A Passion for History, Miniatures, & Gaming
A friend of mine recently sent me some pics of some of his WW2 Wargaming terrain – we used to wargame together in the 1980’s and early 1990’s and his stuff has been mainly in storage for the last 15 years – but he’s been cracking it out recently as well as starting to work on some new pieces.
One of my enduring memories of wargaming as a teenager was getting my copy of Military Modelling and looking to see if there was a new “Table Top Teaser” by C. S. Grant (Charles Stewart Grant, the son of the author of “Battle – Practical Wargaming” and the single most inspiring wargaming book ever “The War Game”; Charles Grant); these ‘Teasers’ were a highlight of each issue (when present), and I used to imagine all sorts of ways to play them with the limited troops and resources I had at the time. It was especially trying waiting for the following issue with Part 2 of each Teaser, where the scenario was played out and an After Action Report (AAR) provided! While they only appeared over the five-year period 1978-1982 (there were 17 in total) they seemed to go on forever and always provided inspiration and a catalyst for ideas for future games. I had always planned to drag my old Military Modelling and Battle magazines out and scan these all into PDF or similar electronic format for my personal use, so I could more easily go through them when looking for inspiration or planning a new game.
Charles Grant’s “Battle – Practical Wargaming” is one of the classics of the old school who were the original ‘modern-era’ wargaming generation – but what a lot of people don’t realise is that it was actually first published as a serialised account in Meccano Magazine, in 32 parts over 3 years from Mid-1968 until December 1970, with the more well known book version being printed in late 1970 while the magazine series was still being published. The Magazine series offers a chance to get “Battle” with extras, as it featured several parts that aren’t featured in the book, the latter only cover Parts I-XXVI (the Magazine series culminates in Part XXXII, the finale of a 1/32nd scale Wargame in the backyard)! In fact it was these Meccano articles (in my Father’s magazines) that were how I first discovered Charles Grant’s “Battle” in the mid-1970’s, long before I even knew there was book version! This was one of my very first classic wargaming publications that hooked me on the hobby as an early-teen.
Just recently I discovered that Meccano Magazine has put virtually their entire catalogue (dating back to September 1916) on line and it is possible to download individual pages from every issue…
Continue reading “Charles Grant’s ‘Battle’ Meccano Magazine Series”