This is my first review of this magazine after meeting Henry Hyde.
BRIEFING: How an imaginations tournament has re-kindled the enthusiasm flame and a mention of the Donald Featherstone Tribute weekend (more of this later).
FORWARD OBSERVER: Neil Shuck casts his eyes over new products from Agema, Gripping Beast and Battlegroup Barbarossa but of interest here is a range of 40mm Robin Hood figures from Trident. The Kickstarter list is absent from this month's column.
STEAMING AHEAD: Diane Sutherland's paddle steamer models are a bit tricky and time consuming to make, but they do look the part. If you liked her dirigibles from last month, then you'll like these.
FANTASY FACTS: 15mm Barbarians from Copplestone, Hydra miniatures War Rocket figures for dirtside battles plus the usual plethora of 15mm hard SF miniatures grace the column this month. The accompanying photos all do the products justice.
THREAT GENERATION: This one is for all you solo wargamers out there who want an enemy to genuinely surprise you on the table top. Martin England has devised a system which is both seemingly realistic but gives you the "where the heck did they come from?" ambush factor that you get in computer wargames such as Steel Panthers and Combat Mission. It doesn't look too tricky to use either.
SEND THREE AND FOURPENCE: How to put prisoner taking into your games. Some brief suggestions on how to do this, which is food for thought but…once again…I'd like to see more than one page devoted to some of Conrad Kinch's ideas.
OGRE: Blimey, this takes me back. Who'd have thought that after 35+ years Ogre would be the one SF board wargame of the 1970s to still be around? From a titchy black and white pocket game in a ziplock bag came a cast-iron concept for a game: One big f-off supertank versus a bunch of measly hovercraft tanks and infantry. This article is about the history of the game, and the setting, plus where the game stands now (apparently in a really heavy box with oodles of goodies). Some great photos of Ogre miniatures plus the 3D cardboard models you get with the current incarnation. I would have liked to have seen a scenario or gaming idea with this article but it's nice to see the old game still going strong.
FIGHTING FOR FEATHERSTONE: A report on the inaugural Featherstone trophy weekend in Basingstoke which seemed like a good time was had by old grognards and noobs alike. Nice photos of the players and the Gettysburg game that was run.
KEEP LUNCH WARM: A Great Northern War scenario where the Swedes under Charles XII (he of that gory mummified skull photo with the huge bullet hole in it) defeated a numerically superior Saxon-Polish force. Good balance of history, scenario and AAR but although things are written up with no particular rules system in mind, I would have liked to have known what rules were used for the actual game.
COMMAND CHALLENGE: I really like Andrew Rolph's articles as they're very thorough, and give you everything you need to run a scenario. This is an Operation Barbarossa game, recommended for Spearhead but Andrew gives suggestions as to how to adapt for other operational level WW2 games (without naming any). It's a long game; 32 turns over 6 hours, but full of tactical problems for the players to overcome. There's an AAR which is a tad too long for my liking and some of the Spearhead jargon (such as 4+1 DAv) could do with better explaining but it's a chunky scenario that should play well.
RECCE: Some new Osprey on review (one of which gets a scathing write up), a supplement for Impetvs but the stand out item here is the new edition of Hordes of the Things.
CAVALIER & HAMMERHEAD: John Treadaway reviews these two shows…+1 bonus point for featuring a lovely photo and mention of my club's Schweinfurt 1943 game and some cool looking 3D printed 1/144th scale APCs. It sounds like Hammerhead was the more interesting tournament and with each passing month I'm having my opinion changed about the usefulness or desirability of demonstration games. I'm now against them.
SALUTE 2014 SNAPSHOT: Hellooooooooo nurse!
OVERALL: A good issue that covers quite a few eras and which has a lot of practical stuff in it to take away and try at your club or next game at home. Not as controversial or opinionated as some other issues have been but definitely one to check out.
