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.

Editorial

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

THIS GAMING LIFE EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN • I write this at the beginning of January. Games Workshop, that wellknown purveyor of space-pixies and what-not, is just about to relaunch the classic Warhammer Fantasy Battles game in the guise of ‘The Old World', which fans are abbreviating to TOW. These soulless abbreviations have always raised the hackles. Once upon a time, I would spend many a happy hour coming up with perfectly credible titles for products that yielded obscene or scurrilous acronyms, only to be thwarted by eagle-eyed colleagues who knew me rather too well. But I digress.

A SAXON AMBUSCADE AGAINST A NEW NORMAN LORD 1069 AMBUSH • The years following the Norman victory at Hastings and the coronation of King William saw several substantial Saxon rebellions. Between these rebellions, there were also frequent attacks against the new Norman citizenry. Many Thegns and Huscarls who had survived Hastings or were even absent, had their lands confiscated and redistributed to the Normans and their allies.

PHILLIPS AND ARNOLD'S RAID ALONG THE APPOMATTOX THE FIRST BATTLE OF PETERSBURG, 1781 • In early 1781, the American War of Independence was in the balance. There had been some limited American success in the south, but the loss of Charlestown and its garrison as well as the defeat at Camden were severe. In the north, Washington's army had been bolstered by French reinforcements and British troop movements to the Caribbean.

THE BATTLE OF BOURLON WOOD, NOVEMBER 1917 THROUGH THE MUD, BLOOD, AND TREES • In late November 1917, the British Expeditionary Force launched the Battle of Cambrai in an effort to dislodge the German defences known as the Hindenburg Line. German forces had withdrew there at the beginning of 1917 to shorten their line, necessitated by the heavy casualties sustained in 1916.

THE DISASTROUS BATTLE FOR ASSE - 18 MAY, 1940 ENEMIES ON ALL SIDES • The withdrawal of the BEF from its initial position on the River Dyle in Belgium to the River Escaut never made it into the Rapid Fire Blitzkrieg Battlegames scenario book. A withdrawal whilst in contact with the enemy is a challenging manoeuvre, and the BEF's solution was to screen the retreat with its 1st and 2nd Armoured Reconnaissance Regiments.

ORDER OF BATTLE

IDEAS FOR WARGAMING HISTORY'S EARLIEST CONFLICTS BATTLES IN BRONZE • In Europe, the Near East, Africa, and parts of Asia, the Bronze Age began in the last third of the fourth millennium BC (ca. 3300 BC) to 700BC. It saw (unsurprisingly) the increased use of bronze. This went hand in hand with the development of writing, increased urbanization and the development of the first empires. It is an age that offers many varied and exciting possibilities for wargaming.

GAMING THE WESTERN EUROPEAN BRONZE AGE THE RIDDLE OF BRONZE • The Sumerians, Egyptians, Hittites, Mycenaeans, and Babylonians kept written records in clay, or made inscribed monuments in stone. Although only a...