Ultramodern Wargaming – Ukraine 2024
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About the Project
Lately, I've been running war games every weekend with members of the community via web conference. Players log on and play wargames with each other in real time, regardless of location, and we usually have at least a couple spectators as well. Many times it’s been Darkstar, but we’re also running wargames in Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars, and now Valor & Victory.
BoW/OTT community members @brucelea, @damon, @davehawes, and @rasmus have taken the plunge, leading battalions across thousands of meters of desert, starfleets in pitched battles across the heavens, or vicious firefights in the jungles of Vietnam, all without leaving the comfort of their home.
Hard-core, old-school command-tactical wargames can now be run (complete with spectators and recordings) in real time, with BOTH PLAYERS moving pieces across THE SAME virtual game board, thus maintaining player agency, speedy and instant results (no play by e-mail), interwoven turn sequences, any questions / feedback instantly received and addressed, and with the game being virtually recorded as it goes, a ready-made battle report can actually be created as we go.
All of this without the players having to install any new software on their computer, on any platform (PC or Mac). All that's needed is to agree on a time, a handful of dice, and a bellyful of courage!
Every weekend can now be a boot camp! All without costing me thousands of dollars in airfare, too!
Related Game: PanzerBlitz
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
Breakout at Anzio - 15mm Battlegroup Game (80th Anniversary) P1
Join us for a 15mm tabletop miniature game of “Battlegroup” where we’re recreating part of the American breakout from Anzio beach head, 80 years ago this week, at the end of May 1944. It’s a 50 square foot table, over a hundred miniatures on the table (including infantry) and four players.
Anzio was a rather rough story for the Allies, especially the Americans. But now four months of wasted opportunity and bitter stalemate are coming to an end. Combat Command “A” of 1st US Armored Division might finally be spearheading a breakout, only exhausted survivors of the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division stand in their way. Can the Americans finally open the road to Rome and fulfill the elusive promise of the Italian Campaign?
World's Bloodiest Tennis Court (Battle of Kohima - Valor and Victory) Part 2
We’re back to finish our game of Valor & Victory commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Kohima. Fought in April 1944, the Battle of Kohima (part of the larger Imphal Campaign) helped check Japan’s Operation U-Go, where the Japanese mounted an invasion of British India out of occupied Burma.
So far, the game has certainly proved bloody, but the Japanese have taken the Tennis Court and are about to overrun the Clubhouse beyond, enough ohjectives to give them victory. Can the British and their Indian allies (Rajput and Punjab Rifles) stand tall and pull out a win?
World's Bloodiest Tennis Court (Battle of Kohima - Valor & Victory) Part 1
Join us for a big, meaty game of Valor and Victory, where we’re recreating part of the Battle of Kohima in World War II. This week marks the 80th Anniversary of the climax of this battle, fought along the east Indian borderlands in April, 1944.
The Battle of Kohima (part of the larger Imphal Campaign) helped check Japan’s Operation U-Go, where the Japanese mounted and invasion of British India out of occupied Burma.
Part of the Battle of Kohima centered on (of all places) the tennis court of a local Deputy Commissioner’s residential estate. For upwards of a week, this tennis court stood as a blood-soaked no-man’s land between troops of the Japanese 58th Regiment (31st Division) and troops of the Royal West Kents, the 7th Rajpat Rifles, and 2nd Battalion / Dorset Regiment.
Let’s see how this “Wimbledon from Hell” unfolds on our gaming table!
Souq el Gharb (Lebanon 1983) - 15mm Wargame
We’re back with another modern-era wargame tabletop battle report. This time, we’re using Mark Ritchie’s “Tactical Combat” system in 15mm to recreate the 1983 Battle of Souq el Gharb. Part of the Lebanon Civil War, the battle pitted Syrian-backed Druze militia and PFLP remnants against the recovering Lebanese Army in a small village southeast of Beirut.
It’s a conflict not often seen on the wargaming table. What small, half-forgotten corners of military history has your group explored?
Warlord US Infantry Box - Oriskany Jim Ventures Once More Into 28mm
Returning at last to the hobby miniature desk, I crack open a box of Warlord’s 28mm US Infantry figures, reviewing the contents and putting the kit together. 28mm isn’t a scale in which I usually work, but I’m usually up to try something new when it comes to wargaming hobby.
What 28mm World War II have you worked with? Do you play Bolt Action, or other larger-scale friendly games like Rapid Fire or Chain of Command?
Oriskany Jim Discusses GDW "Assault" - Epic 1980s Tactical Wargame System
“Assault” is a great tactical combat wargame system designed by Frank Chadwick of Game Designers Workshop back in the 1980s, simulating theoretical battalion, regiment, and brigade-sized battles in what was then the “possible future” of 1985.
US and Soviet forces, strictly built and organized along actual tables of organization and orders of battle, face off in the hills, forests, and towns of West Germany. Later expansions would delve into West German, British, and Dutch forces, as well as bringing in rules for armored cavalry, air cavalry, and combat engineers.
In this video we take a look at this classic, a cherished relic by the bygone golden age of wargaming.
British at Anzio - 80th Anniversary Panzer Leader Wargame - Part 2
Damon and Oriskany Jim are back to complete our game of Avalon Hill’s Panzer Leader, set during one of the battles of the 1944 Anzio Campaign.
Shortly after the Allied landings, three British battalions of 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, driving toward Campoleone were about to be cut off by counterattacking elements of the German 3rd Panzergrenadier Division.
It was up to 46th Royal Tank Regiment and the London Scots to hold open an escape path so their comrades could safely withdraw.
British at Anzio - 80th Anniversary Panzer Leader Wargame - Part 1
Join Oriskany Jim and Damon for a game of Avalon Hill’s Panzer Leader, set at one of the battles of the Anzio Campaign in Italy, fought exactly eighty years ago today (4 February 1944).
Here, three British battalions of 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division driving toward Campoleone were about to be cut off by counterattacking elements of the German 3rd Panzergrenadier Division.
It was up to 46th Royal Tank Regiment and the London Scots to hold open an escape path so their comrades could safely withdraw.





























