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”
It arrived here in the Antipodes just 4 days after posting in the UK, and once again the 
Following on from the Pilot Issue (
The latest issue of the 
The various UK Distributors of Wargames, Soldiers, & Strategy (WS&S) sent out word that the magazine’s English Edition has ceased publication (the first word came in late May but I’ve only had confirmation directly from my distributor in late June) – somewhat ironically as it turns out as I had just finally signed up for a subscription at the start of the year (having previously just bought individual issues as and when I saw articles of interest). There was however some sign of a risk of this in recent months as the April issue was over a month late, and there had subsequently been nothing since (so only 1 issue in about 4 months – the first announcement in late May was well past the May issue’s due date). There has been a brief discussion of it at 
Arty Conliffe announces plans for Crossfire II and hopes it will be published around the end of 2009; read his announcement at the 
Over the years I have dabbled with numerous rule sets for Napoleonics, starting with some home grown ones, and most notably a Bruce Quarrie inspired concept based on articles in Military Modelling (UK) in the early 1980’s referring to gaming Quatre Bras and Waterloo with Airfix Plastic figures at 10 figures per battalion! Years later I had moved on, and although the club I belonged to had a scattering of players who played Napoleonics in 15mm (with Corps d’Armee rules) and 25mm (with club rules developed from Paddy Griffith works) I had moved on to 1/300th scale (6mm) to enable large grand battles with huge forces, and was using the Anschluss “Ebb & Flow” rules – designed for fighting large mass battles in 1/300th scale, and representing every battalion and skirmisher formation, and using no dice! Frank Chadwick’s Volley & Bayonet was also around, and although a generally good rule set it best suited 1/300th scale (which I we played for a while and got quite good game results historically) – but which for me lacked the visual appeal.
The latest issue of Miniature Wargames (No. 311 – March 2009) has arrived and in the editorial Andrew Hubback has announced that the promised new format will be implemented from the next issue (April).