We've had an entrée of WSS, now the main course of MW w/BG. WI pudding to come.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Ancient chariots! This relates to an old school scenario (and it really is old school) inside the magazine. Where WSS has a bespoke diorama on the front cover, MW specialises in the posed actual game photo. No attempt to conceal the bases or suggest this is anything other than a game with model soldiers.
BRIEFING: Henry is going further afield abroad, for both professional, holidaying and history geeking out reasons and takes time out to reflect on the varying fortunes of Renaissance Spain and Venice. Travel does broaden the mind.
WORLD WIDE WARGAMING: A welcome shout out to the website, Model Dads, which is a very handy resource (and yet another way to get mired in net surfing) and the Wargames Design website, run by Jim Bambra. There he doesn't just have rules for you, he explains the design process openly.
FORWARD OBSERVER: If you've been following the progress of Neil Shuck's 15mm WW2 project over the last few months, you'll like this latest instalment of finding suitable buildings and terrain for it. Elsewhere he gives a shout out to the terrain mats from Deep Cut Studios and sticks up for the unfairly bypassed 20mm plastics for periods other than WW2. I've noticed his crowdfunding watch has disappeared from his column.
GRECIAN FARM: As I have mentioned many times in my reviews, I'm a terrain scratchbuilding numpty. I shouldn't be allowed near glue, I am hopeless with any kind of craft or DIY tool other than a hammer and my attempts to convert things that are laying around the house into wargame terrain results in….things that look like they were laying round the house but now covered in army colours that flake off even after 6 coats of varnish. Nevertheless, this project by Diane Sutherland, of an ancient Greek farm in 28mm, looks terrific and something which I'm so, so tempted to try building for myself. The beauty of this building is that it can be used across many different periods, from the Peloponnesian Wars to WW2 and beyond (EOKA uprising, anyone?).
FANTASY FACTS: Otherworld, Fantasy ruins, Crooked Dice's Mekon and Krynoid and the stalwart 15mm Hammers Slammers (and their ilk) additions are all given the Treadaway Review (sounds like a Ludlum novel).
CRUISING FOR A BRUISING: Daniel Mersey shares his love, and knowledge, for the British cruiser tanks of 1939-41: The A9, 10, 11 and their developments. What you get is a potted history, organisation and tactics, specifications, a painting guide, a selection of manufacturers and a review of 3 different rules which deal with the cruisers: Bolt Action, Blitzkrieg Commander and Flames of War. Seems that FoW comes out top! You read it here, ladies and gentlemen.
Added to that some nice photos of the tanks at Bovington plus some nifty microarmour pics. Very informative, light hearted in tone (well, you have to have a good sense of humour to love using these tanks in games) and a nice, off the beaten track kind of article.
SEND THREE AND FOURPENCE: Conrad Kinch is a bit round the houses this month. His point is made tangentially via a nod towards the work of Jon Ronson, an explanation about what YouTube is and how it works (in case you're one of the 12 people in the Western World who doesn't know) and a selection of favourite historical and military YouTube channels. Quite informative, and I'll certainly check out a few of those but boy, did he ever take his time to get there!
APOCRYPHAL WELL REVISTITED: The article featured on the front cover. Going waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy back to Charles Grant's Seventies opus, The Ancient War Game, the authors use a scenario from that book but use their own rules, which are included in the article. This has the feel of an old time, club game those of a certain age might have revelled in and a bit of an antidote if you're sceptical about modern, glossy rules. Lots of photos of the game in action to accompany the article.
THE PLEASANT LAND OF COUNTERPANE: Wargaming on your…erm…bed. What part of your house is 6'x4', isn't used until the nighttime and can be moulded into plains and hills? That's right, your bed. A beige bedspread can make for a simple Western Desert battle with microarmour. That is, until someone leans on the bed and a sinkhole to pull your forces down appears…
HEX ENCOUNTER: Brad Harmer looks at his favourite horror themed board games. Admittedly, not a format that produces genuine chills (unlike a good RPG), but there have been some gems; like Fury of Dracula which gets a mention here.
BE A STORAGE SCROOGE: Forget Figures in Comfort, Battlefoam or even raiding WH Smiths or Ryman's for their Really Useful Boxes, here's how you can turn your miniatures packaging plus photocopy paper boxes into figure storage cases for pennies rather than pounds! I'm quite a lazy gamer, so I do rely on Really Useful Boxes, but that's not to say this method isn't useful itself. Step by step instructions and illustrations help as well.
ARE YOU INSPIRED BY DICE: Part 2 of a personal opinion piece by Andy Copestake about what inspires his gaming. It's quite lengthy, 4 pages, which with his previous article about movies and TV extends his piece to about 8. Now, it is a very personal article: It begins with a question put to the reader about what inspires you before we are almost exclusively reading about Andy's journey in gaming. Now, this creates a couple of problems along with the basically interesting premise. First, because it is such a personal piece it does come across at times as self-indulgent. Second, he does that thing which irritates me in gaming magazines (often in Miniature Wargames) in taking a swipe at other games he doesn't like: In this case DBA, Warhammer and Flames of War. Now I like one of those a lot and respect the other two and understand not everyone likes them…but they are three games which have made a positive impact on the hobby as a whole and are enjoyed by many so when someone is so dismissive and damning of them it puts the reader on the back foot. He declares a preference for umpired games, games with "stories" to them and dislikes rules which are verbose or codify everything (ie, the American style) but as we've found out very recently on TMP, the preference between the loose, narrative style of rules and the exact, legalistic style is about 50/50 in terms of support so I can see a lot of people disagreeing with him if they read this.
Also, he creates a bit of a straw man argument when he says that surely no one is inspired by dice, or dice rolling. Now that's in reference to said legalistic rules or those who play the game but aren't that interested in the history. He can't see how people can like a game, but not care about the history. Well, I've gamed quite a few times with people who are more fascinated with the game mechanics and how it plays than the narrative or history. These people aren't inspired by dice, they're inspired by what they see as interesting or challenging rules that motivate their gaming. It's not the way I do it, it certainly isn't the way Andy Copestake likes to do it but it is a form and acceptable way of gaming and not to be summarily dismissed, in my opinion. The flip side of the historical knowledge argument is that games can be slowed or even undermined by the history bore who argues the toss regularly about how "accurate" these rules are to his fellow gamers. At those times, the game mechanic comes to the rescue. I don't want to write off this article, because it raises some interesting points and is well written for the most part, but it will divide readers, I think.
COLOURS 2015, NEWBURY: Phew, after my personal rant about a personal rant it's time to move on to this show report, the first of two. Some nice photos of an event which, for the first time, took place on one day instead of two.
THE OTHER PARTIZAN, 2015: A somewhat poignant piece by Neil Shuck about Partizan's last show at Kelham hall. Not so much a report on the day itself (although there are plenty of very nice photos) but more a reflection of the show's presence at Kelham.
RECCE: Lots of books n' stuff here; the stand out ones being the latest instalment of the 40K boardgame, Relic, the new Osprey Seven Years War rules, a juicy looking Star Wars X-Wing game Imperial warship and the new Skirmish Sangin spin off set in Mogadishu.
SUMMARY: I generally enjoy reading MW even if it doesn't cover my areas of interest and this issue is no exception. I am still pondering whether to build a Greek farmhouse, which is saying something, and the contributors have all put in some well written and even jovial pieces where their enthusiasm clearly shines through in parts. Less practical than other, recent issues: There's a total of 7 opinion pieces and only one of each of a scenario and modelling (although at a pinch you could say the storage box article counts as modelling or craft). Opinion pieces are always on a tightrope between being informative or illustrative and being a didactic rant by a fuddy duddy. Your enjoyment of them relies on how much your views chime with theirs. I would have liked to have seen more practical articles this time around but other than that, this is yet again an old school issue, wistfully harking back to earlier, more innocent time where glossy rules and slick marketing were but pie in the sky.
begins to think about terrain for Team Yankee.
