Let's Read ... Practical Wargamer #7 (Spring 1989)

This issue is a special one for me. It's the first issue of a wargaming magazine apart from White Dwarf. I was a bit of a Games Workshop junkie at that time, and barely knew about any other miniature wargames outside of the Games Workshop ecosystem. I did play board wargames when in high school, but never made the switch to historical miniatures. I still remember the magazine store where I bought this issue (although that copy is not the current copy in my collection), and that magazine store is also long gone. Time flies. 

 

The cover shows "Charlemagne's sword from Battle Orders", which I assume is a replica based on the coronation sword of the French Kings. Nice toknow (I had to look it up myself), but nevertheless, I much prefer miniatures on my wargaming magazine covers ...

In Points to Ponder the editor discusses a new type of paint - Maestro Craft Colours - which seem to be a good alternative to enamels. "Packaged in 60ml squeezy plastic containers which are fitted with a flip-top dispensing closure device ... ". All good things have to start somewhere!

Table Top Casualties (Charles S. Grant) discusses how to deal with casualties on the wargaming table. The usual solutions are discussed (figure removal, dead and wounded figures, ...) as well as some mechanics (e.g. keeping track of the % of casualties and only removing them when certain thresholds are met). The article also contains a photograph Indians carrying a wounded British officer. I still remember I was amazed that such figures existed ... and no surprise, but I do have that exact figure in my collection today!

Orienteering in the Orient (Keith Benson) presents an idea for a (naval) campaign based on the what-if Napoleon could succeed in reaching India after the Egyptian campaign. There are rules for amphibuous operations, map movement rates, briefings for players, uniform details, as well as a quite extensive list of ships of forces available to both sides. There's a funny map accompanying the article, showing the "Global viewpoint of the campaign". I think it's funny because it provides ... no information at all! Unless you don;t know where Egypt and India are located. Luckily, the other maps do provide some useful info.

Lepanto 1571 (Graham Dixey) is the typical article that gives a lot of historical background on a specific event in military history, with some minimal wargaming information tacked on near the end. But the article has some nice ship models!

In Search of Inspiration (Michael Burgess) offers some ideas on how take inspiration from history and insert them in your fantasy wargaming. The article is illustrated by interesting pictures, in which I do recognize some old Citadel models and even the original Citadel polystyrene Fortress.

Shaka's Wars by Ian Knight gives us some scenarios for the Zulu Wars during the early 19th century when various Zulu kingdoms were brought under one rule. If I remember correctly, this was the first time I saw an article showing Zulu figures, and I was deeply impressed that such a period and figures even "existed" in wargaming.

In Buildings for Battles, Peter Helm provides us with some tips on constructing your own wargame fortifications. A castle, earthworks, a fort, it's all covered.

Stingray - The Game (John Treadaway) is the big article in this issue. It protrays a game based on the 1960s TV show Stingray. When I first saw this article in 1989, I was deeply impressed since I had never seen such a game before, and couldn't even imagine such setups were also part of wargaming. At that point in my miniature wargaming career, I had been only exposed to Warhammer, so it was quite difficult to understand the rules as presented in the article. However, later on, when I had some more games under my belt, and felt comfortable breaking out of the Games Workshop ecosustem, I tried to make my own underwater game. The first iteration (somewhere late 90s) can still be seen here and here, and featured some underwater vessels based on the Full Thrust rules. In 2009, I designed another underwater combat game, which was featured on a few cons in Belgium. But anyway, this Stingray article provided the initial inspiration.

Kappel 1531 (Peter Wilson) presents us with a battle during the Swiss civil wars in the 16th century. Nice images!

Surrender! by Paul Stevenson is the sort of articles I always like in wargaming magazines. It gives some historical background on the numbers of POWs, and how this could be incorporated in one's own games, with some useful rules tips. Upon rereading this issue many years ago, I did include some POW rules in my own ACW house rules, so very useful indeed!

Wargaming American Style is a diary written by Don Featherstone about a trip he made to GenCOn/Origins in 1988. There has been a lot ink spilled on the difference between multi-day North American gaming cons and single day events in Europe, and this article gives an (early) nice take on that difference, written by one of the doyens of our hobby. "They go in for roleplaying in a bog way in the States and large numbers of the 14000 or so attending wore appropriate costume, thus one encountered trolls, orcs, knights, wizards and all manner of fearsome characters, sauntering around the halls, chewing burgers, and generally enjoying themselves." And there was a call-out to another doyen of the hobby, Duke Seifried, as well!

Bright Barossa (Arthur Harman) is an umpired multi-player map-game set during the Peninsular War. Lots of player briefings, such games always look incredibly fun, but alas, so difficult to set up onselves. 

Wavre - The Useless Victory (Stephen Allen) gives us the history of one of the battles of the 100-days campaign, as well as how to wargame the battle, and also a lot of photographs of how Wavre looks today. As a Belgian, I was (again) impressed. So wargamers travel to other countries (i.e. my own), to take pictures of battlefields to help their wargaming? 

Designing A Campaign by Charles Vasey offers some good ideas on how to run an ECW campaign. A lot of Citadel Townscape houses on display! 

The Bow in War and Wargaming (Chris Peers) gives us some things to think about when including bowmen in games. He proposes to make a difference between "shooting to hit" and "shooting to harass", and cites historical examples.

Overall, a very good issue! I really enjoyed rereading this one.

All issues so far:

Practical Wargamer 1 (Autumn 1987)

Practical Wargamer 2 (Winter 1987)

Practical Wargamer 3 (Spring 1988)

Practical Wargamer 4 (Summer 1988)

Practical Wargamer 5 (Autumn 1988)

Practical Wargamer 6 (Winter 1988/1989) 

Practical Wargamer 7 (Spring 1989) 

 

Let's read ... Practical Wargamer #6 (Winter 1988/1989)

It has been a while since I posted in this series, but time to pick up our readings of Practical Wargamer again!

So here it is, the 6th issue of Practical Wargamer. At this point PW had a full run of a year, so the magazine should have found its own style by now.

The cover looks promising, lots of figures, War of The Roses this time. As I have stated before, I firmly believe a wargaming magazine should show figures on the cover, and this cover has some nice flags as well!

The first article is Points to Ponder, a column and editorial folded into one. Stuart Asquith starts with an encouragement to submit articles, and then talks about drummers and musicians on the tabletop, and how they should affect morale (and subsequent actions) of a unit. But I'm somewhat puzzled by Stuart's claim that "we tend to ignore the presence of musicians on the wargames table". This is 1988, and by this time, Warhammer as a ruleset is well established in its 3rd edition. I played this edition quite frequently (actually, I never progressed beyond 3rd, but that's another story), and musicians were very much a part of the fantasy units in Warhammer, providing all sorts of bonuses and special abilities. Anyway, I agree that musicians do add color to the table as separate figures, but I guess we have better mechanics these days to have its influence depend on the survival of that specific figure table-wise.

In You Scoundrel ... I'll Liberate You, we are presented with the story of the battle of Vinegar Hill, a battle that took place in New South Wales in 1804. The author suggests a mini-campaign centered around these events. The article is typical for magazines of the 80s: a lot of historical information, with the assumption the wargamer can figure it out for himself how to turn this into a game.

The battle of North Cape (Graham Dixey) brings us to the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean, and tells us how the German battleship Scharnhorst finally was sunk. Again a lot of history, but barely any info how to make a game out of this. But then, these were still the pre-internet days. Wargamers needed articles like this to get a feeling of the historical context. 

Veterans! (Matthew Bennet) is offering us some mechanics on how to include veteran troops on the wargames table. Not by giving them some better statistics as would be a standard way to do it, but rather give each player some bonus cards that can be used during the game at any unit, which then ""turns out to be a veteran unit!". Suggestions for such cards include a forced march, ignore a morale test, form square faster than usually permitted under the rules, that sort of thing. I do like such simple mechanics that combine gamesmanship (when and how should I use the card?) with some narrative effects on the table.

 

Mayhem on the Medwin (Peter Helm) brings us back to the English Civil War, that grand period that British wargamers care deeply about but leaves the rest of us rather cold. Just kidding :-) The article describes a rather big setup with players acting as Commander in Chiefs in separate rooms, with objectives and victory points only known to them, and not to the commanders of troops at the table. It's the kind of game you rarely see these days, and such games always stir my imagination.

 

Kevin Dallimore reveals some of his "tricks of the trade" in How I paint Figures. I always admire such articles and the close-ups of figures in various stages of being painted, but to be honest, I have never excelled at painting (although I don't dislike it), and always wonder whether people actually spend all that time on painting a single face? But from such articles, I did pick up the techniques of undercoating, drybrushing, highlights and washes, which still serve me well up to this day.

 

Suomi - The Wicked War Sagas (Robin Hunt) gives us an overview of the Winter War during WW2, and also gives some decent advice on how to model a snowy battlefield as well as some kit availability.

 

Chris Peers gives us The Army of Tarmurlaine, an article focusing on the history of Mongols, but without a scenario or some good hints on how to portray such an army on your table.

In the continuing series of skilled figure painters, Graham Green shows part of his collection, mostly fantasy figures. Especially the Fellowhip of the Ring figures look very nice.

 

Campaigns with Clive (Paul Stevenson) highlights the possibilities of campaigning in 18th century India, and offers a lot of historical information to set up your own games, including a full table of all actions, battles and sieges in India at the time of Clive. All very useful as I said, but by today's standards, I would expect some more ready-to-use information to get a game on the table. 

Charles Vasey gives us some ideas on medieval campaign rules in Going to the Country, and offers a smallish card-based system to determine in what areas players might find support during the War of the Roses. Most of the article is taken up by historical descriptions about the difficulties of medieval campaigning.

Fighting in Buildings (Charles Grant) is a wargaming-centric article, explaining how fighting in built up areas can be incorporated in your rules. However, the author says "... it is not possible to produce a set of suitable rules within the scope of this article". Darn! However, there's a list of factors that we should include in our games, such as: categories of houses, firing into and out from houses, enetring houses, using ladders, barricades, etc. Although the articles leaves much to the wargamer, it is an article that stirs the imagination and gives some good ideas to start  from. 

Away All Boats (Keith Benson) gives an excellent overview of the planning issues involving amphibious landings in WW2, with quite a lot of suggestions for scenarios both for defender (e.g. preparation of the beaches), as for the transit phase, as for the final attack. A nice trick is to provide different maps to both sides.

Arthur Harman gives a small Napoleonic action in Rearguard Action at Cacabellos, set in the Peninsular War. It's a ready-to-play scenario, invovling the British defence and retreat from a small town built along a bridge over a stream.

 

Disguised Scenarios (James Oliver) describes the idea of taking an action in one historical period, and using it as the basis for a scenario in another period. An example is given for a WW2 coastal attack on France, based on an action in Cuba in 1962.

Marignano 1515 (Peter Wilson) tells us about a two-day battle between the Swiss and the French. during the Italian Wars. Mostly history, with some hints on how to turn this into a wargame. 

My "ad of the issue" is a smallish ad for cardboard models produced by "Draper Models", I couldn't find anything online about this company, except a small reference on the Lost Minis Wiki, with interestingly enough, a mention that at one point the company had an address in Belgium? And I also found a blog entry that shows a model of Hougoumont in cardboard, of which the author says it is from Draper Models.

 

Overall, this issue left me a bit cold. Yes, there are a lot of articles, but there's relatively little direct usable wargaming information. It almost seems as if for this 6th issue, the "good stuff" has already been used in the previous issues, and now we have to settle for mostly historical stuff. But maybe I am too negative here - after all, historical articles had their place in wargaming magazines.

All issues so far:

• Practical Wargamer 1 (Autumn 1987)
• Practical Wargamer 2 (Winter 1987)
• Practical Wargamer 3 (Spring 1988)
• Practical Wargamer 4 (Summer 1988)
• Practical Wargamer 5 (Autumn 1988)
• Practical Wargamer 6 (Winter 1988/1989) 

 

Let's read ... Practical Wargamer #5 (Autumn 1988)

It took me some time to write the next post in this series. A close relative is spending some time (weeks by now ...) in hospital (which eats away at one's free time), and the start of the academic year at my university also didn't make things easier. But anyway, on to wargaming!

We have arrived in Autumn 1988, the 5th issue of Practical Wargamer. The cover again shows miniatures (which is good!), a 16th century battle showing Spanish soldiers attacking English earthworks. I'm always very much interested in the "look and feel" of the games of yesteryear to study how our hobby has changed over the years, and I do like the visuals of this game.

No editorial next to the Table of Contents in this issue, but instead Stuart Asquith has folded his editorial in his column Points to Ponder, again with a plea to subscribe to the magazine. But he also discusses some considerations on the movement of formed columns, having a tendency to deviate to the left (or right), or to converge towards each other, and how to include that in the rules. It's something I never have included in my own rules, although Black Powder (a ruleset we often use for Napoleonics and the Great Northern War) has a blunder table, that forces some units to move left or right against the original intention of the players. Nevertheless, I'm in favour of including a chance for unexpected movement effects, but I mostly them as random movement distances.  

 

Horse and Musket (Robert Wills) describes how wargames (or subsystems of wargames) can be run on an 80s hobby computer. The author describes some of the design choices he made, about what feature to include and whatnot. Near the end of an article, there's an invitation to buy the game directly from the author on two floppy discs :-) The times have changed indeed. Although such an articles is of course hopelessly outdated, It still brings back memories. Being a teenager in the 80s, I was fascinated by hobby computers at the time, and it eventually led to me becoming a professor in computer science so many years later. My good old ZX Spectrum still is an object of intellectual curiosity in my office :-) 

 

Pekin 1900 offers an historical account of the siege of the Legations in Peking (now usually written as Beijing) in 1900 during the Boxer War. I've always had an interest in this conflict, even bought quite some books about it, and staging a convention game showing the Siege of the Legations is still something on my to-do list. The article has a nice graphical plan of the British Legation quarter.

See How They Run (Andy Callan) gives a number of ideas how to setup scenarios that deal with an already defeated army. A "Last Stand" or "Rearguard Action"-type of scenario is of course the obvious choice. The "Dunkirk Spirit" is even mentioned as an example of why such actions can remain in the national memory for a long time. More interesting is the idea of playing individuals that surrender, using a roleplaying game. Players could play the character of the defeated general, the old soldier, the gallant young officer, ... all having different objections of how to get out of situation in which their army has surrendered, and the individual has to make the most of it. Historical examples on which games might be based are given as well: The battles of Culloden and Maiwand.

The double spread of painted miniatures (which seems to become a feature in the magazine) is dedicated to the work of Tom McMillan. His technique? Black undercoat, Humbrol, oils over white for the horses, and flags made from paper.

Raid on Bomarsund (Stephen Allen)  describes the historical events in the Baltic Sea in the context of the Crimean War. A good read, but a bit difficult to produce a good wargame out of it, since we are dealing with naval actions, a landing operations, and a siege on a fort. Some vague wargaming suggestions are given, but it's more an inspirational article rather than "here's something ready to play".

Britannia '88 on the other hand is almost pure wargaming, and offers a mini-campaign putting Rome vs Gaul. Various tribes have rolled-for Temperament and Strength characteristics, as well as inter-tribal relations (friendly, neutral, hostile). Combined with some simple map-movement rules, and a good dose of freeform kriegsspieling (or so it seems), and enjoyable campaign was the result.

In Heroic Leadership on the Tabletop, Arthur Harman describes a subgame within a wargame to keep track of the actions of the general. Every actions leads to fatigue, fatigue leads to lesser movement and other side-effects. A nice approach, very inspirational, put perhaps a but too cumbersome. In the last paragraph the author states "I must conclude by emphasizing that these rules have not been playtested ... ". That is very believable! :-) The tables below only show a little of the detail to keep track of for the commanding officer of an army ... 

Cap'n Thou Art Sleepin' Below (Keith Benson) is a what-of article dealing with what would have happened had the Spanish landed with the Armada in 1588. It's a very extensive article, with various forces listed both for the Spanish as the English, but (again) relatively little wargaming information, apart from some general suggestions on how to play this as a campaign. My favourite suggestion: "Spanish forces fight at half effect for 24 hours following landing, and move at three quarter rate suffering seasickness." The photo of the battle shows some old cardboard Games Workshop buildings, and I do recognize them because these still are in my collection today!

The Battle of Freidlingen (Peter Wilson) takes a look at this battle from the Marlburian period. Lots of historical information, but again relatively little suggestions on how to turn this battle into a wargame.

Personalities (Charles Grant) is the kind of article I love. A whole system for generating charcater for one's wargaming campaigns is given, very much in the style of Tony Bath's Hyboria (which is also referenced in the article). The colour plates even show some of the figures I seem to recognize from later publications by Charles Grant. I was convinced the mounted lady in green was Tutzi, the Markgräfin of Wolfenbüttel, but apparantly it's a different figure (photo included from Charles Grant's "Wargaming Retrospective, published in 2023).

The Melee (Chris Peers) descries various types of melees and the chance of "winning" them. Melees are subdivided in 3 types: 1/ one side is almost sure of winning due to psychology; 2/ the melee is decided by differences in formation and or weaponry and 3/ a fight to the death. The author claims only the 2nd type is represented well in most wargaming rules.

In Solo Play (Peter Cox) a few mechanisms for playing solo wargames are explained, but it comes down to having some reaction tables (which are quite undecipherable to me :-)). It shows that having something in one's mind is actually quite different from communicating it to someone else, also in the sphere of wargaming :-)

Seperate Tables by James Oliver explains how to setup naval games using multiple tables, with the purpose of keeping both sides in doubt of where the other side is located. An umpire is recommended, and the whole article reads very much like how to set up a kriegsspiel-type naval game.

Overpowered by Numbers (Rod Rodenburg)  gives us an historical account of an action fought between the US Army and Indians in 1791. Not much information about how to to turn such an action into a good wargame is given ...

Wargaming on a Budget (Stephen Ryan) is the article whose content is re-iterated every so many years in the wargaming magazines. The advantages of using 1/72 plastics toy soldiers are given in great detail, with an extensive review of the various ranges available.

Again a pretty decent issue, and that leaves us with showing an advert of my choice. It's a coloured one (the first one in the issues so far), and shows two games which I remember fondly from my early gaming years: Axis & Allies and Shogun. It must have been 30 years - if not longer - since I've played an Axis & Allies game, but I do remember the excitement of setting up the game with all its little plastic playing pieces. I've never played it again since, and I don't have any plans to do so. I'm a firm believer that one must not try to relive the memories from one's youth, the danger being the good memories will disappear forever, since the game might turn out not to be that exciting by today's standards. Moreover, good memories are also strongly dependent on that particular period in one's life, and it's impossible to recreate that. So, we can indulge ourselves in nostalgia by looking at an advert, but let's not take it any further :-) 

All issues so far:

• Practical Wargamer 1 (Autumn 1987)
• Practical Wargamer 2 (Winter 1987)
• Practical Wargamer 3 (Spring 1988)
• Practical Wargamer 4 (Summer 1988)
• Practical Wargamer 5 (Autumn 1988)

Let's read ... Practical Wargamer #4 (Summer 1988)

We have arrived in the Summer of 1988 with the 4th issue of Practical Wargamer. I remember that this was the summer when I bought the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 3rd edition hardback book, and got my first actual wargaming miniatures, but I was still blissfully ignorant about historicals. But anyway, on with the issue!

I must say I do not like this cover at all. Not because of the topic or artistic merits, but because it doesn't show miniatures or a wargame in action. I strongly feel that a miniature wargaming magazine must have miniatures on the cover. On the other hand, the cover ties in to one of the articles, so at least it's not completely random ... 

Stuart's editiorial mentions several things: the positive responses; the binders which are forthcoming; no, PW will not go (bi-)monthly; and please subscribe to the magazine. The last paragraph says the cover is specially commissioned for this issue. So perhaps I should be more gentle than what I said about the cover before. But still ... I want to see miniatures on my magazine covers! :-)

Points to Ponder is a new regular feature. As the editor says "... to offer ides and suggestions to the wargamer which should be of some interest, irrespective of any period or army preference." Sounds good! SO what do we get this issue? A small discussion about colours (as in flags, not paints) and banners, and the suggestion that we should use rules that make it possible to capture or lose banners after a melee. ALthough we can always fold such effects into a bigger morale rule, I'm always in favour of making events such as the loss of colours explicit, since these provide noce details to the narrative of the game.

Cockpit by John Bennet describes a solo campaign system, with 6 countries arranged in a hexagonal map. The article describes how one can randomly generate diplomatic and economic events for each country, and how to run military campaigns. It's a good article with some good ideas, but focuses (to my taste) too much on detailed rule mechanics regarding movement and recruiting rather than on how to run (what we would now call) imaginations.

 

One Day Stand at Mons (Peter Clowes) is mostly a historical article describing the battle(s) around Mons during August 1914 between the British and the German army. I have a special interest in the military actions in Belgium during the early stages of WW1, so I (re)read this article with great interest. The "wargaming portion" of the article is rather short, and mostly describes figure ranges and saying "woodland and railway lines are quite important". So no ready-to-play scenario, although the accompanying map does provide some inspiration.

Fontenoy 1745 (again an action in current-day Belgium!) by Paul Stevenson gives a complete overview of this well-known 18th century battle. In this article, I do like the wargaming paragraph near the end, giving considerations for the wargamer who wants to play Fontenoy on his table. I like such an approach, since one can translate such considerations to one's own favourite ruleset.

The Armada Battles (Graham Dixey) provides the reader with a good historical overview of the various Armada battles against the English fleet in July 1588, with some nice photographs of Skytrex 1/600 ships.

The Indian Mutiny (Don Fosten) and The Wind of Change (Keith Benson) both cover the Indian Mutiny. The fist article focuses on the uniforms of both British troops and Mutineers, while the second zooms in on the history and some of the actions being fought. The second article starts with "The Indian Mutiny seems to have caught the imagination of wargamers", as if it's a new period that deserves attention. To me, it always seemed as if the Indian Mutiny was one of the "classic" periods in (colonial) wargaming, but perhaps I'm wrong and it truly was a new kid on the block in 1988. The article has quite a lot of useful wargaming information, with several game suggestions ranging from the full campaign to small skirmishes. And of course, no article about the Indian Mutiny can do without a photograph of the siege of Lucknow ...

In between both articles there's a two-page spread showing fantasy figures painted by Frazer Gray. I even recognize some of the Citadel figures which much later were present in my own fantasy armies!

Egypt 1801 (Arthur Harman) describes the various battles in Egypt between the British and the French. The article is mostly an historical account, and has relatively little wargaming information.

Redcoats and Rebels (Peter Helm) describes a replay of the battle of Eutaw Springs in 1781, one of the later battles in the AWI. Various maps give a nice evolution of the game. 

Modern Fighter Combat by Chris Peers outlines some approaches on how to approach modern air warfare. The setup described in Mike Spick's Air Battles in Miniature is mentioned, in which the table doesn;t show the horizontal, but rather the vertical plane to better model air combat. I have never tried this approach, but it has been on my to-do list for a long time ...

Dawn of the Dark Age (Simon MacDowall) gives a nice overview of the barbaric invasions of the 4th century Lots of facts and historical context, rather little wargaming information. "I believe that the best solution is to attempt to write your own rules ... " Ok!

Platoon Commander, written by Andy Grainger, provides an overview of (British) platoon tactics in WW2, with an example of how a platoon attack could unfold, and which could serve as the core idea for a good scenario. 

Rivers, Boats and Things by Charles Grant zooms in on how to use water features and craft in scenarios. A ready-to-play scenario is not included, bu there are some one-line scenario ideas.

Shire Battles (Michael Nursey) gives us two scenarios for fantasy games set in Middle Earth. I was sort of hoping of finding a reference to contemporary fantasy rulesets, but interestingly, a quick and easy (Although very generic) ruleset is part of the article. 

 

The magazine also has a questionnaire to poll the readers about their preferences. Quite useful, although these days this would be of course an internet survey.  But what strikes me is the number of questions. 64 questions, of which only 30 questions are abut wargaming. Who would have time for this today? Also, some of the 34 "surplus" questions probably wouldn't be permissable today under GDPR rules, such as asking for type of bankcards, type of cars in the household, annual income, what type of beers someone drinks, etc. Whatever any of these have to do with wargaming beats me, but probably these were sort of standard in consumer questionnaires 40 years ago. Let's hope we see some interesting results of this survey in the next issues!

 

As for my selection of an advert, here's one by Wargames Foundry, in which they announce their new Indian Mutiny range. Perhaps the Indian Mutiny was a "new period" in 1988 after all ...

Let's read ... Practical Wargamer #3 (Spring 1988)

I am encouraged to continue this series by the comments given by the readers of this blog. Somehow, looking at the magazines of yesteryear brings back fond memories for many of you, or simply taps into our desire for nostalgia.

Anyway, let's take a look at the Spring 1988 issue.

I really like the cover, but that's perhaps because there's always room for more medieval knights with nice heraldry. Those always stir my interest. The figures do look somewhat crudely painted by today's standards, and have been given a coat of gloss varnish, but they have a certain charm. I wouldn't say "no" if I could get them (for free :-) ) as part of my collection. 

The editorial discusses whether a "general" magazine should focus on one specific period in a single issue, discussions that probably are still valid today. Also, Stuart Asquith says the reactions to Practical Wargamer so far were positive. I tried to look up whether I could find something in the issues of Miniature Wargames or Wargames Illustrated from late 87, early 88, but couldn't immediately find a review or comment. I will delve into my archives some more.

The Campaign of 1141 is a historical article and describes complex twists and turns of 12th century in England and the rebellion against King Stephen in efforts to dislodge him from the throne. The article contains some wargaming suggestions, but these are very general, more a description of what you could do to wargame the period rather than ready-to-play scenario as we might expect these days.

The Old Wild West zooms in on the conflicts in 19th century America between the US Forces and Indians. The article is very general in nature, describing some characteristics of the period and the organizations and weapons of both sides. A little attention is given to the "cowhands", although no big mention of possible gunfights as wargaming scenarios. Figure recommendations list Britains Deetail figures, some of which I actually do have in my 54mm figure collection.

Leaders & Generals is a very interesting article and provides some rules mechanisms on how we can realistically portray leaders and commanders in combat. Not by simply giving them a "+1" on some die roll, but actually define victory conditions for different types of leaders, and to give them actions that the real leaders would do. E.g. for medieval battles, warriors would start out as a mob, but it was up to the leaders to form them into battlelines, and at the same time raise their aggressiveness before sending them into combat. It certainly gave me some ideas about how specific actions can be defined in the rules such that leader figures can do "leaderly things" rather than simply providing a dry "+1". 

Thoughts on Modern Skirmish Games is all about modern skirmish gaming and small unit warfare, and discusses how one should set up games for this type of game. One example: enough terrain features, such that individual figures can hid or go prone behind all sorts of obstacles. It's somewhat ironic to realize that the current trend in wargaming is almost nothing else but small warband-type games, as opposed to the "big battle" games that were prevalent during the 80s.

Plancenoit 1815 gives some useful hints on how to turn a side event during the famous battle of Waterloo into a wargame. Mostly historical facts, and some fairly high-level description on how to turn the battle into a wargame, but again, no ready-to-play scenario. It's interesting to read general design comments such as "... there ought to be a fair selection of gardens and yards enclosed by walls and hedges in order to break troop movement and to give the French something to defend", but at the same time see very detailed information such as "The game should last a maximum of 14 moves", without mentioning any particular ruleset apart from "game moves of 15 minutes each". Compared to today, the wargamer really still had a lot of work to do himself. Whether that's good or bad hing, is perhaps worthy of a good discussion. But anyway, it's always nice to look at the pictures and study the "visual style" of games from so many years ago.

Soviet BT5 is a modelling article, on how to (scratch)build and paint a Christie BT5 tank.

In Sluys 1340, the medieval theme of the issue is continued, with a look at the naval engagement between France and England. Mostly historical facts, but also some nice colour drawing of the various types of ships of the period.

Late Feudal Rules discusses the specifics of medieval warfare, and how to design rules that reflect the period. No rules as such are given, but the article lists varies points to consider. E.g., the force of charging knights is discussed, or whether or not firing into melee should be allowed.

Gunboats on the Danube looks at the military importance or rivercraft in 17th and 18th century Europe. Lots of historical context, with some wargame suggestions near the end, but which copme down to some modeling tips and "there is little point in listing firm rules for boats ... it is probably best that the wargamer designs his own." :-) As for scenario suggestions: "The best actions to recreate are probably attempted landings and attacks on bridge building." It remains interesting to see how the style and content of article has changed over the decades.

Then there's a 2-page spread showing painted figures by Kevin Dallimore. 

Your Own Wargames Campaign by Charles Grant is an interesting read, and describes mechanics such as map movement, keeping a diary, casualties, the weather, finances, etc. It reminds me very much of Tony Bath's Setting Up A Wargames Campaign (the article references this book as well). During the past years, Charles Grant has written quite a lot about his wargaming philosophy, so in 2025, this article doesn't contain much I didn't know already. But a nice touch is a small diagram of the "campaign journal", as described in many other publications by charles Grant.

Stirling Bridge 1297 by Charlie Wesencraft is an account of how a diorama involving this bridge was constructed.

Ancient Cavalry by Terry Wise (this issue seems to have articles by a lot of the then-well-known wargaming personalities) deals with the evolution of cavalry as a serpeate fighting arm. History mostly, little wargaming content.

ACW Combat focuses on the (tactical) role of cavalry and artillery during the ACW. Written by Paul Stevenson, this is always useful, and being an ACW enthusiast, I always pick up something new I might use in my own rules.

Next we have an article (Against All Odds) that deals with warfare in South-America duting the 16th century and the campaigns of Cortez vs the Aztecs. Again a lot of history, before we come to the paragraph dealing with wargaming. It is stated that no currently available rules will do, so the wargamer has to write his own! There are a few nice pictures showing Ted Naismith's Aztec figures.

Action on the Coa (written by Don Featherstone - yet another wargaming celebrity!) is an article that deals with this specific battle during the Napoleonic Peninsular theatre, with a few suggestions enar the end what to look out for when you want to transfer this battle to the wargaming table.

For the advert, I selected Prince August. These adverts do bring back memories, because I once saw casting one's own figures as the sign of a "serious" wargamer. Reminds me, I still have a bunch of fantasy Prince August homecasts lying around somewhere!

Overall, another good issue, although I would prefer to see some wargaming content. As I said earlier in this series, I understand wargaming magazines before the internet did have a lot of historical background, but when we look back on them in 2025, it's the wargaming ideas we are mostly interested in.

Issue 4 is already on my reading list!