Innehållsförteckning för June 2022 från Miniature Wargames

I love old wargames magazines and I have a stack of them. Miniatures Wargames, Wargames Illustrated, Battlegames and Practical Wargamerare all carefully packed in boxes in the attic and I will re-read them all… eventually. Of course I will: sometime around the time that I catalogue my library and decide to eat right and exercise more. But I was up in the attic recently, hiding two new scooters from the Kinchlets, who will be getting them for Easter and while I was up there, I idly started flicking through some of the older magazines, and something struck me. There was a huge amount of potted history in them. There was one article which was essentially a three page digest cobbled together from encyclopaedia articles about the Gwalior Campaign of 1843…

DOG STAR ANTICS £12 - £30 Elsewhere in this issue you will find an article using the Albedo164 system by Sally 4th. They also sent in some of the latest releases for this range which – I will confess – rather confused me. Not just because they follow the usual anthropomorphic domestic animal approach (and not so domestic: these have Lion and Hedgehog headed bipeds, amongst others…) but because they now appear to be in different scales. I have models marked as ‘large frame’ and ‘small frame’. But maybe they are just big creatures? My Lion sample is around 40mm tall (when you stick his head on) whereas the Shrew and Rat sample are about 25mm and are appropriately slender. Standard figures – like the EDF Spacers – are…

Pebble Park is a raid scenario for Albedo Combat Patrol (ACP164) produced by Sally4th however could readily be converted to another SciFi skirmish ruleset, or a Modern Era. For example, a US Special Forces raid against a Libyan warlord or the SAS against a certain Argentine airstrip?… Similarly, it could be used as the basis for a WWII game: the original SAS against a Storch in the desert, perhaps. Rules wise, the scenario should convert readily to something like Black Ops, Ultracombat Modern, or Victory Decision Raid! It is also highly suitable for solo play, using either the ACP164 solo rules or your own solo system. BACKGROUND The aggressors are a strong section sized strike team which has been tasked with blowing up a LARC (Light Airborne Rotocraft: think armed…

News, previews and community submissions from the wargaming world Sally 4th have a just released new range of 28mm miniatures for Swashbuckling Adventures. This new ‘venture’ marks the start of a partnership between Sally 4th and Iain Lovecraft to bring Iain’s extensive range of miniatures – previously only available for home printing in resin – to the marketplace as metal sculpts. They already have over a hundred miniatures at various stages: as well as more piratical types there are Romans (soldiers, civilians and gladiators), Conquistadores, Mayans, Normans and fantasy subjects to come. Proportions and detail are excellent: they stand about 30mm tall and come with a nicely textured, wooden ‘planking’ MDF base. So far they have staples such as Calico Jack; Anne Bonny; Barborossa; Mary Read and a female standard bearer…

Brigade Models are releasing a new water based 6mm scenery range. In mostly resin (with metal legs) the Deep Ocean Research Centre has lots of components from a VTOL landing pad to a desalination plant, with everything in between (including interconnecting walkways…). Component prices start at £2 but a whole set is £16.50 which saves a few quid. Being as it’s sci-fi there’s no hand rails but the set would look quite good in a ‘raised out of the jungle’ setting as an alternative. Go to brigademodels.co.uk…

This is the second of a series of articles on a return to the War of 1812 . It has a scenarios (with more to come) uses Live Free or Die rules as amended by the authors and includes downloadable content from them to help with the game. Ed. INTRODUCTION In the previous article I ran through the excellent ruleset from the Little Wars TV team and explained how we amended them to suit the conditions of the War of 1812. In this – and further articles – I intend to cover some of the battles and how we recreated them as a wargame using our 28mm figure collection. These will set out the historic background, the reason the battles were fought, give troop numbers, a map of the battlefield and the scaled down numbers…

Each Command Decision aims to offer a series of playable options in timeless military scenarios. Command Decision is designed so you can read the situation and figure out your own command decisions if you were leading the troops on the ground. You can either work through the various options or use the mechanics to create the precise circumstances of the table top engagement. The scenarios may have particular historical themes and settings, but you can easily adapt the mechanics to suit your own preferences and collections. SITUATION REPORT France is being overrun by the Germans with the Allied forces desperately trying to hold the Channel ports to evacuate the beaten men. You are peering through the gloom and black smoke at Boulogne harbour on HMS Whitshed. The destroyer is protecting…

Offensive Miniatures have a new addition to their Elite Range of 28mm figures. These include some more of the popular German Waffen SS – Assault Pioneers pack. The pack contains an assortment of ten assault pioneers: some clearing mines and barbed wire obstacles, as well as others engaged in placing charges and using a flamethrower to clear enemy positions. They also have some more British Paras – Specialists 2 (Engineers). This pack has an engineers’ section, again of ten figures involved in similar tasks: so more mine probing and barbed wire clearing, using a flamethrower and preparing charges. These are both £16 per pack available from offensiveminiatures.com…

This month we spoke to Oliver who had been miniature gaming for twelve years. What got him started? “I first got into miniature gaming when I was given a set of Operation Warboard, and my first armies were unpainted 1/72 plastic soldiers. Since then my collections have grown across scales, including 15mm and 28mm, and across periods, from the Punic Wars to D-Day, and even Age of Sigmar. I struggle to find a historical period that does not interest me enough to not wargame it! In recent years I have mainly focused on painting 28mm WW2 figures, particularly German and British forces for France and Operation Sealion 1940. “Recently I have finished painting a Fairmile D from Warlord Games for their Cruel Seas rules. The ships for Cruel Seas are…

Ten sixty six is of course one of the most memorable dates in the whole of British History – the year in which Harold Godwinson died under the blades of Norman Knights (most scholars now accept that it wasn’t an arrow in the eye which killed him) and Britain turned from a culture rooted in Germanic/Norse traditions to one of Norman/French with its feudal laws. Most histories gloss over what came next, except to say that the transition of power was achieved in a relatively peaceful manner. In fact everything was not peaceful and over an eight year period from 1067 to 1075 there were eight rebellions in England against William’s rule with another breaking out in 1080. Given that these revolts involved not only rebellious Anglo Saxons but also…

Way back in 2011 I found an image of a paper or card model kit of a small Greek Church and I thought it would make a great piece of scratch built terrain. My model was originally started many years ago, but sat unfinished until quite recently: in fact, until I needed a small church for a Silver Bayonet scenario. Rather than start from scratch I decided to finish this small White Church or Cemetery Church. Construction started with a sketch and corrugated cardboard cut to shape and then glued together with my hot glue gun. The distinctive dome was constructed from a plastic egg with more cardboard glued in place to refine the ‘bullet nose’ shape before being finished with both Terracotta and standard White DAS modelling clay. While…