Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy

Wargaming is a big hobby with many diverse factions and perspectives: striking a balance that pleases everyone can be truly challenging! We like to think what sets Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy apart from other historical wargaming magazines is its focus on having fun, no matter what kind of wargamer you are or what your background is. WS&S is a light-hearted publication, that pays particular attention to games themselves and how to play them: it doesn’t get bogged down in lengthy historical expositions or recycle content you can read yourself in any history book. While popular periods like WWII, the Napoleonic era, and the ancient world get frequent coverage, we also try to feature the unexpected, with articles on spies, monsters and gangsters to name but a few.

Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy

Editorial • “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”

MINIATURE REVIEWS • A look at some of the newest miniatures, terrain pieces, and more from across the wargaming world.

BECOMING A GAME DESIGNER • Writing a set of wargames rules is relatively easy. The hard part is writing a set that anyone would want to play. More than any other question I get asked as a game designer and publisher is: “How do I become a rule writer?”, to which I normally respond with “Don’t bother, unless you have a very thick skin”. At the simplest level, one could create a very basic game as a starting point: Infantry move 6”, cavalry 12” and every figure shooting rolls a dice and hits on a 6. I would wager that that has been the starting point for the majority of wargames rules ever written and, if time is indeed a test, then it has withstood its ravages with admirable longevity, if not style. Sadly, here, style is the issue.

TO TARENTUM’S AID • In 282 BC, the city state of Tarentum attacked ten Roman ships that had entered the gulf of Taranto without permission. In the following year, the Romans sent a ’diplomatic mission’ to the city to negotiate terms for the release of prisoners. Instead, this mission took control of the city, fighting off the Tarentines and some Samnite allies. In desperation, the Tarentines called for aid from Pyrrhus of Epirus.

SHOGUN: TRUTH AND FICTION • Readers might remember a 1975 novel and a 1980 TV mini-series called Shogun. It covered the fictional story of an Elizabethan English navigator or pilot wrecked on the shores of sixteenth-century Japan, and his interaction with the soon-to-be Shogun and others. A remake will appear on TV screens in February 2024. The truth is that the story is based on the real-life exploits of William Adams-or as he is better known in Japan - as Miura Anjin “the pilot of Miura”, who was the first Englishman to reach Japan.

KERN, GALLOWGLASS, AND DEMI-LANCERS • To the ill-trained and provisioned un-willing English recruit dragged onto a boat bound for Dublin, Ireland must have felt like the very edge of the world, like the Americas. Outside of the coastal towns, Ireland was almost a wilderness of mountains, bogs, and forest. The Irish looked nothing like the rest of Europe; they used archaic weapons, spoke a different language, practised a different faith, and many lived a semi-nomadic life of cattle herding. Their Lords even practised a different form of law. Ireland remained feudal at the time, with each lord being as independent as a king in his own lands.

SPEARHEAD! • In March 1945, the 3rd Armoured Division, nicknamed ”Spearhead,” led a pivotal US offensive against Germany’s Ruhr region. Facing intense resistance, the Division persisted, pushing into Germany at an astonishing rate. These three scenarios capture the campaign’s diversity, offering a taste of the battlefields the US troops fought their way through.

REVOLUTIONARY, HERO, TYRANT, EMPEROR • There are not many men who can claim to have...