Innholdsfortegnelse for WSS 114 i Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy

As the lead elements of Forrest’s column drew level with a large tree next to the road, the federal troops unleashed a deadly volley, which resulted in the death of several men and horses. The cavalry retreated to the nearest ridge to the north, leaving a small detachment to cover their withdrawal. According to some chroniclers, the retreat was covered by four dismounted troopers who were captured during the ensuing firefight. The federal troops reformed behind the iron and wood fence around the cemetery, where they were charged by Forrest; they repelled the charge, leaving a few more dead and wounded on the road. Forrest then brought up three artillery pieces, which had previously been captured from the Union forces, and ordered his men to begin shelling the federal positions…

Gaming with recon elements is something many rules overlook. Most players tend to use them as fast attack vehicles with firepower, but in reality they weren’t used like this except in desperate circumstances! In recent years there have been attempts to readdress this, giving recon vehicles additional rules to reflect their role in battle. Flames of War has been quite good at developing the role of recon, although it sometimes seems a little strange that the recon is often conducted during the attacking scenario rather than as a precursor to it. The Battlegroup series of rules rewards the player with the most recon, allowing them a greater advantage in moulding the scenario being played. Instead of integrating these vehicles into the main battle line, I wanted to develop an idea…

The victim was a JTFM Puma, a lovely model of the wargamer’s favourite eight-wheeled big gun. I washed the resin model in warm, soapy water to remove any release agents or dust. Next, I primed it in Halfords grey car primer. Here was my first mistake: I stuck the wheels on. If you ever build one, put them on cocktail sticks and paint separately. For most of the painting I used an airbrush. They save a lot of time, as well as money on coloured sprays, and you’ll not need to worry about the weather to undercoat. I started by spraying the whole a ‘dirt colour’ – Vallejo Model Color Flat Earth. I then airbrushed all but the deepest recesses with Games Workshop Tallarn Sand. Highlights were added by airbrush…

The inspiration for this article comes from previous modelling articles from Stephen Tunmore. I read with interest his articles on painting red, yellow, and white (see WS&S 111 & 112) as they are generally considered to be the most difficult of colours to master. In this piece I will be taking the easy route: working with the colour brown. I had a few cast resin 1/56-scale gabions from Debris of War to paint and looked at the elements involved: wickerwork (brown), sawn wood (brown), logs (brown), and earth … you guessed it, more brown. The challenge here is to portray the variety of natural materials using colours from the same family. Achieving sufficient contrast and definition will be a struggle. Being very heavily textured, drybrushing was going to play a…

Tercio characters Company: 1898 Miniaturas Size: 28mm ‘foot to eye’ or 31mm tall; cavalry stands 46mm tall Era: Late 16th to early 17th century (Thirty Years’ War) Price: €6.50 for one mounted character; €9.50 for four command models www.1898miniaturas.com The Spanish company 1898 Miniaturas has released foot command and mounted characters for its 16th-century Tercios range. The cavalry miniature shown is Ambrogio Spinola, inspired by the painting The surrender of Jülich by Jusepe Leonardo. Other characters include Juan José of Austria, Cardinal-Infante Don Fernando, and a generic general with coronet standard. Alongside Spinola is a drummer from the Tercio command set two (each consists of a leader, sergeant with halberd, ensign, and drummer). The company also has a range of flags, at €1.50 per flag. The sculpting and casting on…

At Issus, Darius hoped to trap Alexander’s cavalry into a difficult crossing but Alexander dismounted and led his hypaspists over the stream. He was wounded but opened the way for the cavalry to lead a decisive charge. At Granicus, the Persian cavalry attempted to overwhelm the Macedonian cavalry and Alexander was bloodied and stunned, but able to gather himself as the battle rolled on. At the siege of Gaza, a ballista bolt hit Alexander square in the shield and penetrated into his shoulder. He recovered, exacting a terrible revenge. The next year, at Gaugamela, Darius tried to overwhelm Alexander with massed cavalry, chariots, and war elephants, but none of them came close to knocking out Alexander, who once again cut through the Persian line. Darius fled, only to be assassinated…

Fritz Bayerlein would lead a counterattack spearheaded by the Panzergrenadier Regiments 901 and 902 of Panzer-Lehr Division. The division took two days to assemble and used the poor weather to their advantage to avoid heavy Allied aerial attack. In the early hours of 11 July, they launched their counterattack towards the American lines. Panzer-Lehr were very well equipped, including a large number of Panther tanks. Dividing into two Kampfgruppen, they attempted to bludgeon their way through the thin hedgerow-lined roads. The II Battalion/901 Group headed north from the main western attack and headed towards La Caplainerie, held by the 47th US Infantry Regiment. The American infantry attempted to hold up the German advance but were forced to yield ground initially without armoured support. The Germans meanwhile were struggling to move…

Following the stunning defeat during Operation Bagration in June 1944, the Germans were pressed back relentlessly by the Red Army all along the Eastern Front. In January 1945, the Vistula-Oder operation brought the Soviets to within 50 miles of Berlin itself. Here they halted, mainly due to exhaustion and a lack of supplies, and prepared for the final attack on the German capital. The main components of this were Marshal Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front and Marshal Koniev’s 1st Ukrainian Front. Together they were to break through the last German defences and take Berlin before the Western Allies under Eisenhower could beat them to it. The Soviet plan was brutally simple; whilst Koniev engaged and destroyed German units to the south opposite Dresden and Leipzig, Zhukov would blast through the enemy…

Stargrave is an Osprey Games hardbacks. “Just like Frostg…” Don’t say it yet! I always like these books as things. Some of these big-book games have definitely been great, but I think it’s fair to say that some have had limited success. So what about Stargrave? Stargrave is very logically laid out (Captain); everything is in an order that even the most inex perienced of gamers will find rela tively easy to track, starting with creating your captain and first mate, then assembling and equipping their crew, and finally moving through the game mechanics pretty much in turn sequence order. Your captain really defines your ship’s company. There are many options here to personalize your captain, with options to make them into a ‘biomorph’ or cyborg, mystic, rogue, veteran, and…

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent prepared to launch the largest amphibious invasion of the age and attack Malta. He was determined to end the depredations of the knights, and to open a path of conquest to southern Europe. Warned of impending attack, the Knights of Malta worked feverishly to strengthen and prepare their fortifications and gather reinforcements from all over Europe. The response was tepid at best, but some contingents of troops, predominantly Spanish and Italian, arrived to bolster the defenders. Most of Europe was represented in some unit by volunteers. The Knights of Malta were led by the very capable Jean Parisot de Valette. Under his unified authority, the Hospitallers organized a highly cohesive defence of Malta, with around 500 knights, a couple of thousand soldiers, including Spanish, Italian, German,…

Militaries have a long history of fighting for cities, but not in them. Hence none of the major belligerents in the Second World War really foresaw the need for tanks to operate in built-up areas. After all, cavalry don’t fight in town – that’s what the infantry are for, right? Few tankers had trained in infantry support and even fewer in using their vehicles in built-up areas. On the urban battlefields of Europe, tankers were forced to create tactics and doctrine from scratch. The close nature of the urban battlefield makes tanks vulnerable, applying their weak spots: tank commanders are even more vulnerable to a sniper’s bullet; open hatches are attractive targets for grenades lobbed from windows; alleyways and doorways allow infantry to get up close and personal with hand-held…

The following is a brief guide to the models available. As usual, the limits of time and magazine space prohibit us from covering every single manufacturer. We are using what has been kindly supplied in time for our deadline. We wish to thank all the manufacturers who responded. The few that missed our deadline, we will put up online. We have missed out a few 20mm manufacturers (Britannia, Sgt’s Mess, and SHQ) as they did not respond in time to our inquiries. I have included the Elefant here, as it was officially the Panzerjager Tiger P. For the range classifications, we show the size and extent of the range of miniatures and accessories. We classify them as follows: Basic (a few basic models); Standard (has a good selection of cats);…

Embellishing kits with architectural and textural details creates a visual richness that I think gives scale models realism. After sharing images of some recent kit customisations on Twitter, WS&S asked me to explain how I go about these kinds of builds. I love MDF kits. Their low cost, easy construction, and huge variety make them an essential part of creating a wargame table. The kits also have considerable value as a base to which extra detailing can be added. For me, it’s this customisation potential that really makes them special. PUTTING THE KIT TOGETHER I play 28mm WWII games, so I built the French terrace model from Charlie Foxtrot Models (www.charliefoxtrotmodels.com). Colin Farrant kindly sent me the kit, along with a garden add-on, and I got to work. You can…

Once we’d received a copy of the PDF, we burnt the candles into the small hours reading. We even managed to go through the game and roll some dice – socially distanced, of course! Reisswitz Press, sister company to Too-FatLardies, produced a 109 page-PDF with a good list of contents and an index, both useful when learning a game. There is a lot to take in here, so we recommend a thorough pre-reading of the rules before play. One very important component, “Section 17: Shock and Morale”, should definitely be read early on. It’s that ‘Aaah!’ section that allows everything else to fall into place. PLAYING ‘O’ GROUP The game is aimed at the battalion level, with the platoon (typically divided into three sections) as the smallest unit. A section…