I realise I'm writing this up just on the eve of #319 coming out but I'm working to a schedule and this issue is an important one.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: A menacing looking Macedonian phalanx graces the cover and this month's theme is Phalanx v Roman legion. Also, there's a good looking 1920s mobster miniature with a chunky Tommy gun.
EDITORIAL: A brief one from Dan Faulconbridge introducing the theme.
WARGAMING NEWS: It looks like the Flames of War releases are getting back on schedule, more extra items relating to the articles on the website, and a bit about a painting journal online which looks very interesting and worth checking out.
LEGION AGAINST PHALANX: Setting up this month's theme, you get the history of Rome v Macedonian Greece, quite a bit about Pyrrhus and some ideas about how to turn this bit of history into tabletop wargaming, especially coming up with special rules that enable Romans to interpenetrate their own lines. This is really thorough stuff, especially if you've not wargamed this era before.
THE BATTLE OF RAYMOND: Shifting to an ACW battle, and not a well known one at that. A Union Division takes on a Confederate Brigade in an area of dense terrain, which lends a lot of fog of war to the battle. Detailed map, OOBs, history are all here, which is great, and this works best using blinds or an umpire with a map rather than a straight 2 person game.
BATTLE OF HERACLEA 280BC: Back to the theme, here is the famous "Pyrrhic victory". Another very good wargaming article with history, maps, OOBs, and battle write ups that show how the game worked in 6mm and 28mm, the similarities and differences between the games and the history and how the players used different tactics. This isn't "and Barry rolled a 6 and routed Steve" type of battle report; it gives the reader a real insight into tactics and deployment so well done the writer, Simon MacDowall.
GLADIUS: Roman gladiators here: Rules adapted from Ronin, a summary of gladiator types, some terrific photos of miniatures from Crusader, and no mention of Jugular
in case you fancy not shelling out for that game but you already have Ronin. Nicely done.
GLADIATORS: Venturing into Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy territory here, this is a round up of 28mm gladiator miniatures from various manufacturers.
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT CAESAR: Various tactics players can use playing the Greeks that might
just might
defeat the Romans. Plenty of history, but with the emphasis on tactics that can be translated to the gaming table.
WARGAMING WITH GANGSTERS: Everything you want to know about doing 1920s and 30s American mob wars in miniature. This is very comprehensive from doing figure and rule reviews, inspirational films, TV shows and books, buildings, vehicles and how to convert die cast model cars to carry figures in them. The only extra thing I would have liked to see here is a scenario.
WARGAMING THE BATTLE OF PYDNA 168BC: Another Legion v Phalanx scenario which follows the same format as the Heraclea one: All you need to play this game at your club (or home) is here with a brief battle report of an actual game which is both brief and concentrates on the tactics which works well.
MECHANISED ACES: If you play Flames of War and enjoyed the Cassino book with its Infantry Aces campaign, then you'll like this. It's the "what happened next" part of the Italian campaign where you fight a series of battles between Cassino and Florence with the chance to take your humble company commander and add various abilities as things progress. The USP here is that you can choose between fielding infantry or armoured companies to campaign with.
LET'S TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER: Using more realistic weather effects in games, instead of "roll on the weather chart and get something completely random". It mentions the Charlie Wesencraft Weather Gauge (which to my uneducated eye looks interesting) but goes more into how to use pre-programmed weather in games.
CROSSED LANCES: The designer of the new Crossed Lances jousting and tournament game explains it all. I briefly saw this being played at Salute and it looks interesting, although what's missing for me is an explanation of how a game goes; I would have liked an example of a turn to whet my appetite more.
FLAMES OF WAR, 2013 U.S. NATIONALS: Eye candy of the competition games. Some nice looking forces, particularly from the Early and Mid war periods.
CAN I SEE THAT: Alessio Cavatore explains his philosophy on determining line of sight in games. Do you look from the POV of the actual figure, or do you go down the ASL route and assign an abstracted LOS system? Food for thought.
OVERALL: This issue is the riposte to those who accuse WI of being just about bling games for the yute. With the exception of Flames of War, none of the games featured here are the fashionable ones. The articles are all well written by people who clearly love the periods they game and they benefit from having history, wargaming, maps and OOBs in the right balance and the AARs aren't just a summary of a good time had by those present. If there's a criticism to be had, and it's a minor one, it's that the theme scenarios are too similar (in my opinion anyway, I'm not a big ancients player). Still, this is definitely a stand out issue.