The Wargames Press – in print and online

Now that I’m finally settled in Australia, I’m in a much better position to take in new rules, magazines, blogs and forums/bulletin boards. I’ve picked up a couple of issues of Wargames Illustrated (pre-and post-Battlefront purchase) as well as a couple of issues of Battlegames.

Battlegames works very hard at differentiating itself from the other two UK based magazines. Sometimes I think itfalls into unwitting satire of itself, with almost audible hear-hears and self-laudatory commentary. Graphically it errs on the side of de trop with the tell-tale pointers of DTP overkill and form over function. The one criticism I have of Battlegames that resonates with me is that it can look like a Web 2.0 ‘zine on steroids and suffers from a surfeit of Photoshop cleverness. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, Battlegames offers a great deal in terms of the written word. the prose is well-written and edited, with minimal overt editorialising or agenda-pushing and a distinct lack of the petty jealousies and bitchiness derived from envy that pervades online media at sites such as Page Miniatures The. Mike Siggins’ column is equally thought-provoking and incredibly insular in parts. Battlegames is expensive though, at AUD$17 a pop,  but for that you do get the aforementioned good writing, excellent photography and the “Old School Wargaming” tenor.

Wargames Illustrated, well according to some lackwits and luddites, it’s purchase by Battlefront (a successful non-UK wargames company, the cheek of it!) was the pre-cursor of the apocalypse. If one ignores that sort of thing and looks at the mag of late, It’s back to something of the good old WI of old. Sure there’s Flames of War content, but if FoW isn’t your thing, what’s to stop an adaptation of the FoW content from being usable with your current rules du jour. Certainly IABSM and PBI aren’t too dissimilar interms of scale and scope. There are some distinctly off-putting parts – but they may have gone by now – the excruciating faux bonhomie of the pseudo-Siggins is cringeworthy at best and lacking in any content of note. I wasn’t so impressed with the painting guide for the freebie ECW figure, being pure Dallimore in technique and really poorly presented. Sadly it seems that fewer people seem to be aware that there is more than 3 stark colour clashes to painting 28mm.

Online the usual suspects feature. PMT is becoming more and more irrelevant as it descends into self-parody with each month. By searching through some of the more focused forums around, one finds better advice, more trenchant opinion and often much more up to date news bereft of agenda-pushing and stalking horse commentary. The interface is as archaic as ever and the censor’s knife is wielded with the finesse and reasoning of a dull mattock. I tend to spend most of my online time these days at WargamerAU, despite its Fantasy/Sci-fi leanings, as there’s much to be picked up in terms of c0nversions, modelling and painting in an easily accessible format. When I’m not there I look for inspiration to the Guild, and other such forums. I avoid the heavy traffic forums like FoW, Daka Dakka or Frothers while the SOTCW forums are following the same path and featuring some of the same names that dissuaded me from paying much attention to TMP – sad really as SOTCW would do well if they would actually broaden their horizons beyond the few rules sets they do actually bother with. Again insularity rears its head in the case of the SOTCW. Will I rejoin? Possibly, but only because I don’t have all the back issues yet.

This may seem a tad negative in outlook as a blog post, but I’d like to stress that I see much to be positive generally.  I’ll spend more time paying attention to the various podcasts that are out there especially with 3 hours of commuting each day. There are also a few eZines and club forums that are worth searching out. I’ve given up on Yahoo groups for the main part, only Perfidious Albion continues to be a constatnt, mainly because of the varying content and a take no prisoners attitude to the Prima Donnas of the boardgames hobby.

Pete

The Portable Battlefield – A return to necessities

As I do not currently own a motor vehicle, use public transport to commute, attend Corsairs meetings and will likely continue to do so for the next couple of years, the one major restriction on my gaming is setting up a tabletop terrain that caters to my aesthetic sensibilities  and still be able to transport it to and from the gaming venue without risking a hernia.

I once developed a quick list of what a portable setup might entail on this blog several years ago, but nothing surpasses theory so much as the exigencies of reality.

Convenience has triumphed over economy and in turn value over aesthetic ideals. I’ve obtained one the cloth backed GW battlemats, which I find suits my needs for the meantime. it’s wellmade, durable, and lightweight and generally very good value for money. With free time being a distinct limitation, the idea of making a whole bunch of portable terrain took a deserved back seat. The addition of some ready made lightweight hills (GW funnily enough) and a good number of Noch deciduous trees to begin with gives me a good starting point to work from.

If I make a few judicious purchases and add a couple of commercial pieces I should be able to bring a decent terrain set up to the club by rail and not feel like i’m playing on a billiard table or a cricket pitch. If anything it’s trees and particularly buildings that will take the most space and effort to take along, so initially I’ll be playing in rural wildernesses bereft of habitation, as long as there are sufficient amounts of broken and LoS blocking/obscuring terrain.

In 15mm, it’ll be easy to add a few scratchbuilt structure from foamcore and the like, and most of the other scale specific terrain will easily fit within acceptable load limits. 120 or so trees should allow me to have enough cover on the table and break it up nicely in concert with a few hills and maybe the occasional cropfield (coir mats FTW) anmd flexible roads/river networks.

I’ve seen exquisite portable 15mm terrain carried around in old Kodak photopaper boxes to know it can be done and that I could fill the average 6′ by 4′ tabletop with enough hedges, fences and walls to look good. So all in all I feel pretty confident about being able to take along the army du jour and enough terrain to at least get a passable rating in terms of cover and aesthetics.

Pete