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Friday 25 November 2016

Miniature Wargames Issue 404

The December issue of MINIATURE WARGAMES magazine was delivered yesterday afternoon, and I have read it with avid interest. I am still getting used to the new layout, and I am still unsure if I like it or not. That said, it is the contents which is the important thing, and this issue has quite a lot stuff in it that was of particular interest to me.


The articles included in this issue are:
  • Welcome (i.e. the editorial) by John Treadaway
  • Forward observer by John Treadaway
  • Send three and fourpence by Conrad Kinch
  • Dreadnought Battlefleet (Part 2): The Battle of Jutland by Martin Pike
  • It's the Chicago Way by Brian Cameron
  • Grid Based Wargaming by David Burden
  • Bonaparte by Dirk Donvil
  • Critical Hits
    • Fantasy Facts
    • Crooked Dice
    • 4Ground
  • Recce
  • SELWG 2016 by John Treadaway
  • Wobby Bridge: The continuing tales of a wargames widow by Diane Sutherland
  • Club Spotlight: SELWG by Chris McNeil
  • Club Directory
Other than ignoring the 16-page Fantasy Facts section which was of no interest to me whatsoever, I found the rest of the contents of informative.

My 'stand out' articles were Conrad Kinch's Send three and fourpence (as usual!) and David Burden's Grid Based Wargaming. My interest in the latter needs little explanation to my regular blog readers, and indicates the growing level of interest in grid-based figure wargaming.

8 comments:

  1. Robert, can you expand upon the Grid Based Wargaming article for those of us not having this issue of the mag?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jonathan Freitag,

      I suspect that my reply is so late as to be irrelevant!

      The main body of the article deals with the main advantages of grid-based wargaming.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Bob
    I had three criticisms of the first revamped issue and I think two have been addressed. There were fewer typos this time around and those there were seemed to come up in the articles of contributors whose native language is not English - so I'll let that go. Their English is immeasurably better than my French, German or Spanish.

    I thought that the layout had calmed down a good deal. It is still very different from the old magazine but it now looks designed and placed on the page. Last issue looked as if a number of articles had been formatted separately by different people and then thrown at the page to see how they landed. Minor gripe - if you're going to use a photo make it big enough to be useful.

    Still not convinced the content is a good as it has been (but then I am reasonably convinced that the content of MWwBG was never as good as Battlegames' so it's been a long decline for me). It may be that this month's content was just not the sort of thing which I find interesting. Nevertheless I still think the articles lacked some 'heft' - a double SELWG, a longish manufacturer's interview, three pages of clubs (available and searchable online) - none of these have much practical use. A bit too much filler? For me I think the jury's out on content at the moment.

    Re Critical Hit - even if you're not interested it's always worth scanning for portable mechanisms. Additionally, even though it is of no use to me at all, Nick Hughes's article therein was probably the best of the issue.

    So see what next month brings - the overall trajectory may be upward (statistically a very poor deduction based onto two data captures).

    Cheers
    Andrew

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rumblestrip (Andrew),

      I am also looking forward to seeing if the next issue continues to improve.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. I'm glad you liked it Bob. I was a bit anxious about producing a piece about an experiment that didn't go according to plan.

    If you don't mind me asking - what did you like about it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Conrad Kinch,

      Learning for ones own mistakes - as well as those of other people - is no bad thing ... which is why I liked your article. It was honest and educational.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  4. The only reason I bought this issue was the piece on grid wargames. I still eagerly await your opus on the subject however.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stephen Briddon,

      Hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer!

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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