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 • “We have devoured the land and our animals eat up the wheat and cornfields close. All the people retire before us and desolation is behind. To realize what war is one should follow our tracks.”

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

THE CULT OF NEGATIVITY • Looking back through the mists of time to when Guy originally asked me to write this column, I recall being asked what I would like it to be called. I chose “Up front” for two reasons. First, because knowing that the column was to appear at the back of the magazine, it amused me. Less of an afterthought, I hoped, and more of a splendid desert to round off the feast; the crème brûée of wargaming, there to amuse and titillate, but with an occasional ‘bombe gateau’ hurled in to shake things up a bit. In fact, it was the opportunity to hurl the odd hand grenade into the hobby that was my prime driver in agreeing to pick up my pen.

WE ARE ALL GOING ON A BOAR HUNT • The story mankind has mostly been one of survival against nature that is red in tooth and claw. The three main requirements for survival are shelter, food, and water. Without any of these three items, human beings would not last very long at all.

KENILWORTH, JULY 1265 • Most wargamers are familiar with the First Baron’s War, the struggle between King John and the English Barons, which led to the Magna Carta. But there was a second Barons’ War, which took place between 1264 and 1267, in which Simon de Montfort almost overthrew the established monarch Henry III.

THE STRUGGLE FOR ALASKA • When Russian fur traders entered Alaska in the 1700s, the fate of the American continent was in question. Yet it was not Spain, France, Britain, nor the fledgling United States who challenged Russian expansion, but the fierce and proud Tlingit tribes of coastal Alaska. They were a warrior society with strong leadership, but they could not have foreseen that these strangers arriving from the sea would change their world forever.

TLINGIT UNIQUE ARMAMENTS

LUNGE-PARRY-RIPOSTE! • As the Allies cut into occupied Western Europe, they faced a German foe who was far from defeated and still as cunning as ever. While facing ever-increasing pressures from the Eastern Front, Germany still proved time and again to be a stubborn and resourceful enemy.

FIGHTING RETREAT • In the American War of Independence, the fledgling Continental Army was constantly short of supplies due to a lack of money, resources, as well as incompetence and corruption. It was always in need of food for the soldiers and fodder for the animals. Foraging expeditions would often be sent out to collect resources and to prevent the enemy from obtaining them.

SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA • After a long and bitter struggle, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman took the southern town of Atlanta on 2 September 1864. This was a severe blow to the Confederates as Atlanta was a supply depot, as well as a centre for industry and communications for the...