http://hudsonshideout.blogspot.com/2016/06/indians-get-smashed-in-arigaeum-as.html

We used the Alexander elite commander rule and man what a difference that makes. The scenario warned that to preserve realism not to use the Elite Commander rules but being the curious war gamers we are we had to use Alexander to his greatest potential. His elite commander rule allows him to…

My gaming opportunities have been far and few between.  Two months ago, my friend Joe and I got together for our only game session so far this year.

In light of today's 72nd Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, this turned out to be oddly appropriate, since it was Scenario 1 from the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit--The Retaking of Vierville.…

This late springtime brought another couple of wargame magazines: Battles # 10 and Paper Wars #82.  Both offered an interesting contrast, so I thought I’d just give my two cents on the matter.

First, Battles Magazine…..   What can be said about this chronically late, but always superb publication form Oliver Revenu.  Presentation is professional to the core; graphics invites the reader into each article. (I wasn’t intending to read the article on Pax…

Thanks for all the suggestions given by Consimers (That should be a word, right?).  We had another student game night the other week and I brought with me a pile of games. (I had just sold a house and had to downsize my collection by getting rid of the duplicate games.)

The most sought after and coveted game?  Can anyone guess? (Keeping in mind that these kids are 15/16 y.o. boys....)   Got it it your mind? I'll hit the return a few times; you just scroll down the…

http://www.legionwargames.com/legion_NEM.html

Nemesis... ... features my "Open Game Turn" system. The Game Turn consists of only four phases: Assault (where a unit may either attack or move); Attack; Supply Check; Reinforcement. The phases are drawn as chits, so you will not…

A recent readers poll at PAXsims found that 99% of our readers were male, which led to this discussion (primarily about expanding the pool of women able to contribute to professional wargaming in the national security community):

https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2016/03/05/gender-and-national-security-gaming/

Which in turn led to this post on women and hobby…

Mitchell Land, designer of the Next War series of wargames from GMT, discusses the interesting design challenges behind those games, and we get a sneak peek at the next title, Next War: Poland. Plus, a few words about a departed friend.



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The annual CSW Donation Drive is now underway. I wish to thank yoiu all again for your support in making CSW possible. We just kicked off our annual fundraiser drive. Thanks in advance for your consideration of supporting us -- you'll note a free download in our announcement, as well as earning free games and discounts from 25+ Publishers. [Please donate today]

Sam Mustafa, designer of Blücher and other miniatures wargame rules, stops by to discuss his designs and the miniatures side of the hobby in general. Sam and Tom describe the path for boardgamers who might want to give miniatures a try. (Blücher might be a good start.) Plus, Tom shares lessons learned from his recent experiments with miniature wargaming on the cheap.



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We're pleased to announce that online registration is now open for CSW Expo 2016. The dates are June 25 - July 2, 2016 at the Tempe Mission Palms in Tempe, AZ. We are entering our 16th year and following upon the heels of our most succession expo yet. Register for the Full Pass and pay no later than Feb. 5 to get your Expo shirt for FREE! I hope to see you all there.…

The last half of 2015, was pretty dire for me in wargaming terms.I hardly played any solo gaming at home!

Changes in free time to solo wargame at home has dramatically changed, and in the wrong direction, meaning I have less continuous time to play.

I also got very exasperated at having to learn new rule sets for every game I wanted to play, and knowing that it would be difficult to submerge myself into the game due to time constraints meant I felt it was useless to…

Just seen the new CSW News page.

My goodness what have you done??? It is awful. Please, go back to the old one or do something with the new one, like separate columns better and make look attractive, rather than looking like some 1998 web page

I remain pleasantly surprised by the way that people remember my old articles on Firepower from the Avalon Hill General.  Some of them go back thirty years, and people remember them and still play some of the scenarios.



Therefore I am extremely happy to see Darren Breidigan's efforts to scan these articles and make them available again on Boardgame Geek.  These are done with my express approval, indeed encouragement.



The first one is "The Pact: Central European Conflict and…

The newest issue of Line of Departure is released, and the subscribers should all have their copies by now.  This issue represents not just a resumption of publication, but also an upgrade in production values.  Physically, it is now printed on heavier, premium-quality paper, with sharper graphics.  This issue's contents start with…

A Year in Review (of sorts…)

Now that the year has passed I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on what worked for me this year, and what didn’t.  First of all, the big hits of the year, neither of which was published in 2015.

Hits and Misses: 

After viewing a couple of videos by Marco and Kev, I decided to give GBoH a go using the Simple GBoH rules. I’ve tried this before, lured by the beautiful components of this series, but this time, using the…

More game reports for the new year . . .

Hi All!

May I introduce a new WW2 Tactical Wargame called Fatherland - Red Horizon 41

You can find our trailer on our youtube channel:

Fatherland-Youtub Channel

Fatherland will be a new tactical system which is designed for small scale battles but also for a later on campaign level. At this moment the prototype for the first module called Red…