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By Mark D, July 31, 2012 7:37 pm

[This is for a friend of mine, I believe this is a press release he put out that I'm reposting. If it's an actual news story from somewhere, my apologies.]

Eagle Scout Sean Vannoy of troop 1 Sellersville is an Aspirant, Registered member of team USA battle of the nations over the next few months Sean will travel the country competing for one of 42 spots on the team of Americans that will travel to Europe in the spring. Members of the team are only allowed to wear the eagle of America once they have been to an international competition as part team USA.

European nations have centuries of glorious medieval history in which their best armoured Knights raised their swords to take the field of combat against those from other nations in noble tournaments for the honor of their homeland – but as a younger country, the United States lacks the history for such a tradition of glorious armoured tournament.

The time has finally come for the USA to have its chance to rewrite history and take its rightful place amid the tales of armoured national warriors earning great victories against competing Knights from foreign lands.
A national team from the United States will join national teams comprising the most professional and experienced medieval swordfighters from across Europe in a full-contact contest of arms, just like the Knights of old. Teams from the Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Quebec, Germany, Italy, and the United States will engage in single combat, small unit engagements, and mass combat to determine which nation will prove victorious at the end of nearly a week of competition.

Combining the patriotism and team spirit generated by the Olympics and World Cup, with the full-contact excitement of Ultimate Fighting and MMA – all while wrapped in the romance and drama of Renaissance Faires and Medieval Times, the Batle of the Nations matches top competitors from national teams across the globe competing against each other in all-out Chivalric combat in authentic full medieval armour. Steel swords clash against wooden shields. Giant poleaxes crash down upon metal helms. Victorious national teams celebrate hard-won victories against those they just vanquished on the field of battle.

Even as they fiercely compete on the field of battle, the national teams come together as brothers-in-arms off the field – engaging in a range of medieval cultural activities, arts, and crafts as they live and work together in an authentic re-enactment of a medieval festival.

The newly-formed TeamUSA comprises over thirty of the most renowned swordfighters from decades of competition across the United States, all of whom will take the field to fight for the American glory and honor.

Experiencing exponentially growing interest throughout Eastern and Western Europe, including a new television series airing on Russian television, the Battle of the Nations sits at the cusp of consumer interest in national sports teams, full-contact “mixed” martial arts, and the dramatic rise in interest in medieval re-enactment as evidenced by the spate of recent and forthcoming major motion pictures.

TeamUSA is actively seeking sponsors and media partners to help make their quest to cross the Atlantic and represented the United States at the Battle of the Nations a reality – and to bring this uniquely educational and entertaining sporting event to the North American audience.

To help Sean Vannoy with travel expenses go to http://igg.me/p/166341?a=842712 or for more information about the team, sponsorship and media opportunities, and how to make a donation to make TeamUSA’s involvement possible is available at www.USAknights.org.

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By Mark D, July 5, 2012 2:04 pm

While I’m probably not the biggest buff when it comes to the Eastern Front of WW2, the Battle of Stalingrad has always been one of my favorite battles to learn about. Given this, it shouldn’t come to much of a surprise that I’ve picked up quite a few Stalingrad based games to try to re-enact the desperate struggle that took place in the streets and houses of Stalingrad. Battles were waged not just over whole houses, but between the basement and the 2nd floor, between the same floor but different rooms. The rat war as the Germans called it slowly wore down the Blitzkreig.

But most wargames cover operation uranus, the flank attack on the Germans which captured the 6th Army within the City. Or the many attempts to break out the 6th Army from the city. Although it is interesting, I really would like to try the fighting within the city. Without getting as complicated as some of the rules for Advance Squad Leader. Storm Over Stalingrad, although it might not exactly be building by building, is as close as you can find without a huge rulebook.

The game is deep but simple. The city of Stalingrad is split into different regions, with each region having a defense value printed on it from 1-3. This is how the victory conditions of the game are decided, as the players declare before the game how many of those +3 areas they will hold at the end of the game. The higher total takes over the Soviets. Each player gets a certain number of action cards with special effects on them depending on the turn.

Each unit has two sides. It’s normal side in which it has an Attack/Defense/Move values, and a spent side which has a defense value. On your impulse you can fire, move, pass or play a card in place of your turn. If you fire or move, the unit is flipped to it’s spent side after it’s done. Firefights are done by either units firing into an adjacent region or units from the same region firing at the opposing sides units. The Germans can’t just dispute control of a region, they have to actually drive the Soviets out.

So you add up all the firepower values, roll two 6 sided dice, add that together and you have your fire value. You then subtract that from the other sides defensive value (highest defending units defense value + defense value of region) for the number of flips the defender is going to have to take. The defender can retreat units, flip units to their spent side, flip units to the eliminated box or any combination of those three.

The Soviets have a number of units that are simply there to hold space. They don’t have an attack value. So as the Germans move in, if the Soviets can keep those units in the region it not only holds the region, but allows units further back with higher firepower to fire on the Germans. But this relatively simple gameplay gives itself to a deep game that is also relatively quick while holding a lot of tension.

The game play is as tight as you would expect over the Battle of Stalingrad. During one of my first games I thought I was making headway as the Germans. Then when I had spent all my units my opponent began firing back, decimating my units. With it being one of my earlier games I was still able to get close to capturing enough +3 regions, although in the end I fell short. There shouldn’t be too many big mistakes in the game that will throw the game to one side or another irreparably.

I believe Storm Over Stalingrad might be out of print now. But if your interested in the battle for the streets and houses of Stalingrad this is as close as you can get. It’s simple enough that you can probably consider it a beer and pretzels war game. But it’s not the dice rolling fest that’s a specialty of that genre. I’d highly recommend the game if you can get your hands on it. It might be a good pickup for people that are new to wargames but have an interest in the East Front or the Battle of Stalingrad.

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By Mark D, October 26, 2011 8:01 pm

Konarmiya is actually a prequel to a previous game I reviewed, Freikorps. It also connects with Freikorps, allowing you to play out the historic Polish-Soviet war of 1920 and if the Soviet player is successful the game can continue into Freikorps.  The game is very much like it’s predecessor, a small rulebook, two counter sheets, two dice, a ton of reference charts and a paper map. The rules are just about exactly the same (as far as I can remember) except for the addition of supply rules based on HQ units.

Using the non optional rules, each side has it’s normal units and it’s shock capable units. For the Soviets that means the Konarmiya, who were originally a small Cossack unit that sided with the Soviets in the Civil War. For Poland that consisted of The Polish Legion, veterans of WW1 . Also these units have higher cadre levels which shifts the battle results if you have a higher cadre level. There are the return of AP units, in the form of Tanks, Planes and Artillery. The game also has the Trotsky Train and Piludski as optional HQ units.

As most of the rules are the same, there’s not much to really say that I didn’t in the Freikorps game. It’s a small game yet again, easy to setup and quick to play once you get rolling. My few problems consist of struggling with the small chits, having to constantly flip through a bunch of reference sheets because my smaller table space didn’t let me setup every card like I did last time. While you don’t need constant access to the reference sheets, it does make life easier. The one other somewhat major issue I had is that I didn’t understand the difference between reinforcements and replacements. Reinforcements are a certain number of steps (all units that aren’t division sized are 1 step, divisions are 2 steps and after losing a step are replaced with a remnant unit) decided by your morale level. Replacements are decided by the combined attack strength of eliminated units divided by your morale level as a percentage.

But as far as I could tell, reading the rules multiple times, there are almost no differences between reinforcements and replacements. You could use both types of step points to flip remnants back to full strength divisions and both could be used to bring new units onto the field in relatively the same positions. The one difference is that reinforcements can be saved from turn to turn and replacements can not.

Those few sticking points aren’t much though. This is another solid, small scale, affordable game from Brian Train. Even without the Alternative History aspect of Freikorps, I still enjoyed the game. It’s actually very rare that I like two games from the same designer (although it probably helps that it’s almost the same design) so this was an enjoyable surprise. I wouldn’t call this a must buy, but if your interested in the Soviet-Poland War, a lightly covered topic in wargames, then this is the game for you.

It’s also a good pickup if your looking for something small and relatively simple when it comes to wargames. Konarmiya doesn’t bring anything outrageously new to the table, but is solid in all common aspects. The Russians are a steamroller, something that plays well to my strengths. Unfortunately I tend to like to play a hard defense instead of an elastic moving defense and this meant in my game I basically caused the Poles to be bled white close to the first cities the Soviets could reach. I decided to call the game for the Soviets despite not losing a town or city because it was going to happen. Losing everything in the center basically screwed the north and south defenses.

So for 15-20 bucks and if your looking for an interwar period game go for it. It’s not a great game, but it is a solid game.

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By Mark D, October 2, 2011 12:49 pm

(Editor Note: This game is designed by a friend of mine and I offered my help. I’ve long had a link to his blog in my side blogroll. This is not a review and I have not played the game, neither am I being paid for this.)

Panzer Clash will be published by TOG Entertainment on October 15th 2011.

Panzer Clash is a light, card-based wargame about Second World War Panzer battles for 2 – 4 players. Pick a side, either Axis or Allies, and build a deck of 40 – 60 cards out of a pool of over 100 cards in order to defeat your enemy.

The deck or Supply contains Factories, Units, Events and Terrain Modifiers. Factories are needed to build Units and Terrain Modifiers as well as to power Events. Units and Events, which usually belong to one or more of the four factions (Germans, Japanese, Americans and Soviets) are used to attack and deal damage to the opponent, have certain beneficial effects on the game or are used to weaken the opponent. For each point of damage a Player receives through Units and Events, he or she puts one card from his or her Supply (deck) onto his or her Junkyard (discard-pile). Is a player unable to draw a card from the Supply, he or she loses immediately.

Panzer Clash started out as a re-theme of my fantasy card game Elemental Clash and ended up being so much more . . .

Panzer Clash is already up for pre-orders on www.togentertainment.com. There is a pre-order special: Order two or more Faction Packs and get one Terrain Pack (MSRP 5.99 $) for free. Also included with every pre-order: An exclusive and limited Promo Card!

I am also pleased to announce that there will be a Soundtrack (a proper audio CD) to go along with the game. Many great metal bands have3 already pledged their support for the project, and the CD will be released on December 21st 2011.

What is more, there are already Panzer Clash shirts for sale at http://www.redbubble.com/people/jilocasin/shop/t-shirts. If you like the game, order one and show your support!

For more infos on the game please visit www.panzerclash.com

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By Mark D, July 13, 2011 12:46 am

I have always found it humorous the backlash against Che’s image on T-shirts and the like. Now I am against people (cough hot topic cough) making money off of his image. Especially when they make no attempt to pay the original photographer’s family. That aside though, the idea that Che was some sort of homicidal maniac who killed people on a whim is rather amusing because it ignores conditions in Cuba at the time of the revolution.

Fulgencio Batista not only had the support of the US, but he had been repressing the country for years. It is widely believed that Batista and his men killed 20,000 Cubans during his final reign. Yet this is never quoted anywhere. Meanwhile Che’s list of verified executions is around 200. Even if in the end he had a hand in the death of a possible 1,000 people, it’s still 1/20th of what Batista did during his reign on Cuba.

Look, it’s a sad fact of life that Civil Wars cause a lot of casualties. When you are replacing one regime with another there are going to be some broken eggs. Is Che a saint? No, but who is? Morals are an interesting shade of grey, especially when it comes to overthrowing a dictator who is willing to kill so many of his own people. I’m sure George Washington had people executed during the revolutionary war. For that matter there were many men who were executed for leaving both armies during the American Civil War.

In a vacuum, yes, Che’s crimes are reprehensible. But the reality is that this isn’t a vacuum. If Che had been a renowned liberal democrat, trying to spread democracy in the Carribean, would this be brought up? Most likely not. Most Americans for that matter don’t even realize how many brutal dictators the United States supported in Latin America and South America who would kill their own citizens by the thousands.

As Chomsky pointed out, this is an amazing American thing. We are able to hold someone responsible for crimes, which when compared to the skeletons in our closet are nothing. The complete ignorance of history is horrifying. I’d almost rather debate with someone who knows of Che’s executions, then to talk with someone who is wearing a Che shirt with no idea of who Che is, what he did and what he stood for.

Che is also today very much like Guy Fawkes. Most people don’t realize exactly what Fawkes was rallying against with the Gunpowder Plot. He wanted to assassinate the current King because he was a protestant. They were hoping that his Catholic daughter would take over the crown and return the kingdom to the Pope. But since then he’s become something more, he’s become a symbol to people wanting to stand up and unite against the system. Much in the same way it is for Che. It’s no longer the human that matters, but the spirit. The idea that people could unite and overcome everything, and if they failed then let’s try again.