More sad news last month with the passing of Jack Greene, a man I considered (& still consider) a friend. Most of you be aware that the tragic deaths of Jack and his wife, Kathleen, are surrounded in controversy, so I'll say no more.
Most of you will already be aware that we lost one of the giants of the hobby last month - Rodger McGowan. We can add very little to what has already been written about Rodger's accomplishmnets and contribution to the hobby, other than to also mention that Rodger and C3i Magazine have been valued supporters of LYG over the past few years. Our hobby is poorer for the loss. R.I.P. Rodger.
So, the most IMPORTANT MESSAGE this month is that the LYG Shop will be closed for the summer, as we once again head off to our home in France. We will take orders throughout the summer, but will not be able to fulfil them from:
Natasha and I wish you all a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR! We'd like to thank you all for your support over the past year and we look forward to being of service again throughout 2025.
To avoid delay, place orders with MAPS before 20 Dec.
Printer is closed from 21 Dec to 12 Jan.
Natasha and I hope our friends in th USA had a wonderful Thanks Giving last month and we wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! We'd like to thank you all for your support over the past year and we look forward to being of service again in 2025.
We start this month with some sad and, for some of you, old news. We are sorry to report the passing of Andreas (Andy) Gebhardt at the start of the summer. I had known that Andy had had an operation for his cancer, and spent ten hours on the operating table, but I was unawre that he had subsequently passed away. I only found out last week when Kevin Zucker contacted me about one of Andy's OSG Vassal modules.
Well, we're back from France and the backlog of orders for counters and maps is pretty well cleared - If you're waiting to hear from me and haven't, please contact me ASAP.
The first half of our sojourn in France is drawing to a close. Next week, I jet off Arizona and Consimworld Expo, and then back to France until September.
Well, the day after publishing this site update, Sally and I are off to France for the summer. Whilst there I'll be visiting the artillery school at Auxonne, attended by Napoleon in 1789. The trip has been arranged by my good friend Yves Roig, who will be with me. After that, Sally will return to the UK for a few weeks, whilst I jet off to Arizona and Consimworld Expo, and then back to France until September.
I'd like to thank everyone that supported the Kickstarter Campaign for our new game 'Gettysburg - A Time for Heroes' (to be published by Worthington Games). It met its (admittedly modest) goal in under an hour!
I'm also delighted to be able to announce that we have a new sponsor, Sound of Drums.
The main news this month was going to be that Ken Demyen (with my assistance) is working on yet another Battles of Middle Earth variant: Field of Celebrant. Here is the map:
We hope to have the map and counters available for purchase before the middle of the year, along with freely downloadable Vassal module and exclusive rules.
Well, a very quiet month with not a lot to tell you.
I will give advance notice that the LYG Shop will again be closed for part of the Summer as we head over to France again. This year the closure will be:
No new promotions this month, clebrating our 20th Anniversary, but we do have the continuing promotion from Strategemata, along with the LYG Prize Draw, and there will be more new promotions form next month.
We're now officially half-way through LYG's 20th Anniversary Year and to mark the occasion, we have a truly outstanding promotion form Legion Wargames - as well as the continuing promotion from Strategemata. See below...
For June, we have another great promotion to help celebrate our 20th Anniversary - this time from Acies Edizioni - as well as the continuing promotion from Strategemata. See below...
For May, we have another great promotion to help celebrate our 20th Anniversary - this time from Europa Simulazioni - as well as the continuing promotion from Strategemata. See below...
The Altentative/Replacement Die-Cutting Service is really proving popular (and is no longer just SPI related). Not only have we received lots of orders (and lots of satisfied customers), we've also added a number of artists to the fold. As well as our own counters and those of Kerry Anderson, we now also offer Counters from:
As well as new mods and gameboxes (including one from your truly), you'll find new downloadable maps (also from yours truly), on the Resources page, and an entire NEW page 'Die Cutting'.
The Die Cutting page is dedicated to that niche part of this niche hobby that is DIY die-cut counters. On the page you'll find everything you need to know to get started - including a series of tutorial videos.
After 42 years of full-time employment, I am taking early retirement at the sprightly age of 59. Had I left it a month longer I'd be 60 - and that sounds much older.
Wishing all of our sponsors, contributors and visitors a very happy and hopeful 2021 after what has been, for so many, a wretched year.
We're certainly off to a good start with the list of new files below - largely thanks to the dependable and prodigious Dave Jones, ably assisted by Rich Peterson and mal Atherton. And, whats more, we have all three platorms (Cyberboard, Vassal and ZunTzu covered).
Wishing all of our sponsors, contributors and visitors a Very Merry Christmas.
We certainly have lots of new and updated files to help you wile away the hours and we hope Santa briong you lots of gaming goodness - on which note...
It's always a pleasure to welcome a sponsor to the fold and this month I'm delighted to announce that Mark H. Walker's Tiny Battle Publishing joins us.
Many of you will know Mark from Lock 'n Load Publishing and Flying Pig Games. Tiny Battle focuses on small footprint games and has some great designers.
You may recall, last month's update was published whilst I was en-route (see what I did there) to France, having been prepared a few days in advance. Well, this month's update has been published the day after I got back from France.I'm sorry to say it is one of the smallest updates ever. This wasn't down to me being away as the content is contributor driven. Not sure why this month's contributions are lacking; perhaps everyone else, like me, have had better things to do in July.
Hiopefully peoplewill be more productive through August.
What a crazy, cruel world we're all living in at the moment. My thoughts are with all of those suffering from the impact of the corona virus and with those impacted by the civil unrest in the USA.
Despite all that is going on, we're lucky to have fellow wargamers who are continuing to create excellent mods and gameboxes to help divert us from the world's woes (ironically by focusing on the wos of the past).
April was a hectic month at work for me and I am looking forward to/hoping for a quieter May.It would appear I'm not the only one that has been busy - just look at how many files we have from Andy Gebhardt and Mal Atherton. All those files should keep many of you busy doing one of the things you like best - playing these great games.
It certainly appears that game play via Vassal and Cyberboard has increased, we saw twice our typical numbe rof visitors in April, continuing a trend started in March.
Well, how the world has changed since the site's last update! Hopefully you and yours are well and will weather this storm. I certainly look forward to us all coming out the other side. A lot of my plans for the year involved doing work on the house in France (I was supposed currently be in the middle of a 4-week visit), but those plans are now scuppered, at least, I suspect, until the Autumn. Well, if that is the worst consequence for me, then I will count myself very lucky.
BUT...
We also have lots of good news this month - and a real bumper update.
It is always great to be able to tell you we have a new sponsor, as it is largely thanks to these companies (as well as those of you generous enough to make donations) that we are able to provide LYG as free to use.
So, it is with great pleasure that I am able to tell you that C3i magazine has joined this invaluable group of LYG supporters.
I think we all owe Phil Weltsch a vote of thanks this month as he's almost single-handedly provided this month's updates. He also, rather nicely, creates files for both Vassal and Cyberboard - so almost everyone is happy.
Karoly has added a few markers to Dave Jones' Fontenoy to make play a little easier.
WHOOSH! And December was gone. A clear sign of getting older I guess.
Happy New Year to one and all. Plenty of reasons to be happy to see the back of 2019 on a global scale but at a personal level it was a pretty good year. Here's hoping 2020 is as good personally and a whole lot better internationally - though recent events in Iraq don't hold out a lot of hope for Peace on Earth.
A fairly modest bunch of gameboxes and mods this month; my thanks to Phil, Tom and Stephen for making the effort.
Well, here we are again. Another year (our 16th!) drawing to a close and Christmas quickly approaching.
We've once again enjoyed fantastic support from our sponsors, supporters, contributors and visitors, and Natasha and I wish to thank you all most sincerely.
As it is the season of giving it is especially nice to be able to offer you something of a BUMPER UPDATE this month. And, those of you that have got to know my tastes will appreciate that I am especially happy to see so many Cyberboard gameboxes and SPI titles.
I'm delighted to be able to tell you that LYG has another new sponsor, our twenty-third!
Last Stand Games is a relatively new company from the Landsknecht Publishing stable (sister to their ATO and TPS publications - also LYG sponsors). They have just the one game out at present, but it is a beast, 'Stalingrad: Verdun on the Volga'. And there are others in the pipeline, equallly ambitious, such as 'Beyond Leipzig'
Site update is now complete, apologies again for the delay. After all that, the update itself is very modest this month.
You'll note Drupal errors all over the site. The hosts have clearly done some updates and thrown things out somewhat. Natasha has done her best to sort things but to no avail and, as a result, I supect we'll be migrating away from Drupal over the next few weeks and months to something simpler to maintain. We'll probably take the opportunity to simplify the site too - so a silver lining to the cloud.
Apologies to anyone that hit the site on Saturday 7 Sept., expecting to find it updated. I had a crazy week and a busy weekend and, to be frank, had Jim Anderson not nudged me, I suspect that I would have entirely forgotten about the update - which I think would have been a 15 year first. There may have been others skipped, but not forgotten.
Had a great time in France last month and had no complaints about the LYG update that I did en-route (so hopefully all went OK). If so, just as well as September's update wuill see me back there again.
We continue to see a great number of submissions - 2019 relly is a bumper year. Not quite so many direct submission this month, but still very healthy. Thanks to everyone who is supporting the site in this way.
Sales of games continues to be healthy too - thanks to everyone who has bought from me.
I'm hoping this update has gone OK. I arrived in France last night for a two-week stay (including taking in Bastille Day celebrations), so I prepared the update at the start of the week with the intention of 'simply' publishing today.
Thanks largely to Phillip Weltsch (ably abetted by Howard Divins and Tom Cundiff) the bumper months continue. After two months of Cyberboard gameboxes by the cartload, this time it is the turn of Vassal.
A great month of sales saw another 24 of my games sold - so thanks to everyone that has contributed to my pension pot.
We have another CYBERBOARD BONANZA for you - courtesy of Howard Divins again (assisted by Mal Atherton). You may know I'm both a Cyberboard and SPI fan and so this all makes me very happy.
What also makes me happy is starting my first Cyberboard game in, probably, over a year. Playing Melle from Clash's BAR Fontenoy.
I want to start this month's update by thanking everyone that has made donations to the site over the past few years, and especially to our Patrons (see the list in the bottom right of this page). Today, as I was updating the site for March, we gained our 30th paron. This level of support is greatly appreciated - as are all the other forms of contribution.
Thanks to those of you that supported our January sale. I'm expecting to add some fairly collectible games to the LYG Shop stock, next months - so watch out for that.
Apologies to all for being (over a week) late with this month's update - I was in France and was thinking I could do the update from there but, when i came to do it, I found that wasn't the case.
June's update is early - because there is no update. There have been no submissions but, more to the point, I'm off to France - with very limited internet access. Put these things together and there's really little point updating the site this month.
There are still thousands of files here from you download - so hopefully you'll permit me this dilatory moment.
My personal gaming continues to be quiet - but we have now officially taken ownership of the house in France and so, whilst there will be periods of heavy decorating activity when we visit, hopefully the bureaucratic task associated with buying a house, getting a bank account, getting connected to utilities, etc. will slow down a little. If so, the timing will be good as I am sitting here waiting for the arrival of Legion's 'Blenheim' - and I already have a CB opponent lined up. All we need is a Blenheim Cysberboard gamebox.
A quiet gaming month for me personally as we now have a completion date for our house in France (April 19) and so I'm busy sorting banking, travel, utilities, house insurance, fuel for the boiler, user instructions for the boiler, etc. etc. Much of this in French (which I don't speak). As a result I've actually suspended all PBEM games - this must be the first time in over 15 years that I've bnot had at least one CB game on the go.
Well, yesterday I was confessing that I'd only managed a partial update and was giving lots of excuses why. Turns out that I'd done the vast majority (and could have done the last little bit) as the only omissision was this monthh's single submission, an update from Dave Rubin for his Case Green Cyberboard gamebox. Not sure why this month was so quiet but there you are - update now complete.
Prize Draw Update
Thanks again to those of you that donated as part of LYG's 15th Anniversary Charity Donation Drive - and to the sponsors that contributed prizes.
Hi everyone - and apologies for being a day oe so late with this month's update - life is busy, busy, busy.
For that reason I'm keeping this message brief. But I will point out the La Bat Assistant play-aid that has been added to the Resources page. If you play La Bataille, you may want to check it out.
And, of course, I must wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Have fun.
**** December Update: Sorry folks, this will be delayed till tomorrow (Sunday, 3rd) at least - Limey ***
A cracking update this month with loads of new files and updates to older ones. And not only have we got a healthy number of Cyberbard gameboxes (increasingly rare these days), we have our first Zun Tzu file in quite a while. This is such a great month for files I almost wish this were the December update so that it could be my Christmas preasent to you all.
For the second month running I'm updating the site whilst in France - though I have been home between updates. Last month we were in Tours, this month we're in Limoges. Last month was a holiday with a little house-hunting. This month its all about house-hunting and we've seen six great properties - and one not so great.
An eventful August, wargaming wise, for me. Excitement came in the form of Waning Crescent, Shattered Cross making its pre-order numbers - my thanks to all that have supported me in this venture - either by placing a pre-order or in the playtesting and development. The latter continues as we get it production-ready.
Let's start with the bad news. Almost immediately following last month's 'call to arms' for a Vassal designer for 'Streets of Stalingrad 4', the project was pulled. I'm till not sure why but it appears there were some irreconcilable differences between the principals. My thanks to those of you that did volunteer (for Cyberboard and ZunTzu as well as Vassal) and, again, my apologies that it came to nothing.
Very little to say on the gaming front this month. Proof reading and playtesting of Waning Crescent, Shattered Cross is progressing very well, thanks to a great team of volunteers, and we should still be on course for a 2017 publication. Some videos of the game are starting to appear and most can be accessed via the game's BGG page.
Wow! Where did February go? Mind, Spring is with us - my favourite season.
Not surprising that , for me, February flew by - we were down south spending time with our first grandchild, Serena (and she lives up to her name - I don't know if Tash and Tom appreciate how lucky they are ), we lost my wife's mum, and I got some paying work - just a week's consultancy, but very welcome.
FEBRUARY UPDATE LATE: This month's update will occur on Sunday, 5th February. This is due to the late arrival of Serena Evelyn Bates, my first grandchild and your webmaster's (Natasha's) first child, and their susbsequent delayed departure from hospital (nothing serious).
Just back from Gdansk (Danzig), my first trip to Poland. Had a great time there and will surely be back again. On our first full day there my wife and I walked the remains of the fortifications to the SW of the city taking a number of photographs for a friend who is in the process of designing a game on the1813 siege.
First of all, apologies for the lack of update last month; not sure if that has happened before in our 16 year history (I bet it has , but it is certainly rare). The reason was simply that I didn't get back from CSW Expo in Tempe until Sunday after a 24 hr (and 5 minute) door-to-door journey and I simply couldn't find themotivation.
***************** PLEASE NOTE: There will be no July update****************
It is always pleasing to have a bumber crop of files for you - and even more so when there is a mix of Cyberboard, Vassal and Zun Tzu. And so I'm a happy chappie this month.
After the plethora of news last month, April is fairly quiet on the gaming front - though on the personal front I've started a new job and I turn 55 - just 5 years to retirement and more time for games (if Sally lets me do either ).
Some updates and some new files for you this month. As always Vassal is well covered but this month sees a lack of Cyberboards BUT does include a couple for ZunTzu - a welcome return!
With the recent hike in USPS shipping charges we've had a couple more of our sponsors express an interest in our EU Friendly Shipping Service as it will reduce their costs as well as saving you money related to VAT charges. Please get your favourite publisher to talk to us about how we could work with them.
Well, I hope 2015 was as good for you as it was for me. It saw LYG gain new sponsors and the introduction of advertising, saw the launch of our sister site WalkingWaterloo.com, my first game design Toulon, 1793 started reaching customers & distributors, and our EU Friendly Shipping Service really started to take-off.
If it wasn't for Mal Atherton, I'd be feeling something of a Christmas Grinch this month as we'd have nothing for your virtual Christmas stocking and, to make things worse, this update message is very rushed as I have to get out early to beat the traffic as I head off to do this year's Christmas shopping.
That said, Mal has certainly made up for any of my shortcomings by providing a raft of Cyberboard giftboxes.
First off, we've sorted the technical issue that was preventing us uploading a number of large files so you'll see that we have finally been able to provide access to:
Wow! That was painful" I said back in February 2014 having just recovered the site from a hard-drive failure and less than perfect backups.
Ironic then that after having had to recover the site again (again with poor backups) the recovery point should have been February 2014 and that quote should be the first thing that greets me.
Quiet month this month, but good to welcome Jamie Shanks as a contributor - very nice man; let me punch his copy of Vera Cruz and CSWE a couple of years back).
Had thought that the submissions for February had been a little slow but, having just prepared the site, I see that in truth we have a nice number of new files and updates - and I found some previously unpublished (heaven knows why) content..
What an exciting month! Not only did I get the chance to traipse over the four battlefields of the Waterloo Campaign (more about this below), but Toulon, 1793also hit its pre-order numbers. My sincere thank to all of you that have shown faith in me and the game by ordering already. If you're still sitting on the fence, then best decide soon as we're all working hard and aiming for a December release, and so the special pre-order price won't be available for too much longer.
Off on my travels next week soan early update for October. The new additions to the site will (or should) appear at the base of this page from 1st Oct.
Well, June was fun. A week in Tempe for CSW Expo, meeting old friends and making new. Got to play COA's Battles from the Age of Reason series and Toulon 1793 got its last pre-publication public playtest (expect to see it published later this year). This was then followed by the wedding of Natasha (my daughter and your webmaster).
I'm going to make this a very quick update this month as I'm just back from ConsimWorld Expo (which was GREAT!) and I'm therefore a couple of days late with this update - apologies. (EDIT: Just noticed I'm not 2 days late but 5 days early! Mind you, Natasha gets married next Saturday so probably just as well.)
I want to start this month by thanking each of you that have made a donation to help support the site. Natasha and I are grateful and humbled. Every donation - and I genuinely mean every donation, no matter how large or small - makes us realise that our efforts are genuinely appreciated. The fact that you're under no obligation to contribute makes it even more rewarding when you do.
I want to start this month by thanking each of you that have made a donation to help support the site. Natasha and I are grateful and humbled. Every donation - and I genuinely mean every donation, no matter how large or small - makes us realise that our efforts are genuinely appreciated. The fact that you're under no obligation to contribute makes it even more rewarding when you do.
We did some upgrades to the site over Christmas and, though the testing went OK, we started getting errors after a couple of uploads as part of the January update. At first it was still possible for users to download files - but then even that got hit.
Though it is great that a number of you have 'Liked' us on Facebook and started to 'Follow' us on Twitter, the numbers are still somewhat disappointing and I would like to again encourage more of you to do so.
Thank you everyone for giving us such a great start to 2012 with a massive increase in traffic (four times the old average daily visits and a month's worth of old site traffic in the first three days following launch) and lots of emails and posts congratulating us on the new site - all very much appreciated.
Well, here it is. The promised overhaul of the website.
I want to publicly acknowledge my indebtedness and gratitude to Natasha, my daughter, who has undertaken this (at times, tedious and laborious) work. She's spent what has probably been in excess of a hundred hours creating the site and (most tedious of all) transferring the content - Cyberboard, Vassal & Zun Tzu files alone number nearly 1100.
First off, apologies that LYG has been rather unreliable during the second-half of November (due to circumstances beyond our control) and for the fact that the December update is a few hours later than usual (due to circumstances within my control - I'm changing jobs and trying to get my house on the market; busy, busy, busy). In fact, the Top Ten Downloads table won't be updated till the 4th December - sorry.
By way of partial amends, I'm delighted to offer you a sack full of new gameboxes and updates to gameboxes and modules.
A modest set of updates this month but the big news is that LYG is undergoing another redesign. Natasha has promised to make a leap forward with the site's functionality as a Christmas present to her dad and, by association, to all of you.
Not a lot to say this month other than we've got a nice selection of files for all three supported platforms. There are a couple submitted for Battles magazine that I have no attribution for; a shortcoming I'll happily remedy as soon as anyone can provide names.
And a bit of a personal milestone this month as I acquired my 800th game; needless to say most remain un-played as yet.
Our thanks, as always, to all our visitors, contributors and sponsors.
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".
), we lost my wife's mum, and I got some paying work - just a week's consultancy, but very welcome. 
).
