Project Updates 4/17/23

World War Warriors: Amazing Aerocatures™️ of World War II Aircraft – 100% Funded on Kickstarter

The book and games will be ready to ship in June and we will post the link to the store where you can buy them.

1 fast-playing card game / 1 exciting digital computer game / 1 incredible art book

Hank Caruso has been creating unique, imaginative images of aircraft for 50 years. This book is no ordinary art or aviation book. It is filled with historical posters, ads, and archival images from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Some of these historical pieces came from Hank’s personal collection. Kickstarter ends May 3. Early bird discounts are still available!

Dana is now developing a new D-Day book featuring Keith Rocco’s massive murals now on exhibit at the First Division Museum at Cantigny in Wheaton, Illinois (Chicago). The Kickstarter for it should launch on June 6 (appropriately!).

A web page with sample pieces of the mural art and extra paintings by Keith should be posted in May.

We will continue to update you over the next two months as it moves closer to the Kickstarter launch.

Streets of Stalingrad™ – Death of a City 2-player and solo board game

Three editions of Dana’s huge, “monster” game with more than 1,000 counters (playing pieces) and 8-foot game map were published between 1979 and 2022. This totally new fourth edition has just one 19.25×28.5 game map and only 250 large ¾-inch counters. The Kickstarter is scheduled to launch in October.

SOS 4 recently had more images and the latest version of the game map posted.

Read more and see the latest component art here

ON SALE THROUGH 5/31/23

Stalingrad: New Perspectives on an Epic Battle – 2 NEW 2023 releases

By renowned historian Christer Bergström

Volume 1: The Doomed City – from the start of Operation Blue in late June 1942 to the German 6^th Army reaching the outskirts of the city in September. This volume debunks many myths, including –

* The myth of the Red Army’s blocking troops.
* The myth that the Red Army voluntarily withdrew.
* The myth that the Germans arrogantly tried to capture more than they could.
* The myth of the importance of Lend-Lease supplies from the United States to the Soviet Union.
* The myth of “Hitler’s mistakes.”

Volume 1: 320 pages with 109 photos, timeline & rank chart & glossary, 5 maps (maps can be downloaded), 7 appendices.
Read the review of Volume 1 here.

Volume 2: The City of Death – the house-to-house struggle for the city to the destruction of the German 6^th Army. This volume answers the questions –

The German air bridge – why did it fail?

How could the Russians persevere?

What was General Paulus’s greatest mistake?

The myths about “Pavlov’s house” and the Mamayev Kurgan hill.

The German plan to evacuate Stalingrad –why did it fail?

A critical analysis of historiography of writing after the battle.

Volume 2: 320 pages with 94 photos, timeline & rank chart & glossary, 9 maps (maps can be downloaded), 5 appendices.
Read the review of Volume 2 here.

SALE PRICE $39.95 each book (regularly $49.95). FREE SHIPPING to USA addresses only.

SPECIAL BUNDLE SALE PRICE $69.95 for both books FREE SHIPPING to USA addresses only.

Black Cross * Red Star: Air War Over the Eastern Front, Volume 1 Operation Barbarossa

Updated and revised edition 2021 By renowned historian Christer Bergström.

When the first edition of Volume 1 was published twenty years ago, it was an immediate success. That edition sold out in about a year, and since no new edition was published, it has become a rarity. This new, second edition (published in 2021) not only has much higher quality research but also contains twice the word count of the first edition. It also includes many new photos (many of which are from pilot veterans photo albums and have never been published before).

382 incredibly detailed pages with charts and tables, 8.5×12 hardcover format, nearly 300 photos, color aircraft profiles, maps, appendices including orders-of-battle for both the Luftwaffe and Soviet Air Force in June 1941 and the structure of each nation’s air organizations.
Read the review of Black Cross * Red Star here.

SALE PRICE $59.95 (regularly $69.95). FREE SHIPPING to USA addresses only.

T-34 and SU-152 hardcover books – the Russian View

“I have over 800 books on tanks and AFV’s. And I can say the two books on the T-34 and SU-152 are the best, most informative and fact filled of any books I have. They are scholarly efforts that provide information not written about in any other book I have.”
– Brian Willis

For the first time in English — Photos and drawings from secret Soviet archives and museums — many never previously published. Recently translated documents are used to present the Soviet Russian stories of the T-34 and SU-152. (This is why we call them “The Russian View.”)

The T-34 Goes to War chronicles the real story of this famous medium tank, from its troubled conception to its first, desperate combat actions in the cauldron of Barbarossa. Thousands of T-34s were available in June 1941 – why did they fail to stop the German panzer groups? Soviet archival records admit to some astonishing problems.

T-34: 236 pages with 94 photos, 28 tables, 6 charts and diagrams, 9 maps, 2 appendices, 2 11x 17 illustrated tactical organization and equipment charts displaying 1940 and 1941 tank battalions, 8-page full-color foldout with armor profiles.

In The SU-152 and Related Vehicles you will learn about the design and evolution of the legendary self-propelled gun on the KV chassis, including many little-known prototypes and proposed alternate models. Called the “beast killer” at Kursk for its ability to destroy German Tiger and Panther tanks. What disaster led to the shortage of these “bunker busters” in the final push into Germany in 1945?

SU-152: 264 pages with 102 photos, 105 illustrations and diagrams, 6 tables and charts, 2 11x 17 illustrated blueprints displaying a 152mm cannon and SU-152 vehicle, 2-page full-color foldout with SU-152 cut-a-way profile, 8 pages of full-color armor profiles.

Download and read excerpts from both books and see illustrations and art here

SALE PRICE $19.95 each book (regularly $29.95). FREE SHIPPING to USA addresses only.

T-34/SU-152 BUNDLE $35 FREE SHIPPING to USA addresses only.

Bundle comes with the SU-152 REFERENCE & TUTORIAL filled with facts and history about the “Beast Killer” of German tanks FREE (a $5 value).

Send payment via PayPal to dana.lombardy@gmail.com (contact Dana for shipping to other countries).

NAPOLEONIC WARS

Project Updates 8/1/23

Napoleon’s Options: Waterloo

Development of this solo mini game is nearly finished! In-house playtesting should be completed this fall and then extended to a few outside playtesters in order to finalize the rules and art for the game components.

Read more here

BONUS: An extraction from a little-known 2-volume 1820 publication by Henry-Dominique Lallemand, the commander of Napoleon’s Guard artillery at Waterloo, reveals why the French guns were so effective despite the wet ground and Allied troops positioned behind the reverse slope.

SIGN UP FOR EMAIL NOTIFICATION HERE

(If you ordered this game in the Waterloo Kickstarter you are already signed up.)

NEW MULTI-VOLUME SERIES NOW IN DEVELOPMENT!

Napoleon: The 100 Days Epoch – The Emperor and His 1815 Armies

By Scott Bowden & Peter Cross

A web page devoted to this project should be posted this summer. Dana will visit Scott in May and they will finalize the project with Peter in Australia via Zoom. Scott’s acclaimed 1983 Armies at Waterloo book will be incorporated and expanded within this series, PLUS much, much more!

The Egyptian Campaign

The English translated version of this one-volume book should be printed later this year and reach our USA warehouse in 2024. We are now working on a special Egyptian campaign supplement with two rare 1799 reports: one by Napoleon’s chief of staff General Berthier and the other written by Charles Norry, one of the civilian savants who accompanied the military expedition.

ON SALE THROUGH 5/31/23

The Camp at Dresden 1812-1813

The previously unpublished manuscript of Alexander Sauerweid features his eyewitness uniform illustrations.

2 volume set, 244 total pages, large 9.4×12.5 format, 450+ illustrations. VERY LOW INVENTORY

Read more here

$199 FREE SHIPPING to USA and Canadian addresses.

If you order the Dresden 2-book set PLUS the 3 commemorative items listed below (Bundle #1) there is a BIG discount price – see the bottom of this page.

Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Army – The Art of Keith Rocco

“…perceptive text and stunning images…brilliant piece of work…simply a must have for every Napoleonic enthusiast, historian and/or wargamer. You will not be disappointed.”

– Jonas De Neef

Read more here

176 pages, large 10×14 format, 64 original Rocco paintings, 150+ color photographs of artifacts from museums and private collections. LOW INVENTORY

$120 includes Waterloo 100^th anniversary bookmark created by game industry Hall of Fame graphic artist Rodger MacGowan. FREE SHIPPING to USA and Canadian addresses.

If you order the Waterloo book PLUS the 3 commemorative items listed below (Bundle #2) there is a BIG discount price – see the bottom of this page.

SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE ITEMS

Napoleon magazine / Napoleon Journal

17 issues as electronic pdfs with more than 1,200 pages of information on Napoleon, his wars, and his world, enhanced by clear, colorful, easy-to-understand graphics. Includes the index to issues 1–12. All on one searchable DVD.

Read more here

SALE PRICE $19.95 (regularly $29.95). FREE SHIPPING to USA and Canadian addresses.

The Colors of Napoleon’s Army 1807-1815

Using actual cloth samples from army and private collections this is an unprecedented guide to painting the uniforms of Napoleon’s armies. A must-have for miniatures gamers, figure painters, and collectors.

Read more here

SALE PRICE $5.95 (regularly $9.95). FREE SHIPPING to USA and Canadian addresses.

Waterloo 100^th anniversary 4-coaster set – limited supplies

One coaster each: all three generals, Napoleon, Wellington, and Blücher.

SALE PRICE $9.95 (regularly $12). FREE SHIPPING to USA and Canadian addresses.

BUNDLE #1: Dresden 2-book set, painting guide, Napoleon DVD, and coasters.

SPECIAL BUNDLE #1 SALE PRICE $210 (a $235+ value!). FREE SHIPPING to USA and Canadian addresses.

BUNDLE #2: Waterloo Rocco book, painting guide, Napoleon DVD, and coasters.

SPECIAL BUNDLE #2 SALE PRICE $135 (a $170+ value!). FREE SHIPPING to USA and Canadian addresses.

Send payment via PayPal to dana.lombardy@gmail.com (contact Dana for shipping to other countries).

2023 SPRING SALES & PROJECT UPDATES

FREE SHIPPING to USA and Canadian addresses for orders placed through May 31

CONTACT dana.lombardy@gmail.com for discounted shipping on select items to other countries

NAPOLEONIC WARS – click to see updates & sale list

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR – click to see updates & sale list

WORLD WAR ONE – click to see updates & sale list

WORLD WAR TWO – click to see updates & sale list

Basic Tower Games™️ are a system of solo, 2-player, and multi-player competitions designed around a dice tower. The original idea was created by Seth Crofton using a high-quality tower design by C4 Labs, a Tacoma, Washington-based game accessory manufacturer below majestic Mount Rainier. Dana Lombardy joined to help develop scenarios and the future Kickstarter.

Instead of a map or game board the dice tower becomes the playing field. The dice tower has slots or holes where players insert cards that are obstacles, goal levels, or the key objectives of a particular scenario. The dice tower represents a battleground that can be an actual vertical tower or a linear measurement of space or time. Scenarios under development include science fiction, fantasy, and even historical combats – actual towers/forts, modern hostage rescues, high skyscrapers or deep dungeon crawls. Plus you can always use them as standard dice towers to roll dice in any other game.

Basic Tower Games™️ also use playing cards for characters and weapons that succeed or fail based upon the roll ( or fall ) of the dice. Holding or conquering the dice tower is the ultimate purpose. We like to think of this as an innovative application of a familiar gaming accessory – a truly vertical game design.

Currently we are putting together a Kickstarter by teaming up with League of Comic Geeks artist and creator Tom Lintern on a cyberpunk scenario called Mall Cop (formerly Mullet Cop) series which is set in the future with an 1980’s retro vibe. We also have outlines for a dungeon/tower fantasy series and a Skyscraper rescue mission. Dice results are random so no scenario will play exactly the same way twice. Each shuffle of the cards and fall of the dice present a new challenge and experience.

Click Here to download the backstory to Mall Cop

Please sign up with your email to be kept informed of our design progress and the launch of the Kickstarter campaign. Join us for this new gaming adventure!

Click Here to Sign up for Emails

Printable Flyer for Basic Tower Games

Kickstarter launch in 2025

Click Here For Email Updates

Dana and his friend and super playtester Charles Schwartz at Consimworld Expo 2022. Charles helped with the MacGowan & Lombardy’s THE GREAT WAR card game. Charles provided great feedback on the pre-playtest prototype of SOS4.

Streets of Stalingrad™ Reborn (SOS4)

✔     1 Game map 19.25-inches x 28.5 inches
4th pre-playtest prototype map – click to enlarge

✔     250 ¾-inch counters, sample counters

Download the Terrain Effects Chart here.

PLAYING PIECES (UNIT COUNTERS) – click to enlarge

✔     20 3-day Turn campaign game (plus shorter scenarios)

✔     NEW Random Event & Command Decision cards

SOS4 is card boosted, not a card-driven game

Sample cards – click to enlarge

✔     NEW multiple dice to reflect the experience level of units

Green 4-sided = “green” or inexperienced or poorly trained troops

White 6-sided = veteran troops

Red (Soviet) and Blue (German) 10-sided = elite troops

Defender also simultaneously rolls an extra die for the terrain–

Black 10-sided for factories & special structures

Silver (gray) 6-sided for city (urban) areas

Yellow (tan) 4-sided for all other hexes

✔     NEW GAME SYSTEM using cards and “chit” pulls
to reflect supply restrictions that limited operations

Download the SOS4 Reborn Outline and how a Turn works here.

Sign up to receive email updates on SOS4 here

3 Stories from The Great War

Gerald D. Swick, who was an editor and proofreader of the rules for MacGowan & Lombardy’s The Great War™ card game, authored a newspaper column of historical information about his home state, West Virginia, for more than 16 years. With Gerald’s permission three of those columns that dealt with the First World War are offered to the Kickstarter and BackerKit customers who post their feedback about the game. You can read more by Gerald in his always fascinating “Once, in America, a quirky American history blog” at GeraldDSwick.com.

#3 Surviving a horrific wound

An American pilot’s training accident went horribly wrong before he could be deployed to France. A gifted surgeon’s work on this young airman’s face was hailed as “among the most remarkable performed during the war”—and gave him the hope of living a normal life after the disastrous crash.

This article originally appeared in the Clarksburg Exponent Telegram July 11, 2010

3 GS Stories from The Great War #3 Surviving a Horrific Wound

3 Stories from The Great War

Gerald D. Swick, who was an editor and proofreader of the rules for MacGowan & Lombardy’s The Great War™ card game, authored a newspaper column of historical information about his home state, West Virginia, for more than 16 years. With Gerald’s permission three of those columns that dealt with the First World War are offered to the Kickstarter and BackerKit customers who post their feedback about the game. You can read more by Gerald in his always fascinating “Once, in America, a quirky American history blog” at GeraldDSwick.com.

#2 The final flight of “balloon buster” Louis Bennett, Jr.

Bennett piloted a British-made SE-5A single seater biplane fighter plane after being assigned to the Royal Air Force No. 40 Squadron in 1918. He was credited with shooting down eight German observation balloons and two confirmed and one probable aircraft before he was shot down nine days after his first aerial combat. He died of his injuries a month short of his 24^th birthday.

This article originally appeared in the Clarksburg Exponent Telegram August 24, 2008.

3 GS Stories from The Great War #2 American Balloon Buster

3 Stories from The Great War

Gerald D. Swick, who was an editor and proofreader of the rules for MacGowan & Lombardy’s The Great War™ card game, authored a newspaper column of historical information about his home state, West Virginia, for more than 16 years. With Gerald’s permission three of those columns that dealt with the First World War are offered to the Kickstarter and BackerKit customers who post their feedback about the game. You can read more by Gerald in his always fascinating “Once, in America, a quirky American history blog” at GeraldDSwick.com.

Here are the choices –

#1 Letters home from the Great War
This column shares parts of the letters written by seven West Virginia veterans who wrote home with their thoughts, including one who was “utterly unimpressed with France,” and another who refuted a fake American newspaper story that claimed his artillery regiment “had been annihilated”—simply not true!

#2 The final flight of “balloon buster” Louis Bennett, Jr.
Bennett piloted a British-made SE-5A single seater biplane fighter plane after being assigned to the Royal Air Force No. 40 Squadron in 1918. He was credited with shooting down eight German observation balloons and two confirmed and one probable aircraft before he was shot down nine days after his first aerial combat. He died of his injuries a month short of his 24^th birthday.

#3 Surviving a horrific wound
An American pilot’s training accident went horribly wrong before he could be deployed to France. A gifted surgeon’s work on this young airman’s face was hailed as “among the most remarkable performed during the war”—and gave him the hope of living a normal life after the disastrous crash.

2 Guides to First World War German Navy Records at the National Archives
Thousands of rolls of microfilm containing Imperial German Navy records are stored at the United States National Archives. The following two PDFs providing finding aids for research were provided by archivist and military history author Tim Mulligan.

Tim Mulligan received his Ph.D. in diplomatic history from the University of Maryland. He is the author of three books and over 20 articles most relating to the Second World War in Europe, including Lone Wolf: The Life and Death of U-Boat Ace Werner Henke and Neither Sharks Nor Wolves: The Men of Nazi Germany’s U-Boat Arm.

Mulligan worked as an archivist at the National Archives for 34 years and volunteered 10 more years after he retired. One of the projects he undertook was compiling lists of the records of captured Imperial German Navy records from the First World War that are available at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. These finding aids are essential for anyone who wants to do research on the German Navy in the Great War 1914-1918.

Operations in the Baltic 1914-1919 (28 pages)

This compilation includes dozens of intelligence, operational, after-action, and battle damage reports. The 1917 German joint air-sea-land operation Operation “Albion” is well documented. Here are just two examples from this PDF finding aid –

Kr. Op. Ostsee 7. Sonderunternehmung II K.Adm. Behring gegen den finnischen Meerbusen mit kl. Kreuzern, Torp.- und U-Booten 8./14.10.14. Versenkung russ. Panzerkreuzer “Pallada” (operation by light cruisers Amazone and Lübeck, supported by light forces and submarines U-23, U 25 and U 26 in the Gulf of Finland, including a British news clipping regarding the loss of Russian cruiser Pallada in this operation), 5 – 23 Oct 1914:

PG 64868, roll 465

Akte III.2.-18x. Akten betr. Fortsetzung der Operationen in der Ostsee vom Juli bis 6.9.1916 (including information on Russian air attacks on German naval and air installations; directives for antisubmarine operations by auxiliary ship Vineta in the Kattegat, 23 Jul and 19 Aug; an assessment of the poor performance of German UB-class submarines in the Baltic and evaluations of specific UC-class U-boat operations there, 5 Aug; a proposal for shipping American citizens as “guardian angels” on board German merchant ships threatened by British submarines in the Baltic, 26 Aug; a message on the engagement between auxiliary ship ‘K’ and an enemy submarine, 13 Aug; a report on new Russian minefields that resulted in the loss of two light German craft, 18 Aug; a report of the naval representative at Imperial Headquarters on the advisability of an operation to seize Ösel Island (Saaremaa) near the Gulf of Riga, 25 Aug; and a listing of German naval coastal batteries on the Courland coast, 28 Aug), July – September 1916:

G 77172, roll 1195

Operations in the North Sea 1914-1919 (87 pages)

This compilation includes dozens of intelligence, operational, after-action, and battle damage reports, including records of operations of German naval airships (zeppelins) in the North Sea theater, including airship raids on Great Britain, as well as British naval and air strikes on German bases and facilities. In particular the records provide extensive information on the principal naval engagements fought in the North Sea during the war, the Battles of Helgoland (or Heligoland) Bight (28 August 1914), Dogger Bank (24 January 1915), and Jutland (31 May-1 June 1916), as well as bombardments of the English coast (2-3 November and 15-16 December 1914 and 24-25 April 1916).

Contact dana.lombardy@gmail.com for download instructions.