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Thursday 19 January 2017

Miniature Wargames Issue 406

The February issue of MINIATURE WARGAMES magazine was delivered several days ago, and for once I have had the opportunity to read it thoroughly before writing my review.


The articles included in this issue are:
  • Welcome (i.e. the editorial) by John Treadaway
  • Forward observer
  • Send three and fourpence: Who will rid me of this turbulent priest? by Conrad Kinch
  • Wargaming my way: by Jason Weiser
  • Journey to the Dark Side: Dark Age raiding scenarios for 'Dux Britannia' by George Anderson
  • Firefight: Simple rules for small actions in the modern age (Part One) by Stephen Jones
  • Problems at the Pot Bank: A battle report of a battle re-fought using 'Rapid Fire' nearly thirty years after it first appeared in 'Miniature Wargames' by Ron Miles
  • Darker Horizons
    • Fantasy Facts
    • Battletech: Alpha Strike by Joe McCullough
    • Painting Toy Tanks Redux by John Treadaway
    • Copying the Copycats by Jamie Gordon
  • It's the Chicago Way: Part Two by Brian Cameron
  • Recce
  • Star Architecture: Building a Vauban Fort by Niall Barry
  • Terrain Renewal: The continuing tales of a wargames widow by Diane Sutherland
  • Club Spotlight: Sheffield Wargames Society by various members of the Society
  • Club Directory
It might have been the fact that I had longer to read this magazine before putting my thoughts down on paper, but my gut feeling is that this is a better issue than the last. Conrad Kinch's VBCW scenarios in Send three and fourpence are interesting (and eminently playable!) as are those in George Anderson's Journey to the Dark Side. I thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia of Ron Mile's Problems at the Pot Bank (I can remember the original article and think that I have a copy in my cuttings folder) and whilst they are not quite my cup of tea, both Stephen Jones' Firefight rules and the second part of Brian Cameron's It's the Chicago Way were both well written and made me wonder if I ought to give them a try sometime. I always enjoy Diane Sutherland's articles, but I think that on this occasion Niall Barry's Star Architecture was the outstanding article about creating terrain for the tabletop.

All-in-all this was a good issue, and I am already looking forward to reading the next one.

2 comments:

  1. Hope to pick mine up today. The period of transition between editors has been a nervous one for this reader, but the early signs are good. I really enjoyed the last issue and your comments have me looking forward to more of the same. Just two hours and fifteen minutes to go :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Norm,

      As you might have gathered from some of my earlier reviews of the magazine since the change of editor, I was a bit concerned that the content was going in a direction that did not appeal to me. This issue seems to reverse that trend, and hopefully indicates that it is going to stay on a track that I can enjoy.

      All the best,

      Bob

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