OBSERVATION POST

FROM THE EDITOR

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Short, quick-read posts from Wi readers about their hobby projects, notes, news and observations.

BRITISH TANKS IN A FLASH!

I’ve been painting Battlefront WW3 Team Yankee kits

FROM CARGO SHIP TO FIGHTING SHIP

For a few years I’ve wanted to make HMS Campbeltown

The Bits

I scoured the internet for the main body of the ship

The Build

Once the ship was laid out, I made a template for the

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS …

When you first start painting, “you suck!” is not the

Possible Alternatives to “You Suck!”

There are loads of approaches you can take when giving

ON WITH THE PUNIC WARS

Back in the October issue of Wargames Illustrated I

DIDN’T WE HAVE A LOVELY TIME THE DAY WE INVADED BRITAIN?

What could be better than four like-minded individuals

FULL PAPER JACKET BOOK PREVIEWS FOR THE BUSY WARGAMER

Researching this month’s books reminded me how wargaming is a wonderfully broad hobby. At its heart, wargaming is playing with toy soldiers, but that almost demeans how much effort goes into just getting them onto the table to fight recognizable battles. Beneath that work is the research required to give our games meaning, which in itself has multiple avenues we can navigate to achieve our understanding. With that in mind, this month’s books are an eclectic mix, but all of them are useful in one way or another for what we do.

AT THE DEEP END INTRODUCING ‘HIT THE BEACH’

Regular contributor and amphibious enthusiast Pete Brown introduces this month’s Hit the Beach theme, taking a deep dive into the ocean of wargaming possibilities.

DESIGNER’S NOTES: LION RAMPANT: THE CRUSADER STATES

Co-author of the new Lion Rampant expansion supplement The Crusader States Dr Gianluca Raccagni gives us his Designer’s Notes on the latest edition to the Rampant stable.

INVASION SUSSEX! EARLY SAXON BATTLES WITH DUX BELLORUM

Games Designer Dan Mersey introduces us to some early Saxon battles that begin with beach hitting action on the south coast of England.

BILLHOOKS FIELD DEFENCES AND STAKES

Last month our in-house model-making maestro James created movement trays for his Bows and Bills. This time round he is making field defences and stakes, adding flexibility and defensive potential to his Never Mind the Billhooks army.

WHAT A CORKER! MARLBOROUGH’S IRISH INVASION 1690

A contested amphibious landing on the south coast of Ireland is not something most people immediately associate with John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough. In 1690 he delivered two strategic towns to the cause of William III in the space of a month.

FORCING PASSAGE WEST 22 SEPTEMBER 1690

The enemy has sailed up the Lee with a massive fleet

ATTACK ON JAMES FORT, KINSALE 3 OCTOBER 1690

The model-to-man ratio is 1:10. All infantry are armed

WARGAMING CRÉCY

Simon Macdowall tackles one of the most famous battles of the Hundred Years War and throws in a bit of Billhooks and Zoom along the way.

THE BRITISH INVASION OF EGYPT 1801

The beach landing at Abu Qir Bay (and the Battle of Alexandria that followed) led to the defeat of the French in Egypt - an important but not widely known action within the Napoleonic period. That relative obscurity didn’t stop Alan Perry designing an entire range, including a flat boat and crew, to recreate its beach landing!

HOW TO … BUILD AN AFGHAN GATEHOUSE AND WALL

When both Wargames Atlantic and Perry Miniatures announced plans to produce some plastic NW Frontier Afghan figures, Paul Davies decided to create his next ‘How to …’ on a similar theme; in this case a gateway and walls which could be used as the starting point for a fort or even a walled town or city. The Kabuli Gate at Fort Rohtas in the Pakistani province of Punjab provided his inspiration.

SCENARIO 20. 5 ANGUAR ISLAND AMPHIBIOUS INFANTRY 17 SEPTEMBER, 1944

Our pals at Warlord Games have provided us with an unused scenario from their latest Bolt Action book Campaign Mariana & Palau Islands. There’s also a new special rule for a Preliminary Airstrike!

FREE FRAMES ‘HIT THE BEACH’

Taking inspiration from this month’s free US Marines frame, along with Neil Roberts’s Hit the Beach cover art, James has created a set of models heading onto the Pacific island of Betio.

HOW TO … BUILD AN IRISH ROUND TOWER

Pringles tubes were recently nominated as the most un-environmentally friendly food packaging, basically because they are unrecyclable, but clearly the people who shamed Pringles didn’t account for turning an empty tube into a model of an Irish Round Tower! Glenn Clarke show us how ….

HIT THE BEACH (MAT)

Our theme for this issue of the magazine is ‘Hit the Beach’. If you want your wargames figures to go hitting the beach, you are going to need some beach to hit. So we thought we would have a look at the ready-made options available for gamers who want to represent that area of the battlefield where sea meets land.

LITTLE BIG HORN FROM BOARD TO BATTLEMAT

John Hart takes a trip down Memory Lane, turning a muchloved childhood boardgame into a retro wargame.