David Drake

While not purely a board gaming subject, David Drake's military SF has had an incredible influence on the world of Science Fiction and Gaming in general. Once can look at the Ground Effects Vehicles in the Ogre/GEV universes and Grav Armor and see the influence of his work. Another way to gauge his influence on the world of gaming can be seen in the Ground Zero Games classics of Dirtside II and Stargrunt II! Both of which are miniature table top games that can be downloaded for free from Here. You can't argue with that price for a miniatures game... After all, you want some money left for the miniatures...

...which if you are like me and a big "Hammers Slammers" fan, here are some pictures of the Hammers Slammers miniatures!

As posted on my other blog:



One of my favorite Military Science Fiction authors interviewed by one of my favorite blogs! Yippie!

Part I.


Part II.


Part III. (edit: added 07OCT08)


Part IV. (edit: added 07OCT08)


Part V. (edit: added 08OCT08)


Part VI. (edit: added 09OCT08)


There is more to follow! Check it out at Black Five! David Drakes Website

Some of my fan art:
A Combat Car used by the "Hammers Slammers" Regiment in his ground breaking Military SF series


The daddy of all his creations, the Hover Tanks from "Hammers Slammers" Regiment!

A free resource for anyone needing those hex grid squares on Letter size paper. Try it, if it doesn't work right, send me a comment and I'll email you a copy in either .jpg or .png format. If you have Inkscape or GIMP, I'll send you the .svg or .xcf file.

If you have the GIMP, take the .jpg file, and add another layer beneath the background layer it loads up as. Take the background layer with the hexagon grid on it, go to the Layer menu, Transparency, Color to Alpha, and click okay. That will turn the layer with the grid transparent. Then you color the layer below it with your basic background color, and add another layer above that and start decorating your terrain! I might even have to do a tutorial for that. However, if you are familiar with the layer management techniques, its a piece of cake!

Let me know if there are any other resources you'd like to see to be able to make your own desktop published board games!

Classic game, not one I like though...

Am I sick to think this is kinda funny in a warped and twisted kinda way? Its just so over the top ridiculous! But then, First Person Shooter games are kinda like that, and the story makes as much sense as that kind of game. I never did get the hang of or like many FPS games. I did get a kick out of "Dark Forces" and "Outlaws" both by Lucas Arts. Dark Forces being Star Wars, and Outlaws being Old West, but I still sucked when I played them! I was always better at strategy and tactics.

Windows Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank

Windows Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank

A very realistic turn based strategy game. Pretty much a board game turned computer game, and utilizing the computer aspect to make it less of a number crunchers dream and improving game play. I always like turn based games with hex grids to move and calculate range. Real tactics work very well in this game. Your key is to keep your units together like they would in reality.

Off board artillery is great! Keep your eyes on targets though... Like in reality, hitting template targets rarely works. CAS needs some work! When your A-10's don't strife targets after using Maverick missiles... Lets just say, that ain't too real. Along with the complete lack of a US Air Force TACP capability.

Tactics, Strategy, Grunt and ROMAD Wisdom!

I figured I'd start a blog just for fun, and this time its just about gaming and some kernels of military science that will help with gaming. I've been hooked on war gaming since I was a child. My Dad has an original release of Afrika Korps by Avalon Hill from the 1960's and pulled it out for my older brother and I to play. That was the small bite that got me hooked. Later, my Mom's cousins gave us some games and model vehicles when we visited New Hampshire; one of the games was an edition of Tactics II, another Avalon Hill classic where you use a grid square map and control division size units. Many war gamers started board gaming with this one! I was hooked on board games at that point. The more complex the better it seemed! Maybe I just knew the rules better...

Then when I was twelve, a friend of ours Kevin Anderson introduced me to table top war gaming. He invited me over to play a Napoleonic game. We played the French against the Russians (played by two of his other friends). The figures were 25mm pewter and our surface was a ping-pong table with US GI green blanket for surface. Since then, I got hooked on the idea of playing on table tops. Not only was the game more fun and hands on, but the model building aspect was incredible as well. I grew up building scale model planes, and the two hobbies rolled into one were just fantastic!

So, here I'll post pictures of my games, reviews of a few. I won't just limit it to one genre either. I like everything from ancient historical to the far fetched future of Warhammer 40,000. I like board games, table top, and even a lot of computer games (human players can be hard to find when you have time to play, at the same time...).

I intend to separate the games though! There are gaming junkfood, mid-grade thinking, and high level games. I'll come up with a way of organizing them better soon enough. Idea being, games like Munckin (Card), Mag Blast (Card), Dawn of War (PC) have only so much strategy, while games like Steel Panthers (PC), Rome: Total War (PC), Tactics II, will have more in depth game play. Then you have the uber-realistic, games that real-life tactics actually work, and if you don't use them, you will fail, games like Tac-Ops that are based off of programs used by the US Army to train with during TOC EX training...