Legacy of the Weirdboy is the first DLC available for Warhammer 40k: Sanctus Reach. If you aren't familiar with Sanctus Reach, pleas...

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Sanctus Reach: Legacy of the Weirdboy DLC Review
Legacy of the Weirdboy is the first DLC available for Warhammer 40k: Sanctus Reach. If you aren't familiar with Sanctus Reach, please check out my review for the base game, which can be found here. In short, it is a turn based strategy game in which the Marines of the Space Wolves Chapter take on a horde of Orks while defending the Knight World of Alaric Prime. Legacy of the Weirdboy flips you over to the other side of this bloody conflict, putting you in the green skin of Big Redd da Warphead, a "Weirdboy," or mage type of character, for those who don't speak 40k. Big Redd is on a mission to build a "teleporta" that he will use to strike at the heart of the Space Marines. Standing in your way is a deadly army of said Marines, eager to turn your Orks into so many piles of body parts.
Legacy of the Weirdboy offers you a vast array of unit types to play with, as your horde is made up of Orks of all shapes and sizes, carrying a variety of weaponry. I was eager to get my hands on some units in particular, like the massive Battle Wagon and various "Meks" which sport all sorts of nightmarish pointy appendages, rocket launchers, and flame throwers. These units gave me a lot of trouble in the base game campaigns, so it was quite the thrill to use them myself. The Orks have some new units to try out as well, including a very useful medic hero. The Space Marines have a few new toys of their own that you will discover throughout the campaign. If your Orks survive long enough to kill some Marines, they can gain experience and level up, unlocking a choice of various new special abilities. Some of these can turn decent units into really vicious killers.
Exploring the ins and outs of your own personal Waaagh is the meat of this experience for veterans of the Space Marine campaigns. I found that the Ork units did not handle how I expected, but in a good way. While some of your units are just living shields to distract the enemy, this is not a campaign where you can simply charge forward without finesse, hoping to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers. The Space Marines are heavily armed and armored, and will cut your Orks to ribbons if you charge at them recklessly. Even the most basic Space Marine squad will not go down easily, and must be dealt with in a deliberate manner. This contrasts with the Orks, who have a mixture of super-heavy units and glass cannons, with a large helping of marginally useful, but ultimately expendable, cheap units to round things out. A battle of attrition will go poorly for you, which was a lesson I quickly learned before rebooting the first mission.
The DLC improves a bit on the structure of the campaign itself, but still leaves room for improvement. Like in the base game, the campaign consists of a handful of set-piece battles separated by 3-4 skirmish battles each. These skirmishes are still rather unremarkable filler, but the story missions themselves have been improved with more detailed intros and some nice artwork to set the scene. There are only four of the story missions, but each one is a hefty scenario that will take a couple of hours to complete. The overall story is still thin compared to other Warhammer 40k games, but feels much more coherent than before. I hope for the next DLC the ratio of filler to story missions is improved, since they are quite good and varied in their gameplay.
Overall, this is a solid expansion for fans of Sanctus Reach, and is exactly what I like to see in add-on content. Every facet of the game has been improved in some way, while giving you a fresh new experience to enjoy. The price is a very reasonable $10. I expect we will be seeing several more DLC for Sanctus Reach, and I look forward to watching how the game evolves. Fingers crossed that we get to see the Imperial Guard join the fray!
Legacy of the Weirdboy can be purchased directly from Matrix/Slitherine, or found on Steam.
- Joe Beard
Tanks Of The Second World War by Thomas Anderson In this book, the author chose to go back in time and start w...

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Tanks Of The Second World War by Thomas Anderson
In this book, the author chose to go back in time and start with the development of the tank in the First World War and its usage. One of the strangest designs we see is a picture of the Russian 'Lebedenko Tank', if you could call it one. In reality, it looked like a huge tricycle in reverse. It had two massive front wheels that were connected to a small wheel and motor in the back. Had the engines of the time been able to produce more horsepower, who knows where this concept and other strange ones might have led? The book then goes into the interwar period, with a lot of emphasis on the Spanish Civil war. This war was used as a test bed for most of the European powers to try their armaments and tactics out on living subjects.
The interwar period saw designers go both large and small with tanks. Some countries developed huge multi-turreted land battleships that had the agility of a ruptured beetle, while other countries worked mostly on tiny tankettes. They could speed across the terrain so that the occupants could rush to their demise enveloped with armor slightly thicker than a tea kettle or several sheets of Reynolds Wrap.
The world had the tank, but what to do with it? The interwar period also saw a huge amount of printed material in all countries purporting to show the 'correct use' of the tank. The only problem was that they all contradicted themselves.
One of the most proficient designers was the American, John Christie. The Christie tanks didn't make him much money at all, but they were the sires of many British and Russian subsequent designs.
The book has the following chapters:
Tank Warfare
Genesis
The Interwar period
Tanks in action: The 1930's - this segues into World War II tanks
Prospect: The Long Road To The Main Battle Tank
Each chapter goes through the major, and sometimes not so major, designs of the period in question. The book also comes with an interesting 'bulls-eye' design for the comparison between the different World War II tanks. It is a cross-hair where each arm is labeled armor, speed, engine to weight ratio, and penetrating power.
The different tanks shown down through the years and all of the various comparisons remind me of an adage attributed to various famous fliers: 'It is the man, not the machine'.
This book is a great one for tank newbies, but also for us unofficial tank gearheads. The book is filled with many wartime photos, but also shows many one of a kind tank designs. So through the book you really get a sense of the sometimes halting design path to nowadays main battle tanks.
Robert
Book: Tanks Of The Second World War
Author: Thomas Anderson
Publisher Pen And Sword
Distributor: Casemate Publishers
Legacy of the Weirdboy, the first DLC for Sanctus Reach, just came out. You can expect my full review in a few days, but in the meant...

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WH40k Sanctus Reach: Legacy of the Weirdboy Gameplay Video
Don't say we never gave you anything! We have codes for a few games to giveaway, just be the first to comment below claiming one ...

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Giveaway! Get in here quick!
Don't say we never gave you anything! We have codes for a few games to giveaway, just be the first to comment below claiming one of the following games, then send an email to beardjoe33 at gmail dot com so I can get you the link. One game per person!
- Joe Beard
WINGS OF GLORY: BATTLE OF BRITAIN This game has a solid ancestry, first came Wings of War WWI and then WWII which morphed into Wi...
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WINGS OF GLORY : BATTLE OF BRITAIN
WINGS OF GLORY: BATTLE OF BRITAIN
Despite a significant number of additional planes for Wings of Glory WWII, its WWI focus has always seemed to draw greater interest, mainly I suspect because of the glamour of those early amazing machines with bi-planes and tri-planes and, of course, the Red Baron, Von Richtofen himself.
I certainly understand and share that pull of the beginning of aerial warfare and the birth of the Royal Flying Corps. But being born five years after WWII, my childhood was filled with Spitfires and Mosquitoes, Stuka dive-bombers and Messerschmitts and the Blitz and the amazing story of Douglas Bader as recounted by Paul Brickhill in his book Reach For The Sky. Not to mention the many Biggles books [including the one linked to here Biggles Defies The Swastika] that span both WWI and WWII.
So, Ares Games latest addition to their oeuvre of aerial combat has an enormous appeal. Wings of Glory: Battle of Britain like its predecessor Wings of Glory: WWII comes as a stand-alone package which can act as a starter set or bring a further set of planes to your table if you've already embarked on the WWII series.
For those of you familiar with the mechanics of play and typical contents, you may wish to fast-forward to my comments and conclusions. As always, the quality of the contents represents excellent value for money, starting with the four pre-painted model planes: 2 Spitfire Mk1s and 2 Messerschmitt Bf109 E-3s, each with its double-sided console marked for the Basic game on one side and Standard/Advanced game play on the other.
Inevitably, and necessarily, there are sheets and sheets of markers. Many relate to damage and speed and, of course, each plane comes with its own deck of manoeuvre cards as well as three special ability cards.
The rulebook text is an identical replication in a compact 44 pages of the original Wings of Glory: WWII as are all the diagrams, though many of the reproductions of cards from the manoeuvre decks are different.
Instead of planning and playing a single manoeuvre card at a time, you start with your first and second card planned. From then on it's play first card, move your second card into the first slot and plan next card. Admittedly, I miss the more prolonged choice of three cards which must all be played in sequence before planning the next set of three that is a feature of the WWI game. But, the greater responsiveness and manoeuvrability of WWII planes are reflected by this two card sequence.
The other two additions in the Standard Rules are the classic Immelmann turn and special damage tokens. As you can see, hardly a difficult trio of developments. Even the Advanced Rules only goes 4 pages further and largely develops movement concepts - bringing in High/Low Speed, Altitude and the accompanying ability to Dive and Climb - slightly trickier to handle, but nothing overwhelming.
The Optional Rules bring in a wide range of elements that certainly add to my enjoyment of the game. Just some of them include: the potential for airfields and landing and taking off: fuel: cloud cover; extended crew damage and [my favourite] Ace Rules, which bring in a wide range of special abilities and Rookies too.
The next part entitled Special Airplanes is obviously preparing the way for further models, covering as it does two-seaters and multi-engine planes. Once again, all these include excellent diagrams and illustrations.
Finally, there's a small section on Ground Units. In part, they provide targets for bombing and the wherewithal to fire back at the planes. The latter anti-aircraft guns have a very personal appeal as my father served in the Royal Artillery in WWII, manning A/A guns around the British Isles from as far north as the Shetlands to postings along the coast and the English Channel during the period of the feared German invasion and the Blitz.
The whole is contained in a very compact, well designed package - with just ONE problem - getting those superb models out of their recesses!!
If you haven't bought into this system yet, then Wings of Glory: Battle of Britain is the perfect starting point and I'd strongly recommend buying a copy immediately. If you have the previous starter set Wings of Glory: WWII, but haven't extended the range of plane types, then this package still offers great value for money just by giving you 4 more planes. These alone bought separately would cost you at least as much as this whole product and would give you only the planes and their manoeuvre cards. Buying the new starter package adds four more plane consoles, shed loads more markers, obviously another rule book and a separate booklet with Battle of Britain scenarios.
A final item worth mentioning is the series of battle mats that can be bought to enhance any of the Wings of Glory games. I hope even my photos do them enough justice to encourage your adding them to your must buy wish list.
So, dare I say, " Chocks away and tally ho, old boy!"
The Mongol Conquests The Military Operations of Genghis Khan and Sube'etei by Carl Fredrik Sverdrup Genghis...

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The Mongol Conquests: The Military Operations of Genghis Khan and Sube'etei by Carl Fredrik Sverdrup
Genghis Khan, (I will use the spelling the author uses on both his and Sube'etei's names. I have seen them spelled three or four different ways) not the greatest conqueror in my eyes. That should be reserved for Timur, but Genghis Khan's descendants ruled the greatest land empire the world has ever seen, thanks in a large part to the actions of Sube'etei The Valiant.
Robert
Book: The Mongol Conquests: The military Operations Of Genghis Khan And Sube'etei
Author: Carl Fredrik Sverdrup
Publisher: Helion & Company
Distributor: Casemate Publishers
Hello everyone, today I'm introducing my new podcast "Skirmish Line" This podcast will bring you more the great content y...

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Introducing the Skirmish Line Podcast
Hello everyone, today I'm introducing my new podcast "Skirmish Line" This podcast will bring you more the great content you expect from A Wargamer's Needful Things, delivered in a new way. I listen to a ton of podcasts, and have wanted to try doing it for myself for a long time. This first episode is rather short and I'm sure my delivery could use some work, but I hope you enjoy it!
More episodes to come in the weeks and months ahead!
Roman Republic At War A Compendium Of Battles From 502 To 31 B.C. By Don Taylor Part one of the book is an '...

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Roman Republic At War: A Compendium Of Battles From 502 To 31 B.C. By Don Taylor
After the introduction to Roman warfare there are two very helpful lists of all the battles in the book. The first is an alphabetical listing of the battles. The second is a chronological list that helps you to follow the battles through the myriad of Roman wars.
Had some free time this Saturday so I decided to provide you guys with a bit of Cold Waters gameplay! My mission was a success...until...

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Cold Waters Gameplay Video
Had some free time this Saturday so I decided to provide you guys with a bit of Cold Waters gameplay! My mission was a success...until it wasn't. Watch on Youtube
You can also read my review here.
Japanese Battleships 1905-1942 by Miroslaw Skwiot Japanese battleships; the list of them is a long one: the Mika...

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