Editor Dan ponders how the GW generation of game designers resonates with the Wi audience. (Left to right) Michael Perry, Jervis Johnson, and Alan Perry posing after a game of Valour & Fortitude. I’ve never actually played War Games by Donald Feather (first published 1962), or any rules by George Gush, Tony Bath, Charles Grant et al. I have got, and read, several books by those authors, but have never actually felt the desire to game them. That’s not due to a lack of respect, I have enormous admiration for the pioneers of our hobby, but they were not a part of my wargaming youth and they were much less of an influence on my gaming development and career than the game designers spawned by that tabletop battle titan that is Games Workshop. Jervis Johnson - not one of the old guard (although having just retired, he’s hardly one of the new!) In my teens, I was drawn in hook, line and sinker by the games of Rick Priestley, Richard Halliwell and Jervis Johnson. I say all of the above with a certain element of guilt and the understanding that the oldest of the old guard of wargamers will be tutting and shaking their heads at the idea that I have played Priestley but not Featherstone, but them’s the facts and it has led me to consider if that is the case for other Wi Readers and gamers in general. Did you come into the hobby via the Priestley, Johnson, GW route, or is all that irrelevant, new-fangled nonsense (all be it Warhammer will be 40 years old next year!) Jervis (sitting) signs a copy of Valour & Fortitude for a grateful Rick Priestley. (At least I think that’s what’s happening…) This question has become more pertinent due to the fact the October issue of Wargames Illustrated, Wi418, comes with a free set of rules designed by the aforementioned Jervis Johnson, along with Alan and Michael Perry. Do any Wi readers revere the workings of Mr Johnson like I do? Do other Wi readers care that Jervis’ first published game since leaving Games Workshop (where he wrote Age of Simar and Blood Bowl) will be a set of Napoleonic rules called Valour & Fortitude, given away with Wargames Illustrated? The question is somewhat irrelevant because the proof will be in the pudding; the rules are already on the press - I’ve just paid a £3,000 bill from our printers - and when Wi418 goes off sale* at the end of October I will find out how many people are interested in the rules and have bought the magazine to get their mitts on them. The cover of Valour & Fortitude,
