"Waegames Illustrated" Topic

Being a great lover of the AWI I grabbed this months copy of WI with glee--AWI features…. great!!! However on closer look at the cover I see pics of British Soldiers fighting at Guilford courthouse in nice neat Bicornes and pictures of AWI British figures similarly dressed in full correct uniform…Now I know I am being fussy but they could at least get it right even when in the article they talk about the uniforms being adapted!!! Grrrr it annoys me--Its like having Panther tanks on a game about France 1940!!

Sorry should say Wargames Illustrated…

Woegames…?

It was also incorrect in showing the Maryland flag with the red and white cross. That was adoped in the early 1900's to help reconcile the rift caused by the Civil War.

In defense of WI that is a painting done by an American artist some years ago, and he did not do his research. The one commissioned by the NPS for Cowpens National Battlefield is much better…but has some issiues.

By the way…no real proof that the Marylanders carried colours in the Southern Caimpaign.

Nerds :)

So you don't like the artwork…did you like the articles at least?

and the grass on the bases was definately the wrong colour for Guilford Courthouse.

do you think any one would buy a copy of Wyeayegames Illustrated?

what? you mean there weren't panther tanks in france in 1940?

Hi

I know for a fact that the third guy in front on the left has a mustache at the time!

Rocky

I picked up this issue of WI (I don't pick up every issue) and thought the articles on the AWI were all good reads. I understand that mistakes in how figures are painted can be irritating, but on the whole I thought the figures were very well painted and the articles were very informative.

Tony
dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com

I suspect WI hasn't hit the WSS standard yet.

bought it – enjoyed it, fortunately my ignorance in relation to uniform / flags etc is sufficient for it not to bother me.

I tend to see these things as war game mags first and historical fact second and accept that some things may be a bit out.

I think that there will be some people who could give a good entertaining game AAR / article / scenario or whatever but have reservations in doing so in case the 'experts' come out (and I do not mean that in any rude sense to the OP – it's just a sign of our times that everything has to be commercially perfect).

archstanton73,

I'm with you in principle and don't see any need for some of the sarcy comments you got – chronologically, it's like using WAS figures to fight F&IW, or early Peninsula for Waterloo. And, as you rightly say, if this had been a "modern" themed issue, more effort would have been made to "get it right" visually. However….

1) There seems to be a greater acceptance of this kind of "fudge" in pre-Victorian articles (Miniature Wargames did it all the time) and the further back in time you go, the less concerned editors etc seem to be to find exactly the right mix of armies. Like you, I think that's wrong, but it's often not their fault.

2) For a more "mainstream" period, there would probably be more people with suitable collections available to be photographed.

3) There is now a greater likelihood of manufacturers producing the right kit/figures for, say, France 1940 (although go back a few years and you'd have struggled in anything bigger than 1/300). In reality, there are very few British figures in 25-28mm suitable for 1781 Southern campaigns outside of the Perry range – and even they have gaps, such as Foot Guards. Virtually everyone I know who has refought GCH has done it with at least some 1768 Warrant figures for the British, whilst their Rebel forces are generally far too well uniformed, instead of being overwhelmingly in civvies and hunting shirts.

C'est la vie.

(I should say that I haven't seen, let alone read, the issue.)

The cover art on the latest (no 265) of WI is by a guy called Dale Gallon, copies are for sale at a mere 200 dollars here:

link

It struck me when looking at it that he had probably used Mollo as a source for the uniforms and threw in the 1904 Maryland flag and part of British flag (even though the Guards probably did not carry them in America). Just looking at it as an artwork rather than a historical illustration it struck me as being more in the Howard Pyle school. It would seem that unlike John Trumbull virtually no research was undertaken.

Someone mentioned the articles, have not read them all yet but a interesting one on putting together a particpation game of Guilford Courthouse for Historicon, an interview with Rick Priestley about Black Powder and an example scenario from the book.

There was a brave attempt at using figures to illustrate uniforms from the Southern Camapaigns of the AWI. I felt that this fell short because the information provided was somewhat superifical (5 pages with losts of space taken up by eye candy miniatures). There look to be some good ideas for a couple of AWI scenarios and a brief review of 4 AWI rule sets. Amongst the articles I have not got round to are those on strategy in the Southern Campaign, Tarleton v Morgan and one on Heavy Artillery in the Great War. All the AWI articles were written by US based authors and I have to wonder if all were commissioned asa whole rather than being a result of serendipity.

Stylewise WI is looking good but I do not see any sign that there has been any real change in overall content. I only bought this issue because of the AWI special theme and despite the good points I am left somewhat underwhelmed by the 'World's Premier Tabletop Gaming Magazine' (as it proclaims above the title).

I bought it to read on the plane, talk about fussy! I am an AWI student have been for many a year, the way I look at it is good for WI to put most of the issue over to the subject, okay those who put pen to paper to write up on those articles within I have never heard of but it made for reading on a boring flight! Pretty sure there are a few errors in some of those books that are out there!….. Fusiliers! don't get me started on that one!

I appreciated the effort even though I saw some errors and didn't like the artwork. I am painting forces for GCH now and am trying to get the uniforms as close as possible but I'm afraid the continentals will be a bit more uniform than they were and some of the British will be in tricornes and dare I say grenadier caps but I already had the figures. At least none of the figures will have white wigs. I think it's the Perrys fault for not making everything we need.

I'll call the Whambulance to have them take the casualties away.

Yeah,thats Dale Gallon. He's not the most historically correct artist out there! I live near the Stony Point battlefield,and he did a painting of it. The American light infantry are in full, blue faced red,with those neat light infantry helmets and that good old Betsy Ross flag! UGH!!!

The GC print looks like a bunch of squeaky clean bad reenactors! He's done a better of the whole battle field from high about the British lines where you can't see the uniform details.
And those white wigs!!! Aaaaargh!

Bob

Perhaps WI should stick to mechanised warfare where it is easier to COUNT THE RIVETS???

IR1

Perhaps WI should stick to mechanised warfare where it is easier to COUNT THE RIVETS???

>>
Count me as a proud stitch Nazi! :-)

Bob

Tell me if I am wrong, but wasn't Wargames Illustrated dead, bankrupt, or at the very best haemoraghing money faster than a cut to the femeral artery?

Now it has more info than any other games magazine out there. Not sure that is always the best thing MW and Battle Games etc print up some great articles(I was always a Loki fan) and BF may just squeeze out all other competition which could very well be bad. Look at the horror of White Dwarf with lots of vey bad editions once it no longer had competion.

Anyway, swerving back onto the mainroad from my sidetrack doom and gloom, my point is that on the whole, what WI have done is very, very good now that BF has taken over management.

Thats is no defence for getting blatantly obvious things wrong like the price of blister packs advertised in magazines such as WI being incorrect due to the magazines denizens not being thorough and thereby potentially affecting business sales. But come on seriously Maryland flags being incorrect for this era! (No offence to Marylanders)

Are we being just a bit too critical, at times perhaps mostly because its BF. (Bicornes instead of Tricornes, I agree for AWI, is just on the border of lazy and negligent but lets not focus so much on the wood and forget the trees. After all the WI is pretty good.

Always referred to as tricorne's, the hat worn is in fact the cocked variety rather than the tricorne which was worn pre RevWar, sometimes I think we have to much time on our hands to be so picky! problem is nowadays there is too much information out there in the public domain on the subject of the AWI much of it contradicts and can be confusing!

I have 3 "cocked" hats one I turned into a slouch for general camp duties, this was my first, the other two are somewhat newer and when I asked our tailor for them he who had done a lot of uniform research would quote that they were a cocked hat, he referred to it as the "Cumberland Cock"!!?! which I thought to be a cockeral from the North of England!

Seeing as most of my collection of "25s" are from Front Rank I assume that I am not allowed to re-fight GCH as they do not fit the late southern war appearance!

WI has always looked glossey more so than MW, to be honest I only buy these mags when there is something in there that interests me, I used to get them every month! I didn't mind passing over some imperial credits for this copy even if we are picking holes in it.

As for me I am focusing on the tree's……..

"It's always something!" Roseanne Roseannadanna 1977

And did nobody enjoy the article on bridge-building, particularly the general purpose wooden bridge at the beginning of the article? I shall be looking out for some cheap second-hand Lego at the next car boot sale I find myself at.

"Seeing as most of my collection of "25s" are from Front Rank I assume that I am not allowed to re-fight GCH as they do not fit the late southern war appearance!"…Colonel Tavington…You can use whatever you want but if a magazine wants to do an article on a certain period they should at least get it right in the pictures!!!!

I know I was sounding a bit picky but if you are going to publish something worldwide at least try a bit harder to get it right!!!

do you think any one would buy a copy of Wyeayegames Illustrated?

Would it be available translated into English? :-)

do you think any one would buy a copy of Wyeayegames Illustrated?

Only available in the North East

My biggest beef is not the uniforms. I can figure those out myself with a little research. I want the scale of the figure, the manufacturer, and the actual rules being illustrated in the picture if a wargame in progrss photo. It is maddening to see some nice figures and not know they're actually 15s and won't fit with your 28's or who makes the figure. Maddening, I say.

At the end of the day nice to see AWI featured, the game pictures for GCH were some generic one's taken at Historicon?

There is a good diorama of GCH at the Tannenbaum Historical Centre next to the GC national park, it was made by David Bonk who has quite a collection of AWI figures, I have seen pictures of some of his 40mm collection.

To be honest if you plan on doing a demo of GCH I would also consider the time of year, as there would not have been much in the way of tree foliage, also one thing that struck me when I visited there was how un-even the ground is especially around the 2nd and 3rd line where Greene's men stood.

Yes at GCH the second line was especially confusing--the battle broke down very much into a "soldiers battle" with small groups fighting it out--A good battle to do but I find very often the model trees get in the way!!