MBS Monthly Newsletter #36

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Ruckdog

Greetings!

After a month off, the MBS newsletter is back. There is some exciting stuff to cover this time around, so lets get started!

First up, be sure to check out episodes 19 and 20 of the MBS Podcast! In Ep. 19, Greg and I interviewed historian Jon Parshall about the Battle of Midway. In Ep 20, we looked at the new 2.5 rules for Dystopian Wars, and reviewed the submarine-themed boardgame They Come Unseen.

Episode 19

Episode 20

Don’t forget to vote in this month’s forum poll, which is all about the minor factions in Dystopian Wars:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php?topic=1682.0

Elsewhere on the forums, there has been some interesting discussion regarding the proper terminology for space weaponry:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php?topic=1661.0

What with the new rules and all of the new releases, the DW forum has been seeing a lot of activity!

http://www.manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php?board=2.0

In the Historicals section, Yarkshire Gamer has posted an update to his thread on the Baltic campaign he has been running with his group:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php?topic=1681.0

Now, for some BIG announcements!

First, I’ve finally cracked the nut on fixing the avatars and attachments directories for the forum. That means you can now re-upload your avatars, and include attachments to your posts again! On the downside, I unfortunately had to delete the old avatars and attachments; apologies for any inconvenience.

The second big announcement comes from the 11th monthly poll, which if you recall asked all of you what your most desired new feature was for the MBS website. The number one choice from that poll was an integrated image gallery, and I’m very excited to announce the launch of just such a gallery feature for the MBS forums! You can find it at this link here:

http://www.manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php?action=gallery

It’s pretty straightforward to use, but if you have any questions be sure to let me know!

Until next time…

Ruckdog & The Man Battlestations Forum Team

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Episode 20

Posted on July 4, 2017 by Man Battlestations

episode20

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Greetings! In Episode 20 of the MBS Podcast, Greg and Andy discuss some of the major changes that have been made in the 2.5 edition of Dystopian Wars. Later, they take a look at the boardgame They Come Unseen from Osprey Games, and Andy ruminates on edition changes in this month’s Ruckdogs Report!

DW 2.5 Initial Look: 31 min

They Come Unseen Review: 1 Hr 23 Min

Ruckdog’s Report: 2 Hr 8 Min

==Links Discussed in Show==

DW 2.5 Changes

Spartan Games

They Come Unseen

Osprey Games

 
Checkout the Latest Episode of the MBS Podcast!

Posted in Podcast | 1 Comment

Episode 19

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Man Battlestations

episode19

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Greetings! This month, Greg and Andy are very excited to welcome Mr. Jonathan Parshall to the show to discuss the Battle of Midway, which happened 75 years ago this month. Jon is the webmaster of CombinedFleet.com, the foremost web resource on the Imperial Japanese Navy. He also co-authored the book Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Later, Andy recounts the experiences he had escorting veterans of the Battle of Midway to commemorative events in the Washington, DC area!

Jonathan Parshall Interview: 12 Min

Ruckdog’s Report: 1 Hr 21 Min

==Links Discussed in Show==

http://www.combinedfleet.com/

US Navy Midway 75th Celebration

Shinnentai’s Naval Miniatures

Shattered Sword
Checkout the Latest Episode of the MBS Podcast!

Posted in Podcast | 1 Comment

Battle of Midway 75th Anniversary

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Ruckdog
Battle of Midway 75th Anniversary

Greetings! This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, one of the greatest battles in naval history and one that is regarded as the turning point of the Pacific War. By way of memorial, I wanted to point you to a talk given 5 years ago at the 70th anniversary:

Battle of Midway Lecture

As well as a very nice video produced by the Fish and Wildlife Service:

As well as another by the US Pacific Fleet:

Until next time…

Posted in Naval History | Tagged | 1 Comment

Dystopian Wars 2.5 Changes

Posted on May 17, 2017 by Ruckdog
Dystopian Wars 2.5 Changes

Greetings! I was lucky enough to be granted access to the DW 2.5 rulebook a few weeks back to use for show prep on Exploding Dice Radio. Since that time, I’ve not been idle; I’ve been busily compiling a detailed list of changes in the new version, which I’m presenting here. This post is intended to help veteran DW players identify the changes that have been made to the rules mechanics between DW 2.0 and DW 2.5 As such, if a rule is not mentioned in this document, then it can be assumed that there was no change to that particular rule. This also means that this document will not be useful as a fast-play sheet, nor can it replace the actual rule book during a game. The 2.5 rules also have a significant amount of minor wording and formatting changes throughout. For the most part, these have been ignored in this list, except where I deemed them to be particularly drastic or noteworthy.

Landlubber's FSA Heavy Battleship

Landlubber’s FSA Heavy Battleship

Continue reading →

Posted in Dystopian Wars | Tagged | 1 Comment

MBS Monthly Newsletter #35

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Ruckdog
MBS Monthly Newsletter #35

Greetings fellow naval gamers!

As usual, there are lots of things to talk about in this month’s newsletter, so lets get started!

RaptorEvolved's Kingdom of Denmark Asgard Battlecarrier

RaptorEvolved’s Kingdom of Denmark Asgard Battlecarrier

Continue reading →

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2017 Painting Contest Winners

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Ruckdog
2017 Painting Contest Winners

The 2017 painting contest has come to a close, and it’s time to recognize our winners!

Admiralty Award

First up is the Admiralty Award, selected by a panel of three judges. The winner is…Vtmobious and his entry “The Ancient Devouring Scourge!”

Vtmobius's The Ancient Devouring Scourge

Vtmobius’s The Ancient Devouring Scourge

Member’s Choice Award

Next up are the Member’s Choice awards for the Steampunk, Historical, and Sci-Fi categories. The winner of the Steampunk category is Raptor Evolved and his Asgard-class battle carrier from Dystopian Wars!

RaptorEvolved's Kingdom of Denmark Asgard Battlecarrier

RaptorEvolved’s Kingdom of Denmark Asgard Battlecarrier

The winner of the Sci-Fi category is Stephan’s Aquan Oannes Heavy Carrier!

Stephan's Aquan Oannes Heavy Carrier

Stephan’s Aquan Oannes Heavy Carrier

And in the historical category, it was Grgbobe’s USS MIDWAY!

Grgbobe's USS MIDWAY

Grgbobe’s USS MIDWAY

The Commander’s Choice Award

The last award is the Commander’s Choice Award, which is where I get the opporutnity to recoginze an outstanding entry that hasn’t been selected for one of the other awards. This year, that winner is SilasDarkstar’s Aquan Prime Kraken Dreadnought!

SilasDarkstar's Aquan Prime Kraken Dreadnought

SilasDarkstar’s Aquan Prime Kraken Dreadnought

Congratulations to all of our winners, and a heartfelt thanks to all who submitted entries! This was the 5th year for this contest, and I think I can safely say it has been the best. I am already looking forward to the 2018 contest next spring!

For your veiwing pleasure, here are all of the entries for 2017:

Posted in Painting Contest | Tagged | 1 Comment

Episode 18

Posted on May 1, 2017 by Man Battlestations

episode18

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Greg and Andy are back for Episode 18! In this episode, they discuss the origins of the various different types of warships in history, and how they have influenced our favorite naval miniatures games. They then take a quick look at some recent updates in the realm of naval video games, before moving on to do an in-depth review of Grand Fleets 3rd Edition from Majestic 12 Games!

Types of Naval Ships: 40 min

Naval Video Gaming Update: 1 Hr 49 Min

Grand Fleets 3rd Edition Review: 1 Hr 59 Min

Ruckdog’s Report: 2 Hr 46 Min

==Links Discussed in Show==

US Navy Ship Classifications

Majestic 12 Games

Grand Fleets 3rd Edition

GF3 Stat Calculator

World of Warships

BFG Armada

BFG:ER

War At Sea Expansions

 
Checkout the Latest Episode of the MBS Podcast!

Posted in Podcast | 3 Comments

Grand Fleets 3 Stat Generator

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Ruckdog
Grand Fleets 3 Stat Generator

Greetings! Today, I’m happy to share with you all a ship statistics generator that I’ve made for Grand Fleets 3, by Majestic 12 Games. This is a historical ruleset that covers naval combat during the age of battleships. MJ12 is gradually releasing new supplements for the game, which include loads of stats for ships involved in a specific conflict. That still leaves many areas and ship classes uncovered in the meantime, but MJ12 has been nice enough to provide us fans with a detailed set of ship construction rules that enable players to create stat cards for the game using nothing but historical sources. In the effort to make that process simpler, I have created a stat generator using Excel that automates the stat card generation process! Here it is, in all of its Excel glory:

www.manbattlestations.com/hostedfiles/GF3StatsGeneratorVer1.1.xlsx

Please download it and let me know what you think! I had to learn a few new tricks when it comes to Excel functions to make this, so its entirely possible I’ve got some errors in there somewhere!

Posted in Historical Naval Games | Tagged | 3 Comments

Dystopian Wars 2.5 Unit Stats Spoilers

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Ruckdog
Dystopian Wars 2.5 Unit Stats Spoilers

The 2.5 edition of Dystopian Wars is almost here! I’ve got a post up over on the EDR blog discussing some spoilers that have been revealed on the Spartan Games forum. You can find it here:

Image result for spartan games ice maiden

http://edrpodcast.blogspot.com/2017/04/dystopian-wars-25-unit-stats-spoilers.html

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