About A Little Lightning War: History Gamed, Explained & Entertained
Steve Bernich, high school history teacher and wargaming enthusiast hosts a revolving series of fellow gamers and history enthusiasts of every sort. We play games (video, tabletop miniature and board). We talk about movies and books and history, not necessarily in that order. We may also digress into various drinks and whatever else comes to mind, leading to a somewhat focused, eclectic podcast. Thanks for checking us out.
Have any thoughts or suggestions, or just want to say hi? Email at alittlelightningwar@gmail.com
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)
6 Jan 2022
Flames of War Bulge American Book Review w/ Steve Bernich (just me by my lonesome)
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)
20 Sept 2021
Naval Wargaming with Spencer
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)
24 Aug 2021
Day of Battle Flames of War tournament with Eric, Bruce and Phil
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)
18 Aug 2021
Band of Brothers part 2 w/ Mike Dreitlein
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)
28 Jul 2021
Band of Brothers part 1 w/ Mike Dreitlein
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)
23 Jul 2021
Wargaming with Eric Mailer
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)
14 Jul 2021
Miracle with Joe Cecala
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)
2 Jul 2021
Saga Age of Vikings with Phil Perkins
Phil Perkins and I can't remember when we started gaming together. But, we discuss our love for Saga Age of Vikings by Tomahawk Studios (http://www.studio-tomahawk.com/en/saga/) and Gripping Beast Miniatures (https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/) which brings a certain barbarism to our games. We also diverge into reading comic books, the Naked Gun, history in wargames and the contagiousness of enthusiasm of Eric who is not represented here. We wrap up with some compliments of each other's sportsmanship and include some judging of how one spends one's time and go a little long. But that's cool.
I hope you enjoy.
(Music: Clash of Gods by Quincas Moreira and Thunder by Delicate Steve)
22 Jun 2021
Flames of War with Bruce Mathews episode 1
Bruce Mathews and I reflect on the beginnings and nature of the World War II tabletop miniatures game, Flames of War from Battlefront Miniatures. (www.flamesofwar.com). In many ways, this is the game that started off my wargaming addiction, combining love of games with love of history, so it's perfect for this podcast. Bruce and I started gaming together in 2008 (as far as we can tell) so it's here that we begin a three part series talking about the game. We cover the beginnings, our general perceptions of the game and a variety of other topics to cover. Including wine versus beer, playing bass and how practice kind of does make perfect.
I hope you enjoy.
(Music: Black Coins by Public Memory and Thunder by Delicate Steve)
10 Jun 2021
1917 with Dave Klein
Tonight, Dave Klein an old high school friend and I discuss the film 1917. Dave fails at describing a book he's read and we talk World War I, significance of dates, significant trees, death scenes and cinematic styles of modern war films. Among other things.
I hope you enjoy.
(Warning: some language)
(Music: Black Coins by Public Memory and Thunder by Delicate Steve)
8 Jun 2021
A Little Lighting War Trailer
A quick description of what we're all about. I hope you'll stick around for more. Full episodes dropping very soon.
(Music by VYEN, Across the Pier)
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