Weekender: Team Yankee & The Bolt Action Summer Offensive
August 8, 2015 by lloyd
Welcome to The Weekender where we're doing a bit of a round up of things we loved at Gen Con this year and also considering a bit of alternative history with Team Yankee on the cards from Battlefront...
Great Wargaming Survey
The Great Wargaming Survey is still going on and you have a few days left to have your say on the project and be in with the chance of winning some goodies just by answering some questions.
We discuss some of the findings so far and have our say on what we think of the statistics as they stand.
Bolt Action
Talking of statistics, the Bolt Action Summer Offensive is going great guns with a whole host of people from across the world getting involved to log their results.
As well as that we have news that Bolt Action will soon be island hopping with Empires In Flames where you get to send the Marines into battle.
The Western Front isnt being left out however with Winter Americans coming soon.
Flames Of War - Team Yankee
Going with a 'What If' scenario Battlefront have started talking about their upcoming game which will follow the Cold War escalation after World War II, Team Yankee.
Look forward to some big tank battles and if this talk of nuclear war has got you excited consider checking out the board game, Twilight Struggle too.
Gen Con Round Up (Part One)
Last but very much not least we have the first part of a full weekend of Gen Con round-ups.
We'll be discussing Hawk Wargames' Dropfleet Commander, Halo: Ground Battles from Spartan, and Privateer Press' Undercity board game.
Then we discuss a bit on Conan: Rise of Monsters and those all new Fantasy Flight Star Wars models for X-Wing and Imperial Assault.
Join Backstage To Watch XLBS Tomorrow
Look out for more tomorrow in XLBS and a big thanks to Dawn & Gianna for covering the convention. You can see Part One and Part Two for more on the best four days in gaming.
Have a great weekend!
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Happy Weekend!
looking forward to the Gen Con round up. Happy Weekend
It’s the weekend… Hobby time!
Not sure that tabletop or video games can really be considered mainstream. At least not in my experiences. Their popularity is growing or perhaps we, the (stereotypically) marginalized socially inexperienced geeks, simply have a greater sense of community thanks to the things like the internet and so it seems that their popularity is growing. Or maybe the younger generations have become more accepting of things that still earn eye-rolls and are scoffed at by our contemporaries. In either case, I believe that many of our more insular tendencies continue to be curbed by the communities we form on places like… Read more »
I agree apart from on the videogame front. I don’t think you can see that as anything but mainstream now. GTA v making an order of magnitude more profit than all the summer blockbusters combined in its release year. Or the fact my elderly mother spends hours playing candy crush pretty much screams mainstream. Certainly certain genres are not as mainstream as others but as a passtime it certainly is.
…and the odd kicking!
another weekend …..another smile
Slappy Hatterday!
Talking about the super secret military space shuttle, Warren took the show into “conspiracy today …” territory. Oops. 😉
I was wondering, if it is so super-secret how come Warren from Beasts of War knows how long it stays in space for?
Ignore my last post. Just spotted a Sky News story on it. Not very secret after all.
Happy Saturday – looking forward to spending the day playing games
Yeah really good weekender guys! One day I’ll get to Gen Com.
Twilight Struggle shoutout! A strong contender for the best boardgame ever made.
Let agree to call that race won; it IS the best! 🙂
Loyd is right on with his “Team Yankee vs. World War III” comment. I expect the expansion to be small scale like the Fate of a Nation expansion. It will follow the novel (I’ve only read the synopsis on Wikipedia), not be global-scale World War III.
But, Oh my goodness, I want to play a hypothetical global-scale World War III. I want Russian and American tanks fighting in American suburban neighborhoods, I want troops kitted out in ABC gear. I want to see Chinese, Cubans, Warsaw pact and NATO allies.
you and me both! Lol
Its all about the Swedish Dave wants lots of Stridsvagn 103!
by the way guy’s, there was a British novel released in 1982 called ‘Chieftains’ written by Bob Forrest-Webb about….. yep! you guessed it…. a troop of Chieftains in WW3,
at the time i was a trooper in a ‘real’ Chieftain troop in Germany so it became mandatory reading……. a more dark and gritty novel then team Yankee, a few mistakes in places but not a bad read…..
I am going to have to get both novels now. It’s been too long since I got a good tank-fix 😉
John. if you get the chance read Sir John Hackett’s ‘third world war’ novel has well and that will help to set the scene, by the way we used to call our tanks ‘PANZER’S’….lol
Warzan’s, check out this PDF document. I think you’ll especially like pages 7&8… http://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/cold-war/1961-berlin-crisis/overview/us-military-response.pdf
I hate my tablet’s auto-correct: I think it was developed by North Koreans with little grasp of English and a desire break us down mentally!
Seeing as its me that the hedges/fences statement was about, I have no issue with discussion of terrain and effects I do it every game myself. If you want to go light on rules thats also fine but at least mention that u have in a tutorial video…. I’m all about having fun over everything else in my games if we cant find a rule for instance rather than get bogged down looking it up we’ll just go with what seems reasonable at the time. However if I’m teaching someone to play a game I will try to be as… Read more »
Don’t take the banter seriously 🙂
When you have done this kind of thing for a while you soon realise no matter how much prep or how many times you re film or do over … There will always be the proverbial hedge that we get bogged on 😉
So if it wasn’t your observation of the hedge it would have been something else. And while ‘teaching’ is an admirable thing and we do hope viewers glean something from these vids, primarily they are just some light entertainment to help us stay engaged with our hobby 🙂
Yup had that recently. A building with one window in it. All his men could shoot out from it. But supposedly none of mine could shoot in. 🙂
Team Yankee is a great read, some of the chapters read like scenarios. It will be interesting to see how the rules cope.
Morning world – happy saturday! Infinity all day…
Brilliant, brilliant and brilliant. It would not have been anywhere near complete without Johns opinions. Nuclear war: In every for want of better wording real wargaming back in the day I had a lot to do with its planning and actual deployments, we the west again for ease of wording would go nuclear simply to stop the flow of numbers we believed the east able to put track on soil. However the reality of the easts supposedly mass units became a reality showing at least a half of the numbers being maintained in sufficient quality to be even remotely serviceable.… Read more »
lol
And ‘our glorious leader’ wired a message through from his compound that ‘he approved’ of this episode – but did say he’s got a bigger one than his mate Vladimir 😉
Playing Kim Jong UN in a friendly game of Warhammer.
Also see “let the Wookiee win”…
…remember spaces!
Sad to see Portrush getting wiped off the earth in WW3. The only consolation I think is that because it is built using 1960’s Soviet construction methods Barry’s amusements would probably survive
Ten pointer comment right there lol 😉
When Conan Rise of Monsters was announced I said at the time I don’t see how they are going to make this a success coming so soon after the hugely successful Monolith game. I know there are 22 days to go to pledge, but at only 32% funding it’s not looking good. What I find interesting is that the comparable top tier pledge is $95 more Monolith’s top tier, I think that this may be where the issue lies with people pledging. With Monolith at $135 you got a huge amount of stuff, dozens of miniatures, game tiles, unlocked freebies… Read more »
Great weekender. Very valid point (at least in my experience) of wargamers being a bit shy and shunned as kids. I was actually met with something similar a few months ago, I was at a job interview and as an icebreaker they asked me do I have any hobbies, it is really hard to tell people who are not fellow gamers what we do for fun, so I think i mumbled something about airfix model kits, as they couldnt comprehend what I was trying to say. I actually got asked the question ‘so you play with toys?’ which kind of… Read more »
Agree with you on that. I always just reply that I’m interested in history, and that is something that people can understand. I never dare to even hint that I would be collecting, painting and playing with miniatures as most people think of their 5-10 year olds playing with plastic soldiers from Poundland etc. I think even model railway people have it easier, that is just considered geeky but still something that adults can do.
I have no issue with talking to people who ask. I tell them I’m a gamer, if they ask if I’m a video gamer I tell them I’m a tabletop gamer so I play things like boardgames, card games, and wargames. I’ve never experienced any problems.
Same here. Most of the time they are quite interested and I’ve hooked quite a few with my wicked gateway games. I’ve never been bullied or persecuted for being a gamer but maybe that’s because I’m a bit eccentric and people expect me to do “odd” things.
Amazing how critical people can be. It is awful that you had that experience. I have had varied experiences of reactions to my hobby, however I do believe change in attitude both within and outside of the hobby has happened over time. I am a female gamer (both tabletop and video), I have been war gaming in excess of 20years ( not going to say exactly how many, a girl likes to keep her age a secret !!). When I first started I was greeted with mixed reactions. Some enlightened people were welcoming, and some were, well let’s just say… Read more »
Why shouldn’t men and women have the same hobbies, I think it’s a great thing for our hobby. I can remember the awful times that @galadriel72 and I had when she was getting into our hobby. The hobby was mostly run and played by men, most were not so inviting at all. I respect her for sticking to her guns and sticking with it. As she said in her post, we are well known with many traders on the UK circuit and game with many gamers. I am thankful that times are changing and women want to game (tabletop and… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more. These days the idea of “geek grlz” seems to be gaining traction as women assert their right to be interested in the same things as men but still we have issues such as “gamergate” that have me banging my head against a wall. What the hell is wrong with these idiots.
I hear you had some quite awful interviews over the years when asked about hobbies. would have thought working in it/electronics/telecoms would have had a more understanding approach to niche hobbies but no. Now when asked I use the opportunity to gauge whether I want to work for them based on reactions. Last few places I worked have had a thriving lunch break gaming scene to the point where we have converted some people who never would have thought to have a go
another cool show:-) cant wait for dropfleet
Very excited for Team Yankee. I remember reading it years ago, Lloyd was right in being happy to be so far away from London.
im just disappointed the nukes weren’t dropped on Lurgan…
…£25 quids worth of damage if they were!
Always the optimist @unclejimmy
…how did you know I repair glasses?
I’ll have to check out what nukes would do to my home city, Malmö! Also, WARREN…if you got a cent every time you say the word “ok” you’d be as rich as Bill gates 😉
he may be a south park junky?
Totally enjoyed the weekender today, Im an long time video gamer (atari, nintendo, supernintendo, playstation, game boy etc nearly every kind known to man lol). I still love this medium of gaming but as you pointed out it can be very isolating and its far to easy for people to behave badly when they are not in the same room. I have only just started to testing the waters in board gaming/hobby. I havent finished gluing my first model together yet, most certainly havent played any of the wonderful games sitting around on my shelves. But this is due more… Read more »
Re. rules lawyering, I think this is entirely the fault of the rules writers. I remember reading in a WD how a member of the magazine’s team went up against an army with a troll in it, and he was upset that the opponent had milked the rules to keep his troll alive (basically, cheated within the rules to regenerate wounds). Now, whose fault is that? In my opinion, it’s not the gamer’s. He spent £30 on a troll, several hours painting it, of course he’s going to try to keep it alive within the rules. The fault lies with… Read more »
All of this. Badly written and/or poorly playtested rules are the biggest cause of WAAC and rules-lawyering.
The first tabletop wargame that I played was Team Yankee, published shortly after the book so in the end of 80’s. Back in those days boardgames were quite common, SL and ASL were probably the best known but there were plenty of other games as well and quite many for WWIII. I had already built plastic models for years and I always felt that there has to be something more to do with them instead of just collecting dust in the shelf. So Team Yankee got me to realize that you can do the same thing with plastic models instead… Read more »
I used to have that game! Definitely nowhere near as complicated as other games in the “tactical WW3 in Germany” genre like GDW’s Assault, Bundeswehr, BAOR, and Boots n’ Saddles, but it was a great “gateway” game because it was light, fun, and easy to teach new players.
Still think 15mm is the wrong scale, but if gets more players interested in modern gaming then that can only be a good thing
Technically speaking, you’re almost certainly correct in that it’s too large a scale to accurately represent what happens in modern warfare. But most players and potential players, however interested in the history they are, are probably not very concerned about accurate simulation. They want a fun game with nice miniatures that they can convince themselves is a bit like a real battle. (In case it’s not clear, I’m definitely including myself in this description.) Battlefront are presumably hoping to appeal to existing players of their game(s), but also epecting that potential new players will be attraced to models that are… Read more »