red Dragon/Green Crescent Game Review
I have always had a love- of play that focuses on random counter is rated for anti-ground, anti-ship,
hate relationship with events and the “Op” or Operations, ASW, and anti-air with nice silhouettes
magazine wargames. where players get to choose from a for the aircraft. A large number of coun-
They always sound so list of actions. This definitely en- ters have 2016 or 2021 listed on the backs
appealing in the ads, but hances the replay value of the game of the counters and they are used for the
once they arrive, get set and produces enough chaos where future scenarios set in those years. My
up and played, they usual- the players need to not only react to only complaint with the counters is that
ly end up going on Ebay their opponent’s moves, but to a some shouldn’t be in there such as the
or in the trade pile. That’s constantly changing global situa- UK CVL (there are no British light carri-
usually because they are tion. ers left) and Australian F-111 (they’re
under-developed, there’s now in reserve). Also, where are the
not much time for play- Components Saudi MRCA Tornados, US F-22s, and
testing, and because of the limitations on The single map of East Asia that was in Australian F-18s? There’s actually quite
counters/maps, things that the game Red Dragon has been expanded to two a few questions about the orders of battle,
needs have a tendency to get left out. maps with the second map reaching all but for game purposes the counters sup-
Over the last ten years I’ve probably pur- the way to the Persian Gulf. Also, the plied work.
chased well over thirty magazine games Red Dragon map has been
and have kept only a handful. One of turned ninety degrees to fit
those I did keep was a modern warfare both maps together. The
offering called Red Dragon Rising. De- color choices for the map
spite the garish colors of the map and a are interesting, but they
few rules problems, it was a fun game work and the sea areas, is-
that had fantastic replay value. I was lands, etc., are clearly
pleasantly surprised that there would be a marked. I do take issue with
newer version that would include the the large holding boxes
Now we get to the rules. If you’ve
Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf areas (could have been used for random event
played Red Dragon then getting into
called Red Dragon/Green Crescent that listings), the colors used for the Op lists
RDGC will be pretty easy. There are
would be the first issue in a new maga- (kind of annoying to read), and the set up
some new Ops, a variety of different sce-
zine/game series called Modern War. listings again should have been replaced
narios for the Persian Gulf, India-
by the random event listings. Random
Overview Pakistani wars, Indian Ocean campaigns,
Events and Ops drive the game, so they
and then the combined campaign. About
Red Dragon/Green Crescent (RDGC) is a should have been clearly listed on the
30 minutes of reading will get you up to
theater level game focusing on naval and map if there was room. Failing that, why
speed, then you can set up units and
air operations from the Persian Gulf to not use the extra room for a turn track
begin play. If you’re new to the system, I
the Western Pacific. The game assumes and/or victory point track? Also, the
think you could be in trouble. The rules
an attack by the People’s Republic of stacking numbers for some island groups
are pretty haphazard and spread out all
China (PRC) along with Pakistan and are missing and there’s a box with what
over the place. Many of them are in the
Iran (depending upon scenario) on the the numbers on the counters mean, but it
Ops or random events explanations, so
United States and its allies. There are looks like there was space for a counter
you’ll need to look through quite a few at
ground units, but they are usually marine graphic to go in the middle, but there’s
times to figure out what’s going on for
brigades, special forces, etc., that would nothing there.
things like special forces, mines, long-
be used to seize control of islands or port
The counters are well range intercepts, etc. Some examples of
areas. Major ground
done, with units rep- play would really help here such as a first
combat, such as a
resenting CVs, turn run through and this game is crying
second Korean War,
groups of surface out for professionally done set-up cards
is handled abstractly.
ships, squadrons of for the scenarios as well as a reference
The players are in the
aircraft, and ground card for combat/special situations.
role of commanding a
forces that would be
wide variety of naval Game Play
used in this setting.
and air assets, from
My set of counters Probably the greatest praise for wargame
carriers to surface
was difficult to designers is saying that their game works,
action groups to
punch and in the end and in this case it is true. RDGC
squadrons of aircraft
I ended up using an works…as a game, not as a simulation of
across vast expanses
X-Acto knife to cut modern combat. Each turn begins with
of the world’s seas.
the strips, then the player rolling to see if there is a ran-
The game features an
clipped them. Each dom event. On a 1 or a 2 the player rolls
interesting sequence
Red Dragon/Green Crescent (cont.) Game Review
fleet in from another to dous replay value. Combat is done by
conduct a joint operation having each player match up their units
against enemy forces dur- and rolling a D6, needing the listed num-
ing that turn with air- ber or under for each strength. Combat is
strikes coming in from simultaneous, quick, and deadly. Units
Okinawa or another base die off in large numbers and its not un-
you are sadly mistaken. common in some games to see little left
Likewise, if you have a of the Taiwanese and Chinese forces,
carrier that’s damaged with quite a few units from other nations
and spends two turns in the dead pile.
moving to a base and one
turn getting repaired, all
of your forces in the thea-
ter sit around for three
turns doing nothing. You
can argue that players
should never choose to do
again and consults the event listings for that, but then that means a damaged carri-
the effect. These range from countries er just sits around in the same sea area
dropping out of the war, reinforcements waiting to be finished off? This problem
needing to be sent elsewhere, revolts, and becomes even more apparent when play-
much more. This is one of the strong ing the combined game. Some forces
points in the game that keeps players literally just sit in the same sea area for
guessing and increases the replay value of the entire game as you get only one Op
the game. Then players choose an Op per side (or one Op per map in the com-
from the list as their action for the turn. bined game). Also, it looks weird that the
Ops can be moving a group of units from U.S. can’t move forces around the globe
a land base out to sea, long range strikes all at the same time. I’ve had games
by TU-22s or B-2s, air attacks on enemy where carrier battle groups haven’t
bases, calling for reinforcements, hyper moved the entire game as there were too
war chit draws, and much, much more. In many other pressing needs for the ops Scenarios & Campaigns
fact, this new version has added even during my turn. My guess is that in real Having played all of the various scenarios
more Op actions than the original Red life the U.S. and its allies could probably and campaigns, I thought it would be of
Dragon Rising so that choosing one can do ten Ops per turn every turn (however, interest to other gamers to list my
be difficult. Movement and combat are it wouldn’t be much of a game), but the thoughts on each. There are three force
done by areas with forces being able to one Op that you do get creates some unu- levels for each scenario or campaign;
usually move one area per Op. This is sual situations. Current, 2016, and 2021.
also one of them main challenges for
Fortunately, the one Op per turn works on Persian Gulf: This would be a good
players in that they can only choose one
the game level. It drives the decision training scenario as there are no random
Op per turn. You have so many units,
making process and constantly forces events and it is only ten Ops long. The
tasks, needs, etc., that choosing just one
both players to reassess their actions. Iranians only chance is to get hot with the
is difficult to say the least.
Setting up a combined fleet operation or dice as they are hopelessly outclassed,
I think at this point I need to clarify what amphibious assault can take several Ops, particularly in the Current scenario.
I think is one of the so you might
huge problems with need to give India-Pakistani: Again, probably good
the game in terms up the initia- for training scenarios or teaching new
of simulating mod- tive some- players the system. The Pakistanis are
ern warfare. The where else on outclassed in the air and at sea, even with
problem is being the board. the 2021 force levels. Their only chance
able to only choose There are a as with the above scenario is to get some
one Op per turn. bewildering good dice rolls and hope for the best.
That’s right. If you array of Op Red Dragon Rising: In my opinion this is
are expecting to choices, the best game in the package. The action
move a Japanese which again, starts with a massive pre-game Chinese
fleet into a sea area gives the strike on Taiwan and things go fast and
while moving a US game tremen- furious from there. The Chinese side has

Red Dragon/Green Crescent (cont.) Game Review
several paths to victory, so dif- game is what you’re spending the
ferent options can be tried out money for and it is a very good
and each Op can mean victory or game. Both sides have a ton of op-
defeat. tions, there’s a lot of action, and if
things go really wrong you can
Green Crescent campaign: This
quickly set it up and play it again.
campaign covers the Indian
We’ve had some tremendous battles
Ocean and Persian Gulf. Be-
and a lot of fun along the way.
cause of logistical constraints the
However, when you add in the se-
Chinese can never have more
cond map and units, I’m not sure
than eight units total on this map.
what it is adding to the overall game.
The campaign basically comes
Because of the op limitations ex-
down to how fast can the Chi-
pressed above, you simply have too
nese player get the Iranians and
many units that need to do too many
Pakistanis on their side. If they
things, but the players are limited to
can’t (and I had several games
doing just one thing per turn. Some-
where they did nothing) then the
thing is not right here and while it
U.S. side will simply overwhelm
succeeds as a game, I’m not sure
any opposition on the Indian Ocean map.
that it succeeds as an accurate portrayal
The scenarios and campaign on this map Replay Value of modern naval and air combat. I’m
are hard to judge as so much depends on
Simply put, off the charts. With the large sure many players are going to think at
getting the right random events. At times
number of random events, multiple Ops some point, “So, I’m moving some heavy
it feels like the system is going beyond its
to choose from, and several paths to vic- U.S. ground units from the holding box in
limits as the Chinese side only seems to
tory for the Chinese player, this is a game a convoy to help Taiwan, so for the next
have a chance if certain things break their
that can be played over and over. One of several turns everything else I own across
way.
my friends and I once did three games in that map has to sit still?” Yes, it does and
Red Dragon/Green Crescent campaign: just under three hours! Once that is a problem that may be too high of
This actually qualifies as a two-map you know the system you
“mini-monster” as there are a lot of units can get through the turns
on the table. Unfortunately, this cam- pretty quickly. Not only
paign has the same problems that the that, certain events can end
Green Crescent campaign has, except the game well short of the 30
now it’s complicated by the fact that each Op limit. I’ve played about
side only gets one Op per turn per map a dozen games of Red Drag-
for use across two maps with many, many on Rising along with several
of the others in
the combined
game and there’s
been numerous
surprises along
the way, ranging
from Taiwan
dropping out on
the first two turns
(makes things really difficult a hurdle for some gamers to get over.
for the U.S. player) to a mas- Again, however, RDGC succeeds in its
sive Russian-Japanese sea game play. The random events, chaotic
battle that saw both fleets get nature of combat, and large number of
cut down to almost nothing. choices through Ops and various units
The great thing about RDGC that you can use each turn makes this into
is that you never know what’s a challenging game. I think more effort,
just around the corner. development, and playtesting needed to
units! In the end it seems like you’re go into the combined game as there are a
playing the Red Dragon Rising scenario Summary number of issues for the Indian Ocean/
with a bunch of nice looking units sitting Despite some small issues with compo- Persian Gulf map. Overall, a good, but
around on another map. nents and the rules, this game is worth not great start for Modern War magazine.
playing. The Red Dragon side of the
Fireforge Games Teutonic Knights Review
era, so I decided to do a unit of Hospital-
lers. After reading up on the subject the
flowing cloaks and armor would do nice-
ly for a Hospitaller force in the all black
clothing worn during the Crusades.
The horses come as a four piece affair
with two separate halves, a head, and a
tail. This gives some flexibility in the
poses and on the positive side all of the
horses in the unit won’t look the same as
with some manufacturers. If you have
Fireforge Games is a relatively new
the time there are some opportunities for
entrant into the plastic miniatures arena.
kit bashing to make some unique poses if
Their first releases have focused on
you so desire. The horses come with full
mounted knights and sergeants with
barding, although a few of the horse
promises of more releases that will deal
heads have no barding, which again gives
with foot troops. With all of the current
some variety to the finished unit.
releases by Warlord, Perrys, Wargames
The figures them-
selves also offer a variety
of helmets and weapons.
They are simple figures,
with a torso, separate
heads, one separate arm ished. The horses have that same prob-
with a weapon, heads, and lem that most plastic figure sets have and
shields. You will actually that is it is hard to tell where the folds on
spend more time cutting the barding ends and where the actual
them from the sprue and horse begins. However, most of that is
cleaning any excess plas- on the underside of the horse or in areas
tic from the sprue than that you won’t notice, so it is a small
you will assembling them. problem.
Assembly is pretty basic
Overall, this is a very good boxed set.
and you can create several
The figures look good, assemble quickly,
knights in no time at all.
and any complaints are so small that it
The cloaks can be a bit
really isn’t worth discussing. I’m looking
tricky to look right on the
forward to more releases by this company
Factory, Victrix, and more, you would figure, but it’s just a few extra moments
and hope for their continued success!
think that there might not be much room of your time.
for more plastic boxed sets, especially for
an era such as medieval where there is a There are a large variety of weapons
massive selection of metal figures. that include swords,
maces, flails, axes,
Depending upon where you pur- and spears/lances.
chase the Teutonic Knights boxed set Coupled with the
you’ll probably end up paying around various sized shields
$35-40. For this you get twelve mounted you can create a unit
knights on several sprues. The knights that will definitely
definitely have a Teutonic flavor suited not have that
for the wars in Eastern Europe, especially “everything is the
with the horned helmets. However, the same” look. I paint-
variety of heads and a few cuts of the ed the shields sepa-
knife will produce a heavily armored rately then glued
mounted force for most medieval set- them on to the fin-
tings. ished figures.
I had to paint up a few units for a The figures paint
playtest of some forthcoming medieval up quickly and look
rules and we had chosen the Crusades very good once fin-

VI Corps at Chancellorsville Battle Report
I was going through The campaign is pretty
some of my old Battle- reasonable in that only
fields magazines and about a corps of infantry
found a three part Fire & and several batteries are
fury mini-campaign fo- needed for both sides,
cusing on Sedgewick’s making this an attainable
VI Corps at Chancellors- project even for smaller
ville. The VI Corps held gaming groups. It’s ideal
the extreme flank of the for 3-4 players and we
army and was definitely were able to finish in two,
one of the better led for- four hour gaming ses-
sions.
The action begins at
Maryes Heights with one
the start of the game. A few hours later
Confederate brigade and
the second division showed up and the
some artillery trying to hold
battle was on.
back a massive tide of blue
coming down the road. The The first division drove in on the
objective is for the Confed- waiting Confederate forces. The Union
erates to hold on as long as artillery rolled great on their first few
possible, which for the game shots and forced the Confederate artillery
to go on for several turns to retreat. The first few assaults, howev-
would take a good deal of er, did not fare as well, despite one of the
luck! The scenario is played Confederate brigades rolling a low on
on a 2x2 board, so setting up ammo result. By the end of the first few
and play time is just under hours the Confederates were holding their
an hour. position, but trouble was definitely brew-
ing in the shape of more (cont. on p.13)
In our refight the Con-
mations at that time of the war. VI Corps federates held for a few turns, but were
did cross the river and attack the Confed- then overwhelmed. How quick the victo-
erate positions in an attempt to distract or ry is, however, influenced the next battle
draw off forces that could be used against which was at Salem Church. The Con-
the main Union army. When utter disas- federates had two infantry brigades de-
ter hit the Union army it was forced to ployed plus some artillery near the center
withdraw back across the river under of the board. Part of a division with three
pressure which ended the campaign. brigades would be entering in several
turns behind them as reinforcements.
This mini-campaign was basically
The position wasn’t the best for defensive
three scenarios in a row where the results
purposes, but it wasn’t that bad either.
of each one influenced the next scenario.
The Union forces would have to come
down the road, then spend
time deploying for the at-
tack.
Again, time was of the
essence. The Confederates
were trying to hold out until
nightfall if possible. The
longer that they held out
meant a few more turns for
them to attack in the third
and final scenario. The
Union was pretty much right
on schedule after the first
battle and started their first
division down the road at
VI Corps at Chancellorsville (cont.) Battle Report
(cont. from p.12) Union reinforcements great. The Union players did a great job checked the OBs one more time, read the
coming down the road. The Confederates of cycling fresh units forward and then special rules for the scenario, and then
slowly gave ground, trying to not end up massed their guns for an attack on the started the first turn.
being driven from the field too early and center. The Confederate forces did some
It was only during the approach
awaiting reinforcements.. damage, but in the end it was only a mat-
march where the Confederate players, me
ter of time. First one brigade broke fol-
The first crisis came when after hold- included, saw how difficult this was go-
lowed quickly by another. The road exit
ing the church area against repeated as- ing to be. The terrain was brutal, with the
was cleared and the Union had their se-
saults, one Union attack finally succeeded streams and roads covered by hills and
cond victory.
and drove the Confederate brigade hold- forests, setting up definite avenues of
ing that area back. On the other flank The Union in this scenario
trying to hold off the two attacking Union did slightly better than average,
brigades for several turns was finally which meant for the final scenar-
wearing down the other Confederate bri- io which occurred near Bank’s
gade and it began to give ground as well. Ford the Confederates would be
Both brigades had lost several stands and pressed for time. Each side was
things were looking bleak when the third able to choose two divisions for
Union division arrived. the final scenario. The third Un-
ion division was assumed to be
Just as the Union gained control of
guarding one of the flanks and
the church and the surrounding area and
was off board. The third Confed-
the Confederate brigades were down to
erate division was also assumed
half strength, three fresh Confederate
to be off board. We quickly set
infantry brigades with two batteries of
up the board, put the forces out,
artillery arrived to bolster
the defense. They set up
guarding the road exit and
approach that the Union forc-
then pushed forward.
es had covered well. Alt-
They were immediately
hough the Confederates had
met by the advancing
numbers, time was against
Union troops and a se-
them as the game began at
cond full fledged battle
3pm and darkness would fall
erupted.
at 8:30, ending the campaign.
The Confederates At the start of the game it
were trying to hold out for looked like it would take the
as long as possible to give Confederate forces until 8:30
themselves more time for to get to the crossroads even
the third scenario, but the without any enemy forces on
pressure was just too the board! (cont. on p.14)

VI Corps at Chancellorsville (cont.) Battle Report
(cont. from p.13) The attack went in on effectively taken out of the game. tion area and trying to reorganize the
two flanks and was immediately met by Seeing that the defenders were now defenses. The problem was that the ter-
artillery fire from three batteries well outnumbered the Confederates, particu- rain that was holding up the attack was
positioned on the plantation in the middle larly Early’s division with its huge bri- now preventing them from reinforcing
of the board. The Confederate artillery gades, surged forward. They hit the Un- threatened areas. One more push from
was silenced for several turns in a row ion brigade in the center and collapsed it Early’s division saw the end for the Un-
and was eventually forced back. The after a brief battle, then surged forward to ion position and the Confederate forces
Confederate columns desperately tried to the base of the hill near the plantation. A seized the crossroads and the road, cut-
close the distance, but a series of traffic second Confederate attack on the planta- ting off the rest of the VI Corps and win-
jams emerged as they tried to deploy in tion itself was thrown back with the ning the mini-campaign.
the rough terrain for an attack. Southern forces taking several stand loss- Three battles in two nights was great!
Two Union brigades that were posi- es. A second attack in that area failed as The fact that each battle influenced the
tioned on the flanks moved forward for a well, then there was a series of bad com- next was also very well received by the
counterattack and became engaged for mand rolls that brought the entire attack group and we had a lot of fun with this. I
several turns. In the end this helped the on that flank to a standstill. think it also inspired us to paint more
Confederate attack as it removed two In the end it wasn’t needed as Early’s forces for this period and to dust off some
enemy brigades that could potentially be troops continued to roll forward. A des- older campaigns for future attempts. We
used as reserves or fresh units for the perate stand by some artillery batteries also used some optional rules such as
defense in the middle of the board. With slowed the attack down for a turn, but 2D6 instead of a D10 and limiting the out
the terrain being as difficult as it was to they were then overwhelmed. The Union of ammo rules which worked out very
move through, these two brigades were was now pulling troops out of the planta- well. All in all, a great mini-campaign!
The Cult of the New Runs Amok Editorial
I was asked the other pared to history and other games. Are we all don’t conform and buy every new
day if I was going to get they giving the Shermans thicker armor set of rules that comes out and blindly
the new WW2 rules from or better guns than Tigers? Of course cheer them on?
Warlord Games? When I not, so what is so innovative that you
Basically, the historical gaming hob-
said, “Why?”, there was need these rules?
by is rapidly running out of ideas. Now
an uncomfortable moment
The answer of course is that they that’s not to say that there aren’t any
of silence. I fully ex-
are new. The current trend in gaming is great miniatures (the quality and availa-
pected statements about
that you should only play new rules. bility continue to astound me), or that the
how it was designed by
Any gaming system over two years old quality of rules has not improved, be-
Warlord Games, the same people who
is “dead” and shouldn’t be paid any atten- cause they continue to impress. Rather,
produced Black Powder/Hail Caesar, it’s
tion to. If it’s new they have to be good, how many ways can you simulate a Na-
a professionally done book, or just that
right? Why would a company waste poleonic square at 1:20, 1:33, or 1:50
it’s new. That anyone would question
time, energy, and financial resources to scales? How many ways can you set up a
why a gamer wouldn’t want to buy the
produce a set of rules if they weren’t firing chart for a Sherman to shoot at a
newest set of rules was never seen as a
innovative or good? Yes, that is what Tiger? D6? D10? D20? Or how about a
possibility. The question really should
passes for critical thinking in the hobby novel concept of 2D6? Yes, they’ve all
be, however, does it contain anything that
today. been tried before. I also play boardgames
you haven’t seen before?
and frankly, a lot of the games that have
The same applies
I’ve discussed the proliferation of recently come out (Combat Commander
for other eras as well.
rules and what I’ve termed the fracturing and Fighting Formations are two exam-
People have tried to
of the hobby, but now we seem to have ples) are far more innovative than most
get me to look at
entered into a new era. This era has at its miniatures rules I’ve seen lately.
Field of Glory Napo-
core a solid base of gamers who will only
leonics, saying it Technology is definitely one of the
play the newest set of rules. There’s al-
revolutionizes the era culprits here. Companies can get rules
ways been the gamers who have had to
and it will get you from the concept stage to fully published
buy the latest things and we’ve all known
playing the period in record time. Add to it the ability to get
them, but recently it has started to dictate
again. I’m already the info out to forums, blogs, web pages,
what they and others actually play. After
playing the period with Age of Eagles etc., in a few minutes and the gamer faces
all Flames of War is now ancient history,
and most recently we did some Napole- an unrelenting barrage of new rules, fig-
correct? Time to move on. Playing a set
onic skirmishing with Sharp Practice. ures, terrain, and accessories. While this
of rules that is only a few years old is
I’ve played FOGR and have watched a is great for the gamer I think that some-
unheard of. Or how about Disposable
few games of FOG Ancients, so I know times gamers need to step back and reas-
Heroes? Who plays that set of rules any-
what their approach is. A mind numbing sess things. Are the rules any good? Do
more? Yes, it seems like it came out just
rulebook with a billion exceptions, modi- you really need those new French fusi-
yesterday, but our group got its copies
fiers, etc., based off of a set of ancient liers even though you have 500 unpainted
about two years ago and it seems like
rules that owes its heritage to the old ones sitting on a shelf? How many times
they were produced in the 18th century!
WRG sets. Some people love that kind will you use that $250 model of the Ala-
We must move forward into the gaming
of thing and I can tolerate it, but just be- mo? Instead, everyone jumps right in and
unknown and relish the cult of the new!
cause it’s new or recently released declares whatever set of rules or figure
However, take a step back and look at doesn’t mean I have to fall down on my lines that have just come out the next
things objectively. Yes, it’s great that knees and worship the authors for en- greatest thing for the hobby.
another company can afford to produce lightening my Napoleonic gaming!
Recently a gamer on TMP was be-
and put out another set of rules, but do I
Has it ever occurred to anyone that moaning the fact that there weren’t
really need them? What is in them that is
there are some really, really good sets of enough games like Flames of War that
so innovative, so fresh and unique that I
rules that are older than one or two years? had dedicated web sites, forums, and he
should put all of my other WW2 rules up
If you say yes then you probably belong could go anywhere in the country and
on Ebay and focus on this one new set of
to that group of gamers referred to as find opponents. Well, guess what? It’s
rules? I’ve been in the hobby for well
grognards. Yes, those people actually only going to get worse! Rule sets are
over three decades and have seen every
still play The Sword and the Flame, Fire coming out faster than ever and the odds
kind of activation system, IGOUGO set
& Fury, General de Brigade, Age of Ea- of you finding someone in your same
up, modifiers for firing, etc., so what is
gles, and other relics of rules that should town/city, let alone the country who plays
there that could possibly be new? How
be entombed in museums. There’s no the same set of rules you have is getting
many times can you reinvent gaming
room in this new world of gaming for slimmer by the moment. As for me, I’m
systems for anti-tank fire? A Sherman or
those kinds of people! Cast them out! back to painting units for Fire & Fury and
Tiger is just that, both should have basi-
How can these other companies survive if The Sword and the Flame!
cally relative stats in game terms com-

Field Commander: Rommel Game Review
When you’re a that you can set up one of the cam- and combat lasts for one round unless
boardgamer as I am it can paigns, briefly skim through the rules, certain battle plans are selected.
be tough to find oppo- then play a sample turn to get the hang
In my experience combat is pretty
nents at times, so you of things. In this way you can quickly
bloody, especially when you are dealing
spend a lot of time play- figure out how the system works and
with multiple units in the same area or
ing games solitaire. then you’re off and running. The one
each side gets a large number of battle
Since I’m also a minia- thing that I’ve found about playing
plans. Surviving units then get to draw
tures gamer I usually solitaire specific games is that it is
chits for experience, which increases their
have a board game set up usually about repetition. You do the
attack and defense strengths, or gives
somewhere for when I same things over and over again as
their side extra battle plans. Several elite
need a break from paint- these types of games usually have a
units in one area for combat can inflict
ing figures. Although “system” to simulate an opponent.
some serious damage on an enemy force.
there have been a number of solitaire Once you figure that out the turns can go
board wargames over the years, they usu- by pretty fast. Naturally, the Allies, being played by
ally fall into two categories. The first is the system, have to have some kind of
FC Rommel follows such a system.
that they are so simple that they end up as artificial intelligence for movement.
The player refits German units, conducts
a 50/50 dice fest that just blows an hour Each turn an operations
battles, then acquires
of your time. The second, for games like chit is drawn and either
supply, then brings
Victory Games’ Carrier is that they are so an operation (think of an
on reinforcements.
complex that you have to devote a part of offensive) is launched or
After that the player
your life to learning how to play them! more units get added to
conducts the Allied
the pool for a future oper-
Dan Verssen Games has a number of side of the turn
ation. Then, units are
solitaire offerings, so I had the chance to which follows a
designed to either stay in
play two of them recently. The first is similar sequence,
areas to defend them or
Field Commander: Rommel, which is then checks the vic-
they must move forward.
part of the Field Commander series of tory conditions.
In my view, this is the
Supply in this
weak link in the game
game is everything
system and can create
and we’re not talking supply lines as in
some suicidal attacks by the Allies at
most games. Supply here refers to the
times and units can move in a haphazard
ability to have units move more than
way. Still, it works for a solitaire game
one area, refit damaged units, pur-
and realistically speaking, there’s only so
chase additional battle plans, and bring
many ways that you can do this.
in reinforcement and/or units back
from the dead pile. The Germans get The campaigns are difficult to win
their supplies in several ways while the and the system is unrelenting in that at
Allies obtain theirs through rolls on a least in my plays Allied units continue to
table that can result in supplies and/or reappear from the dead pile and it gets to
additional units. a point where you can see the Germans
games. This game features three of Rom- have no chance. At times it’s hard to tell
The movement system is by area and
mel’s campaigns, from France 1940 to if you’re playing the system or the system
more than likely units will not be moving
defending Normandy in 1944 from the is playing you. There are some novel
long distances. The battle system is
Allied invasion. concepts in this game such as the battle
where you get to see the solitaire system
system, but the Allied movement and
Inside the box you get three small for this game at work. Both sides get a
randomness of the reinforcements/
maps, a rule book, and counters for all variable number of what are called battle
supplies for the Allies keeps the game
three games. The rules are easier to com- plans. These consists of airstrikes, AT
moving up and down in wild swings at
prehend than most solitaire games of this guns, artillery, etc., and are basically
times.
scale and the maps are well done. I will extra die rolls to inflict damage on enemy
admit that I am not a fan of the counters, units, take away hits, offset other plans, Overall, this is a solitaire game that
however. All of them, Germans, British, and more. They cost anywhere from 1-4 delivers several hours of good gameplay.
French, and U.S. are all done in white. points each per plan, so the player needs With three campaigns there is some vari-
There are national colors on the side of to choose carefully while the Allies plans ety and the combat system definitely adds
the counter, but I found this to be annoy- are randomly drawn. Combat is then another level of randomness to the game.
ing during play. done by a series of die rolls which can be I’m not sure if it will see a lot of plays in
modified by certain battle plans. Units the future for me, but it is one of the bet-
The good thing about this game is
can take two hits before being eliminated ter solitaire games that I own.
Phantom Leader Game Review
I was always a fan of system. Solitaire games usual-
GMT’s Thunderbolt/Apache ly feature a lot of repetition, so
Leader, which was a solitaire once you figure out how things
system of modern combat work the turns go by pretty
where the player command- fast. Thankfully, the rule book
ed a force of AH-64s and A- was written in just this kind of
10s. The game was very format, so the best option is to
challenging and took some follow the steps in the rules
time to get right as the rules while playing your first game.
weren’t the easiest to navi-
You first start by choosing
gate. I eventually sold it as
a campaign and the length of
it seemed I had played the game out and
the campaign. This can be as short
had exhausted the randomness that can
as four days (playable in a few
sometimes make solitaire games fun.
hours) to long campaigns that could
Phantom Leader is one of a series of take you weeks to play out. You
games that is very similar to Thunderbolt/ select the campaign map, choose your
and more. One is drawn after takeoff,
Apache Leader. Published by Dan Vers- aircraft and pilot quality, then you can
one while over the target, and then a final
sen Games, the Leader series are solitaire also enter this information on a log sheet
card when egressing back home.
games based off of several historical and to keep track of your squadron’s progress
near-future conflicts. Phantom Leader through the campaign. I use the term As with any solitaire game combat is
focuses on the air campaigns over Vi- squadron loosely as you get to choose often the most complicated phase of the
etnam in the late 60s and early 70s. from a variety of aircraft. It’s not unusu- game and this applies for Phantom Lead-
al to have several F- er. It’s not too difficult, but you must
The components
4s, some A-7s, and go through a number of steps for air
are pretty good, with
maybe a few A-4s as combat, defenders firing, moving
several campaign
your campaign closer to the target, suppression, and
cards for USN and
force. then dropping ordnance. This is also
USAF forces for op-
definitely where the randomness of
erations such as Roll- Next you select a
solitaire games can bite you. Several
ing Thunder. There is random target card
good rolls by the NVA defenders and
also a tactical display and place the de-
you may as well start your campaign
card where the target fenders, which are
all over again!
is set, plus room for randomly drawn.
the defenders and attacking aircraft that is These can consist of After combat pilots accumulate
divided up into zones that regulate move- everything from stress, the player gets victory points,
ment during combat. The cards are bro- infantry units all the pilots can go up in experience, and
ken down into three types; target cards way up to SA-2 you prepare for the next mission.
which show an illustration of the target, sites. Then comes the fun part which is Phantom Leader does a good job in hav-
types of defenses, victory points, etc., arming your aircraft and there are coun- ing the player manage their assets, as-
plus event cards and aircraft cards. The ters for AIM-7s, CBUs, guided weapons, signing certain aircraft to missions, and
cards are well done and you get a AGM-45s, and arming aircraft for the
wide variety of aircraft to conduct more. The variety of missions.
the campaigns with. There are also aircraft are
Overall, this is far
numerous counters for keeping then posi-
superior to most solitaire
track of things during games, in- tioned on the
games in that the players
cluding aircraft counters, arma- tactical display
get a lot of choices in
ment, campaign status, etc. Finally, and the combat
how to perform their
there is a color rule book that is phase is then
missions. There is a wide variety of tar-
fairly easy to use and fortunately it ready to begin.
gets, length of campaigns, and the event
includes a sample turn of play You also draw
cards give the game very high replay
which is very helpful. three event
value which means that the solitaire play-
cards for each
As I’ve mentioned before er can keep coming back to this game
mission that
when reviewing solitaire games is time and time again. There is a lot of
can affect the
that it seems easier to just get one randomness and at times you don’t feel
defenses, the
set up and work through the se- like you’re in control of anything, but this
coordination
quence of play to figure out the is better than most solitaire games.
of your attack,

Memoirs of a Miniatures & Board Wargamer Pt. 20
At some point in every Quite a few of us loved GW’s our group had access to their family’s big
gamer’s life you will probably Space Hulk and when it first came out living room for a few days, so we set up a
be asked to participate in a we played the hell out of it. At one of massive 6x18 table and got everything
“big” game. By that I mean the only gaming conventions that ready the night before as we had set aside
more than five or six players, we’ve had here in SLC, Utah, I ran a full Saturday for play. At that time I
double to triple the number of (with help) a monster sized Space was using Enola
figures that you regularly Hulk game. Using map boards from Games Combat
would use, and it generally six sets of games we formed a giant Commander rules
takes some planning as well as ship and then set out a few hundred and I had prepared
preparation to pull the game painted miniatures for a series of bat- a series of charts
off. Over the last three and a half dec- tles that ran for a few days. The game for everyone ac-
ades I’ve been involved with a number of played pretty fast, even at this scale and a cording to their
these “big” games. Some have been good time was had by all. I do remember commands.
spectacular successes while others turned that it took forever to get the miniatures
We had ob-
into dismal failures. The importance, painted and trying to coordinate the paint-
tained a series of
however, regardless if they were good or ing to be done in time for the con almost
US Army maps of
not, is that the memories of these types of gave me a heart attack!
an area in West Germany, so we mirrored
games seem to live forever.
Back in the 80s as well I participated the terrain as best we could to match it,
If you were gaming back in the early in a massive Johnny Reb game of Antie- which looked fantastic to see it fully set
80s then you certainly know about Star- tam. Even though we broke it apart into up. The scenario was for a full Russian
fleet Battles. Not only did it consume all three different battles it was still a mas- armored division with support to attack a
of our gaming time for several years, but sive undertaking. Each battle would be U.S. brigade. It may not sound like
I made a lot of friends and had some on a 5x8 and events would influence the much, but on a one to one scale it was
great memories. Yes, with all of the other battles where neces- huge with literally hundreds of vehicles,
supplements it became a nightmare, sary. Although we had a lot choppers, infantry stands, etc., all over
but we did manage to pull off sever- of 15mm ACW figs, we the tabletop. Fire support was coordinat-
al campaigns. In one of the biggest were short several hundred. ed by one player on each side who also
battles that I ever saw, we had 36 So, we ordered a ton of figs controlled air support. We used an article
Kzinti ships go up against 40+ from Stone Mountain and out of a wargaming magazine for the air
Klingon ships and we used minia- set up painting nights that battle with both sides allocating assets
tures! We put together enough maps went on for quite some each turn.
for a 6x10 board, got out all the ship time. When we were finally
With a dozen players and starting at
control sheets, organized sides, and ready we had figs to repre-
noon on a Saturday, the game went until
got down to playing. sent each regiment and bat-
2AM. It was a wild affair that saw the
tery for all three campaigns.
We had about ten players as I remem- Russians stopped just short of their goal
ber and when both forces got into the The games were well planned out and near the end of the table. Everyone was
middle of the board it was pure chaos. fortunately they ended up being very exhausted, but it had been a good game
All I recall is after eight hours of playing close run affairs. Even though the South and it was talked about for months. I
time both sides withdrew with heavy lost the sunken road in the center, they think we also set a record for the most
losses. It was around 3AM when we quit won on the flanks and held on for a victo- snacks consumed at a game!
and then we went out to get something to ry. I think this monster game was memo-
Most of these really big games were
eat afterwards. It was a huge battle, there rable because it was one of those rare
“back in the day” when many of us had
were lots of rules questions, and it took a occurrences where everyone pitched in
more time for the hobby than we do now.
long time to prepare and play, but it was with buying figs, painting, creating ter-
I think it would be difficult to pull off
one of the best things I will remember rain, and helping with the set up.
these kinds of games today as many gam-
about the game.
I’ve mentioned this several times, but ers don’t have the time, can’t focus on
like most gamers in the 70s and early 80s one subject for that long, too many dis-
I was obsessed by the NATO vs. Warsaw tractions, and you just don’t see many
Pact theme. Not only did I have a huge gamers pooling their resources. It’s a
stack of boardgames, books, magazines, shame because these games have given
etc., but I had several hundred GHQ and me many fond memories over the years.
Enola Games miniatures. Naturally after If you do get a chance to play in a “big”
playing a few campaigns and battles we game please take the time to help out
wanted to do a really big game. with painting, organizing, etc. as it’s an
experience that should not be missed.
Fortunately, one of the members of
Blast From The Past pt.19: Older Skirmish Rules
If you call yourself a all, were a lot of fun. You don’t see excellent Sudan series in The Courier and
wargamer then at some point too many Chanimail games anymore the article on rules, I ordered a set of
in your gaming life you’ve as Warhammer Fantsy and Ancients Colonial Skirmish Rules, or the “blue
played in a skirmish game. seem to have taken over those eras, book colonial rules” as they are more
Despite the thousands of but in its time it was a very popular affectionately known as. This set of rules
rules sets for big battles for and well thought of set of rules. Not was radically different than TSATF as
ACW, Ancients, Medieval, the most realistic, but it was fun! they were true man to man combat, with
WW2, and so on, at some something like three seconds a
If you wanted realistic
point everyone likes to see turn and it took several turns to
medieval skirmishes then
combat at the tactical level. I load a rifle!
Battle Lust was the set for
thought it would be interesting to revisit a
you. At the time it came out, a We played several very
few sets of skirmish rules that I’ve played
fantasy series called Harn- memorable games, but they did
over the decades and that I’m sure many
World was the current craze. take awhile to play. They were
of you have as well. This is by no means
It’s hard to explain now, but in designed for 3-5 figures per
a comprehensive list, but rather just a
the 70s Dungeons & Dragons player, but we were using
small selection that stood out when I
was at the top of the gaming around 10 per player with 7-8
started thinking about this article.
spectrum. Many of the fantasy players! As we got older and
When I got into the board game/ RPG supplements that were time became more critical, these
miniatures hobby back in 1976 there were coming out such as adventures, character rules were pushed to the back of the pack
of course Airfix figures and soon plenty sheets, maps, etc., were not exactly pub- and TSATF became our standard set for
of releases by Atlantic in 1/72nd scale. lished with the highest graphical stand- this era. Still, they were unique and a lot
Thinking that there surely must be war- ards. So, when the first Harn supplement of fun.
game rules for miniatures similar to the came out it was a tremendous shock. As
Finally, we come to combat for the
few SPI board games I owned I went to each new release followed a new found
modern era. I can’t remember clearly,
the local store and sure enough, there was awe for this company and their products
but at the time we had some modern skir-
a copy of Angriff. I seem to recall it was grew.
mish troops, mercenaries, etc., and were
a choice between Tractics and this, but
At some point during all of this they looking for a set of skirmish rules. We
the length of the rules in Tractics scared
released their battle system called Battle liked the Avalon Hill Firepower game,
me off.
Lust. Although it had a map of Harn, but translating to the tabletop was going
I got home, read the rules and played a background material for some of the rac- to be a lot of work. A new set of rules
game or two. It was far different than the es, and standard sheets for units from that had arrived at the local store called Phoe-
SPI board games I had, so it took me world, it was easily adaptable to other nix Command, so several of us bought a
awhile to get the hang of things. Luckily, eras. We instantly took to the rules and few sets and tried them out.
I met up with a gaming group that played fought several good sized battles. The
Now, this was in the era where we
miniatures and they took me in, showing interesting thing was that the rules were
played a lot of SPI’s Air War, Harpoon,
me other sets of rules and that the minia- very, very good and I think many histori-
and Starfleet Battles,
tures hobby was far larger than just cal gamers missed out on this as they
but the complexity
WW2! I continued didn’t want to get contaminated by the
here frightened even
to play Angriff for fantasy element! Sadly, once the D&D
us! It was a VERY
several years, but craze started to die down and everyone
realistic set of skir-
with the introduction went off in search of other games this set
mish rules, but a five
of other sets of rules of rules got left behind. I still take out
minute firefight took
it swiftly faded from my set and look it over from time to time
our group the better
view except as a as there are some good ideas in there.
part of eight hours!
memory of my first
As many of you know I’ve always Again, in the interest
rules set.
been a big Colonial era of time these rules
At my first two gamer and have had armies faded from use.
gaming clubs I was in multiple scales for quite
It is funny how things come full cir-
fortunate enough to some time. I went through
cle. I started out with simple skirmish
have friends who had massive medieval a phase back in the 80s
rules, went down the complexity road and
armies that were based singly. Both of where I couldn’t decide if
now have come back to simple sets again.
them used Chainmail, so we had a ton of The Sword and the Flame
I think that when you’re doing skirmish
fun fighting sieges, raids, and even a was going to be my pre-
games the idea is to have fun and the
campaign or two. The rules were easy to ferred set of colonial rules
realism aspect can get in the way of that
use, the games played fast, and most of or not. After reading the
at times!

Yet Again, Successors vs. Romans WMA Battle Report
If you’ve been reading this magazine
for awhile, then our love for Warmaster
Ancients is well known. The game is
easy to set up, so if we have no idea who
is coming to our meetings or where we’re
going to play, WMA is a good stand by.
Once again we needed a quick game for a
variety of reasons and yet again, we
turned to a Successors vs. Romans WMA
battle.
Although we have several armies
available for use, the Successors always
seems to be a popular choice. Whether
it’s the pikes, elephants, weird units, or
that it is just a colorful army, we seem to
use them a lot. The Romans seem to be a
good opponent for them as they can take
the pike charges and still keep fighting.
The Romans went with what is now
their standard set up; namely legions
backed by auxiliary infantry covered by a
few units of archers and then several
units of average cavalry. The idea is to
maintain parity on the flanks until the Thorakites, etc., attached to soak up casu- put a permanent –1 modifier on the best
legions can take out the middle of the alties and keep the enemy honest until the cavalry unit! The Romans blundered as
opposing army. Not too exciting, but it pikes and heavy cavalry can get close well, so the second turn came to a
works pretty good when everything goes enough to do their dirty work. screeching halt. From that point forward
according to plan! it was a series of starts and stops for both
The game started out well for both
sides where coordination became a huge
The Successors went with a heavier sides as the command rolls ensured that
problem. There was some skirmishing on
than usual option with cataphracts, ele- everyone’s units got to move at least
the Roman right where several cavalry
phants, and several pike units. There once. The Successors did well until the
and foot skirmish troops traded shots and
were the usual skirmishers, warbands, second turn where a command blunder
a few close combats.
On the right the Successors were hav-
ing a hard time doing anything right.
Some of the cavalry got into a fight with
some archers and Roman cavalry, but
they simply could not coordinate their
charges. The flank was there for the Suc-
cessors to seize, but they could not finish
the fight. Instead, the Romans continued
the archery fire, brought up fresh units,
and fought the Successor heavy cavalry
to a standstill. Both sides took horrific
casualties, but that flank degenerated into
a stalemate, which in the end is exactly
what the Romans needed.
All of a sudden the Successors on the
Roman right failed miserably. The run-
ning series of skirmish fights abruptly
came to an end when several close com-
bats saw bad die rolling by the Succes-
sors and their units evaporated. This
opened the flank to the Successor center
and the Romans exploited (cont. on p.21)
Yet Again, Successors vs. Romans (cont.) WMA Battle Report
This was a beating the

(cont. from p.20) it to the fullest. likes of which we had nev-
The legions advanced in the er seen in WMA, despite
center and caught the Successor playing in well over 30
pikes standing still. The Succes- games using these rules.
sor elephants launched a charge What makes it even worse
that again saw some poor die roll- is that a Roman battlegroup
ing. What was supposed to be a consisting of two legions,
grand charge that obliterated a two auxiliary infantry units
few units saw the elephants and one unit of archers only
pushed back, outflanked, and moved on the first turn! If
wiped out. The pike units were they had reached the front
then faced with enemies on two lines the game would have
sides and things began looking been over even faster!
grim. The Roman artillery and The failed command
archers continued to fire, disrupt- rolls, pike units unable to
ing the center and preventing any charge, the elephants get-
kind of a counterattack. ting flanked, etc., contribut-
The legions came on and ed to one of the worst beat-
despite less than stellar results on ings we’ve ever seen. Usu-
the first series of combats, pushed ally a 1500 point game like
the pike units back. The Succes- this will take at least three
sors again failed a series of com- hours. This was over in
mand rolls that would have less than two!
brought up more fresh units. The As the Successor com-
legions attacked again, wiping out mander I have resolved to
unit after unit. The Successors go back to the drawing
tried to form a new defense line board and re-think my 1500
and recall the heavy cavalry, but point force. The slower,
you guessed it, the command rolls heavily armored cata-
failed again! The legions then phracts may have to be
advanced and once again after a discarded and more “throw
series of average die rolls, fol- away” troops may be need-
lowed up with a devastating series ed to guard the flanks until
of secondary attacks. By this time the pikes can charge. This
the Successors were running on is part of what makes Several images from the battle showing the Successor pike units
fumes and after another series of WMA fun in that you can running into trouble with the Roman legions. The pike units don’t
combats broke, ending the game. tinker with the army lists! do well when on the defense and several got flanked.

IABSM3: A Review (cont.)
(cont. from p. 3) the number on the chart it sounds convoluted and time consum- combat can be unpredictable at best, then
with 1s and 2s being misses, 3s and 4s ing, but it’s pretty fast in theory, plus it these rules are for you.
producing shock points, and 5s and 6s keeps the game interactive by having the
Overall, the third version of these
being kills where you remove figures. non-firing player doing something during
rules is a marked improvement over pre-
It’s much simpler in practice and after a an opponent’s turn.
vious sets. The rules are professionally
few tries it becomes second nature.
There are rules for artillery, laid out, there’s good examples of play,
Shock points are a flamethrowers, support lots of color, and you can see that there’s
unique feature for weapons, die hard troops, been some thinking towards making the
IABSM3 and they are snipers, and much, much games system easy to understand. Game
in my opinion, a driv- more. In fact, you would play is very interactive due to the card
ing force behind the be hard pressed to find draw system, so this is suitable for group
mid and end game something that the rules games with a large number of figures/
tactics. Once units get don’t cover! The inter- vehicles.
into contact and start esting thing is that the
So, are there any problems? Yes, but
blazing away at each additional rules really
mostly they’re a matter of taste and/or
other, your squads and add very little complexi-
game play style. As stated before, the
weapons teams start ty. You can just check
drop shadow on the font makes anything
accumulating shock the section, find the rule,
larger than normal sized text blurry. Lists
points, which can be and implement it as the
just for the Normandy period are another
almost as bad as actu- authors solutions are
pet peeve of mine, but quite a few rules
ally taking kills. usually pretty quick and
sets are guilty of this. The Tea Break
Shock points reduce easy.
card(s) if they come early can leave a lot
your actions, firing,
Close combat is deci- of units inactive or taking the bare mini-
etc., so when you
sive, but getting there can mum of actions, which if it happens over
reach a large number
be one of the game’s and over can be a big turnoff for some
of shock points it gets
longest procedures. In gamers. Also, the large number of dice
so bad that your squad
this case the system seems simple, but that you roll can produce wild swings of
can’t do anything but cower behind cover
running through the myriad of modifiers fortune and unusual results. Fortunately,
and there’s a good chance that they will
to get to the result can take longer than most of these are small problems and in
break.
pretty much any other mechanism in the the end it comes down to whether or not
So now here is where the beauty of rules. We’ve had some great house clear- your gaming group likes card driven,
the system really comes into play. You ing firefights/melees that were fun and chaotic skirmish games
already have a number of decisions to really felt like WW2 house to house bat-
I did order the deluxe package with
make each turn, such as who to activate, tles, but figuring out what to roll each
the deck of cards and setoff tokens. The
how many dice to use for movement, time and how it works always seems to
cards are a good deal, although much
firing, spotting, etc., but now you have to slow the game down.
bigger than the average card deck. The
deal with shock points. Should you keep
If you’re thinking that this game pro- tokens I’m not sold on. There was no
a big man around to clean up shock
duces a lot of chaos, explanation for what they
points or move him to a threatened sector
then you’re right! were until someone sent
to direct fire there? Should you keep
From the card draw to me a link from TMP and
fighting with a unit that is loaded with
the firing systems, my personal view is that
shock or retire them to safety until they
there is a lot of ran- they could have been de-
recover and take a chance that the enemy
domness. If you are signed better and more
won’t exploit the vacated part of the line?
someone who likes obvious as to what they’re
All of a sudden you have even more deci-
clockwork type games used for.
sions that need to be made and in a skir-
with a strict sequence
mish game this is a good thing. In the end the rules are
of play, then these
a good value and fun to
Anti-vehicle fire is just as interesting. rules should definitely
play. Once the other lists
You roll 2D6 with modifiers to see if you be avoided by you.
get converted to IABSM3
score a hit. If you do the firer then rolls a However, if you enjoy
status that will help out the
number of “strike” dice while the defend- games where things
situation as well. You
er rolls a number of dice equal to their don’t always go as
can’t go wrong adding this
armor to cancel any hits. The resulting planned, there’s a good
set to your collection of
number is cross referenced on a chart to chance of surprises just
WW2 skirmish rules.
see what happens to the vehicle. Again, around the corner, and
Hobby Boss 1/48th KV-1 & KV-2 Kit Reviews
OK, I admit it. I’m one of those gam- except for the turrets and appear to be the hulking
ers who thinks that 1/48th scale vehicles and guns, so the les- monsters that they actually
look better than the large ranges of 1/56th sons I learned on were in real life. The level of
stuff that are out right now. For some building the KV-2 detail is apparent when
reason, whether it’s the “heroic” figure made the KV-1 go viewed with figures on the
proportions, bases on the figures, etc., the much faster. tabletop and why anyone
1/56th stuff just doesn’t look right for would not want detailed
First, there are a
28mm 1/48th models to go with
LOT of parts, so pa-
WW2 skir- their figures is beyond me. I
tience will be needed. Fortunately, things
mish got these for around $15 each on the
go together quickly and you can have one
games. Squadron site and while they took time to
of these built in a long afternoon. They
Not only assemble it was worth every minute of it
do use brass etched parts for the fenders
that, resin when you see the final result.
and the tracks are in
kits, while
many pieces, but they
very easy
provide a jig to glue the
to build and
track parts around
paint, lack a tremendous amount of detail
which ensures a good
that really becomes noticeable when
fit. I painted the tracks,
compared to the same scale of plastic
fenders, turret, hull,
models.
etc., separately, then
Unfortunately, the selection for did the final assembly.
1/48th is limited compared to 1/56th. Getting the cables that
Tamiya has an ever growing catalog and run from the front of
there’s a few odds and ends, but recently the tanks to hooks on
a Chinese firm called Hobby Boss has the fenders was a chal-
been converting some of their 1/35th lenge, but looks good
scale kits to 1/48th scale. I bought a KV- in the end.
1 and a KV-2 to try them out. Fortunate-
Overall, the kits
ly, they are almost the exact same kit
look great completed
Fireforge Games Mounted Sergeants Figure Review

with capes and a cross standard. The weapons, shields, and heads gives the
figures go together quickly and with a gamer the opportunity to customize units.
wide variety of weapons you can certain- Highly recommended.
ly create a unit that
will have some unique
individual features.
For my first box of
these I chose some
with cloaks, half with
This boxed set is very similar to the spears, and the rest
Teutonic Knights set reviewed earlier in with a variety of hand
this issue. You get the same sprues for weapons.
twelve horses, only there aren’t any hors-
Overall, these are
es with barding, so these will be much
again good value for
simpler to paint. The figures themselves
the money and go to-
are basically the knight bodies, but the
gether quite nicely.
heads do not have any fully enclosed
They can certainly be
helmets.
used for more periods
Weapons are again the same set that than just the Crusades
you got in the boxes of knights along and the wide variety of

BKC2: East Front Convoy Battle Report
I’ve been working on a 1944-5 Rus- German forces on the outside
sian Tank Corps this past year and of the city had several battle-
thought it might be a good time to do groups plus a convoy of vehi-
another BKC2 East Front scenario as that cles with ammo and food for
always seems to provide incentive to do the defenders. There were a
more painting! So, back to the East Front total of 16 convoy vehicles at
it was and after just reading a book about both ends of the board. For
the campaigns in East Prussia late in the each vehicle with food/ammo
war I thought it would be good to try out that got into the city or for
a common situation from the book. each vehicle with wounded
that made it back to the Ger-
It is late 1944 and the Russians are
man lines the German side
attempting to cut off a German held city.
would earn 6 percentage
Naturally, Hitler has declared it to be a
points. At the end the
festung, or fortress, so it is to be held to
amount would be totaled,
the last man. Russian forces have en-
then a German player would
closed a ring around the city, but in many
roll D100 and if under the total the opera- either road. The first group consisted of
places it is very thin in units, which gives
tion would have been deemed successful three Stug IIIs and two Tigers; the second
the Germans a chance to run convoys in
by the German high command. had a company of panzergrenadiers with
and out of the city. The city was repre-
some heavy weapons halftracks in sup-
sented as only partly on board and placed The Russians began with two under-
port; and the third was a composite armor
in the corner. There is a bridge that is strength T-34/76 battalions on the board
battalion with three Panthers and four
still open as well as a pontoon bridge that and one infantry battalion deployed at a
PZIVHs. There was also a FAO with
leads back to the German lines. Several village crossroads. There was also a
three batteries of 105mm artillery in sup-
groups of Russians have already taken up FAO with three batteries of 12mm artil-
port.
positions outside of this part of the city, lery off board. The Russians also had a
but more are moving up at what would be battalion of T-34/85s, a battery of SU- The Germans planned to pin the Rus-
randomly determined times during the 85s, a 120mm mortar battalion, and a sian infantry in the village, occupy the
game. battalion of SU-76s that would randomly village/hill on the other flank with the
appear as reinforcements throughout the panzergrenadiers, then strike down the
There were several halftracks and
game. center towards the bridge with the main
trucks loaded with wounded in the city
armor force. Hopefully by that time there
waiting for the signal to cross the bridges The Germans had three battlegroups
would be a chance to run the convoys in
and break out towards the German lines. that would enter on the first turn from
and out of the city without too much ene-
my interference. The Russians, quite
naturally, were going to try to prevent
this, but first needed to determine the
main axis of attack. The main problem
for the Russians was not knowing where
or when their reinforcements would ar-
rive.
The German attack got off to a less
than stellar start, with most commands
failing their second command rolls. This
gave the Russians a chance to reorient
their defense and bring their armor into
firing positions. The main German armor
force proceeded up the center of the
board and was duly engaged by the wait-
ing T-34s, knocking one of the Panthers
out. The panzergrenadiers also took fire,
losing their mortar halftrack and the
75mm armed halftrack. However, they
did roll a 2 for their command roll, mean-
ing they were then able to do two actions.
The panzergrenadiers promptly moved
into the village and (cont. on p. 25)
BKC2: East Front Convoy (cont.) Battle Report
(cont. from p. 24) dismounted, which the SU-85s, knocking them out, but not that the Germans were declared the vic-
immediately forced the T-34s in the area before they destroyed several of the con- tors.
to withdrew along with the SU-85s that voy vehicles. The T-34s that were help-
Overall, it was a tense and fascinating
had just arrived. ing with the defense of the village cross-
game. It was our first widespread use of
roads withdrew to new positions to en-
The Stug IIIs and the Tigers got more smoke to screen the armor attack and we
gage the German armor. However, bad
than they bargained for against the Rus- had some desperate armor against armor
die rolls meant that they were then swift-
sian held crossroads and began a several slugfests. Both sides got too caught up in
ly overwhelmed by the Germans.
turn duel for control of the village that the village crossroads battle with the Ger-
eventually sucked in another unit of T- At this time the signal was given for man armor unable to push the Russians
34s. The main fight began in the center the convoy in the city to break out over off the road due to a lack of infantry
when the recently arrived T-34/85s start- one of the bridges. What followed was a while the T-34s didn’t want to show
ed slugging it out with the Panthers and frantic few turns while Russian forces themselves for fear of being destroyed by
PZ IVHs. This engagement went on for headed to shoot at the convoy and Ger- the Tigers. Both sides’ armor units could
several turns, with artillery, smoke, and man armor moved to intercept them. In have been decisively used elsewhere.
massive exchanges of tank fire. In the the end eight of the sixteen convoy vehi- Other than that, it was a well played
end the Germans left the T-34/85 battal- cles made to their destination. Multiply- game that showed us once again why we
ion in ruins, but they had lost the initia- ing by 6% gave the Germans a 48% like BKC2. Including set up and playing
tive and were running out of units. chance of the operation being deemed ten turns we finished everything in just
successful and they rolled a 45, meaning under 3 1/2 hours.
The panzergrenadiers close assaulted

GDB: French Defense & Counterattack Battle Report
This battle ended up being retreating far behind the brigade. Prus-
one of the largest and longest sian infantry quickly formed square and
that we’ve recently fought. If prepared for the next series of charges.
you’ve been reading this maga- The French artillery hammered the front
zine for awhile, you know that lines of the Prussian infantry who had
we flit back and forth between moved to engage the French on the hill.
Age of Eagles and General de Now with the threat of the French light
Brigade. Mainly it’s that we cavalry they pulled back slightly so as not
have a ton of figures that can be to be flanked.
used for either game as the ba-
In the center the Prussians moved
ses are similar, but sometimes
forward in series of attacks against the
we want a detailed, lower level
French center. The French held firm,
game while on other nights
although there were heavy casualties to
AOE provides a faster, higher
both sides. Both the Prussians and the
level game.
French used their artillery well, softening
This scenario began as a up units for attacks or counterattacks. At
combined Russian-Prussian attack and one point the Prussians broke through and
tacked, even when presented with larger
then switched to a French counterattack, it looked as if they would sweep down
enemy numbers, driving the Prussian
followed by another Allied attack. It was the hill on the other side, but newly ar-
infantry back upon their supports and
played over three nights with a total of rived French forces counterattacked and
creating somewhat of a traffic jam. At
five players for a combined 11 hours, drove the Prussians down the opposite
one point the French broke through the
which is a lot of gaming time, but then side of the hill instead!
Prussian lines and almost cut
again there was a lot going on!
one of the brigades off from
The first night was mainly set up, their division before heavy
getting the forces straightened out, com- fire drove them off.
mands assigned, etc., followed by the
In the center the Prussian
initial Allied moves. Mainly this consist-
spent a good part of the se-
ed of Prussian infantry brigades with
cond night getting everything
artillery support pushing back the leading
ready for an attack on the hill
French elements. Not quite a large skir-
that dominated the center of
mish action, but the fighting consisted
the board. The French were
mainly of French forces firing a few shots
positioned there in quite some
and withdrawing back to the main line of
numbers and were waiting for
defense.
the attack. On the Allied
The second night, however, is where right the Prussians slowly
the action really got off to a fast start. moved to establish a solid line
For one thing, the French forces on the of Allied infantry across the
far French right flank were determined board. A Prussian light cavalry unit
So, at the end of the second night the
not to go away quietly. They counterat- screened the far Prussian right while artil-
situation was confusing, but it appeared
lery readied themselves
as if the French had gained the upper
for the first attack.
hand. The Prussian attack on the left had
However, it was the been broken up, with scattered French
French who struck first battalions now positioned between the
on that flank. Using Prussians and their main line of advance
forces that recently ar- in the center. The French on the Prussian
rived they moved out right had forced the Prussian brigade into
quickly and engaged the squares and it had taken a serious beating
waiting Prussians. The from combined artillery barrages and
French garrisoned the cavalry charges. In the center the first
village on that flank and Prussian attack had failed and the French
then charged home in a counterattack had achieves some success,
series of attacks with but the French had suffered heavily in
light cavalry. This drove defending the hill. Both sides were
the Prussians back, with bringing up fresh reserves to renew the
the Prussian light cavalry battle on the final night. (cont. on p. 27)
GDB: French Defense & Counterattack (cont.) Battle Report
(cont. from p. 26) At the start of the third It was at this time that both sides both sides cavalry were down to approxi-
and final night the casualties for both moved up their reserves, which consisted mately half of their strength and the Prus-
sides were beginning to mount. A series of several regiments of heavy cavalry. sians were able to make little headway.
of charges and countercharges in the cen- With the center of the battlefield having After reviewing the battlefield and look-
ter decimated several battalions on both turned into a no mans land, it seemed as a ing at the positions of the units it was
sides. A French force that counterat- natural place for the deciding finish! determined that while the French had
tacked too far was isolated and cut to Both sides opened gaps in the lines for taken a serious beating, they were still in
pieces before falling back to rally. The the cavalry regiments to move through control of the main hill. The Prussians
Prussian forces on the Prussian right de- and get aligned for the deciding attack. and Russians had been worn down and
fended their area against further French would be unable to renew the attack.
There was still fighting going on in
attacks, but they also had to fall back to
other sectors of the battlefield which con- A very long (three nights) battle that
rally.
sisted of trying to cause as many casual- featured a lot of figures on the board.
Both sides by this time were at the ties as possible in an effort to break ene- The good thing about big games like this
point of being unable to continue offen- my brigades and divisions. I’m not sure is that the use of reserves come into play
sive operations. There were few fresh if I’ve ever seen that many casualty and both sides need to show patience
units available and most orders to the markers on units in one game before! when committing their forces to action.
various brigades and divisions changed to Overall, it was a very good gaming expe-
The cavalry charges went in and for
Defend to either hold their ground or to rience and had the distinct feel of a large
several turns there were a furious series
get reorganized for another attack. Napoleonic battle.
of attacks and counterattacks. In the end

IABSM3 Playtest Battle Report
After reviewing the IABSM3 The Germans responded by turning
rules earlier in this issue, the least we one of the PZIVDs to engage this
could do is to report on a playtest new threat while the other two
using those rules! We had played squads of infantry moved to take up
IABSM during its first incarnation defensive positions. The KV-1 and 2
and we’ve played Sharp Practice then engaged a pair of PZIVDs in a
several times, so we were already battle that went on for a number of
familiar with the major parts of the turns. The Russian AT guns began to
rules system. I had painted up three shell the barn that a German squad
boxes of Plastic Soldier Company was in, but got more than they bar-
WW2 Russians, so we had several gained for when the return fire
squads, AT guns, and heavy weap- knocked out the crew of one of the
ons, plus a few 1/48th scale Hobby AT guns.
Boss tanks. After reading through
The KV-1 was then immobilized
the rules a few times, making some
by a hit from a PZIVD and for a se-
shock counters, plus a few odds and
cond it looked like the Germans
ends, we were ready to at least try a small Both sides used blinds to hide the
might get back into the game. However,
game. advance of their forces. We were using a
the PZIVD was then itself knocked out
4x6 table, which with the number of vehi-
It’s late fall in 1941 on the road to by the KV-2, which sat like a fortress in
cles we had was not a good choice and it
Moscow. A German recon force has the middle of the board, taking every-
should be recommended that larger tables
been ambushed and set on fire along the thing the Germans could throw at it.
be used for more than a platoon of armor
main road, plus there are reports of a Also, another KV-1 appeared on the Rus-
per side if using 28mm or 1/48th kits.
sian right flank and the Germans then
The blinds moved up fairly
moved to counter it. A brief counterat-
quickly and when the first
tack by a squad of Germans and a
one was revealed it was a bit
halftrack knocked out the final Russian
shocking to the German side.
AT gun, but then the halftrack was hit
A KV-2 was sitting dead
and knocked out.
center along the main road!
The Sdkfz-251/10 that spot- The KV-2 then began to do something
ted it opened with its 37mm it was designed for; knocking out build-
AT gun, but would have ings. The German squad in the farm-
needed a miracle and didn’t house took a battering and had to fall
get it. The return fire from back. The last two PZIVDs got the bene-
the KV-2 immobilized the fit of the card draw and were able to fire
halftrack, then the Russian on the Russian armor first the next two
45mm AT guns revealed turns, but couldn’t score any knockouts.
themselves and knocked the The return fire destroyed both of them
halftrack out for good. and with that the game ended as the Ger-
mans would be forced to withdraw. The
heavy Russian attack. A German The German PZIVDs deployed and
Russians still had mortars (cont. p. 29)
kampfgruppe consisting of a platoon of tried to use cover to engage the KV-2
PZIVDs and a platoon of mech infantry along with the AT guns. The
in halftracks is rushed to the scene to KV-2 shook off the several
prevent the Russians from seizing a vital hits it took, but the SMG
crossroads. squad riding it were not so
lucky. One of the dismount-
The Russian force consisted of two
ed German squads in the barn
KV-1s and a KV-2 with one squad of
opened fire on them, killing
SMG troops riding on the tanks. They
several. The first PZIVD
were backed by a sniper (we wanted to
went up in flames after being
see how the system worked with these),
hit multiple times and the
two infantry squads, two 45mm AT guns,
Germans were reeling. An-
and a 81mm mortar section with two
other blind was spotted and
mortars. At this stage we had no idea
unfortunately for the Ger-
about the scenario balance, so it was a
mans it was a KV-1 moving
credit to both sides that they went along
up on the Russian left flank.
with the game to try the system out.
IABSM3 Playtest (cont.) Battle Report
required to run a game, most notably
getting the right cards, quality of troops,
and Big Men organized. Nothing that
takes hours, but it does help to come pre-
pared. We found that snipers are particu-
larly nasty as well as early Russian ar-
mor, which really imbalanced the scenar-
io in hindsight. We were just learning the
system, so no big deal, but in the future
we’ll look at these things more closely.
I think the biggest thing that skirmish
gamers may need to get used to is the
number of troops that you will need for a
group game. We’re talking about need-
ing (in our estimation) at least a platoon
per player and some of the scenarios have
quite a bit of stuff on the board. These
rules are definitely designed for large
skirmishes, i.e., company sized engage-
ments with maybe two platoons of infan-
try plus heavy weapons along with sup-
port. Now some might argue that it will
slow the game down, but actually IAB-
SM3 handles large amounts of figs pretty
well with the card system, plus infantry
don’t last long in these battles!
(cont. from p. 28) and two squads of in- ers in a group setting. Once everyone
fantry that had not even deployed yet! understands how the card system operates Overall, it was a very fun game and
and you get through the first few turns the we liked the rules. I’m already working
A few observations from our first
game proceeds pretty quickly. on getting some more infantry and vehi-
game. First, the rules are a huge im-
cles painted up for even larger battles!
provement over the first version that we In terms of problems there were a
For the cost of the rules you certainly
tried years before, so that was good. The few, but fortunately they were pretty mi-
can’t go wrong.
infantry firing chart and the anti-armor nor. First, there is some preparation time
charts need to be on a reference card as
those are what gets used the most as far
as we could tell from this game.
I think that there was some confusion
on our end about running vehicles as a
platoon or individually. It appears from
the rules that you should have a Big Man
in charge of vehicle platoons to issue
orders, but what if there isn’t one? We
couldn’t make heads or tails of that dur-
ing the game, so we’ll need to look into
that further.
The infantry and anti-vehicle firing
systems are fun to use and there is some
excitement when seeing if a vehicle can
block a number of hits to it with its armor
saves. I’ve always been a big fan of the
shock system that is used in these rules
and I like how it degrades the perfor-
mance of the units during the game. We
felt that the game’s base systems work
well and can be easily picked up by gam-

Several issues ago I wrote about how I found the plastics market in wargaming to be
WFHGS very interesting and would it replace or supplant the lead figure industry. I think at
this stage it’s safe to say that lead figures will continue to be around for quite some
time in the hobby. However, the plastics side of the hobby has certainly taken tre-
mendous strides from those first boxed sets by Wargames Factory and others. With
WASATCH FRONT HISTORICAL The Plastic Soldier Company, Victrix, Warlord, Perry’s, Fireforge, and more, there
GAMING SOCIETY
is now an ever growing selection of plastic miniatures to choose from. The sculpt-
Meets every other Friday nigh in the SLC, Utah area. We play a
wide variety of games in 1/300th, 10mm, 15mm, and 25mm, ing isn’t bad and you certainly can’t argue the price, but what is stopping the plas-
including Age of Reason, Age of Discovery, Age of Eagles, Fire
& Fury, General de Brigade, Warmaster Ancients, TSATF, tics from pretty much taking over the hobby is the same thing that has plagued plas-
Phantoms, Mustangs, BKC2, and more...
tics since the days of Airfix, Atlantic, Esci, and others. First, there are the strange
poses you seem to get in many boxes. Second, the ranges are usually the tried and
Email the editor:
mirsik1@juno.com true, such as WW2, ACW, Spartans, and so on. Third, the sculpting, while improv-
ing, still is missing out on details when compared to lead figures. These new boxed
The best in historical miniatures sets, however, are great for building up the core of your armies, but for specialty
gaming figs, i.e., officers, engineers, crews, etc., you still need lead figures. Overall, it’s
been great to see this side of the hobby grow and I look forward to new releases.
One thing that continues to interest me, though, is with all of these cheaper figures
Visit us on the web: now available and for all the hoopla, the number of painted figs I see at the FLGS,
www.wfhgs.com blogs, web sites, etc., still hasn’t jumped in quantity. Are people just buying stacks
of plastic figs and storing them for future use?
Battleground Prussia Book Review

While there are many books multitude of interesting Also, the book goes into detail on the
about the end of WW2, particularly battles and stories from German command structure and greatly
on the Battle of the Bulge or the the participants. Most of out of touch Berlin was with the front
Battle for Berlin, there aren’t many the book covers Russian lines at the end of the war. Numerous
that focus on the Russian drive to attacks against individual units ran out of ammo and fuel, units
the Vistula and Oder rivers. Bat- towns or areas with eye- were trapped in pockets, reinforcements
leground Prussia is an interesting witness accounts of the sent back and forth to the wrong sectors,
book in that it covers these interest- fighting. These range and more. It was an interesting look at
ing battles during late 1944 and from assault gun platoons the crumbling of an army when a war is
early 1945. going into a counterat- nearly over. Still, many German units
tack to German infantry continued to launch counterattacks until
The book does start off in an
units trying to fall back the bitter end.
unusual way in that it goes over the
to the next defensive line.
history of the Prussian area, espe- Overall, I found this to be an excel-
All in all, the battles are fascinating and
cially the ethnic background. Then the lent book on a much neglected area of
give you a good idea of what the situation
scene shifts to the destruction of Army WW2. I wasn’t too pleased with the
was on the ground.
Group Center and the Russian drive to maps and some with greater detail, partic-
the Baltic Sea. Army Group North, I was struck by several things in this ularly about some of the strategic towns,
which covered this area was split apart book that I knew very little about. The would have been most welcome. Despite
and basically run over by a steamroller of first was the scale of the evacuations that, the eyewitness accounts of the bat-
Russian forces. The book covers the start along the Baltic coasts, which were enor- tles, refugees struggling towards the west,
of the campaign all the way to the final mous. The second was the fire support and the ships trying to save both soldiers
evacuations just before the armistice went provided by ships of the Kriegsmarine and civilians at the end makes for fasci-
into effect. during the battles. The third was how the nating reading. If you are an East Front
refugee traffic greatly affected operations aficionado then this book definitely de-
Along the way you are treated to a
on both sides. serves to be in your library.

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What are I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM) rules about?

What are I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM) rules about?

What changes were made to IABSM rules between versions?

What changes were made to IABSM rules between versions?

Issue #33

For one reason or another here and there, they

and pretty straightforward. included a wide vari-

try something new, and so local print shop add a comb

Inside this issue:

Page 3 WARNING ORDER

ISSUE #33 Page 4

ISSUE #33 Page 5

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 7

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 9

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 11

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 13

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 15

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 17

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 19

This was a beating the

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 21

Fireforge Games Mounted Sergeants Figure Review

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 23

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 25

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 27

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 29

Battleground Prussia Book Review

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