MWBG 393

Publication date Friday 24th December

 

Already looking forward to the New Year and what looks to be another great year for the hobby, in this issue:

  • Richard Marsh confesses his love affair with 1970s Sandskrieg gaming by John Sandars and the ‘do it yourself’ attitude of a former age in The Return of von Bludengutz. Lots of lovely desert models as seemn on the front cover.
  • In Adapting To the Strongest, Daniel Mersey explores the ways in which Simon Miller’s popular Ancients rules can be adapted to his existing miniatures and boardgame collection that he’s used for DBA and Commands & Colors.
  • The Editor spent a pleasant afternoon in the Big Red Bat cave with the man responsible for some of the show-stopping games of the last couple of years, and an upsurge in interest in the Ancients period and reports here on A Chat with Simon Miller.
  • American contributor Stokes Schwartz is keen to recreate military clutter for his wargames in Paint Your Wagon – what better way than to add elements of the logistical tail that has followed every army since time immemorial?
  • Steve Jones returns with another of his crowd-pleasers, a single scenario suitable for playing in multiple periods, with or without adaptations to the terrain. So, whether you like ancients, horse and musket or WWII, you’ll enjoy One Ridge, Two Bridges.
  • Even more for WWII fans! In Just What the World Needs, Jim Bambra explains what inspired him to enter the crowded WWII rules market, his design goals and how he went about creating and testing Armour Battles: Combat HQ.
  • We also have a show report: Wim Van den Berghe visited mainland Europe’s biggest miniatures gaming convention Crisis 2015 at the beginning of November and kindly snapped away all day to provide us with lovely pictures from the Belgian show. Many thanks, Wim!.

Of course, we have our regular spots too:

  • The Editor focuses on the future and his reborn love affair with a historical period and the teeny weeny miniatures he finds best suited for it in his Briefing; in his World Wide Wargaming, he explains how to set up your own Facebook Page and honours two blogs from one wargamer.
  • Neil Shuck recaps his highlights of 2015 and looks forward to even more goodies in the coming year as well as progressing his own gaming..
  • Diane Sutherland aspires to join the ranks of ‘footballers’ wives’, revealing secret desires for a half-timbered house with a gravel driveway and mullioned windows – but the ones her husband Jon wants are far too small to fit an Aga, and he doesn’t earn a footballer’s wages either...
  • In Fantasy Facts, with one eye on the removals van and the packing cases, John Treadaway casts his eye over an impressive pile of genre offerings this month, including new rules for one of his favourite ‘periods’.
  • Boardgame specialist Brad Harmer-Barnes uses his Hex Encounter to welcome you to the world-famous Hex Encounter Awards, hosted by your favourite card counter-pushing, genial and all-round shouty celebrity columnist.
  • In his Send three and fourpence column, Conrad Kinch Conrad Kinch is surprised that we don’t use surprise more often in our games, but reminds us that it is simply surprise and not shock that we seek, to remain sociable..
  • Of course we have our Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal which has received a significant boost this month, and our highly respected Recce section reviews all manner of books, rulesets, and other wargaming stuff.
  • We also announce that places are available for the third Featherstone Annual tribute to be held at the Wargames Holiday Centre near Basingstoke, this year featuring the enormous Battle of Leipzig 1813.
  • Finally, our competition this month features amazing generosity from The Plastic Soldier Company – not one, not two, not three, not four… FIVE of their brand new Army Boxes worth between £59.95 and £75 each!

 

Remember also to check out the “Goodies” section on our website at http://miniaturewargames.co.uk

Until next time, Happy New Year!

 

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