"Review of Miniature Wargames with Battlegames #370" Topic

The dust has barely settled over #369 when #370 hits the shelves.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: World o' pikes on the front cover which relates to an article about the rise of Macedon. My mind is contemplating the storage box they must live in.

BRIEFING: Henry's editorial goes into the pace of meeting deadlines, especially when reviewing new products and some tips on submitting articles with photos. There's also an announcement that Henry and Neil Shuck's podcast "View From the Veranda" is coming to an end.

FORWARD OBSERVER: …or maybe Hindsight Observer this time. Neil Shuck looks at the trends and highlights of 2013 including the wealth of WW2 material, Victorian Sci-Fi and MDF terrain.

CLEAN SWEEP: The Wargame Widow shows how to turn a broom and foam into haystacks. This looks like one of the more easier projects you can do.

FANTASY FACTS: The usual reviews of hard sci-fi miniatures but in there are some nice pictures and reviews of North Star's Fistful of Kung Fu range and 7th Voyage's new Shiva and thugee miniatures. Also, we find out that John Treadaway isn't a fan of Girls und Panzer (I can't say I'm enamoured myself).

THE RISE OF MACEDON: The cover article is done by Andrew Rolph, who has shown in the past that he really packs the goodies into his articles. This has oodles of gaming potential here with a very comprehensive set of campaigning rules covering Greece in the age of Phillip of Macedon. His chosen rules set for this is DBA, which may be a bit long in the tooth for some gamers, but he reassures the reader it can be adapted for other rule sets.

WARGAMING WITH WESENCRAFT: An interview with Charlie Wesencraft, who I have to admit I'd not heard of before. It starts off as a "games with my mates" article complete with a reference to catering by the wife but it then turns into a proper interview with the man. Like the Featherstone tributes recently, you get a good insight into the way wargaming was done then and now and Mr Wesencraft is certainly not pining for the good old days, as evidenced by enjoying a game of Black Powder. There's some good info on his scale model work (which is displayed at various museums) and a few more pictures of that would have been nice.

SHEDQUARTERS STORY: Basically, how to build a purpose built wargaming shed, complete with electricity and lighting. Got a spare £7,500.00 GBP? Maybe it'll start a trend but, alas, not in my house.

BATTLE OF THE KALKA RIVER 1223: Third and final part of the long range Mongol reconnaissance mission. Lots of history plus a decent OOB and maps for re-fighting the battle. This time the Mongols go up against the Kievian Russian principalities.

IN CIRCO: A chariot racing game, simple and neatly presented. It could have done with a template for printing your own cards that are used in the game.

HOW TO PLAY THE SPANISH: I was very interested in this article as it is about the Spanish in the Penninsular War (I have a single brigade of the Regiment Irlanda that I'm keen to use at some point). I must say I was disappointed by this article. It's got some rule concepts which, in the main, look useful but it doesn't really do justice to the article title. There's not that much specifically about the Spanish and I'm sure there are going to be many readers who will strongly disagree with the author's rating of the French army (very strong) and the British (nowhere near as strong). I'm actually surprised at how much space is devoted to talking about the qualities of the French and British when it's the Spanish that are the title subject. So, game mechanics; good. Ratings of the armies; questionable. Relevance to subject: Lacking.

INVADER 1066: First time contributor Stuart Smith doesn't muck about here: No historical backstory, you'll all know that, let's get straight into the rules. This is a complete rules set for wargaming the campaigns of the two Harolds and William the Conqueror. They're very comprehensive with army lists, points values, charts and action cards. If your beat is ancients/dark ages/early mediaeval then this article alone justifies purchase of the magazine.

RECCE: Peter Pig has a new set of rules: Longships (it's about Vikings) and there's an airbrush that looks like a Phaser. Elsewhere there are reviews of PSC's US heavy weapons and Fistful of Kung Fu.

OVERVIEW: Eagle eyed readers will notice no Command Challenge this time or little pictures of impressive looking games. However, this was a really entertaining issue to read, despite it not having much in the way of periods that I wargame. A big emphasis on Ancients and early mediaeval, but a satisfying read for me nonetheless.

Thanks for this. With this magazine and WSS all my gaming bases are covered.

Edit…an oversight really. I forgot about Conrad Kinch!

SEND THREE AND FOURPENCE: Mr Kinch suggests re-dressing famous battles in history by setting them in different eras and not telling your players. Sounds fiendish, I must try it.

I've only read through the Wesencraft article and Forward observer so far but yes. Very entertaining.

Agreed – good read and interesting subjects (although we agree on the Spanish article – maybe it needs another article to clarify some points/focus it better).

Well worth it. And my new source – Allen bookshop, Waterloo, were good enough to call me tosay it had arrived. they keep it until one turns up, so recommended for those who like to pick up a copy and support a local store.

Damn! I loved View from the Veranda as a podcast.

Ubercommando,

As the author of the She article I realise it isn't for everyone. As I pointed out in the piece the availability of funding was what triggered the project. When I originally thought about this about 10 years ago I realised the only way to fund it was to get lucky or retire. When you retire you get to take some of your pension pot (25%) as a tax free lump sum. Most people buy a car. I was going to do the shed. I accept it was never a project I'd have done in my 30s, ad didn't expect to do it before my 60s.

Strangely enough I have had contact over the article, and when I wrote about it on the blog link I also got a lot of feedback and questions.

All I'm saying is, – don't throw the article away. You never know when you might get the chance to do it. Wargaming is a life long hobby. Plan ahead.

Trebian

I really liked the Shedquarters article; it was one of those pieces that are tangentially about wargaming but which are very interesting. I'm glad your wife was on board for the project, mine would veto the idea in a heartbeat.

Mine, too! (and our garden is too small for such a large building anyway, unless we were to demolish/rebuild our garage)

But it was an interesting article, albeit in my own case in a hegative sense, in that it demonstrated that I should abandon any thoughts of such a project and focus instead on small, portable games that can be set up indoors, in the comfort of our dining room or spare bedroom.