The latest issue of Miniature Wargames arrived in the post a couple of days ago, and I have just finished to reading it.
The articles included in this issue are:
When I first looked at the cover, I thought 'there doesn't look like much for me in this issue' ... but I was very wrong. Other than the Darker Horizons section, almost every article contained something that was of interest to me, even if it covered an historical period that I do not normally wargame (e.g. Jim Webster's Greeks bearing gifts campaign).
In particular, I can see myself using the scenario for the Battle of Assaye in Conrad Kinch's Send three and fourpence and the three Indian Mutiny scenarios in Sassiah, Agra & Fatepuhr by Dave Tuck at some time in the future. Ralph Weaver's Altenhof 1848-2018 contained some useful information about one of the lesser-known battles of the First Schleswig War, and Jon Sutherland's Tavronitis Bridge gave me an idea for a scenario that I might try out using the modern version of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.
They say that you should never judge a book by its cover; perhaps in this case the same is true of a wargames magazine.
The articles included in this issue are:
- Welcome (i.e. the editorial) by John Treadaway
- Forward observer
- Send three and fourpence: Bloody for the numbers: The Battle of Assaye: a scenario for Commands & Colours Napoleonics by Conrad Kinch
- Tavronitis Bridge: Maleme, Crete, 20th May 1941 by Jon Sutherland, with photographs by Diane Sutherland
- Altenhof 1848-2018: The fight at Altenhof, 14th April 1848 put on by the Continental Wars Society at Salute 2018 by Ralph Weaver
- Greeks bearing gifts: A Greek campaign in the Ancient world by Jim Webster, with photographs by John Treadaway
- Darker Horizons
- Fantasy Facts
- Game over man, game over!: House rules for wargaming and role-playing Aliens in a board game environment by Graham Green, with photographs by John Treadaway
- It's elemental: More foam tricks and tips by Jeremey Claridge
- Sassiah, Agra & Fatepuhr: Three Indian Mutiny battles to fight out! by Dave Tuck, with photographs and maps by Malc Johnston
- Skirmish Sangin: Protect the Film Crew: an asymmetric incident with Mujahedeen mayhem set in Afghanistan by Colin Phillips
- Recce
- Hill Billy: The continuing tales of a wargames widow by Diane Sutherland
- Show Report: Give 'em a Broadside: the Editor takes a trip to Sittingbourne by John Treadaway
- Club Directory
When I first looked at the cover, I thought 'there doesn't look like much for me in this issue' ... but I was very wrong. Other than the Darker Horizons section, almost every article contained something that was of interest to me, even if it covered an historical period that I do not normally wargame (e.g. Jim Webster's Greeks bearing gifts campaign).
In particular, I can see myself using the scenario for the Battle of Assaye in Conrad Kinch's Send three and fourpence and the three Indian Mutiny scenarios in Sassiah, Agra & Fatepuhr by Dave Tuck at some time in the future. Ralph Weaver's Altenhof 1848-2018 contained some useful information about one of the lesser-known battles of the First Schleswig War, and Jon Sutherland's Tavronitis Bridge gave me an idea for a scenario that I might try out using the modern version of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.
They say that you should never judge a book by its cover; perhaps in this case the same is true of a wargames magazine.
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I'll have to pick up a copy before I go on holiday.
ReplyDeleteLee Hadley,
DeleteI think that you'll enjoy reading it during your holiday, and that you'll come back with lots of ideas.
All the best,
Bob
Picked mine up yesterday, I thought the Editorial was interesting … a plea for subscribers, I wonder whether the magazine finds itself in a tighter place than it did a year ago.
ReplyDeleteI am in two minds about this. I don't know whether it is best to subscribe and support the company directly, or buy off the shelf from WH Smiths, sales of which help ensure that the magazine still maintains high street presence and may recruit someone new that way. I don't know.
I do know that my fairly large Smiths, now only gets 3 copies of the magazine in and invariably, they don't sell all of those!
I really don't want to see my game mags go the way of the dinosaur!
Norm,
DeleteSome time ago I chose to subscribe to the printed version of MINIATURE WARGAMES and the PDF version of WARGAMES, SOLDIERS & STRATEGY because I felt that they had something to offer.
I found WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED was far too dominated by coverage of certain rules and little or no coverage of others, although that seems to have changed a bit. (I have sent them review copies of all my books, and have not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement let alone a review!) However, I do look at it every month, and probably buy it two or three times each year.
All magazine editors will tell you that they have lean times during the year, but the situation seems to be getting worse now that so many people who could write for them - myself included - choose to blog or self-publish. If they do 'go to the wall', it will be a sad day, but one has to ask oneself if there is sufficient demand for three regular, colour-printed wargames magazines. I would like to think so, and in the case of MINIATURE WARGAMES the editor is trying to cover a wider interest base in order to entice people to buy.
I am so old that I can remember there being only two wargaming magazines in the UK, the WARGAMER'S NEWSLETTER and MINIATURE WARFARE. Neither would survive in the modern world, but looking back at them, there seemed to be much more of a close partnership between the editor, the contributors, and the readers ... probably because the hobby was a lot smaller and there was far less available. I can well remember articles that were entitled something along the lines of 'How I turned the Airfix Robin Hood figures into a Zulu Impi' ... and how we would try (and fail) to copy such conversions!
So what could be done to improve the current situation? Well I could do my bit buy writing some scenarios for my rules. It has been suggested, and I am certainly thinking about it. In the meantime I will continue to subscribe to two wargames magazines in the hope that my small financial contributions will help keep them afloat.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm continuing to support MW by subscribing as I usually find several interesting articles therein - but if it should ever amalgamate with Tabletop Gaming, that will be the end as far as I'm concerned.
Regards,
Arthur
Arthur Harman (Arthur),
DeleteI suspect that a merger of MW with Tabletop Gaming would be a bad thing for both magazines, and they would almost certainly lose my subscription.
All the best,
Bob