The Journal issue 74

I just received The Journal, the magazine of The Society of 20^th Century Wargamers (S.O.T.C.W). As usual a really good read. I have more or less just flipped through the magazine, but there is a lot of interesting stuff.

Of course, it is all post 1900, as the name suggests. Very WWII-intensive this issue. Lots of scenarios, but even if you’re not interested in that, there are still lots of interesting historical information in most scenarios.

- Kampfgruppe Deák – history and three scenarios on the Hungarian SS Kampfgruppe formed in July 1944 and comprising some 1000 men.

- Clearing Ashar – scenario set in Iraq in May 1941. Commonwealth vs Iraqi troops.

- West of Polanow – A scenario set in Poland 1939, Polish cavalry vs Germans.

- Poland 1939 – Organization of Polish 10^th Motorized Brigade and German 2^nd Pz Div, for use with Spearhead rules, but could be used for other rules sets.

- Mereküla – Soviet naval landing in the Baltics in February 1944. Article with suggestion for a scenario.

- Amazons at war – article on female warriors during the Russian Civil War.

- Recon Escort – airwar scenario set in Angola 1982, Angola vs South Africa

- Aegean breakpoint – Fictive modern naval scenario, Greece vs Turkey in 2000.

- HMAS Onslow & HMAS Vampire – a walk-through

- Italian Vedette Boat – a conversion in 1/600 scale.

- Starship Martin to the Rescue – Fictive WWIII 1978-scenario in 6mm

- Battle for Ap Bac – Vietnam 1963 for Force on Force rules.

- The Ben Cam Sweep – another Vietnam scenario, this time set in 1969.

On top of this the usual reviews, a battle report and other.

Membership will set you back £18 in UK, £20 in Europe and £25 in the rest of the world. That will give you a subscription of 6 issues, and for this subscription period you will get issues 71 to 76, i.e. pay now and get issues 71 to 74 now and issues 75 and 76 when they are published.

This is very good value for money, each issue is £3-4 and shock-full of interesting articles. S.O.T.C.W is something I think need all the support it can get, as they produce such an excellent publication. Do support them by becoming a member, and you could support them even more by writing articles for them.

As an extra incentive to be a member: you will get membership discounts of between 5 and 10% from a number of traders.

I joined this period, and I’m very pleased with what I got so far. So pleased actually, that I bought a couple of back-subscriptions to get my hands on all the interesting articles.

S.O.T.C.W needs you, so join now!

Battlegames issue 27!

During the autumn we got the unfortunate news that the excellent magazine Battlegames was dying. As this is my absolute favourite printed magazine that was very sad news indeed.

I bought one of the earlier issues a couple of years ago, and wasn’t terribly impressed with it. But after a very nice interview with the editor Henry Hyde in the Meeples & Miniatures podcast I gave it a new try, and was fully hooked. It is very good. It is usually full of articles that interest me, and then there are the other ones. The ones where I look at the heading and think- nah, not for me. But I often end up reading them anyway and are usually pleasantly surprised. So, it is a very nice magazine. I have since bought every issue.

So, anyway, Henry announced a while ago that Battlegames was saved! There was much rejoicing in Mälarhöjden. Atlantic Publishers would take over and the Battlegames would still look the same, feel the same and still have Henry as editor. Good!

Anyway, on the 22^nd I got issue 27, the first under new management, and it was, as usual, a very good issue. A very informative article by Rich Clarke, from Too Fat Lardies, on his new I Ain’t Been Shot Mum WWII-rules, describing a scenario and the thinking behind it. Diane Sutherland describes a new terrain-building project, Lee Clapham has an article on painting 1/72 plastics and there is very interesting article on wargaming when you’re blind – fascinating! Neil Shuck, Mr. Meeples & Miniatures, is the new Forward Observer, i.e. presenting the news in the hobby. That is just the articles I have read so far, and there is a bunch more, to be read in the next couple of days.

So, with that I just want to say – go buy an issue now! Or even better, subscribe. This is a magazine we want to live on, it is just that good. It is “The spirit of wargaming”.

E-magazines

I’m a huge consumer of the written word.
The amount of books that pass my hand (or eyes…) is, well, let’s just say the bookshops loves me.
But books aren’t everything, there are magazines, booth printed and in PDF-form. I’ve got a couple of miniatures-related printed magazines in the post now and then, but it doesn’t have to end there.
The web is full of magazines for free, magazines that are really good.
Heres a selection of nice ones:

Portal

A monthly magazine about figure painting. Some news, some commercials and many articles about painting. Recommended!

The Ancible

A magazine about SF- and fantasy-games. They tried the printed way, failed, and are now web-based and free.
Figures, painting, terrain, rules and more. Really worth reading!

Warning Orders

An American society playing mainly historical miniatures games. They publish this little magazine, filled with battle-reports, reviews and musings. Really enjoyable, and as a long-time gamer I feel really nostalgic when their veterans look back on board-games such as Starship Troopers, Squad Leader and mega-games with thousands of small cardboard counters… (wiping a tear out of the corner of my eye)

Irregular

A quarterly magazine about wargames, role playing games, terrain building and more. Many really, really good articles.

For all these the rule is to down-load them all now, because you never know how long they’ll live. Unfortunately many nice magazines are dead, like Fictional Reality, Harbinger and Wargames Painting & Modelling.

I was smart and down-loaded them in time.