Category: News / Resources / Reviews

Classic Wargamer’s Journal: Vol. I Issue 2

Classic Wargamer's Journal - Volume 1 Issue 2It arrived here in the Antipodes just 4 days after posting in the UK, and once again the Classic Wargamer’s Journal is a refreshing read, bringing back memories of those glorious days in the 60’s & 70’s when names like Don Featherstone, Charles Grant, Brig. Peter Young, Terry Wise, Paddy Griffiths, and others inspired the masses of Baby Boomer & Generation X budding wargamers! I find I particularly enjoy CWJ simply for its style and format, which brings back many memories of my wargaming childhood, and also many of the articles which relate or allude to those classic publications by the personages above during that time.

Issue 2 of Volume 1 includes a brief letter from Don Featherstone, still getting along at 93, albeit sans all his wargaming armies that have long since gone to new homes. He’s certainly been an inspirational chap and as I commented on Phil Olley’s Blog, must surely just about be the last of those assorted venerable gentlemen I alluded to above that is still with us…

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Straw Doormat Wheat & Barley Fields

Union Zouaves passing through a wheat field
Union Zouaves in a wheat field

One of the terrain features both Kieran Mahony (6mm Wargaming) and I have in our collections are assorted fields, and one type is made from a straw mat. The following are some photos of the straw fields I have, these are part of a large batch Kieran made for he and I and a couple of other AWC Members. I’ve been asked a couple of times now about them in some of the photos so I thought I’d provide some clear photos of them and a basic outline of how Kieran constructed them. These are simple static fields and not the type designed to have sections removed to allow troops to be placed in them. Kieran designed them as partially harvested to leave enough room in most cases for troops to be placed in them without needing to bother with removable sections.

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Ryan’s Basing & Painting Techniques

Ryan's Company Commander
Ryan's Company Commander

Ryan Davies is a member of the Crossfire Yahoo Group, and he recently put together a document detailing his techniques for painting and basing his 1/72nd scale figures – as a way to give something back to the wargaming internet community which he believes has helped him a lot over the years with his wargaming efforts. Ryan details how to cut bases from brass with a jewellers saw, his technique for labelling & indentifying his bases, and storing them.

Ryan then moves onto painting, especially soft plastic figures, covering how to paint, shade and seal them. He covers the merits of just brands of commonly available model paint, and the moves on to the actual techniques for basing the figures.

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FreddyCon: A Seven Years War Convention (October 2011)

Der Kreigskunst is a set of battalion level rules based on the General De Brigade system. Battalions are 4-6 bases of 4 castings on a 40x40mm base. Cavalry are in units of 20 or so castings. Many people have SYW armies in mothballs and this might be a good opportunity to dust them off and give them a run

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MMS Classic Models – Listing by Nation

MMS Cromwell VIII F Model
MMS Cromwell VIII F Model

One of the really great Model Manufacturers around is MMS Classic Models – they produce some really high quality World War 2 vehicles and guns for 20mm scale (I believe they are nominally very accurate 1/76th scale on par with Milicast and Cromwell – but don’t quote me on that). Anyway on their site they list all their packs numerically rather than by Nation or any other logical order – this drives me mad!

So I’ve done my own listing sorted by Nation and then logically within each Nation by type of pack.

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Classic Wargamer’s Journal: Vol. I Issue 1

Classic Wargamer's Journal - Volume I Issue 1Following on from the Pilot Issue (The Classic Wargamer’s Journal: First Impressions) the first regular issue of CWJ is here – and continues on in the vein of the pilot issue. A poignant point by the editor, Phil Olley, is the modern ‘habit’ of talking about playing ‘rules’ (e.g. we say we are off to play Flames of War, not World War II, or do you want to play FoG instead of Ancients), and this embeds a subconscious mindset of playing ‘rules’ rather than ‘periods’ – perhaps a sign of the commercialisation of the hobby?

This issue’s Game Reports & Scenarios include Battles in the Blast Valley: The action at Spurlash Down; Part 2 of the Fireraisers Scenario & Report (from the pilot issue); and Advanced Guard – A Refight of a Charles S. Grant Table-Top Teaser from “Battle for Wargamers” Magazine (from June & July 1978).

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Friend or Foe Figures

Friend or Foe Figures Romanian Mountain Trooper
Friend or Foe Figures Romanian Mountain Trooper

Recently I’ve been looking at the Friend or Foe (FoF) figure range from Shell Hole Scenics. However there is a marked lack of photos to compare the figures. Enquires on the web such as at the 20mm Miniatures Yahoo Group generally just resulted in limited feedback and several enquires back about what the figures looked like! I have picked some up indirectly and got the following photos of them for comparison. As it seems the manufacturer has very limited photos on their website (although Peter at Battlescape the Australian distributor does have some) I thought I’d put these images up for the benefit of anyone interested.

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Getting the most from your Cyanoacrylate

Super GlueIf you are like me then Super Glue is one of those things that’s a bit of a two edged sword – you need it but it’s messy to use and never seems to last! Sometime ago I came across the tip to always store your open super glue tube (or bottle) in the fridge, as the cold helps to preserve the glue and stop the methyl/ethyl/propyl alpha-cyanoacrylate from aging or whatever.

However just recently a consumer affairs show on New Zealand Television had a couple of further tips about super glue.

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In Search of Points: Lasalle!

Below is a first attempt at an unofficial points system for the Napoleonic game – Lasalle.

Lasalle contains a number of set army lists for the main armies. They provide a great introduction. But they only reflect a fraction of possible lists. Playing the same few army lists repeatedly against each other could get dull fairly quickly.

This points system below tries to address this.

Using this points system and the excellent (and now free) Nafziger army lists, players can construct any number of armies that are consistent in size with the army lists in the Lasalle book.

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Classic Wargamer’s Journal: First Impressions

The Classic Wargamer's Journal: Pilot IssueWell I placed my order on 21 July (UK time) and the hard copy edition was here in the antipodes on the 27 July (NZ time) – so that’s about a 5 day turn around – well done Phil and the Royal & NZ Posts! The CWJ Pilot is a stapled, 34 page (+covers) A4 format publication including a centre leaf with 6 glossy full colour photos, and large easy to read type. The tone is light hearted but very much in the tradition of those great wargaming publications of old, such as Charles Grant’s “The War Game” – in fact Phil Olley’s reference to the significance of this publication for him had me feeling very nostalgic – as it has always been ‘the’ Classic Wargaming Book for me (alas War Games Digest that CWJ is styled on is just a bit too early a publication for this not so young lad)!

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Classic Wargamer’s Journal: Pilot Issue out

CWJ Pilot Issue.A new (trial) wargaming magazine by Phil Olley – looking to be much in the vein of ‘Battlegames‘ and the older original Wargaming Publications of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s… Only £4.50 (UK) or £6.00 (the rest of us; or £3.00 for a PDF) for this initial test issue so I think well worth the money to support Phil and see what he can do.

The Pilot Issue includes: “…4 tabletop scenarios (Spurlash Down and vanguards Collide, by me; Fire Raisers by Stephen Caddy; and a battle report from the very first issue of WGD* back in 1957); plus articles on Tabletop generals’ characterisation by Jeff Hudelson, a guide to painting big units by Stokes Schwartz; an ACW riverboat project by Alasdair Jamison, and Bill Protz gets marooned! Hard Copy and PDF versions are available.” See Phil Olley’s Classic Wargaming Blog for more details.

* War Games Digest.

SOTCW Journal 70

The Journal, No. 70, from the SOTCW.The latest issue of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers (SOTCW) Journal has just arrived in my letter box. As always in recent years it is well packed with interesting articles covering the whole gamut of the Twentieth Century and Ultra-Modern periods. The Journal is an A4 sized black & white publication and issue 70 runs to 56 pages. Included in this issue is a SCW Scenario (for Iron Ivan rules); several World War 2 articles (German River Convoys in 1/300th scale; SS Sturmbrigade Walloon; French Cavalry Tanks overview; Operation Grief in the Ardennes; 3 East-Front Game Scenarios – 2 for Rapid Fire & 1 for Crossfire); 1980 Iran-Iraq Air War Scenario; Ultra-Modern Eastern European terrorist scenario & part two of an account of a modern fictional Naval & Amphibious Campaign; plus articles on gaming via email, converting plastic figures, tank football, the usual product & book reviews and columns, and more.

If you are interested in anything wargaming from 1900 to today and haven’t seen the Journal it’d be worth contacting the SOTCW and perhaps getting a Journal back issue or two to have a look and think about signing up!