Not so much out of the box, as hot off the printers press! I have just received a prototype copy of Dragon Ships & Iron Knights, to be published by Legion Games.

This boxed game contains the three battles of 1066, Gate Fulford, Stamford Bridge and Hastings.

The Heritage of the package is that I self produced Stamford Bridge and Hastings as a desk Top Published effort back in 2000 / 2001. In 2016, Revolution Games picked up the titles and published them as two separate games under the ‘Invasion 1066’ banner.

Legion Games are about to publish a game called ‘1066 Year of Destiny’ designed by Geoff Noble, which is a strategic covering of the tumultuous events of that year. Randy Lein at Legion Games wanted to publish a second game covering the tactical battles of 1066 to compliment Geoff’s strategic design.

The decision was taken to use my two games for the tactical side of things and that Geoff Noble would design the third battle of that year (Gate Fulford) using the same game engine, so that all three games could be presented in a single package and here we are!

I have taken possession of the tactical game prototype to do a thorough final proof read before publication and I must say the component quality is excellent and if you don’t mind me saying, it is just a lovely thing to see your own efforts given this look.

The box is 1½” deep. We get three maps, one for each battle, each measuring 17” x 22” (so half maps) and they are printed onto card. The hex sizes are 1” side to side to accommodate the big counters. 

Each of the battles gets its own rulebook printed on heavy paper with a sheen and in two column print format. The Stamford Bridge and Hasting booklets are 12 pages long and the Gate Fulford is set at 8 pages. All three booklets have the same standard rules presented in the first four and a half pages (i.e. the game engine is exactly the same across all three games), the rest of the booklets are exclusive to their relative game and include set-ups, special rules, history and design notes.

The counters are lovely (by Ken Demyen as are the maps). You get two sheets of ¾” counters depicting units, leaders and rout markers. Some of the counters are shared across more than one battle.

Rounding out the package are three single sided, full colour, player aid sheets (again the work of Ken) on nice weighty card with a sheen to them. The first identifies all of the counter types and shows what the values on the units mean. The second has the charts for close combat, missile fire, reorganization and feigned cavalry attacks, there are also some illustrated examples on there such as charge arcs. The third card holds the terrain charts, movement allowances and the morale groupings that the system uses and again, there are a couple of illustrated examples on there.

So the next job now is to proof read and further play the games to stress test the charts and set-up information etc and make sure that they are right.

I will get some of that play test stuff out so that anyone interested can have a closer look at game parts and system etc. 

The next couple of hours have brought quite a bit of action, with engagements on the slopes, in the village and at the lower bridge.

The direction of the campaign is becoming established and the advantages of timescale in linked games and campaigns more obvious, as it may now take units a few hours to get the orders they need and for them to then move to new locations.

There is some good detail of events over on the Battlefields & Warriors blog.

LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-bridges-pursuit-of-vi-korps-10-am.html

The 8 and 9 AM turns in the campaign have now been played through and a report posted to the Warriors & Battlefield Blog (link below).

We get a couple of actions being fought one at the village itself and the other below it, amongst the vineyards.

I am really liking that everything that goes on in each fight feels like it is important because of the tie-in to whatever else is going on in the campaign.

The post also outlines a couple of admin features that I am using to make the campaign run smoothly and to enhance the solo aspect of play.

W&B Blog Link;

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-village-comes-under-pressure.html

The 7 AM turn in the ‘Pursuit of IV Korps’ campaign has now been played out and a record of events has been posted to the Battlefields & Warrior Blog (link below).

The French are relying on a fast and aggressive advance to unhinge the Austrian defence.

What is the state of readiness and commitment of Austrian forces to their rearguard positions?

 Information LINK;

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/7-am-pursuit-of-vi-korps.html

Our face-to-face game last night covered The fighting at Rose's Wheatfield 2nd July 1863 (Gettysburg) is the first installment of the tattered flags series. Designed by Hermann Luttmann and published by Blue Panther.

We are given a taste of tactical fighting. Brigades are on the table and they are formed by their constituent regiments, which themselves will be represented by 2 - 4 counters.

The counters are oblong and the map has a grid of points that allows the units to set up and move in a style that, visually at least is very reminiscent of a miniatures game and the designer has produced a system that nicely replicates the free form of a figures game i.e. the grid is much less obvious to play.

For my money, in the goal of getting a figures style game, play felt a bit process heavy and mathsy, more obvious perhaps in the evening when tiredness kicks in.

It does move along at a fair old place and no doubt system familiarity over several playings would help. The system is 2D10 based (so D100 on application) and can be quite swingy over the results range.

Overall I felt the game was a brave stab at the unusual (but welcome) mix of boardgame with a figures feel, but ultimately I thought that at times it was getting in its own way. 

The Junction Jeopardy campaign by Henry Hyde is now up and running and I have played the 6 AM turn.

The game that will see the first shots fired (7 AM) turn is on the table, so hopefully a series of small engagements will soon start to define the campaign.

The nine little map panels are gorgeous things and I have had permission from henry Hyde to use them in the battle account while recognising his copyright. 

Here I have glued them onto a sheet on foam board, so that small flags on pins can be moved around the campaign area. The who thing is rather joyful.

There is now a bit more urgency to get the Austrian unit currently on the painting corks, completed and marching into action.

LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-pursuit-of-vi-korps-6am.html

La Bataille de Hanau 1813

Quatre Batailles en Espagne 1809 - 13

Trois Batailles en Allemagne 1806 - 07

Designed by Didier Rouly and published by Legion Games, this series deals with napoleonic battles at a scale of regiments, 250 metres per hex and 30 minute turns.

What makes these a little different is not just that lower scale, but that the system uses counters that are double the usual width (oblong rather than square) so they offer up a visual of units being deployed in line. Flip them over and they show themselves being in column, so there is a strong figures feel of tactical formations at the heart of the engine.

As I quite like transferring moments captured in a boardgame to the tabletop for a figures game, that conversion will be smoother and more intuitive here.

The reason why I have jumped on the three games all at once is that they were published in 2020. There is a new game in the line-up (Wagram) due out shortly and that will likely renew wider interest in the series and one or more of the three older titles may sell out, weakening that sense of series that my collector's mind likes, so I am getting them now before the inevitable happens. They are still available at Second Chance Games (UK).

It does however leave me with the problem of having three different series of napoleonic games now. I can't service them all or at least I don't want to, so at least one series needs to go, if for no other reason than to part fund the purchase of these three new games.

One sticking point for me in my quest for 'the' napoleonic boardgame is that all napoleonic systems that I have dabbled with so far have one weakness (for me) and that is they tend towards the longer play times, which doesn't help our face to face sessions. However I think I will really like the tactical feel that these will deliver.

Of interest and as a total aside, I could likely use my figure rules with the boardgame, that would certainly speed things up!

Quite a bit of work has gone on over the past couple of days getting the campaign ready for play and I have been able to put up a ‘part II’ description over on the Battlefields & Commanders blog that fully outlines the preparation that has gone into the campaign, including orders of battle,

objectives and special rules. We are just at the point when play can actually start and the first shots can be traded. 

BLOG LINK 

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/01/junction-jeopardy-campaign-part-ii.html

Margaret Beaufort, Survivor Rebel, Kingmaker by Lauren Johnson and published by Head Zeus, £30.

I saw this in Waterstones just before Christmas and couldn’t make my mind up. Needless to say, when I went back for it, it had gone!

It was back on the shelves yesterday so I thought it worth a treat ... encouraged by Mrs. Wargamer, who picked up Eleanor by Alice Loxton (published by MacMillan).

I have always been interested in the machinations of Lord Stanley, he of the divided loyalty at the Battle of Bosworth 1485. Margaret Beaufort was his wife and responsible for encouraging Henry Tudor (to become Henry VII) to head a successful rebellion against King Richard III.

The battle of Bosworth happens halfway through the book, so the narrative is fixed on as much after that date as it is before and we get to see the flavour of he period, its politics and social constraints, through the eyes and actions of this extraordinary woman, instead of the usual narrative generated by the successive generations of the male nobility deciding things by battle.

The opening paragraph on the book sleeve says ‘Born into a century of conflict as the daughter of the Duke of Somerset and a descendant of Edward III, Margaret Beaufort was married at twelve, a mother and a widow at thirteen, and a player in one of the most violent chapters of English history’. 

Seen through modern eyes, that just seems beyond comprehension and her journey of involvement with the levers of power and the fabric of noble/royal connection is no doubt going to bring some fascinating insight into what made the period tick.

In truth - it joins the stash of many things to read :-)

I bought this as an Amazon order for £8.50 plus post. It is also available as a PDF download from Henry’s site for £5.

It sets the scene for a 9 table campaign and is intended as a framework to create do-able campaigns across any period or genre.

I have offered my observations on the booklet over on the Battlefields & Warrior blog (linked below). There is also a link there to a short video review of the booklet by Yarkshire Gamer which will help visually demonstrate what you can expect from the booklet.

It is my intention to use this booklet to start my 2026 campaigning and will be following Henry’s text to do an 1809 campaign with my French and Austrian forces. I have already started a bit of research to set the scene.

I am hoping that it will allow an entertaining re-telling of what the campaign brings - more to follow.

(note - the comments have been re-activated on the Battlefields & Warriors Blog. Please do not feel obliged to comment on either and certainly not both).

LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/01/junction-jeopardy-campaign-by-henry-hyde.html

Firstly can I thank those who e-mailed me here via the contact page to give some thumbs up support - it has been very much appreciated and I must apologise for the delay in answering, as for whatever reason, those e-mails had gone into the Spam Folder, which I only discovered today!

Starting with this post, I have turned on the Comments Section here for anyone wishing to use it. Please, please, please, don't think that commenting is expected, it is just there for anyone that wants it.

On to other things I recently bought the boardgame Iwo Jima: Hell on Earth by Neva Games, a new Spanish company that I wanted to support. The designer is José Manuel Neva. I bought the game in the UK from Second Chance Games.

This is a solitaire game and the mounted board is just 12" x 17", so it is very portable and handy for smaller spaces. It comes in a heavy card box that is half the size of what we might think of as a standard bookcase type box.

It says that it will play through in 90 - 120 minutes and complexity is described as Intermediate, so we shall see. Hopefully this will be getting to the table soon.

EDIT - Okay, so this is interesting. I have received comments on this post, but comments do not show here until after I 'open' up the site with a log in and there I can read the comments in a sort of moderating way I suppose. So it looks like there is an auto moderation by default. There is a thing to tick and that seems to publish the comment. It seems that I get to reply by commenting as a customer rather than as an admin.

Probably best if I do a single wrap up reply when the next post is being

published. 

EDIT 2 - In my learning curve of comment management, I have managed to delete Steve. J's comment - sorry Steve :-)

EDIT 3 - It seems that replies cannot be embedded against a specific comment, so when we all comment including me the comment just gets added to the the top of the comment pile and so my replies to you will look out of sync, unless you read from the bottom up i.e read the last comment first.