Innehållsförteckning för September 2024 från Miniature Wargames

So: what’s in this month’s edition? Well, ‘death’ certainly rears its ugly head: we have colonial action with Death on the Nile and interstellar mayhem using S.T.A.R. with Death on Pima Prime. We have more Robin Hood using Rangers of Shadowdeep plus WWII action with Tigers in Tunisia. We have a taxing campaign in Roman Britannia and a suggestion for some really simple universal rules. On top of all of that we round up with a trip to Joy of Six and a scratchbuild straight from the silver screen along with all of the usual news and reviews. As Richard O’brien’s Riff Raff proclaimed: “It’s astounding, time is fleeting: madness takes its toll, but listen closely – not for very much longer – I’ve got to keep control”. It is…

This is the conclusion of a two-parter so see last months issue for the lead in. Ed Last month, I offered some house rules for Rangers of Shadowdeep based on the old TV programme Robin of Sherwood. This month, you’ll find a solo scenario, using those house rules. You can, of course, play the scenario with the standard rules if you wish (or with some other rules entirely) but it’ll be a rather different game and I’ve no idea if it will work or not. SCENARIO: GOTTEN BY VANITY Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: But he that gathereth by labour shall increase. Proverbs 13:11 One of the Sheriff’s tax collectors is returning to Nottingham after a hard days grinding down the widows and orphans. He is transporting the loot back…

MOUNTED MEDIEVALS ◗ victrixlimited.com ◗ £40 With the recent release of hard plastic medieval foot Knights from Wargames Atlantic, the choice in plastic 28mm knightly armour, with this new release of mounted knights from Victrix is now vast! And what a splendid set they are! For a smidge over two quid a figure you get eighteen knights and their fully barded horses as splendid little kits. What comes in the bag are six large sprues, three of each of two types, and there’s lots of choice and, to achieve that (with no compromise on undercuts and fit), there are quite a few bits to stick together, though not an egregious amount. Starting with the horses first, Victrix have stated that “Movement and dynamism as well as accuracy and detail” were…

STEAM PUNK & MORE Queen Victoria is amused Victoriana - Age Of Empires is a new a supplement for the Tales Of Derring Do rules by Chris Swan, Mike Blake and Ian Colwill. 64 pages in colour as a softback this is the second supplement to this D10 based rule set based around pulp fiction (both cinematic and literary). As with the main rules, this is one-on-one skirmishing which is both scale and figure agnostic. It’s (frighteningly) well illustrated using both shots of excellent gaming figures and lots of AI generated artwork (using Bing Image Creator and Playground v2, apparently) which is very nice to look at. There are chapters on New Traits and Characters; Transport; the Wonders Of Science and Steam; Weaponry; Mysticism; New Settings around the globe; Zoologica…

Run by a team from Baccus Miniatures, Joy of Six – for those not in the know (and who can’t deduce it from the title….) is a show that caters specifically to games in 6mm ‘scale’. I last attended back in 2018 and it’s got bigger since then with more space set aside in the halls of Sheffield Hallam university. Being a campus building there were three ‘areas’ and on site catering. As the show is held on a Sunday there was a fair degree of nearby parking at reasonable (by London standards) prices. TRADE There were 15 present all aimed – not surprisingly – at a 6mm target audience. There was a good selection some of which you’ll see nowhere else and certainly not all under one roof. GAMES There…

Each Command Decision usually 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. TUNISIA 21 APRIL 1943 Hitler was shown a prototype Tiger tank on his birthday on 20 April 1942. One year and one day later that very tank – Tiger 131 – would be in Allied hands. For many years the accepted story of…

The Roman writer Tacitus recounted the life and times of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola in around 98AD. Agricola had been a famous Roman general and had been Governor of Britain just over a decade before: “The Britons themselves bear cheerfully the conscription, the taxes, and the other burdens imposed on them by the Empire, if there be no oppression. Of this they are impatient; they are reduced to subjection, not as yet to slavery.” The Romans collected their taxes every five years, expecting a tenth of the annual income of any land a man held. Subjects were also taxed on cattle, slaves and other belongings dependent on the needs of the empire to raise funds or as a contribution to the building of a new temple. According to Tacitus…

INTRODUCTION Let me star by saying that I’m afraid that this is nothing to do with Agatha Christie but the elements of my “plot” came together in much the same and unexpected manner as those of the famous novel might have done when the author put pen to paper. The unexpected elements that produced my scenario were threefold. Firstly, a rather nice model of a Victorian sidewheel paddle steamer that I simply could not resist when I first saw it, although I had no specific use for it at the time (we’ve all been there! Ed.). Secondly, a somewhat forlorn collection of British colonial figures and Sudanese opponents that were just languishing in their boxes. And thirdly, my interest was captured by media interest in a scheme to commemorate some…