The Waiting Room…

As it seems to be taking me forever and a day to get the next stage of any figures completed I thought it might be an idea to pop into the waiting room, browse some magazines and chat about a few things…

On the table are the three latest wargames magazines: Wargames Illustrated, Miniature Wargames and Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy.

First up: Wargames Illustrated, to which I subscribe, highlights he main problem I have with ‘themed’ mags. This months ECW theme is of little interest to me and overall the mag was a disappointment. Nice pictures as usual but I skimmed most of it as the ECW just doesn’t grab me. I almost got tempted by the period when doing an archaeological desktop assessment on a site in Newcastle where we identified a star fort from the 1644 siege slap bang in the middle of a proposed development site. This was pre-plastic days and no one else was doing the period so I managed to pass.

The Genappe article was the only one I read right through. Now I subscribe to this mag and some issues have been excellent but to be honest I’m not sure how much longer I can justify it.

Next up is Miniature Wargames. This has undergone something of a overhaul over the last year and there has been a significant improvement. I still think the Show coverage is excessive but I’m finding the range of articles more interesting and even the SF/Fantasy column is proving an entertaining read.

The subscription offer this month was for a K&R accessory case with tape and dice which was quite a good offer (better then a t-shirt!) so I finally succumbed and subscribed. As I’ve been buying it each month for the last year this seemed a good idea!

And now we come to Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. This had always been a hit and miss for me and is the one mag I don’t buy every month. Again, the dossier approach can make large parts of little interest. Even if a period I know well the level of detail is likely below what I already have access to so in the end it comes to eye-candy. This is often good but the mag itself always seems a little thin and for the price, not always worth it. It’s not one I’ll subscribe to in the near future…

Finally, I had hoped to cover the latest Battlegames mag but it hasn’t arrived yet. For me this is by far the best of the mags out there. I think it is a well targeted mag for gamers of a certain age with a certain outlook. I also think it’s a good sign of the state of the hobby that such a magazine enjoys success. Maybe the postman will be kind tomorrow.

And in other news… this last week I took delivery of a few more Adler command figures and some more Baccus Prussian Landwehr. I can’t recommend too highly the service I’ve had from both companies and if I could only get a little more time I’d have a lot more 6mm figures painted!

And finally, this coming weekend will see me heading off to Blackpool for the Advanced Squad Leader Heroes Tournament. I’ve mentioned ASL before and I have a considerable amount of time and money invested in it over the last 6-7 years. It is an excellent game system and it has only been the arrival of my second child (Zach) nearly two years ago that curtailed my playing – and re-launched my figure gaming! As this is not a period specific blog anymore I may import the posts from my old ASL blog and drop in the odd post about the game.

Anyway, as I’m snowed under at work and then in Blackpool from Thursday until Sunday it’s unlikely I’ll get any more figures painted/based so hopefully catch up next week.

Now, time for bed…