Issue 362 is humming away on the presses and due to be published on Friday, 24th May. What can you expect?
- Briefing: the Editor reflects on an extremely busy couple of months!
- Dates for your Diary: UK wargaming events in June.
- Forward observer: regular columnist Neil Shuck casts his eye over the current wargaming scene, including the forthcoming Chain of Command rules from the Lardies, a new company producing plastic ancients, fantasy additions to Scarab’s War & Conquest, APCs for sci-fi, the explosion in MDF scenery, Victorian sci-fi, Mantic’s latest Kickstarter venture, X-Wing and the rumoured death of Games Workshop’s Specialist Games division.
- Fields of value: wargames widow Diane Sutherland sets about some miniature market gardening, creating fields of brassica for your wargames at peppercorn cost. You’ll be minding your miniature peas and cucumbers.
- The Great Armada part 2: Jim Webster imagines the situation of a potential Spanish landing in the north of England and provides simple rules for a mini-campaign.
- Whose history? answered: a classic philosophical piece in the Battlegames mould is the first of two heavyweight pieces in this issue. Here, American gamer and simulation designer William Haggart responds to an article by Ross Macfarlane published in Battlegames 34, pointing out that we are probably asking the wrong questions of the wrong people!
- Swamp pursuit: Arthur Harman has us playing fugitives running for our lives, pursued by all manner of nasty things – and we’d better be careful where we put our feet, too! Great for translating to any period or genre, with suggested rules mechanisms provided for a fun and unusual gaming session.
- Send three and fourpence: Conrad Kinch recalls the game that changed his life and the lessons it taught him about how to attract newcomers into the hobby.
- 1644: Paul Johnston provides some rules and outlines some clever ideas for creating an alternative English Civil War campaign that can be played via mail or email, with plenty of ‘fog of war’ to keep players on their toes!
- Camerone 1863: we like to keep Jim Webster busy, and here he celebrates the 150th anniversary of the famous last stand of the French Foreign Legion, including a set of rules for refighting the battle. Thanks also to Ged Cronin of Gringo 40s for allowing the Editor to invade his home for a last-minute photo shoot!
- Command challenge: Save Lady Jane from McSiggins! The Editor asks whether you can successfully command a squad of Royal Marines to get ashore on a Caribbean island, kill or capture Peg Leg McSiggins and his scurvy crew, and rescue the fragrant Lady Jane Fitz-Lovely, the Commodore’s wife. There’s treasure to be found too!
- Competition: thanks to the generosity of Osprey, we have no less than three sets of three Myths and Legends books to give away!
- Painting perfect pikemen: 15mm gamer and blogger Tamsin Piper recently set about painting no less than 256 Swiss pikemen in a matter of just three weeks! Here she reveals the techniques that made it possible to achieve this remarkable goal.
- Salute 2013: rather than having just a dull walk-through, we asked veteran gamer Dillon Browne to describe the show from the perspective of someone involved in putting on a demonstration game with his pals from the Oxford Wargames Society, as well as trying to get round the traders and see the other games. He had a busy day!
- Think tank: in our second ‘thinking wargamer’ piece this issue, Tim Beresford assesses the problems with bottom-up wargaming and why this can lead to the shipwreck of many a project and the growth of the lead pile. Tim makes comparisons with model railways and the examples of masters of the wargaming art like Bruce Weigle. Inspiring stuff!
- Recce: a host of new products, rules and books reviewed by our team, including In Her Majesty’s Name steampunk rules, Lifecolor paints, Battlegroup Overlord from Iron Fist/PSC, Bolt Action books for the US and British armies, Sicily 1943 from Osprey, Dead Man’s Hand Wild West rules, a couple of intriguing French language WWII battlefield books from Casemate and the exciting new Austro-Prussian War book from Ken Trotman. In addition, the Editor surveys samples in metal and plastic from the Perrys, Gripping Beast, Minairons, Plastic Soldier, Pendraken and Clockwork Goblin Miniatures. Phew!
- The Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal: with a flurry of auctions and donations, the Appeal is moving steadily towards our target. Here, the Editor delivers a full update and explains what’s coming next.
And as if that wasn’t enough, we have a selection of classified ads and messages from your favourite companies!
That’s all for this time, I’m already working on 363!
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