1. Wargames Illustrated,

Issue 184

Three articles of colonial interest here: Chris Peers “The Armies of German East Africa, 1884-1899” is a very nice introduction and includes some OB information.

Mark Parkins’ “Amazing Adventures: The Fleece, Scenarios for Skirmish Adventures in the 1920s and 1930s.” I liked the scenario, but I see the charts and they look like Warhammer charts, maybe even from their skirmish rules chapter. Or, am I mistaken, Amazing Adventures is this a rules set? [Yes, I play Warhammer skirmish with my own Orcs and Goblins or Praetorian Guard against Ben’s troops. I plan to use Orcs and Goblins for my Stargate 1889 scenarios. I bought a DVD of the first three episodes of Stargate and the DVD had the Stargate on it so I reduce-copied it and am making it into a gate for my red-coated Brits to travel the universe.] Chris Leach’s final part of “Zulu War part III, Battle of Intombe, March 12, 1879” (uses Battle for Empire rules) contains OBs, maps and victory conditions, nicely put together. This issue also contains an ad for Copplestone’s Back of Beyond and Return to Darkest Africa.

Issue 185

Two articles this issue:

“Lands choked with Adventure: Filming ‘the Back of Beyond’” by Mark Parkins is the story of Merian Cooper and his adventures in Asia. Cooper filmed King Kong and the first (silent) Four Feathers as well as many documentaries of life in Asia and the South Pacific. Great stuff, great story, a fascinating life. The article contains a suggested army list for Back of Beyond Hollywood film crew, very nicely done.

Chris Peers’ “The Armies of German East Africa Part two: Organization, Uniforms, Armament, and an Army list for use with In the Hearst of Africa rules.” Well-written introduction continues, contains very useful information for forming units at outposts as well as painting your Copplestone and Pulp Figures German/Askari troops. This is sort of an abstract from a forthcoming Foundry Book Armies of the 19th Century East Africa.

Ads include Old Glory 15s (now Battle Honours?)Boxer Rebellion and Russo Japanese War, 1st Corps Cape Wars figures (reviewed here by Ian Knight two years ago), finally the back cover Foundry ad says the first of our colonial India ranges see the web site, I did and it is not there (more foolery by Foundry?).

2. Cannon Fodder Miniatures, see the review of the US Marines!

3. Soldiers of the Queen, issue 111

One useful, for gamers, article this issue, “Maps and Decisions: Buller South and North of the Tugela” by Martin Marix Evans. An interesting read, I thought the following quote to be food for thought for gamers. “It was of course the case that Victorian soldiers rarely had detailed maps of the theatre of operations and had to depend on scouting and observation to gather information on the terrain.” There is a good description of maps how and when they were made, how the lack of terrain knowledge effected Buller’s command decisions. The article includes four maps from the Boer war that could be used to set up terrain for any campaign. If you get the chance look for A. Crispin Jewett’s book Maps for Empire: The first 2000 Numbered War Office Maps (London, The British Library, 1992).

4. The Courier

Issue 85 I guess I will have to get a subscription to this as it turns out some good articles, although I can read it on magweb.com. “Marching into Zululand, Wargaming Campaign Structure” by Steve Winter, this is set up for TSATF rules. It took me two readings before I came around to this. It has some good ideas from expedition campaigns on a smallish scale. Each British column contains about 150 figures. A lot of the play is map movement until a battle is unavoidable then TSATF takes over on the game table.

5. MWAN

Issue 119, not having received issue 119 I looked it up on magweb.com

“The Banana Wars, Small Unit Rules 1901-1934” by Paul Hinson this is a reprint from MWAN #29, 1987. I must say the only part of this article I really liked was the OB info at the end. There are a few interesting ideas, but if you have TSATF stick with them.

“Last Train from Yang Tsun, A Boxer Rebellion Scenario for the Sword and the Flame” by Bill Hogan. Now this was much better, full of ideas, no not because I like TSATF so much. I would skip over the background to the Boxer Rebellion and jump right into the scenario. This has great ideas for using those inexpensive Goldlok plastic trains from the Dollar Store or Toys R US. I bought four sets, they were about $6 each, so I would have enough cars and track. The sets come with either US Western style or European locomotives, the cars are all European styles. The trains are about as close as you can get to scale for 28mm figures (in Model Railroading terms S Guage).

Overall this is a very good scenario with loads of ideas for train rules and victory conditions.

6. The Virtual Armchair General, see Bobby Jackson's "B'hoys!" figure review.

7. Military History, February 2003

“Bridegrooms of Death: The Spanish Foreign Legion” by David S. Woolman is a very enjoyable read. The article is a very good introduction to the 1920s Rif Rebellion in Morocco. Several great photos of the Spanish Foreign Legion are useful for uniform information as would be Osprey’s Spanish Civil War books. There is only very basic OB information nothing to workout unit info. You might even want to read Woolman’s book Rebels in the Rif, although there is little OB info there. However, the article contains several scenario ideas for larger unit actions. Also “Interview — Memoirs of a Bellicose Boer” by Colin D Heaton is an interesting read with some good background information and a few scenario ideas.

8. And That’s the Way it Was

see the review of The Sun Never Sets.

9. National Geographic Society, December 2002, Vol. 202 issue 6.

My thanks to Dwight Grosso for pointing this out to me, even though I had read it but forgot to note it. Away the article is “Surviving the Sahara” by John Hare who in 1999 or 2000 made a trek across the Sahara following the path taken by Hanns Vischer in 1906 (Vischer Across the Sahara, 1910). A great story with better photographs of this 1500 mile trek from Tripoli to Kukawa, Nigeria. There is a very useful map and the details should be of use to gamers. Hare’s book Shadows Across the Sahara, will soon be published in the UK by Constable and Robinson.

10. Copplestone Castings, see the Back of Beyond figure review.