A Crimean War primer WI favorite Barry Hilton introduces this month’s theme content with a wargamers guide to the Crimean War, in which he covers the background, the main protagonists and some of the design philosophy behind his own new set of rules for the war. Panzer brigades on the Eastern Front After the destruction of Army Group Centre in Byelorussia by the Soviet Operation Bagration, there was little left to stop the Russians short of the German border, Hitler ordered twelve new panzer brigades created to ‘surprise and destroy the attacking armoured spearheads’. The first four of these entered combat on the Eastern Front in late August 1944, launching immediate counter-attacks against the Red Army’s deepest thrusts. This article follows the adventures of these new panzer brigades. The Battle of Alma For the second article in our Crimean War theme we travel to the Cold Wars convention in Pennsylvania and catch up with Paul Delaney and his local wargames group who were running ‘First blood to the allies - The Battle of Alma’ as a participation game. Maurice Following his success with the awardwinning Lasalle Napoleonic ruleset, Sam Mustafa has been working on a new game set in the turbulent 18th Century. We asked Sam to tell us about his latest offering, the second in the HONOUR series of games titled Maurice. General Eyre’s assault Our third Crimean War theme article takes us to the gates of Sevastopol, 1845, where we follow the British attempts to crack the nut which they felt would win the war for the allies. Age of Ravens Clash of Empires author Stuart McCorquodale plays out an exhibition Anglo-Danes versus Normans battle for his rules using the new Age of Ravens Dark Age supplement. Devast-opol! Or Carnage at Krim In our final theme article Barry Hilton puts his new Crimea ruleset; Four Empires through its paces on our great Sevastopol(ish) wargames table. But before he gets down to the action he has to overcome a very interesting problem.... Matt Parkes Paints : The Planning and the Paints Award-winning painter Matt Parkes continues his comprehensive fi gure painting guide with a look at planning and using different paints. Castagnaro, 1387 From the remnants of the armies that fought during the Hundred Years War several gifted military leaders formed mercenary bands that plied their trade across Europe. One such commander was Sir John Hawkwood. This is the story of one of his finest victories at the head of his mercenary army in northern Italy. Shooting Stars Following last month’s release of the new Flames Of War U.S. Army decal sheets, Victor Pesch shows us how and where to slide them.
