Where does wargaming stop... and merely Gaming begin?
Iwas reading the latest issue of WSS the other day- not a bad issue but not one of the standout issues either- Main Topic - the Western desert- nice!Other bits not bad but the "game reviews"
Oh dearie me- almost all the "games"( note the use of the term instead of rules) were for limited fantasy or sci - Fi games. The new Not 40k at all in any form A,N, Other sci-fi skirmish game Antares got a sycophantic review- no surprise there but I worry about any adult who starts an article "I love 40k" makes you wonder if he's past puberty yet?.
However that was not the worst even if I include more bloody Zombies- which I wouldn't if I had a choice. No this months nadir was wait for it Tail Feathers-and aerial game with sparrow Raven Mice and rats. Give me strength! Now this game had a "suitable for 9 years upward" tag so its a kiddies game . Nothing wrong with that but should it be reviewed in a Wargames mag- rather than a general games mag such as Tabletop Gaming- which is surely where this game belongs. Or are the WSS going along with the current trend for infantilisation ?
Mafia magazine?
Unusually I received a copy of Wargames Illustrated in the post the other day. Now I don't advertise in this and hadn't seen a copy for over a year. Now its no longer the FOW hose magazine but its still in thrall to a certain extent to the Warlord- Perry axis and the rest of the Nottingham Mafia. Now this does not automatically make it a bad magazine- you just have to be aware that it has an axe to grind. Indeed as far as articles went it wasn't bad at all once you filtered out the subliminal advertising so ignoring the review of Warlords big AWI plastikrap boxed set- glowing as you'd expect and the article on tank modelling- using a Warlord model naturally then there was actually quite a bit of reading though personally I still find the shazam - kapow design style of the mag a bit too "in yer face pal !" for my taste . The pages sometimes just too busy and the concentration on the one true size(28mm of course) But on the whole I've seen a lot worse and again overall the mag was a bit better than the last time I looked....Flawed- perhaps but interesting.
By Gum it's been a week for magazines. This morning MW dropped on the mat so to complete the trilogy here we go.Don't be put off by the front cover which is pretty nauseating orcs and thingies equally don't be put off by the 7 pages of club directory- I find that according to this document there is only 1 club in County Durham whereas I know of at least 2 others not including the T.W,A,T,S.a and had never heard of the one that IS listed- C'est la Guerre!
The main article is a discussion about Airfix- specifically their new WW2 skirmish game which actually looks as if it has some nice ideas in it. It is card driven and comes out in May- and should be a good introduction to WW2 if that is your thing. The tone of the discussion was a bit childish in parts - all about the games you played as a kid- and trying to re-create them for your kids - why ? Kids do their own thing man. What is this obsession with children.....
However moving swiftly on Dan Mersy gave us the benefit of his thought on Dragon Rampant- his low level fantasy version of Lion Rmapant- now funnily enough if I was going to do Fantasy this is the way I'd go free-form not tied to any silly "universe" and with jokes in. Indeed I'm almost tempted to re-start my Dwarfs- in 7 man units of course....
An article on the Alamo siege I'll not pass comment upon - mostly because I'd have to check up my Alamo references of which I've more than a few- Back in the day Peter Panzeri fought the Alamo assualt at 1 to 1 using our Alamo range in 28mm- at the Derby Worlds and we do ranges for the Texas War of independence in 10mm 15mm 28mm and 40mm.
There are also a couple of Dark Ages scenarios for the hard of thinking- not bad of themselves but a bit light on actual info- but being the Dark ages there may not be any ....
So Dudes you pays your money and takes your pick. I just wish more of the offerings were not aimed at 10 year olds is all.
I am with you all the way. I wish we could get a good quality miniatures magazine that only covered historicals. Battlegames was great, but since its merger with MW, it just has not looked as good.
ReplyDeleteEven TMP, which used to be All Things Historical, has more fantasy-sci-fi content.
I'm not bothered about a bit of sci-fant per se- sometimes it amuses and I do have a small sci-fi collection Its more how childish so much of it is.
DeleteAlso why do so many blokes want to re-live their childhood with airfix( More Brits than Americans for that one). I did the Airfix thing but got "proper" adult models as I could afford them it is called growing up so I'm told.
For my money MW and WSS as magazines outshine WI in the reading depsartment but all 3 have something to offer.
Having just finished reading the current MW, I found it quite good, the Alamo piece was quite good. I did notice one thing about the review pages. Compare the US battleship osprey review to the Soviet SPAGG one. I can't help but think the reviewer of the latter just couldn't be bothered and had a couple of hundred words to add a filler...
ReplyDeleteDidn't read that review- but did read the Sabre Squadron one- which I thought perhaps a little harsh- apparently you are no longer supposed to know your stuff anymore
DeleteI've more books on the Texas war of independence that a few .... even though it is a very tiny war.
DeleteI'm a subscriber to WSS and just took the opportunity of the half price MW one. I only buy WI on a need to basis. The last three magazines of each have been disappointing. But I do think we only have ourselves to blame - we are the contributors so if we don't like what we are reading then write something else (pending the editors decision of course).
ReplyDeletePaul See your point. It was one reason I started writing articles for MW and with the Editors indulgence there will be more.
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