"Issue number 405 on Miniature Wargames is imminent" Topic

Issue number 405 on Miniature Wargames is imminent – it should be with you before the festivities. What's in this issue?

Contents for Issue 405

THE COVER

Featuring a shot of a very nice German Flack gun from the Huntingdon & District Wargames club game at the Warfare at Reading show plus some Weird WW2 stuff from Achtung! Cthulhu.

FORWARD OBSERVER

What's up and coming in (mostly) historical wargaming. This month we cover new rules (Swordpoint and The Pikeman's Lament), wargaming holidays and terrain mats along with other items including a list of up and coming shows.

SEND THREE AND FOURPENCE

Beating the Mechanical Turk. Solo wargaming using The Men Who Would be Kings. Conrad Kinch gives us a scenario for this new rule set to enable solo play in Afghanistan, based on the mechanics already in the rules with a few twists of his own.

WARGAMING MY WAY

Andy Copestake, away from the Glory. Andy – main man at Old Glory UK – talks about his appreciation of the hobby and walks us through both his thoughts and his collection.

PUISSANT PIKE

Easy rules for small English Civil War battles. Arthur Harman gives us a simple – yet complete – set of Pike and Shot rules for the table top in any scale which he has used with his Year VI pupils who were studying the English Civil War.

GRID BASED WARGAMING

The second of a two-part article exploring the advantages of grids and hexes in gaming: four rule sets are meshed up! David Burden completes the piece he started last month with part two of gaming without a ruler – how to get on grid and on message with out expanding metal tape measures!

DARKER HORIZONS

This month (and with a change of name) we have several sections in the non-historical portion:

Fantasy Facts with the monthly round up of what's new in non-historical gaming with reviews on Mierce Miniatures, GZG, Gringo 40, Brigade, Antediluvian Miniatures and others;

An interview with Chris Birch of Modiphius about where the company is going next plus an exclusive Achtung! Cthulhu scenario just for readers of the magazine!;

Another exclusive in the shape of a Frostgrave scenario by author Joe McCullough where he introduces a new Barbarian type: the Tanted;

A visit to Dragonmeet, the London show of all things in non-historical gaming. For the most part (I mean they did have the Airfix Battle set there in 1/32nd but…).

BIG SAGA SMALL FIGURES

Scaling up the SAGA rules for bigger battles but dropping the figure size. Daniel Johnson takes us through the rationale of using the 28mm SAGA rules for bigger actions in 10mm with an explanation of why it works well for him and his group: bigger battles, lots of figures and multi-player games!

RECCE

What to read and why for wargamers: lot's of book reviews from across the wargaming spectrum by the Miniature Wargames team of crack reporters.

WARFARE 2016

A trip around the show. Warfare has been a major feature of the southern UK wargaming circuit for many years and is one of few remaining, two-day shows. The article has lots of shots of some of the great games that were present over the weekend.

WARGAMES WIDOW

Going retro with old school fabrication. Modern scenery in games is all very well but this month Diane Sutherland goes old school with brick paper and foam core.

CLUB SPOTLIGHT

The Crawley Wargames Club shows us how it's done. An inspiring clarion call from Duncan Gosling at the Crawley club accompanied by lots of great shots of club games makes a good argument for moving to West Sussex and joining immediately!

CLUB DIRECTORY

Find a club in your vicinity and add your club for free!

John Treadaway
Editor of Miniature Wargames

Good work John. Looks like you have revived it from the previous mess and got it going in a sensible direction. Congratulations and best wishes.

martin

Thanks Martin

John T

Flack sounds interesting. What is it?

It's what's known as a 'mistake!' – I suspect I will take some flak for that.

Flack | Define Flack at Dictionary.com
dictionary.com/browse/flack
or flack. [flak] /flæk/ noun. 1. antiaircraft fire, especially as experienced by the crews of combat airplanes at which the fire is directed.

Or flack, obviously…

Oh, I spied another one too: the new Barbarian type for Frostgrave is called the Tainted.

Of course that one's harder to spot…

Ah, I thought that was a type for "the Panted". The sensible barbarians who stay warmer in the winter than their loincloth-wearing cousins.

That would have certainly been more sensible, boywundyr. The chilly environs of the Frostgrave setting would definitely encourage me into my longjohns…

John T

Looks good.

The Painted would be the opposite extreme, then, wandering about in their birthday suit with warpaint and tattoos almost as blue as their freezing skin?

I thought "tanted" might be what things become after being tantalised… ;)

Painted… panting… taunting…

Well, it's a good article anyway!

And – in the pictures – lots of them are painted as well!

So it can all work!

John T

I'll give it a read. Wasn't too convinced with the most recent issue to be honest. Really not impressed by the over inclusion of the sci-fi and fantasy section. No objection to the odd article but it's far too much for me. There again I am an old fart…..

Good luck anyway and we'll see how it develops.

Yes, the balance does seem to have shifted; hardly surprising I suppose, given the new editor's gaming interests and priorities. The standard of English expression and the frequency of typos have been appalling in recent issues, too.

Fortunately, since it ceased to be the Battlefront house mag WI has been improving, so where at one time I wasn't bothered if I didn't see an issue for months, now I keep a look out for it at the B & M and newsagents. I think Henry Hyde's recruitment as a columnist says a lot about the direction WI is taking: the new MW?

Anyway, I'll be monitoring developments on the MW front. Depending on whether the fantastical drift continues it might yet see me cancelling my standing order at the local B & M.

Henry, perhaps Wargames Illustrated with Battlegames will be the next step on the road to White Dwarf with Battlegames, featuring the return of Historical Warhams and third-party games?

Yes, the balance does seem to have shifted; hardly surprising I suppose, given the new editor's gaming interests and priorities.

This is an interesting observation but – as it happens – the cart is before the horse.

The decision was made to include an extra 16 pages every month (let me say that again: extra) before I agreed to edit the magazine.

As I have said elsewhere, for readers who – like me – enjoyed the previous version of the magazine (which, of course, I've read – and contributed to – for almost three decades under several different editors) the 'rest' of the magazine – let's call it, for historical gamers, the 'rump' magazine – is exactly the same in content as it has been previously with a few areas switched as columnists have left.

Same historical content. Same sort of articles from many of the same contributors. Oh except that there are three more pages of them because that pesky Fantasy Facts section has been removed freeing up three more pages for historical content.

The extra non-historical pages are just that: 16 extra pages from a magazine that costs the same as it did.

I really don't see what the problem is, to be frank. It's like finding that the BBC added some SF programmes to BBC3 – nowadays available only on line.

If you don't want to watch (or read) them, don't watch /read them… How does is affect you?

The reality, however, is that non-historical wargaming is a significant portion of the general wargaming hobby and Miniature Wargames is trying hard to be a magazine for ALL wargamers.

As for me "gaming interests and priorities" I'll say this again: bear in mind I was heavily involved in the Salute show for a couple of decades and I honestly believe that show as – and is – an excellent example of a broad church show that reflects all tastes in wargaming. I believe that MW reflects that same 'period' mix: it's called wargaming in the 21st century.

As for other differences, the layout of the magazine is a change from what it was. Sure, some will like it, some won't.

I do.

John Treadaway

There are parts of the new layout I don't like, but eh, overall it's still been pretty good. I'll probably buy this issue when I see it, despite doing my best to empty my bank account in a holiday frenzy.

I want to read about those tented barbarian encampments.

I think I'll stick with Taunted: the ideas of Barbarians shouting "come on then if yer think yer 'ard enough" appeals…

John T

Good luck with this supplement John. As previous correspondant I'm pleased to see Andrew Hubback's original sci-fant vision for the mag vidicated and revived.

Thanks Gary

John T

Extra pages for no extra charge will always get my vote. Now, I'm primarily a historical wargamer but I still enjoy seeing some of the fantasy and Sci- Fi elements in a magazine even if I have absolutely no inclination to game them.

That said, my next game Friday will be a Frostgrave scenario and I do have massive 15mm Sci Fi armies in the probably idle hope that I will be able to convince some of my club members to play Tomorrow's War again.

Anybody have any idea why I received a message from the App Store saying my subscription was cancelled? I tried to open the app in the App Store but it won't load.

Interestingly enough I can read the issue on the app I downloaded.