Innholdsfortegnelse for WSS 123 i Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy

“A foot soldier is commonly a man, who for the sake of wearing a sword and the honour of being term'd a gentleman, is coaxed from a handicraft trade, whereby he might live comfortably, to bear arms for his King and Country … He is generally beloved of two sorts of companion, in whores and lice, for both these vermin are great admirers of a scarlet coat.” – The Spy (a London broadsheet, circa 1700) In 1813, after a spate of looting in the army, the Duke of Wellington famously accused his men as being the “mere scum of the earthy”. On another occasion he also stated that he did not know what effect his soldiers would have on the enemy, but by God he was afraid of them. The…

Everything related to Ravenfeast – the game, scenarios, paper figures, and player aid resources – remains entirely free to download at www.Ravenfeast.com. With as few as a dozen figures per side, players can raid the coast of Saxon England, pillage monasteries, and battle for control of Danelaw! And now … we're expanding Ravenfeast to cover the end of the Viking age and the dramatic events of 1066. This free expansion covers the Norman conquest of Saxon England, as well as the brutal years of rebellion and resistance that followed William the Conqueror's victory at Hastings. The original Ravenfeast skirmish rules remain intact, but new unit classes, abilities, and optional rules are introduced for players to explore this unique, turbulent period. With this supplement we've aimed to stay true to the…

The use of red is not exclusive to the British but is also found in Saxon, Danish, and Swiss armies – although in the mind of the average human, ‘redcoats’ are only ever one nationality. Numerous hypotheses abound, including the common but unlikely yarn that red coats disguise a bleeding wound. Why would that be important to the British and no one else? During the first 50 years of their existence, the English, Scottish, and Irish armies and county militias used a variety of coat colours including green, white, yellow, blue, grey, brown, and purple, but red was most common from the 1670s. Most, but not all, Scots regiments wore red coats, as did the Irish. The shades of red would vary dramatically from batch to batch as no common…

There are many stories as to why red was chosen for the main uniform. Rome and Sparta are often pointed to, but the most probable and practical reason for the choice of colour was cost. Red cloth was the cheapest to procure for uniforms. The Protectorate waged the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654, mostly at sea) and the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660). After the restoration of Charles II, there was the Second Anglo-Dutch war (1665–1667, again at sea), the War of Devolution (1667–1668), and the FrancoDutch War (1672–1678, at sea again). James II's reign saw the Monmouth Rebellion (1685) and the Williamite invasion (1688), which led to King William III and the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697). Queen Anne's reign saw the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). What follows is a brief…

Begin by creating the dark-brown cloud shapes with Dark Brown (F-533) and a number 0 brush. Use the paint thinner than normal, and use the tip of the brush to create the cloud by merging multiple small circles or dots. At the same time, add small dark-brown dots here and there. We will cover around 40% of the garment with the dark-brown spots. Next, we add Brown Orange (F-557) clouds inside the dark ones by painting multiple small dots. Do not fill the entire darkbrown cloud and do not paint the edges – leave a big portion in the dark colour. Add some more orange dots on the beige pink. Optionally, you can highlight the orange spots with Orange Rust (F-559) and a second highlight with 50% of Sunny Skintone…

One rarely thinks of the logistics involved in warfare, including how the hardware gets to the combatants. Arms merchants tend to be controversial, yet successful and flexible businessmen. Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East, Volume 1 is about such an organization selling to all sides in the Middle East. It describes the negation, sale, and transportation of weapons, and the intrigue around the arms traffic to the Middle East in the late 1940s. The first half of the book acts as the series introduction, covering the start of Czechoslovakian arms production in the latter part of World War II and into the post-war period into the 1970s. Weapon deals were part of more general trade deals, not always what the buyers wanted but were offered at inflated prices. Czechoslovakia…

Why did we make crossbow range shorter than bow range in Ravenfeast? Modern field tests of early medieval crossbows suggest a theoretical range of several hundred yards – very comparable to the later longbow – but with a rate of fire 50–75% slower based on reloading time. The design philosophy of Ravenfeast is to avoid complexity, so we didn't want to introduce mechanics that would require tracking of when a crossbow last fired. Our compromise solution, admittedly abstract, is to disallow moving and firing on the same turn and to reduce the maximum weapon range. The armour piercing capability of the crossbow is well documented by historical sources. A less publicized advantage – reliable accuracy even in relatively untrained hands – is one we chose to represent with a +1…

In order to pull pressure away from the various defensive lines in the Low Countries, the Duke planned to take his forces in such a direction as to force the armies of the Sun King to redeploy to their eastern borders to ensure there would be no threat to France or its allies in the German states – particularly Bavaria. His plan was to march eastwards, picking up allied forces from Denmark and allied states from the centre and northern areas of Germany. Once he reached the Rhine, he planned to advance southwards down the river and take the war to France's principal ally Bavaria. Marching south and east, he caught the French off guard, and they, sent two armies to pursue him. As he had planned, Marlborough was also…

In the case of both patterns, start by painting the ‘base’ colour of the camouflage (the colour that occupies the largest area) – in this case, a pale beige or grey. For the splinter camo, we mix Dark Brown (F-533) and Splinter Grey (F-536) in the same proportion and evenly cover the whole surface. When it comes to the oak leaf, the dominant colour of the camo is beige pink. Create the shade by mixing Dark Brown (F-533) and Matt Earth (F-507) in the same proportion. Create the next layer of the splinter pattern by adding an extra 25% of Splinter Grey to the previous mix, and apply a general highlight over the poncho, leaving only the darkest tone in the deepest recesses. Then apply the base layer with pure…

The new beautiful hardback book is packed full of gorgeous full-colour photographs of miniatures, maps, and artwork, all of which help the reader to really get the feel for the battles of the era the book covers. The first 50-odd pages are devoted to an overview of the history the Warlord miniature range covers, showing key battles and a brief background on the major events. This section is useful for beginners and makes historical wargaming more accessible for new players. There are 40 pages of additional rules, including expanding the game's scope into the late medieval period and new siege warfare rules. The book has a table of contents and a very useful quick reference section at the back, which makes up for having no index. GAMEPLAY For those not…

COLUMN Skirmish wargaming is like riding a bicycle: doing it is simple enough but describing how to do it is another thing entirely. To start with, it is worth remembering that before skirmish wargaming was ever thought of there were such things as skirmishes – which is to say, real skirmishes between real combatants – since positively ages ago right up until the present day. So, rather than trying to work out what makes a skirmish wargame a skirmish wargame, how about first figuring out what makes a skirmish a skirmish? So what is a skirmish? You'd think that one would be easy, wouldn't you, but even the dictionaries seem a little uncertain. Chambers ventures, “A minor irregular fight between small or marginal parties – to fight slightly or irregularly.”…

I have chosen to use Infamy, Infamy! with notes for those wishing to use Lion Rampant 2, although the scenarios can be easily adapted to any rules. Refighting large battles or engagements is not what either system is really designed to do, focusing as they do on the small-scale border warfare which was endemic on the frontiers of the Roman Empire. But while the grand battles tend to be the focus of the historians such as Tacitus, any military campaign is also made up of many small skirmishes, patrols, and foraging missions. And such encounters are absolutely ideal for playing out on the tabletop. The campaign is split into two parts and follows the broad narrative arc of the Roman expedition against the Druids on Mona (modern-day Anglesey), which appears…

For Bad Wimpfen, I would suggest using a rules system specifically aimed at this period of history as other skirmish rules may not work quite so well. With this in mind, Pikeman's Lament will serve this battle well. Alternately, a larger set of battle rules such as Black Powder or The War of Three Kings at a 4 to 1 scale and by assuming unit are half the recommended size in the rulebook, so a 24 man unit would become 12 man with the same stats. Using Pikeman's Lament The British forces should consist of: • 3x Shotte (with Bayonets) each represents two platoons • 4x Raw Pike (bakers and labourers) – each represents 50 men. The Pike units actually consist of men armed with improvised weapons, pistols and axes.…

Old-school wargaming is hard to define by its main feature. However, everyone pretty much agrees that Wells, Young, Grant, Featherstone, Morschauser, and Wesencraft were at the heart of it – it's hard to find anything wargames related that one or more of them didn't try. The originators of wargaming shared a conviction that the whole package – troops, board, and rules – had to serve the pleasure, interests, and resources of each individual wargamer. Think of commercial rules as cookbooks, franchise rules and copyrighted figures as boxed or canned foods, and wargames complete in one box as TV dinners. Those store-bought meals may share ingredients, but they're not home cooking. “Oldhammer” feels like old school because, like home cooking, it begins by telling some large organization “Thanks, but I prefer…

A trick for painting the splinter pattern is to combine multiple isosceles triangles. Paint a first brown triangle near the edge of the garment, then add another in one of the corners of the first triangle, next one in the corner of the second triangle, and so forth. Vary the size and direction of each new triangle. Avoid repeating the same pattern. Paint the brown triangles first with Red Brown (F-532), since these occupy the most space. Next, use Olive Green (F-534) to paint the green shapes. These are overall smaller than the brown ones, and are always in contact with or almost surrounded by the brown ones. Keep in mind that the base colour should still remain the most visible colour of the garment. To gain contrast, we can…

Watching Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai gave all us moviegoers a taste of the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. While the film had its inaccuracies, it told the story of the traditional warrior class who rebelled against the Japanese government and their modernizing ways. Without the film, this story would perhaps never have been heard of by most of us. Truth is stranger than fiction, and this is particularly true here. The Last Samurai Rebellion book starts by explaining the real story, which is explored in some detail. Readers will get a good overview of the events, and this leads directly into the gaming section of the book. Next, there is a good guide to the uniforms of both sides and model availability. Instead of adapting the units straight from…

MAKE ROOM, MAKE ROOM! With the new year comes the annual spring clean. Like a lot of us I'm sure, I collect far too many wargaming-related ‘bits’ that I really should dispose of. Plastic sprue frames are probably the worst thing for taking up space. I really should chuck them, but then there's that voice in the back of my mind: “What if there is something useful you are about to throw away?” I've now started downsizing my sprue collection by clipping off the unnecessary parts. Once the main parts are gone, there's a lot of empty wasted space between the sprues. You can also recycle the sprues, by turning them either into scenery (girders, bricks, etc) or into ‘sprue goo’ for modelling projects, or just throw them away. A…