A Little Lightning War: History Gamed, Explained & Entertained

Tonight, me and the clan talk about our excitement to try a new game. Ravenfeast! Ravenfeast is a free set of Dark Age skirmish rules put out by the folks at Little Wars TV (www.littlewarstv.com). We decide to grab our Saga minis and give it a try and once more cry for Odin's blessing as we clash our axes and shields. Well, alright, that's just our excitement. This is the preview episode, and we'll talk about the game in our next one. We hit the usual topics, including what we're building and painting right now as well as a wishlist, things we're looking at picking up and giving a try. Any comments, questions, suggestions or just want to say "hi"? Email me at alittlelightningwar@gmail.com. You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @alittlelightni1 or my personal account @stevebernich. Finally, check out my website for podcast stuff, writing and whatever else www.stevebernich.com. I think that's enough plugs for now. Thanks for checking us out. I hope you enjoy it. (Music: Stoner Things by Patino, Sweet Relief by Zachariah Hickman, and Thunder by Delicate Steve)

18 Feb 20221h 26min

In this long await episode I return from an extra long hiatus and review the recent Bulge American Army supplement book for the Flame of War World War 2 Miniatures game. Which everyone knows I love so much. I go over the good features of this book and why you should get it if you're an American player or even if you're just interested in the history. This book is packed to the gills. For this episode I'm solo, and I'm hoping to do some solo reviews while mixing in the usual banter of some of my typical guests of my gaming group fellow teachers and friends. But, I apologize for being away to my loyal listeners. I'm back and hope to be as productive as ever. Any comments, questions, suggestions or just want to say "hi"? Email me at alittlelightningwar@gmail.com. You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @alittlelightni1 or my personal account @stevebernich. Finally, check out my website for podcast stuff, writing and whatever else www.stevebernich.com. I think that's enough plugs for now. Thanks for checking us out. I hope you enjoy it. (Music: Stoner Things by Patino, Sweet Relief by Zachariah Hickman, and Thunder by Delicate Steve)

6 Jan 202245min

Spencer Brown, another former student of mine sits down as we talk WW1 history, naval wargaming, and lost establishments on Long Beach Island. Spencer does oil painting is his spare time and you can see it at @thespencerbrown on Instagram and he's Dreadnaught Miniature Painting on twitter. We talk addiction to wargaming as well as collecting for it's own sake as Spencer takes me through some of the details of how to get started. Jokes on you, I already did. But now I want to do both WW2 AND WW1. It never ends. We had a great time having this talk and I hope to game with him soon, even though he's 2 hours away. Any comments, questions, suggestions or just want to say "hi"? Email me at alittlelightningwar@gmail.com. You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @alittlelightni1 or my personal account @stevebernich. Finally, check out my website for podcast stuff, writing and whatever else www.stevebernich.com. I think that's enough plugs for now. Thanks for checking us out. I hope you enjoy it. (Music: Argonne by Zachariah Hickman and Thunder by Delicate Steve)

20 Sep 20211h 2min

Our small gaming group was able to throw together an impromptu, unofficial mini tournament of Flames of War at Bruce's house. This episode is our thoughts of how it all went down. I call us all out for not knowing the rules better, Eric sticks to his "rye" and Phil and Bruce continually wax poetic about flamethrowers. We discuss strategy and tactics while playing Flames and talk about the big wins and big losses of our armies and abilities as tacticians. (here's a hint, I lost all 3 games!). Hopefully, you pick up on the amount of fun we all had. Any comments, questions, suggestions or just want to say "hi"? Email me at alittlelightningwar@gmail.com. I hope you enjoy it. (Music: Alpine Bierhalle by Aaron Kenny and Thunder by Delicate Steve)

24 Aug 20211h 13min

Mike Dreitlein (care of last episode) and I continue our discussion of HBO's mini series Band of Brothers, just in time for it's 20th anniversary this September. We discuss and dissect episodes 6 through 10. (for our discussion of episodes 1 through 5, you need to listen to the previous episode of A Little Lightning War). A lot of actors are mentioned and a gauntlet is dropped. I mess up an actress' character name (it's Renee, not Rachel!!) and consistently screw up the word "complicit". Camping in winter is mentioned as is quitting jobs. And finally, we sympathize with neither Nazis, nor Nazi sympathizers. Any comments, questions, suggestions or just want to say "hi"? Email me at alittlelightningwar@gmail.com. I hope you enjoy it. (some harsh language) (Music: Alpine Bierhalle by Aaron Kenny and Thunder by Delicate Steve)

18 Aug 20211h 10min

Mike Dreitlein, another former student of mine, and I analyze the first five episodes of HBO's award winning series Band of Brothers, which celebrates it's 20th anniversary this October. Mike was possibly one of the last students I taught WW2 to and so felt this was an appropriate person to speak on this series. We go over ways to drink absinthe, getting jobs out of college, Disney's failures and then dive into the first five episodes. We'll be doing another episode where we cover the last 5 episodes in August after I take a week and a half off. Any comments, questions, suggestions or just want to say "hi"? Email me at alittlelightningwar@gmail.com. I hope you enjoy it. (Music: Run Away by TrackTribe and Thunder by Delicate Steve)

28 Juli 202159min

In our fifth episode, old high school student Eric Mailler and I wax philosophic on the state of wargaming, history, friendship and fun. We discuss scary zombies as opposed to lame zombies, compare historical versus fantasy wargaming and what got us into the hobby in the first place. Last I make an apologetic plug to the guys at Little Wars TV (which you should check out!) while Eric gets enthusiastic about the term WAAGH. I hope you enjoy it. (Music: Run Away by TrackTribe and Thunder by Delicate Steve)

23 Juli 20211h 4min

Joe Cecala, fellow history teacher, hockey coach and history movie watcher and I discuss the movie "Miracle" about the 1980 Winter Olympics and the clash of the Soviet and US ice hockey teams. We go over everything from the low times of the Cold War for Americans, to gluten free beer, to best practices of hockey player abuse, to me repeatedly screwing up Irish last names. Joe's chair squeaks a lot, but only if you listen closely, and we diverge Coach Herb Brook's greatness as well as Kurt Russel carrying a movie with a bunch of very good hockey players and so-so actors creating a winning film. I hope you enjoy. (Music: Clash of Gods by Quincas Moreira and Thunder by Delicate Steve)

14 Juli 20211h 1min