"Review of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy #82" Topic

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Duel in the Desert is this issue's theme, with a diorama featuring two overconfident British tankies taking on two armed Afrika Korps soldiers and a Mk III panzer armed only with a revolver.

EDITORIAL: Before we get into Guy's opening comments, one thing to take note of is the new graphic layout of the magazine. The content style hasn't changed, as we shall see, but the fonts and background art is noticeably different. For example, the editorial looks like it's been typed on a bit of lined notepaper torn out of a child's exercise book. I'm ambivalent about these changes but they don't detract. Anyway, Guy talks about his love of WW2 Western Desert games.

MINIATURE REVIEWS: Plenty here, and a wide variety as well. Noteworthy inclusions would be a 28mm 17th century ducking stool plus unwilling female victim, armed miners for AVBCW, nice Cold War era British light armour in 20mm, Mexican revolution artillery, Steampunk cowboys and many others; my time limits me from including them all.

THE TURNING YEAR: Rick Priestley looks back at his 2015 and muses on what he might be gaming in 2016. Of particular note is his reference to the new format of Warhammer (Age of Sigmar). Not only has his brainchild been abandoned by GW, he reflects that the new game's format leaves him cold; it isn't for him (nor for many others, by all accounts).

A HOWL IN THE DARKNESS: A mini-campaign for Frostgrave which pits a band of doughty human hunters against a werewolf and his normal wolf cronies. The key to winning seems to be keeping your force largely intact during the first scenario.

CHARIOTS RAMPANT: Is there another set of rules out there being adapted so freely as Lion Rampant? Here are rules for using it during the Bronze Age, with a big emphasis on chariots (clue's in the title). Next up; Mech Walker Rampant.

THE SWEDISH CRUSADERS: A relatively obscure wargaming period but here you get an interesting article about the history of 13th Century Swedish campaigns of expansion and a scenario of the Battle of Leal. Rules recommended are Hail Caesar and….Lion Rampant (that game gets everywhere!)

PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES: You may have read the book, the film is coming out soon but now you can play the game. Everything you need to know about the premise can be deduced from the title and it would be all silly fun pitting the Darcys and their chums against zombies. My only quibble, and it's with the source material as well as the scenario, is the decision to revise the Darcy and Elizabeth's backstory and give them Ninja skills and arm them with katanas. Utterly pointless (Darcy would not mess about with kung-fu or kendo: A swift and hearty swipe with a 1796 pattern heavy dragoon sword would be his style. (Elizabeth would surely be a crack archery shot). My recommendation if I were running said game would be to dispose of the silly revision of putting Oriental weapons and tactics into the game and just give Darcy good old British fisticuffmanship, duelling pistol skills and a hearty cavalry sabre.

MANCOLA FORTUNA, NON IL VALORE: And so, onto the theme which is about WW2 in the desert with an emphasis on the Italians. This is the historical background to the Italians, correcting some of the assumptions made about them and giving a fair description of their abilities and flaws.

MAKING MUSSOLINI'S MEN: Warwick Kinrade, designer of Battlegroup, explains a bit about the Italian units from the perspective of the forthcoming Battlegroup North Africa supplement. Informative, both in a general way (in case you don't play Battlegroup) and with some specifics for that game. Rather generously, Warwick mentions other rules sets and supplements in a sidebar.

CRYSTAL PALACE WOULD LOOK SMALL FRY: Another mini-campaign, this time pitting an SAS unit against German defenders of an airfield. It uses a modified version of the modern day rules, Black Ops, and it's a campaign that could easily be run over 2 gaming sessions or a single full day.

THE RAM DEFEATS THE LION: Zooming out in gaming scale, this is a larger company/battalion level scenario (and yet another mini-campaign) pitting Italians and British forces against each other. This could be adapted for any tactical/operational level rules sets, although the authors recommend 6mm scale forces and Microarmour rules.

A MIXED SHOW: Another scenario, but not a campaign, with the Free French vs the Vichy French in Transjordan. A company or battalion level game, not for any rules in particular but an interesting new spin on the war in the Mediterranean.

THE REGIO ESERCITO: A round up of figures for WW2 Italians. This really does cover all scales from 28mm down to 6mm, especially the oft-neglected 20mm (yay!). You should find everything you need in the scale of your choosing and this is the best figure round up I've seen WSS do.

DUEL IN THE DESERT: How the front cover diorama was made. The paint work, especially on the figures, is superb.

COMPUTER DAT…ERR, GAMING: Jamie Gordon's experiment in getting together players for a game of Fallout using the power of the internet to get people who had never met in person around a table to play a game. Nice.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE DAK: Painting tips for painting Afrika Korps uniforms; an army where many disagree over what the colours of the DAK actually were. Useful if you haven't made up your mind which colours to use.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE: How to model realistic looking bodies of water in your games (emphasis on canals and ponds) instead of using irregular bits of sky blue cloth or painted wood.

LET'S PLAY BEYOND THE GATES OF ANTARES: Now it may be just me, but whenever I hear or read the title to Rick Priestley's new sci-fi game I imagine Lt Uhura from Star Trek singing it. That aside, this looks at the game and in particular its background; which isn't like 40K or Traveller or Tomorrow's War but a coherent universe of its own. The actual rules are a progression from Bolt Action so if you play that, you'll be familiar with the command dice aspect. There's an appendix of looking at some of the miniatures and play aids from the box set. Now, let's all sing together "My heart lies beyond the gates of Antareeeeeeesssssss!"

GAME REVIEWS: Another thumbs up for Honours of War, Skirmish Outbreak, the zombie supplement for Skirmish Sangin, Dragon Rampant (again with that Rampant game!) and the quirky Tail Feathers.

LEADERSHIP: Richard Clarke's ironically named Up Front column (it's always been towards the back of the magazine) is now sandwiched between the game review and the book review sections which seems a bit odd to me. I like it as the thoughtful book end of WSS. Anyway, Richard explains the importance of leaders in games and how they motivate and direct troops with a view to incorporating the effects of leaders in rules.

BOOK REVIEWS: There's an alternative history book from Osprey based on H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, two apparently lacklustre boos about members of the SS and the history of Soviet espionage organisations and another Osprey about Russian special forces.

PARTING SHOTS: How to use yet another bit of pet store product (Chinchilla dust…I never knew that stuff existed) to enhance your terrain painting. How to use Dettol to strip primer paint and Dicing With Dai takes over a children's sand pit.

OVERALL: An excellent edition. Personally, I play a lot of WW2 games so the theme was right up my street but even so the variety of games presented was impressive and represents good value for money. Lots of scenarios and mini-campaigns on offer and what I particularly liked was that none of them duplicated the others. This I noticed and liked in the Liepzig issue: You get a skirmish game, a company level game and a battalion level game. Outside of the theme the other articles are strong and if you got rid of Darcy and Lizzie's ninja-warrior skills, it'd be near perfect.

Darcy wants the 1796 light Cavalry Sabre, a weapon so lethal it was complained about. the heavy cavalry sword is basically a club with a bit of an edge and much less nasty.

Good point.

I used to own a 1796 Pattern British Light Cavalry Sabre. I concur, it was a real nasty weapon.

I agree, this was a good issue. The much maligned Italians getting some good press.
My favourite part of WSS magazine is Richard Clark's column. He always has something interesting to say.

Thanks for your review uber-C!

Thanks for the feedback Ubercommando. As always, good points and food for thought.

Guy

I take it you haven't read "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". The oriental weapons and training are true to the book (Mr Bennett employed a Japanese sensei to train his daughters in the martial arts).

When it comes to columnists, it seems pretty clear who the editor thinks is the big name star and who is the also-ran. Up Front is certainly an ironic title. Hidden Away at the Back would be a better one.

I did say the oriental weapons were part of the source material. I have read the book and I thought the Oriental aspect was the worst thing about it. It wasn't needed and it detracted from the piece, which was OK but a one joke premise stretched out.

Oooh, that's fightin' talk, Bob Grognard. I've always found Priestley at the front and Clarke as the overture and the denouement of WSS; neither having precedent. After all, you might argue that Priestley gets the initial argument in but Clarke is the one you'll remember at the end. I don't second guess how Guy edits his magazine or who are his favourites.

BobGrognard, I count both Rick and Rich as good friends. The layout certainly shows NO preference on my part, sir!

I count myself fortunate to be in the company of two great game writers as Rick and Rich.

Guy