If you can play the guitar, music can become interactive. You are no longer just listening to music, you’re taking part in it. If you play a wargame, you can make history interactive. You are no longer just reading about it, you’re re-enacting it, and at the same time wargamers are seeing and manipulating what might have been. Rarely do players chose to refight a carbon copy of a battle, which means just about every wargame ever played is a ‘what if’, making this month’s theme content very easy to compile, but tricky to introduce, beyond the obvious “all games are ‘what if’s so away you go”.
We decided that for our introduction to ‘what if’ (see page 32), we would ask several different gamers what ‘what if’s mean to them and how they go about choosing them and turning them into gameable tabletop actions.
That introduction is accompanied by several articles with a ‘what if’ angle, taking you from the streets of medieval Paris to the South China Sea in the 21st Century. We are also pleased to present several excellent painting and modelling articles this month, covering big guns, French Railway Stations, Normans, and this month’s freebie figures.
Happy reading and rolling
Dan Falconbridge
Editor and Owner
QUICK FIRE!
Your fellow wargamers tell us about their recent hobby projects.
OBSERVATION POST
News and reviews of new miniatures, models, and more.
RELEASE RADAR
In our new regular feature Dom Sore tells us about the exciting new hobby releases that have made a big blip on his Release Radar!
FULL PAPER JACKET
What new book releases have piqued Neil Smith’s interest this month?
THEME:
WELCOME TO ‘WHAT IF’S
Folks from the wargaming world throw ‘what if’ gaming randomicity your way!
BUILDING A FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR RAILWAY STATION
Tony Harwood brings half a century of model making experience to the pages of Wi with a build of Courcelles railway station.
THEME:
THE LEPER TERRORISTS OF FRANCE
Dr Steve Tibble introduces us to a tale of medieval madness, moral panic, and great ‘what if’ gaming potential set in 14th Century Paris.
PAINTING VICTRIX’S NEW NORMAN INFANTRY
This article inaugurates Wargames Illustrated’s new in-house painter Marc. Before his first ‘cuppa’ had even brewed, we plonked some plastic Norman Infantry on his desk and he created this handy painting guide.
THEME:
STORMING THE DANEVIRKE
Colonel (Retired) Bill Gray returns to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein and ponders a ‘what if’ that was mere hours away from happening.
BLAM! BLAM! AARGH! SNATCH!
Did last issue’s free rules leave you hungry for more grid gaming action? Have no fear, Daniel Mersey is here, with a new scenario for his game of Blam! Blam! Aargh!
COVER MOUNT FOCUS:
KITBASHING YOUR REDCOATS
We rummage through the bits box, wield the scalpel, and apply some green stuff and paint to this month’s cover mounted figures.
THEME:
“THE OUTRAGE AT JEDDO”
Pete Brown presents an unusual samurai skirmish game involving those sneakiest of spies and assassins – the ninja!
ENTRENCHING A BIG GUN
Barry Evans takes a Victoria Miniatures artillery piece and adds an impressive trench emplacement to create a vignette.
THEME:
RAID ON FIERY CROSS
Bob Giglio and Dennis O’Toole put forth a hypothetical raid on a Chinese military facility in this modern ‘what if’ scenario.
