Slingshot - November/December 2017

ISSUE 315 of the Society of Ancients' Slingshot contains a fascinating in-depth discussion by Alastair McBeath of the original David v Goliath match-up.

Pyrrhus adorns the cover of Slingshot 315

Other really interesting articles include Patrick Waterson's rebuttal of McBeath's previous piece on the nature of Goliath's kidon and Perikilis Deligiannis's feature on the 280BC Battle of Heraclea.
I have renewed my subscription.

Ancient Warfare - Dec/Jan

MOUNTED war is the theme of the latest issue of Ancient Warfare, and once again it is an issue that really appealed to me.

Ancient Warfare...full of interest, and good value at £5.99

The only article I skipped was on Roman horse doctors (ie, Roman doctors who treated horses, not Roman horses who became doctors) - too specialist even for me.

Double Delivery

GOT home from Spain yesterday to find two magazines waiting for me - the January edition of Miniature Wargames and the December/January edition of Toy Soldier Collector;

Miniature Wargames issue 417 and Toy Soldier Collector issue 79

The former majors on reports from shows and has lots of sci-fi/fantasy coverage.
TSC has its usual emphasis on metal figures, but also finds room for plastics - including an article by me on a pack of Army Men I found earlier this year in the Channel Islands.

My article ... with four of the pix I sent in, and it even has my headline!

Miniature Wargames - December 2017

ISSUE 416 of Miniature Wargames arrived shortly before I flew to Malta for a chess tournament.


Usual well-designed cover ... but, just as usual, not one wargaming battle report inside

The most interesting article to me is Conrad Kinch's review of wargame/history-related instructional YouTube sites, including a favourite of mine: Military History Visualized (although he, or the magazine, manages to misspell the site's name).

Slingshot - September-October 2017

ISSUE 314 of Slingshot arrived sometime last week while I was in Exmouth, Devon.
You could say the best part of it is the cover, which features a striking photo of part of a refight of the 217BC Battle of Raphia, with what I guess to be 28mm figures.

Slingshot 314...great cover

But saying that would be unfair to the contributors of what is inside the mag, particularly David Karunanithy's description of Alexander the Great's Paionian cavalry, Nick Harbud's analysis of the hitting power of medieval firearms and bows, Mike Haran's look at China's Great Wall(s), and some interesting book reviews.

Wargames - Soldiers & Strategy Nov/Dec 2017

ISSUE 93 has an 80 Years War theme, with a nicely understated cover.

84 pages...not enough, apparently, to include an actual wargame

Themed articles include three scenarios, but not one battle report. I know I harp on about this, but I also play tournament chess and it would be inconceivable for British Chess Magazine or Chess to come out without a single game report.

Ancient Warfare - Oct/Nov 2017

IT has been some time since I bought a copy of Ancient Warfare magazine, but I could not resist the biblical theme of this issue.

Ancient Warfare...modern masterpiece

I was not disappointed. All the themed articles make great reading, for me at least. Indeed, I am keeping the magazine for future reference - something I do not normally do as I am pushed for space in my flat.

Tabletop Gaming - Oct/Nov '17

IT has been some time since I bought a copy of Tabletop Gaming.
I have always been put off by the belief that the editor/publishers do not really believe in tabletop games, which is why the cover seems to be invariably bereft of any tabletop content.
Instead we get illustrations more suitable to computer games, which is where I suspect most of the staff's expertise lies.
However, I bought issue 12 on the promise of an article on "60 Years Of Risk - Looking Back On A Strategy Icon."

Tabletop Shaming?...no tabletop contents on the cover

I was not disappointed - the article takes up four pages and made me think I'd got my money's worth (£5.25) whatever the rest of the content.
The magazine is packed with pieces about tabletop games, but not a single report of a game played.

Miniature Wargames - November 2017

ISSUE 415 of Miniature Wargames arrived while I was in Guernsey playing chess.

Miniature Wargames...eye-catching pix but a battle-free zone

Once again there are no battle reports, but I was much taken by Chris Peers' article on 19th century African kingdoms I had not previously come across.

Cowboys & Indians

I FOUND this "Western Rider Cowboy & Indian Play Set" for £2.99 in a gift shop in Paignton, Devon.

Western Rider...colourful version of the Wild West

As for most modern toy soldiers, the contents are made in China. In this case they were "imported into the EC" by HTI of Fleetwood, Lancashire.
The contents consist of a horse-drawn covered wagon, five green cowboys, four brown cowboys, six brown Indians, four green Indians, a canoe, a tepee, two pieces of fencing and a tree (some of the green figures come across as blue in the photo below, but that is a trick of the lighting).
Note that there is no driver for the wagon or paddler for the canoe.

Good variety of models

As is usual with such figures, the value for money is excellent, but I will need more than is here to put together a decent Wild West wargaming scenario.