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Operation Black Flag: A Weird War Scenario
This is a Weird World War II scenario I ran at Cold Wars 2023. It was played using modified Bolt Action/Konflikt ’47 rules, but I have tried to make this article more generic so that it can be used for other systems, perhaps NUTS! Weird War, Chain of Command, CrossFire, or even Flames of War…
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Weird War at the Earth’s Core!
I recently started a Substack where I’ll be sharing a lot of the stuff I’ve never published and don’t yet have the bandwidth to prepare for proper book formatting or crowdfunding. There will be considerable crossover with articles here on Splendor of Fire, but the idea of putting them on Substack is that it has…
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Native Auxiliaries of German Pellucidar
Although all natives within Neuschwabenland und Hohlwelt are subject to the Kaiser, only pure ethnic Germans or half-breeds with at least one parent born in the Outer World are permitted to join the Imperial military proper. Any others equipped for military operations are formed into native auxiliaries. These units are organized, equipped, and trained according…
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An Introduction to German Pellucidar
Since late 2022, almost all of the Weird World War II battles I’ve fought or GM’d have been part of a notional Hollow Earth campaign set in the 1940s of an alternate timeline festooned with antediluvean empires, psychics, dinosaurs, flying saucers, vampires, talking apes, and two-fisted pulp adventure. Much more will be said about this…
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If you wanna have a good time…
…jine the cavalry! Augmenting my alternate history weird war CSA armies is Sgt. Bonita ‘Bonnie’ Carmichael of Whitwell, Tennessee, commanding her M3 Stuart light tank ‘Sequatchie Gallant.‘ Though the CSA does not actually permit women to serve in the military, she holds her rank as a non-combatant auxiliary mechanic in the Tennessee state militia, whence…
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Picturesque Street Scenes
Here are some pictures of my most recent board, a truncated (4’x4′) street scene representing the interior of Unter-Innsbruck, which has been the locus of much fighting in our Weird War II Hollow Earth Campaign. While wargames inevitably focus on the military figures and hardware, I wanted to call out the civilian items here, as…
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Deep in the Heart of Lo-Har
Some pre-battle reconnaissance photos of what is sure to be a slobber-knocker between Weird War Two Germans and Americans as we test out my fire-and-maneuver tweaks to Bolt Action tomorrow. The combined US/CS assault on German Pellucidar has stalled, owing to logistical problems and a dearth of air support from their Atavatabarese bases. In a…
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Fire and Maneuver in Oldhammer
In response to my post on fire and maneuver in Bolt Action, friend, author, and toy soldier enthusiast J.P. Medved alerted me to a page from the Codex: Imperial Guard back in Warhammer 40k 2nd edition that allows Guard squads to split up just as I described. Back in those days, the boxed IG squads…
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Little Men Against Fire
Modifying Bolt Action to capture the essence of fire-and-maneuver My return to regular tabletop gaming in my mid-30s brought with it a new humility and respect for the game designer. The heady and hubris-laden days of rejecting rules that “didn’t sound right” and formulating ‘house rules’ upon the first read through of a manual were…
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After Christmas Sales
Just a quick message today. I was at my local Walmart the other day and found these Christmas decorations. We all know that picking up your trees the day after Christmas is the cheapest way to fill out a table. I’ve been wanting to get into Bolt Action, and these houses looked like a great…
