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

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

HAD WE BUT WORLD ENOUGH, PART 2 • In part two of this piece on world building for fantasy and science-fiction games, we’ll take a look at the different races that populate our worlds and which form the basis for our opposing forces. We’ll begin, however, with a quick summary of the three main points from the previous column. These are three broad principles I would advocate when creating fictional worlds, nations and cultures. Firstly, remember the world is too complex for everyone to know everything about it, therefore don’t try to explain everything. Much can be left for readers to fill in for themselves.

THE BATTLE OF CORNUS • Rome began its conquest of Sardinia in 238 BC with an eye on its important grain supply, vital to feed Rome and the growing empire. The native Sard tribes put up a fierce resistance, but by 230 BC, all but the mountainous interior was under their control.

MAKING A GAME OF IT • So, you’ve painted Charles the Bold’s beautiful Burgundian army. Perhaps you won some pick-up games and did well in a tournament. But in the back of your mind, you wonder about refighting the three major battles that the Burgundians fought against the Swiss. And then you recall that the battle narratives are depressing and uninspiring defeats for your beloved Burgundians.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR A SCENARIO

TARTARS VS WINGED LANCERS • In the latter part of the seventeenth century, a coalition of Christian nations in Europe banded together to form the Holy League, which had one purpose: to bring down the Ottoman Empire. For the Christian states, this fight was known as the Great Turkish War or the Last Crusade. For the Ottomans, it was marked as the Disaster Years, as so much territory was lost.

OUT OF THE TRENCHES • By the beginning of 1918, the Great War on the Western Front had largely become a stalemate. While Germany made significant gains in 1914, with trench warfare, even the most successful campaigns measured success in just a few miles of ground. It had become a bloody war of attrition. On the Eastern Front however, Russia was collapsing into revolution and suing for peace.

WITH OUR BACKS TO THE WALL • The final year of World War I was dominated by the return to movement on the battlefield as both Germany and the Allies launched huge offensives, in spring and summer respectively. Beginning on 21 March, with the help of almost fifty divisions freed from the Eastern Front after the capitulation of Russia, the Germans punched a gap through the weak point where the British and French armies met.

OPERATION MICHAEL • On 21 March 1918, the long-awaited German offensive on the Western Front, ‘Operation Michael’, began. Critical elements of the plan were to incorporate close air support for the advancing troops, use aerial reconnaissance to track the progress of the assault, and to gain air superiority over the battlefield.

ANZAC DAY 1918 – LEST WE FORGET!...