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 MAGAZINE

Editorial

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

RECONSIDERING TROOP RATINGS • As John Maynard Keynes once said: “The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.” I don’t often quote the famous economist Keynes in this column, but these are wise words indeed. Especially for a bloke who seemingly knew nothing about wargame design. When embarking on a new project it is often all too easy to see old tropes emerging and, before we know it, the new project looks very much like the ones that have gone before.

KILLING YAMAMOTO • On 14 April 1943, US Navy codebreakers (codenamed ‘magic’) intercepted and decrypted Imperial Japanese messages regarding Admiral Yamamoto’s planned inspection of the Solomon Islands. These included an itinerary of the Admiral’s tour including flight times and the planned escort.

DEFEND THE KING! • Perhaps one of Ireland’s most legendary kings, Brian Boru was cut down and murdered in the immediate aftermath of his greatest battlefield victory. It’s a moment of high drama and high stakes, tailor made for a Viking-age skirmish scenario!

GUARDIAN OF THE SHRINE • Deep amidst the gnarled trees and bracken, an ancient shrine rests in the shadows. Demonic symbols and dark verse mark its moss -and lichen-covered walls. A pile of broken skulls lies on the muddy ground within. Centuries ago, witches gathered before its door, to worship their demonic benefactor and to cast their curses on the nearby villages. Now it is a quiet, hidden place, forgotten except by a few ancient villagers and the otherworldly creature that still guards it.

LUNDEHØGDA 1940 • On 11 April 1940, two days after the invasion of Norway, General-leutnant Richard Pellengahr ordered his 196th Division to march north from Oslo to Trondheim via the two valleys Gudbrandsdalen and Østerdalen. The hastily mobilized Norwegian defenders did their best to slow his advance to give the British and French time to send aid.

SIX STEPS TO NAPOLEONICS • Many wargamers of a certain (middle) age can tell a similar tale of how they got their start in the hobby. For me, it was all about Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I had seen miniatures before in my roleplaying days, but seeing so many massed together arrayed in formation, rank upon rank, battling over rolling model hills reached out and gripped my imagination so tightly that almost 30 years later, I am still firmly entranced by wargaming.

BONUS STEP: Who will you play with?

THE STEPPING-STONE TO EUROPE • Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, has been a crossroad of conflicts since the dawn of civilization. It can be rightfully regarded as one of the great boxing rings of history and bears innumerable wargaming possibilities by land, sea, and air. Time and again, from antiquity to the Second World War, nations have fought over control of this...