Category Archives: News

Because of my role as Creative Manager of Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk I have access to material, news and information that will not be made public on the company websites for days or even weeks to come. I share it here in this category of posts.

Richard III found!

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Is this a Skull I see before me…

Aside from a liar of a politician finally being exposed today the big news is that historians have proved beyond reasonable doubt that a skeleton found under a car park in Leicester is indeed that of King Richard III who died in 1485.  This is excellent news for me as I love the War of the Roses period of English history and this really brings it up to date and may mean some revision of books held up to this point to be correct. You can read the detail on the Guardian’s Blog but this does solve one of the big mysteries of English history and its also amazing that they found the body at all.  Really long odds against it.   Hunchback and Murderer or a victim of Elizabethan spin doctoring?  You decide.  Got to love Olivier!

GBS

Slaughterloo is Here!

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My own copy of Slaughterloo

My own copy of Slaughterloo

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Look at the thickness of that spine!

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Having a flick through the pages.

The day is here (well it was yesterday but I do have to sleep) Slaughterloo Redux is in print, in boxes and being sent out to all those who ordered it from Alternative Armies.  You  can find out all about the book on the website and I will not repeat it here (there is also a folder of free files you can download too) as this is my personal blog and I just want to talk a little about the process of the book and the joy of its publication.

Back in the autumn of 2012 when it became clear that the original print run of Slaughterloo 2nd edition was going to run out the decision was made to update it and put it into one book instead of a boxed set.  The process of making one book out of three was larger than I originally though as not only had it to be combined but it had to be updated.  The rules mechanics did not change but the army lists and statistics tables had to be expanded and tidied up along with more new material added.  On top of this there was a new scenario to write and a new way of writing it (based on the Flintloque 3rd edition model) required.  Page after page all the way up to one hundred and sixty eight pages.  The biggest book I have ever worked on.  The authorship is of course split between myself and Alex Draper but I oversaw the digital layouts and artwork editing myself.  Over a hundred and fifty of Edward Jackson’s great ‘world of valon’ images are in the book and each of them had to be sized and rendered.  Topping out at 175,000 words the editing and proofing took three weeks to complete.  Hundreds of work hours but it was more than worth it as the book is a beautiful object in its own right.

You can see from the pictures in this posting, I wanted to show an actual copy instead of digital copy as normal, the quality of the print work and of the paper stock.  The book has a great weight and is a joy to flick through and read at leisure and that is before you get to the actual game (Alex’s rules are superb!).  You can read it as a reference book too.  In a time when prices go ever up for wargaming material and the content gets ever slimmer and font sizes ever bigger this bad boy gives you the works for just twenty pounds.  I believe in giving people a damn good read as well as a good game to play.

Unfortunately the weather in the UK did delay release and shipping by two weeks and by consequence this posting too.  Obviously I did not see this coming but the company has not had a single grumble never mind complaint about the delay.  Alternative Armies has many loyal gentlemen for customers, let me tell you.   Snow and wind did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm though.  Slaughterloo woohoo!

GBS

p.s. you might now ask how I am going to top this book…well 2013 is a long year and there is plenty of time.  Just you all wait and see.

Craig Andrews kicks it up a notch on Barking Irons!

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The Latest on BIO as of the weekend…its updated already since then!

Back in December I took part in the now annual Alternative Armies interview for the Orcs in the Webbe advent calendar.  In that interview I was told that Craig Andrews, owner of Orcs in the Webbe and editor of Barking Irons Online, would be making a planned effort to kick the volume of content on Barking Irons up a notch.  Well its now late January and Craig has certainly met his goal!

I contribute content to Barking Irons when I can.  A lot of this is done in time time off work or at the weekend (yes, I don’t sleep much!).  Now its not as much as I would like but I am only human.  Craig has taken my work along with that of a dozen others and planned out news, reviews, articles and scenarios for half a dozen game systems published by Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk.  My latest was a HOF Fire-Team scenario you can find notes for on TTWG blog but only yesterday an excerpt from The Trolls of Valon from 2012 was put up too.   I am very impressed with Craig’s dedication to wargaming and to me as well.  Add to this that he holds down as full time job and has just successfully moved from Birmingham to Bristol and you have a chap who can spin a lot of plates while also maintaining a formidable online presence.

There is no doubt that Craig Andrews is the soul behind BIO and that I among the hundreds who regularly look to Barking Irons for their gaming material each week are looking forward to what will happen in the rest of 2013 and beyond with this online magazine.

Craig is going to be looking for voluntary funding for OITW to cover his costs.  I have told him privately and will now state it publicly that Alternative Armies will contribute largely to this in supporting OITW.  OITW now also covers other game systems in the ‘black powder fantasy’ wargaming genre created by Flintloque so I hope those other brands will also assist Craig and that this will meet his needs.

Keep it up Craig!  Keep the Flag Flying.

GBS

Robo Basho – My Article in Irregular Magazine 13

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Last summer I wrote a short article for Irregular Magazine for their thirteenth issue.  I was happy to be asked by a customer of 15mm.co.uk who is also on the staff of the magazine as they were looking for professional writers to create material for a ‘Mysteries of the East’ focused set of content.  My love of all things Japanese combined with giant robots (more on this next month…it will be worth the wait) gave me an idea for a piece all about a sport that replaced war in a ravaged future Japan.  Wrestling in the form of two hundred foot tall, two thousand ton machines, which shake a stadium and make a crowd of tens of thousands roar in approval.  Robo Basho 2115!

You can view and download the issue on Irregular Magazine website.

The article is part one of two with the first part focusing on the history and background of Japan in 2115 which then leads to the sport of Robo Basho and the customs of the giant machines themselves the ‘Roborikishi’ in their stables.  An account of that occurs inside the ring and the weapons allowed along with the Gyoiji or Referee too.  The Kuroboshi III type giant mecha is looked over and its super thick armour and massive muscle servo bunches compared to western war machines of similar size.  Ending with the roleplaying possibilities for Robo Basho the article explains what would be featured in part two.  A good read if I say so myself!

Irregular Magazine 13 was due out last summer and the delay is regrettable.  Here is a statement from the editor on this from their website:

First of all, we’d like to start with an apology to all of our readers and contributors. We were not able to publish Irregular Magazine in Summer 2012, which we deeply regret. We believe we’ve got through the problems that made this impossible and are now back on track with regular publications!

I do not want to get into this here but I think that the problems Irregular had are similar to those other online wargame magazines and indeed other printed monthly titles have had too.  Finding and obtaining content that interests an ever diverging readership is tough and adding to that the sheer speed of the online community and news feeds means that traditional formats are failing.  No point in putting news in a magazine these days.  Focusing on deep article content is the way forward, a more journal like approach.  This of course is hard to come by from writers and artists as it takes longer to create.  For those interested it took me eight hours to pen the article plus an hours proof reading.

Lastly I must give praise to Sam Croes my good friend who created the superb Robo Basho artwork for the article which also features as the cover of the magazine too.  His talent always makes me smile and he was very kind in agreeing to craft this piece of art in his limited free time for me.  He has also produced a blog post on how he created the superb image for Sumo Basho, check it out.

GBS

War in Catalucia and Zombie Dawn sold out!

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War in Catalucia and Zombie Dawn

After a busy weekend on the website of Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk I went into work to find that two of my titles had sold out their current print runs.  The first third edition game book for Flintloque and the ninth title in the USEME series too.  Both of these will be out of print for a while as I have to organise re-prints but both will come back into stock as they are core books and popular sellers.  Indeed War in Catalucia will be in its third print run when brought in again and the total number of USEME booklets sold is nearing four thousand now.

While Zombie Dawn will be brought back into print just as it was there is a chance that I will take a few days to ‘update’ War in Catalucia.  That does not mean any changes to the mechanics of the game (third edition is the most awesome incarnation of Flintloque ever as it is) rather some more background material and art taking into account the three years since release with more stats and army list information and the like.  More as and when as normal on this.

The winter of 2012 and into this year has been good for Flintloque and USEME with new players taking up the offer of a free limited miniature called Gerrrard the Wolf and the masses of content on Barking Irons and the great new Orcs in the Webbe.  USEME continues at a pace with weekly messages stating ‘release more titles!’ a firm favourite.

Thanks to all those who bought my work!

GBS

Gerry Anderson dies….

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Its a sad Boxing day for me.  I had not intended to post on the blog until the end of the week (with a look at some of the films and books Christmas brought me) but I have just heard that one of my favourite film makers and innovators has died.  Gerry Anderson died today aged 83 after suffering from some ill health and Alzheimer’s disease as well.  Creator of supermarionation and programmes like Thunderbirds and Stingray, including my favourite Captain Scarlet he had a big effect on my childhood and I spent many rainy weekends watching videos (yes, not DVD’s!) and also BBC2 re-runs.  Programmes that, in an age before computer animation and digital effects did things that no live action film could hope to emulate on screen.

I wish his family well and its a shame that unlike the Captain, Jerry was not indestructible.  Follow the links to learn more and have a look above if you missed the tense and often very violent Captain Scarlet.  I have used it many times to inspire wargame scenarios and the like.  Honestly to me its one of the best spy genre series ever made.

GBS

OITW Advent Calendar 2012 – The Mirror of Zyrgone

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Its nearly Christmas (or on my fantasy world of Valon it is known as Cryptmass, but more on that elsewhere) and that means my annual entries to the excellent Orcs in the Webbe advent calendar are now appearing online.  Every year Craig over at ‘OITW’ collects material from fans and writers and artist who love the medium of Black Power Fantasy and lines them up for a month of free content which is read by thousands of wargamers and others.

This year Craig asked me for two pieces in our customary way for his birthday (Happy Birthday Craig!) to do with his favourite Valon fantasy race, the Dracci, Children of the Dragons.  I was happy to agree to this and penned a short story called The Mirror of Zyrgone which features not only the Dracci but another perennial favourite Captain Sharke of the 105th Rifles.  Following this (for the 19th of December) a Flintloque scenario called ‘Sharkes Mirror’ which lets wargamers play out the events of the tale.  I followed the tradition begun by Cornwell himself in naming the scenario ‘Sharkes ????‘ and ‘mirror’ had not been used so there you go!

Its a great little action packed tale so please do go along and have a read at it.  Craig is a great chap who takes on a lot in working up not only Orcs in the Webbe but also is editor of Barking Irons Online so it was the least I could do.

GBS

Terra Burning blog goes live today!

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A while back I posted that I was going to get involved with the setting up of a new 15mm scale wargaming blog.  This blog would be about a post apocalypse setting called ‘Terra Burning’ and I would be contributing posts and news and so forth from the point of view of USEME (the blog’s preferred rules system for play) and miniatures from 15mm.co.uk.  Well the blog went live today and I have just put my first posting on it talking about wargaming on Terra Burning.

So what you waiting for…can’t you feel the burn!

GBS

Fleet Scale Success from Eli Arndt!

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Since August I have been watching the progress of Eli Arndt’s tiny Fleet Scale Mecha designs and I am pleased to be able to say that Eli giving me the chance to get them into production has turned out brilliantly.  This month will see them released in their own part of the 15mm.co.uk website along with a special Barking Irons Online article for them all about their presence in USEME and how to make best use of them overall in gaming.

FS01 Sprue

FS01 Fleet Scale Mecha or 6mm Power Armour

FS06 Sprue

FS06 Fleet Scale Mecha or 6mm Power Armour

These are some of the smallest wargaming pieces I have ever dealt with and on average each of them is 6mm or less in size.  That said some clever mold making and production sees them in white metal which was then painted by Eve Hallow. They will be released as single miniatures and as value sprues which are a little cheaper.  There are nine different, and they are different, mecha and from the paint schemes I asked Eli for Eve has done a super job (I heard him gibber when he handed them over that never again…too small!).

O.G.Joel has a draft of a 6mm rules set for USEME and these will fit in lovely.

Well done Eli!

GBS

Slaughterloo Boxed Set OOP…something new this way comes.

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 S2 Box Set OOP

Slaughterloo Box Set OOP

I had been watching the shelf for near a year but it finally happened last week…Alternative Armies sold its last stock copy of Slaughterloo; that being the boxed set of three books and card sheets released in 2006.  A while back at a company meeting it was agreed that when the day came we would remove the game from sale for a month and then bring about a new version.  This was going to be a new edition but progress has been halting and there is no rush as the existing mechanics of the game are excellent and vastly more than the old first edition.  I can almost hear you all now reading this and saying ‘what no more Slaughterloo..you devil..why?  We love that big battle wargame’.

Fear not!  Slaughterloo will continue.  In fact it will do so at Christmas of this year for at this very moment I am working on ‘S2 Redux’.  That is a new run of the game.  Same mechanics, same rules, same content but in a different format to the box set.  Coded 5030 Slaughterloo will become a single thick book along the same lines as Flintloque 3rd edition became in 2009.  Bigger than any one Flintloque book this one will contain all three of the box set books with updates in the army stats tables to account for the passage of time.  All of the cards, tokens and so on to play the game will be in the book for photocopy and personal print…but also on the Alternative Armies website as free digital downloads.  Excellent value and all in one place.  Sneak peek below of the new cover with brand new artwork by Edward Jackson and logo by Sam Croes.

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The draft new cover!

More on this on Barking Irons Online nearer the time.

GBS