Archive For The “Articles” Category
CPT Red Powell, 15 January 2019
My name is Red Powell, an Armor Captain in the United States Army, and I have been playing wargames since 2001. I played computer games and simulators initially but grew into tabletop wargaming in high school. I primarily play Warhammer 40000 (WH40K) now, but I also play a wide range of board games and other tabletop wargames. Some of the other games systems I play are made by Games Workshop, Flames of War, Warmachine/Hordes, Team Yankee, and many others.
I am attending the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and I am striving to earn my master’s in military art and science (MMAS) in wargame design.
I play WH40K in the Independent Tournament Circuit (ITC), scored across the globe. Last year I ranked 31 overall and first in my given army faction, my goal for the year! I run the Worthiest Adversary Blog, a WH40K blog that focuses on players throughout the competitive gaming community. I also am a co-host of the Alpha Strike Podcastwhere we discuss the current competitive meta of WH40k. Recently, I was grateful to be selected as the Team Captain of the WH40k U.S. Army Esports team. The U.S. Army kicked off the Esports Team initiative in 2018 and WH40k is a fledgling program that I think is an excellent outreach approach to the future generations of the U.S. Army.
Brant Guillory, 9 January 2020
On #TBT, we bring you the occasional classic article – an older review or analysis piece we wanted to rescue
Crosswind is Steve Rzasa’s first book about the Sark brothers, Winchell and Copernicus. Winchell is a journalist at a small newspaper, and his brother is a pilot, in the frontier town of Perch.
The brothers stumble into an intrigue filled plot involving a larger town to their South known as Trestleway.
While Cope is the adventurous brother, alternating between stunt pilot antics in the air and ladies man smoothness on the ground, Winch is the conservative family man with a wife and children. The brothers stumble upon the mystery when Cope flies his brother out to the wreck of another aircraft to take pictures and write a story for the newspaper. A rather unfriendly gentleman masquerading as a local rancher tries to steal a coded message that the brothers discover in the aircraft wreckage. It turns out this man is from Trestleway, and the coded message is a warning of an impending “invasion” that was being flown in by the nephew of Perch’s mayor-general.
The brothers are sent to investigate, and report back to home. Along the way, they discover a variety of intrigue, and a few interesting technical – and mystical – tricks up Trestleway’s sleeves. (more…)
Armchair Dragoons Public Affairs Office, 30 December 2019
2019 was a ‘building’ year for us here at the Armchair Dragoons.
With the regiment established the year before, we focused on the core idea we wanted to build around: helping strategy gamers get the most out of their games. We spent the bulk of our time on our live broadcasts, continuing our podcast, and articles that make you want to read & discuss gaming. While the forums are a key piece of our community, they are not the only focal point, and the slow-and-steady-growth of that part of the Dragoons has been fun to watch, even if we haven’t over-emphasized “everyone come register!”
So while 2019 wasn’t quite as momentous as 2018 – the year we founded the regiment – it was still a solid year of getting ourselves grounded for more adventures to come, and we appreciate everyone whose joined us on the march.
2019, though, also gives us an endpoint at which multiple numbers roll over on the calendar. So while the most pedantic among us (you know who you are) will argue the decade doesn’t end until 2021, we’re taking this opportunity to look back on the decade in gaming, and we’ve asked a few friends to chime in, too.
“What’s been the biggest story in the gaming world over the past 10 years?”
And wow, we got responses all over the map. Some were short, and some were paragraphs. Some were unexpected, and others were predictable (especially given who they were from). (more…)
Billy Riley, 18 December 2019
Description
Combat! is a single soldier (man to man) counter game. Hexes are 20m and the maps provide ample ability to be tactical with many ways to move and many places to hide.
There are 4 maps to fight across and 14 scenarios with 4 being introductory scenarios to help ease you into the game mechanics. (more…)
Michael Eckenfels, 13 December 2019
What’s inside the box for the relaunched Space Infantry series? Let’s take a look!
Mike Orwick, 11 December 2019
Command: Modern Operations (CMO) is the successor to Command: Modern Air and Naval Operations (CMANO). I have had some experience with CMANO, though I never got very deep into it, nor have a played it for a couple of years. I had just finished reading H-Hour: Northern Fury, which was based on a series of scenarios written for CMANO and had decided to revisit the game. Before I did, I learned that CMO was coming out soon and decided to wait.
The first thing everyone needs to understand about CMO is that it is a very detailed and complicated game. The games database is loaded with ships, aircraft, sensors, and weapon systems. These are not just generic items, but very detailed items based on real world systems. You don’t just have air to air missiles, you have Sidewinders, Sparrows, Pythons, and all their different variations. As an example, if you lookup the Sparrow missile in the database, you get 14 variations. The one thing I would like to see added to the database is a short description section to help novices understand what the general purpose of the system is, and what the differences are between variations.