Back in the day with Battle Magazine

31 January 2018

I used to do my gaming at the South London Warlords (SLW) and get a lot of my information from Battle Magazine.

I think it began around 1975 and was, at the time, and contained some good core wargaming information. It covered the usual battles, It had columns from the wargaming stars of the day Charles Grant etc. Historical articles about many things covering various historical periods.

By 1977 there was a distinct leaning towards Fantasy wargaming with a few adverts and a couple of articles and later on we get an article explaining a fantasy game in all its glory.

Starring the SLW

There is also a reference to the South London Warlords and a full colour cover featuring the Warlords in all of their pomp.

It had a rather nice Napoleonic battle in the foreground. A rather nice touch is that they are using the Napoleonic Wargaming (Airfix Magazine Guide): 4 as a ruleset. The book was 64 pages long, published in 1974 and was written by Bruce Quarrie. The rules were a joy to play and much loved by members of the club.

I know Airfix did various other rules that were used extensively in the early days such as Ancient Wargaming by Phil Barker, American Civil Wargaming by Terence Wise, English Civil Wargaming by George Gush and World War 2 Wargaming by Bruce Quarrie. These were great rules, written by some great characters.

And the point of all this is? 

I will now however draw your attention to the game going on the behind. Yes It’s a fantasy game being run by myself.

That’s right It’s me, Peter Riley, right above the second T in the title of the magazine “Battle”.

We were playing a tower exploration game based in the Conan milieu. A wizard owned a tower and the players needed to rob it of it riches, this Fantasy stuff was frowned upon by the historical lobby at the club. However it was cheap, fast and fun to play.

Those were the days!