"Miniature Wargames 401 out" Topic

No. 401 is on the shelves today in Smith's (UK) and it is a splendid cover to cover read.

Of all the mags, this seems to be hitting the mark for me. Two big reasons, it is quite reminiscent of Practical Wargamer, which I have fond memories of and which just feels like a magazine written by wargamers for wargamers. It is all about wargaming, not historical based articles, but actually doing it.

And secondly it is not themed. A themed mag is good when it is 'your thing', but if it isn't (which in my experience is quite often), that's an awful lot of the magazine that is not going to get read – indeed, I wonder how many 'on the shelf' issues have been by-passed by people who cherry pick and certainly avoid themes they don't like.

Anyway, that is just a personal view that many will not agree with. I do buy all three magazines (so feel justified in commenting), it's just that I have a favourite.

Anyway, this issue needs to be in your hands :-)

I agree… I used to subscribe to Wargames Illustrated but it now has little draw for me… barely recognise it as my hobby! I buy WSS when the themes interest me.

Not seen MW for a while. Is it mostly columns these days? That's how it looked from the contents on TMP.

To be clear, I'm not saying that is good or bad, I'm just curious as that would make it different to other mags.

I still subscribe to WI , and every time a new issue arrives I ask myself "why?". I don't like theme issues , and the constant house organ aspect is off putting.

Not seen MW for a while. Is it mostly columns these days? That's how it looked from the contents on TMP.

No, it's a good mixture of columns (there are three or four regular coolumnists) and articles.

WI hasn't been a house organ for some months now. When I visited their offices earlier on this year Wayne Bollands made a point about how WI ISN'T a house magazine. It runs its own affairs now. I think people should stop calling it a Battlefront house magazine because that is factually incorrect these days.

As for MW, it's a pot pourri of stuff; it varies from opinion columns to reviews and watching the trends to keeping alive a lot of traditional ideas of gaming to innovations and with a few craft and scenarios thrown into the mix. It has the most personality of the 3 main titles and I find it not necessarily the most practical but certainly the most entertaining read.

I only buy MWwBG these days (for several years in fact) – it works for me, and is a nice alternative to the blogs that I frequent for more specific wargame fixes.

WI sold out to BF and that killed it for me after years of having it on sub. I won't be going back.

As I said, it's independent from BF and has been for a few months now. It does, however, see itself as being right in the middle of the UK wargaming scene and is thus focussed on the new and shiny products because most is made near their premises which gives it an advantage.

OK let's be specific. How 'Independent' is it ? Who owns it ? Who appoints the editor ?

@Guthroth

It's owned and edited by Dan Faulconbridge. It's completely independent and runs nowadays completely on its own merits. You may not like the content, but that's another matter – Dan runs a totally independent ship.

Henry
MWBG