I hope you all had a happy Easter, and what better to launch you from spring into summer than a new issue of Miniature Wargames with Battlegames. And so, in issue 373 published on Friday, 25th April, you'll find the following:
Forward Observer: Neil Shuck was writing just before the mammoth Salute show earlier this month, but did some crystal ball gazing at what you were likely to find there (and was, for the record, pretty much spot on!). He also discusses the latest offerings for 28mm Western Desert gaming, coinciding nicely with the TooFatLardies bringing out their own Chain of Command campaign extension for that theater. New plastics for the Peninsular War are on his radar too, rounding off with 40mm miniatures suitable for skirmishing.
Steaming ahead: wargames widow Diane Sutherland has something hot and steamy for us, and this time it has paddles! If you're fed up with paddling your own canoe, or find yourself up a particular creek without a paddle, then hop aboard the SS Sutherland which will turn you into Fitzcarraldo in no time at all. With resin craft at premium prices, building bargain boats has got to be a winner!
Fantasy facts: John Treadaway is knee-deep in goodies once again, and there's lots of pretty stuff to see. Copplestone Castings have their lovely 15mm Fantasy Barbarica line, Hydra Miniatures have some superb stuff in their Retro Raygun range, Brigade Models are cranking out excellent 15mm sci-fi vehicles and buildings, and GZG have chucked some prawns on the barbie (or, more correctly, released some rather prawn-like creatures!). Then we have Clear Horizon with a great range of Helldivers in 15mm, and as if that wasn't enough, Ainsty have gone ape on us, releasing a 28mm Ape Patrol to… well… patrol the Planet of the Apes! All good fun for genre fans.
Threat generation: new contributor and largely solo gamer Martin England has found a way of overcoming that perennial problem for soloists. Stymied by the inability of tabletop wargames to provide the immediacy and tension of computer wargames, he was close to giving up – until one day, he had his "Eureka!" moment, which he shares here with us now.
Send three and fourpence: Conrad Kinch, never one to flinch at the big questions, considers the thorny problem of prisoners in wargames, an aspect that is often overlooked. What do you do with a unit that is surrounded?
Ogre – everything from Texas is bigger. Sci-fi gamer Ashley Pollard confesses her love for one of the classic sci-fi games, first produced in the heady '70s when everything was new and exciting. Quite an achievement, then, for one of those games to still be pulling in the punters in the second decade of the 21st Century. Here she examines the game in its latest incarnation, as well as discovering its history.
Fighting for Featherstone: on 21st-23rd March, The Editor attended the inaugural Donald Featherstone Tribute Weekend and presents a visual diary of a magnificent weekend of American Civil War battling and the presentation of the very first Donald Featherstone Trophy, all held in honor of one of the hobby's legendary figures and conducted in the spirit of wargaming.
Wargaming Books for Schools: Rich Clarke of TooFatLardies fame is rather keen on Henry Hyde's book, The Wargaming Compendium, and is determined to help get a copy into every school in the land to help encourage young newcomers into the hobby. Here he explains his wonderfully generous idea. [Clearly a man of fine taste! Ed.]
Keep lunch warm – the battle of Klissow 1702. Nick Dorrell and Per Broden staged a magnificent 6mm demo game at The Joy of Six show last autumn, and here they describe the historical battle from the Great Northern War, setting the scene for you to play the wargame and describing their own exciting replay.
Command challenge – Yakhroma 1941: Andrew Rolph returns with a really testing bridgehead scenario from Operation Barbarossa in 1941, with Germans and Soviets struggling in the snow. Can you capture the bridge in these testing conditions? Thanks too to Warwick Kinrade for lending some lovely photos!
And of course we have Recce (focusing on books and rules this month), a report from the Cavalier and Hammerhead shows by John Treadaway, a couple of snapshots from Salute, a competition to win signed copies of the spanking new Masters in Miniature book by the Perry twins, and an update on our Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal - justgiving.com/battlegames - which is now nudging an amazing £15,000.00 GBP!
The brand-new Masters in Miniature book is also now on sale, illustrated with beautiful photographs taken by the Perry twins themselves, displaying armies from many historical eras in mouth-watering dioramas and vignettes, created by Alan and Michael Perry with help from their wargaming friends and designed by Henry Hyde. The book opens with a foreword by Rick Priestley and concludes with a brief biography of the twins by Henry Hyde.
It covers:
- The First Crusade 1096-1099
- Agincourt to Orleans 1415-1429
- The Wars of the Roses 1455-1487 and European Armies 1450-1500
- Samurai Armies 1550-1615 and Choson Korean Army 1592-1598
- The English Civil Wars 1642-1651 and the Border Reivers of the 1580s
- The American War of Independence 1775-1783
- Napoleonic Armies 1809-1814
- Napoleonic Armies 1815
- The First Carlist War 1833-1840
- The American Civil War 1861-1865
- The Mahdist Uprising in the Sudan 1881-1885
- World War II 1939-1945
A book destined to be treasured by wargamers, modellers and military enthusiasts. Available from Atlantic Publishers, Caliver Books and On Military Matters.
