"WSS issue 79 is out" Topic

Picked it up today from Smiths (UK). There is a nice Marengo article in there.

I've been browsing my digital edition for a couple days now. The Marengo article is quite good.

I found the opinion pieces in this issue to be particularly thought provoking and well written (Rick Priestley and Richard Clarke's columns). This has not always been the case . . . my head is still numb from the aftereffects of last December issue's "The Irregular" feature, in which the writer declared (apparently in all seriousness and without a hint of irony) that "Historical gaming followed the path beaten by Warhammer" and "Warhammer Historical was one the best things that happened to historical wargaming".

I give the editor credit for exposing the subscribers to a variety of viewpoints, but still . . .

I believe WHH was a boon to bringing fantasy players into historicals, but yeah, that was a bit of an overstatement.

I eagerly await my copy a month from now.

The Warhammer Historical supplements are certainly up there imo as being one of the greatest things in the hobby.

That opinion is probably shared by a large number of wargamers, MH Dee (although I don't think my historical wargaming has suffered much for never having had one). The author to which I referred, however, would have to have been unaware of much, if not most, of what happens in historical wargaming to make the assertion that the Warhammer Historical rules "have turned into must-do concepts in our wargaming world, whether fantasy or historical." Such a statement speaks of a narrow experience of wargaming . . . which does not make such an opinion invalid; merely of limited usefulness. One takes it, as with all opinions (including mine), for what it is worth.

As I said, the editors are to be applauded for making a brave attempt to include a broad range of viewpoints within the larger hobby, and I hope they continue to do so.

So long as they have learned the lesson about failing to fact check before publishing rumours such as the end of Salute.

I think it is fair to say that the production values of WH publications have had an impact on current historical sets. I feel they drove an improvement. Your view may be different.

Gentlemen,

I hope you understand the Irregular columns are designed as opinion pieces. I choose not to edit them too heavily as that would detract from the 'opinion' stated. So they appear 'warts and all'. If you want my opinion, read the editorial! ;-)

War Artisan – well said and thank you..

I liked Jamies' piece. Please do not focus solely on the 'Warhammer' aspect as this would miss the point of the piece. The author's experience may be primarily with the Oldhammer community but his excellent premise for the article (Out with the new and in with the old) still stands regardless.

That said, the Irregular's doing what it is supposed to, continuing to raise interesting topics for debate.

Thanks for the feedback,

Guy

I loved the Warhammer Historical books as well, played them a lot in my time, but IMPO the raising in production values of historical wargames rules is more to do with the revolutions in desk top publishing than GW's influence.

The ease in which you can produce, layout and publish these days, compared to 'the old days' is incredible. Who remembers 'cow-gumming' layouts down for printing? Letraset indeed!!

Oh, the new WSS has a 'lets play' the new Fantasy game Frostgrave article.

War Artisan, I'm sure you could get along fine without them! But for me they were important – when I got back into wargaming about 15 years ago, the first place I started was with DBM (and POW) – so it was working out army lists from stats and a handy calculator. Which was fun in a way, then I picked up a couple of the WH supplements in a local second hand bookshop, unexpectedly. I was struck by how they had a great balance of readable history and gaming information, and rather than spreading across centuries or millennia, instead focussed on distinct periods, like I was used to with post-Ancients rules.

I still think Vlad the Impaler is one of the best gaming supplements of all. Although I never finished an army for it…. So Lion Rampant is looking tempting for that period!

Yea I think we had a good thing going with Warhammer Historical – it was successful in its own terms and I'm sure it didn't do anyone any harm. Well not much. I never did get to write the supplement on Romans though.

I also miss the old Cow Nick… not sure about the Letraset though. Remember having to change the title of headers because you'd run out of some letters, or trying to cobble letters out of bits of other letters and a rotring pen. Still kept us out of trouble. Mostly.

Guy,

It's true that tossing out widely varying opinions will stir debate, but the best end result of doing so would be a broadening of perspective amongst your readers. This is facilitated when the position a columnist adopts is supported by a well-reasoned explanation or a few widely accepted or self-evident facts. My issue with Martin's piece had nothing to do with the "Warhammer aspect", rather that he made several assertions that approached hyperbole without offering anything substantial in the way of explanation that would make me understand his viewpoint, even if I couldn't agree with it. Without reasonable support, his comments came off as a mere Fanboy Rant and left me with no more insight into his point of view than I started with.

It also doesn't hurt if a column is written in an entertaining fashion, even if it's wrapped around some fairly heavy-duty analysis (Rick, I paused and read your "Pint of Olde Simulation" twice, grinning, before continuing with the rest of the magazine.)

I look forward to the opinion pieces and I hope they continue, but I don't revel in differing opinions for their own sake . . . I expect them to illuminate various and sundry aspects of a diverse hobby. An opinion without illumination is like a flashlight with dead batteries: good as a blunt instrument, perhaps, but useless for discovery.

I've only recently had time to have a good read of this magazine. But it is a very good and varied issue. And, as much as I love anything Napoleonic, it was really nice to see some articles covering the French Revolutionary period. Marengo was good but I thought the article on The Battle of Cholet 1793 was excellent and a very good read. It has certainly stirred up my Revolutionary interest. My Ancient period interest was also stirred by the article The Eagle in Snow, which is based on the brilliant historical novel by Wallace Breem and involves the later Romans fighting various barbarians. I have read the book, so it was great to see it transferred into a game. The article on painting horses was also very informative and I loved the horses being termed as 'a warrior's best friend'. I also liked the reviews of the miniatures because sometimes I just don't want to go online to find things. But I hope future issues might include some 6mm miniatures and buildings, although I imagine they may be the hardest to display. But overall, a great magazine and one I shall certainly be keeping a look out for, even though, in my case, it involves a fair bit of travelling to find a shop that sells it. (I know I should subscribe, but I only buy magazines that have at least two articles that interest me and most of my 'reading money' goes on books)

I always enjoy the fact that teh figure reviews generally never include any 1/72 plastic figures, despite PSR showing how many are available.

Predjudice, ignorance, laziness, bias or something else?

Ok, back off my soapbox…sigh…

Marc at work

I suggest you contact the magazine about it. I'm sure they would love to hear from one of their readers. I might contact them about including some 6mm product reviews. But my guess is that what they include may well come down to who is willing to pay to have their products reviewed, if indeed they have to pay?

Usually they just have to supply samples of whatever they want reviewed for free.

Guy can only review what he's sent. That goes for both the general review section and for the theme miniature overview. And Gazzola, nobody has to pay to have their products reviewed (apart from the postage to have something sent to Guy).