Current top of my list is a book that I got for £1 from Poundland:
This guy tells it as it is; often brutally honest. I picked this up, given its cheapness and following my recent interest in Force on Force. Its a tale of daily life in a combat zone, fighting a war that has yet to make it to the silver screen, and yet which at times we already seen through CNN etc. Recommend for a £1.
The latest issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy (no 65) arrived on Friday. I will say straight away that I write the boardgames column for this magazine.
With a central theme of Biblical warfare then this would always be a weak issue for me, given that I don't go back beyond Imperial Romans - which really means around 40 AD and the invasion of Britain / 70 AD and the Roman Civil Wars. Yet, there are reviews, painting help, columns by Rick Priestley, Steven MacLauchlan and Richard Clarke, some stuff with actual gaming stats (the AWI game, the chariot race) and other bits of interest (figure storage, in depth look at Deus Vult and a Battlefront thing amongst others), So, after an hour I still haven't finished it.
Which brings me to a love affair that may be about the end. For a few months now I've been thinking that the magazine was going more "White Dwarf" ified, with a big Flames of War emphasis (current owners) battle reports, eye candy pictures, and not an awful lot of actual gaming, and then padded out with regurgitated history, when I would be better off buying the relevant Osprey or two in the first place ? Is this the historical gaming magazine for the attention span challenged?
113 Pages:
8 pages - 1066: battle report: lots of 15mm eye candy, but nevertheless a battle report for all that. Army listings after a fashion(might be appropriate for the rules used) but no real map or starting disposition.
14 pages - Battle for Hunner Park: lots of 15mm Flames of War Eye, but another battle report. Map this time but no starting dispositions.
18 Pages - 1069 - SAGA/Hail Ceaser battle reports, without even giving me the army listings, nor maps and starting dispositions to enable me to refight it.
4 Pages - Scenery making - the wharf and some other boards.
8 Pages - building Leonardo Da Vinci's tank. Interesting enough if somewhat specialist.
6 Pages - Scalp - FW wars - finally something with bit of gaming substance that I can take away and use rather than just look at.
6 Pages - Battle of Kut Al MAra - potted history
2 Pages - Siege of Kut Al Mara - back to what I call proper gaming.
4 Pages - Advertising FOW - back to Vietnam.
10 Pages -Martinque - Eye candy. Next issue the battle begins. Will that mean rules, or a battle report that means more eye candy but little else?
9 Pages - Egypt for the Egyptians - more potted history with a nod towards some gaming.
4 Pages - Trip report to Battlefront HQ in New Zealand.
Remainder will be advertising or editorial.
Very Glossy but not an awful lot to return to after 30 mins of flick through or use in my own gaming. Ultimately I want my gaming magazine to have things related to gaming that I can take away and use or learn from: something that battle reports with no maps, no army breakdowns, no starting dispositions don't give me, even they have lots of nice pictures. And the love affair about to end? Well, I bought WSS from issue 3 onwards after seeing it in a local newsagents. Issue 2 was back ordered, and issue number 1 had sold out, although I have it from either EBAY or a bring and buy (I forget which).
I think last month's was somewhat better I seem to remember
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