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Friday 24 April 2015

Miniature Wargames with Battlegames Issue 385

The May issue of MINIATURE WARGAMES WITH BATTLEGAMES magazine arrived in the post just before midday today ... and it gave me great pleasure to tear off its wrapper and begin reading it!


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
  • Fynbos: The continuing tales of a wargames widow by Diane Sutherland
  • Fantasy Facts by John Treadaway
  • The march on Madrid: Gaming the Spanish Civil War: Part 2 by Andrew Rolph
  • The Donald Featherstone Tribute Weekend: A bridge too far for Featherstone Followers by Paul Goodwin and Chris Scott
  • The retreat from Quatre Bras to Mont St Jean: The prelude to the epic encounter at Waterloo by John Franklin
  • Flagging spirits: A colourful 'old school' morale indicator by Arthur Harman
  • The Battle of Dara 530AD: Byzantines and Sassanids clash by Jim Webster
  • Hex encounter by Brad Harmer
  • Send three and fourpence by Conrad Kinch
  • The Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal report by Henry Hyde
  • Recce
At the expense of repeating myself yet again, this is another excellent issue ... and not because Henry Hyde chose mention my blog in the World Wide Wargaming section and to re-print an article on mine from THE NUGGET about why I blog. My 'stand out' articles were:
  • The second of Andrew Rolph's The march on Madrid articles
  • Paul Goodwin and Chris Scott's report about The Donald Featherstone Tribute Weekend
  • Arthur Harman's Flagging spirits (Arthur is an old wargaming friend of mine and a game designer sans pareil)
  • Conrad Kinch's Send three and fourpence which discusses the merits of gridded wargames ... and mentions this blog and some of my rules as well!

6 comments:

  1. Bob,

    It was good to see both your blog and the Portable Wargame get the publicity they richly deserve.

    You really should send Henry some of your PW rules for different periods - but I expect you may have already done so!

    A good issue of MWBG, but I confess I'm becoming disenchanted with the amount of space given over to Neil Shuck's column and Fantasy Facts - but I guess that's because I'm not the least interested in modern/sci fi warfare. Although I don't play Ancients, I always enjoy Jim Webster's articles because they are well thought out and present practical ideas for wargames that one could easily stage.

    As for your remarks about my piece on flags - you are too kind!

    Best wishes,
    Arthur


    ReplyDelete
  2. Arthur1815,

    Funnily enough Henry and I have exchanged a couple of emails about a possible article or two for MWBG.

    I do look through the sci-fi and fantasy articles because they sometimes cover products that might be useful; likewise Forward observer sometimes has something of interest.

    Like you I don't 'do' Ancients, but I read the articles because they are usually well written and cover geographical areas that interest me ... often for possible nineteenth century campaigns.

    You and I have discussed using musician and officer figures to represent a unit's morale, and the use of flags seemed to me to be a logical development from that.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. Bob,

    The mention of this blog in MWBG is well-deserved. I always enjoy reading your articles, also the reports about your various cruises :-)

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  4. Phil Dutré,

    Many thanks for your very kind words. I hope that you enjoy reading my latest blog entry about events in Zubia.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bob

    Thanks again for a mention of my article. Who would have thought it would run to three issues? Pity really because another paragraph on TO&Es and people could have got started if they had wanted to. Ah well, Henry's the editor. There's probably another four pages of notes and alternative uses.

    Following on from last month the campaign at my local club proceeds. As noted then the Rebels avoided Toledo and marched directly to Campamento where they began to show signs of complacency, presumably induced by the ease of their victories to date. As a result a rather bad plan (on their part) for the battle delivered the first set back of the campaign as the advance was halted. This was followed by a very large Government counterattack, which was an abject failure and the Rebels resumed their advance to Madrid - but the delay was critical. Time is now short.

    It's now week 15 (around 16 November) and two very weak banderas, two reasonable tabores and about 20 turns on the table are all that is left of the strike at Madrid.

    I'll comment for the final time after next month's MWwBG when I should be able to let you know who finally won.

    Cheers

    Andrew

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rumblestrip (Andrew),

    It was my pleasure. I have really enjoyed reading your articles, and I am particularly looking forward to seeing the ORBATs/TO&Es that you used.

    The campaign sounds very interesting … and the outcomes of the recent battles are very believable. I have often wanted to see what would happen if Franco had avoided going to Toledo and had marched straight on to Madrid. I suspect that he would not have captured the city and would have lost a major propaganda coup in the process. It might also have cost him a chance of becoming Caudillo as there were several other possible rivals at the time.

    I look forward to reading how the whole campaign pans out.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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