Miniature Wargames with Battlegames Issue 396

The April issue of MINIATURE WARGAMES WITH BATTLEGAMES magazine arrived in the post on Thursday morning, and I was able to read it this morning after breakfast.

The articles included in this issue are:

• Briefing (i.e. the editorial) by Henry Hyde
• World Wide Wargaming by Henry Hyde
• Forward observer by Neil Shuck
• Spikes, barbs and mines: The continuing tales of a wargames widow by Diane Sutherland
• Fantasy Facts by John Treadaway
• Send three and fourpence by Conrad Kinch
• Salute Show Guide
• Welcome to Salute 2016
• The Salute 2016 model by Kevin Dallimore
• Steampunk gaming: 1 by Sarwat Chadda
• Steampunk gaming: 2 by Alan Patrick
• Salute 2015: Painting Competition
• Salute 2016 Games
• Salute 2016 Hall Plan
• Salute 2016 Traders
• Steampunk gaming: 3 by John Treadaway
• Steampunk gaming: 4 by Philip Andrews
• Running the guns by Phil Portway
• The 5 year mission continues by Ivan Congreve
• Brotherhood of Mars by Joel, Paul, Lawrence, Alan and Neil of the South London Warlords
• Salute and its origins by John Treadaway
• Napoleonic Bicentenary: How wargamers commemorated 1815 by David Burden and James Fisher
• Hex encounter by Brad Harmer-Barnes
• Eindecker!: part 2: The rules for early WW1 air war by Chris Russell
• Recce
• The Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal report by Henry Hyde

My favourite article in this issue was Conrad Kinch's Send three and fourpence because it is entirely devoted to a Sword and the Flame scenario and battle report. It is a follow-up to the Chamla Valley scenario that is featured in the 20th Anniversary Edition of Sword and the Flame, and is entitled 'King of the Chamla Constabulary'. From my point of view, this article alone justifies the cost of buying this issue of the magazine.

The various Steampunk articles were also very interesting, mainly because I have always enjoyed reading science fiction, detective, and adventure stories set at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. I have yet to actually do any Steampunk wargaming, but it certainly holds some appeal for me.

It was also of interest to me that Arthur Harman had written a review of Mike and Joyce Smith's TABLE TOP BATTLES: TABLE TOP WARGAMING WITH MINIATURES for the Recce section. I first discovered these rules some years ago, and I still look at them for ideas and inspiration every so often.

All-in-all this was another excellent issue ... and it continues to justify my decision to buy a subscription by direct debit!