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Hello Loqers’ Everywhere! It is often said in the miniature wargaming community that companies do not listen to their customers, that they turn a deaf ear to the continual bleating of those who purchase their products. Many of you will know, certainly those of you who are regular customer of Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk do, that the company I am part of does listen to its players and customers. Now, why am I prattling on with this singing of our own praises? Well it’s to do with everything that has been happening at Alternative Armies over the last two years. Two years of questionnaires, asking for feedback, postings on the venerable Notables Yahoo Group and also some fabby tester products all to reach one startling conclusion. That Alternative Armies needs to get back into the magazine producing racket to make its fans happy! Now if I am right on this you will be reading this thinking ‘well duh!’ In fact for those of you who have collections of Flintloque miniatures and remember glory years gone by I know you are thinking that exact thought and rightly so. So without further dramatic building of tension (takes of his circus coat and sparkly top hat) I announce our new regular format magazine… Barking Irons! When I casually mentioned to Craig (he of Orcs in the Webbe fame) at Salute 2009 in London that we were intending on creating a new title for print to support our game systems he was…excited to say the least. And this is why I have decided that the announcement of this new magazine will fall to him in this very column. With this in mind he sent me a list of the questions that all you fellows might well ask of this dramatic action and I will do my best to answer them for you here. So read on and remember to breath some of you! What exactly is Barking Irons and why not continue one of the past titles such as ‘Orcs in the Hills’ or ‘Notables Newspaper’ instead? Barking Irons is a new magazine jointly published by Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk which has at its heart the desire to provide material both official and submitted for our game systems with particular emphasis on Flintloque, Slaughterloo, the Ion Age and other titles we publish. Background articles, scenarios, adventures, hobby articles, sneak peeks, Q&A, competitions and more will be in its pages. Barking Irons is very much the offspring of the venerable Orcs in the Hills magazine and of the Notables Newspaper as well. We learned lessons ourselves and also from the feedback we got from players and reader so that we knew what they liked and what they wanted to see more of for their games. Barking Irons is a magazine for the information age. By this I mean that unlike the older titles it is fully at home in the world of websites, blogs, instant information and so forth. Its focus is on being a damn good read which you will go back to again and again Its focus is not on miniature releases or news (though both will feature in small ways) these are dealt with on our websites but instead on high quality reading matter to expand your games. What is the format of Barking Irons and why? Is it like ‘The Rarest Tin’ or ‘Flintloque 3rd edition’? Barking Irons is in a format unlike anything we have produced so far. Each monthly issue will be a packed thirty two pages of ‘comic weight’ paper, which is lighter than the glossy paper in the Flintloque 3rd edition game books. Its print format is called ‘quarto’ which is a specialised size for magazines used both in Europe and more so in the USA. Quarto is wider and shorter than the A4 paper size we used for Flintloque 3rd edition and far larger than the A5 paper size of ‘The Rarest Tin’. So Barking Irons is a special shape compared to our other publications and it is eminently transportable. You can carry it with you on the train, on the bus, read it in your lunch break at work and store it easily too. It’s light too, so its easy to keep on you. Why did we do this? Well for a few reasons. Firstly the overwhelming response to us over the last two years is that you all prefer print to electronic medium for your material. While you enjoy the free material we provide as PDF’s, they are a hassle to print (the cost of ink and paper and so forth) and that you don’t like reading off a screen if you can help it. Secondly that wargaming is a tactile and skilled hobby for those who like to hold objects in their hands and move them around the playing area; the same goes for the material for your games. Thirdly we believe that the printed word is far from dead as some would claim, but it does need to evolve, Barking Irons is that evolution. Lastly the thirty two page format allows a good coverage of many articles but allows for each issue to be fresh and though you will keep going back to it, you will be able to read it all in a couple of hours. Something good, something regular, something worthwhile but not too heavy. Will Barking Irons be in print format only or will it also be a paid for watermarked PDF as well? Plus what about postage charges for it all around the world? Barking Irons will only be available, for the reasons already outlined, in print. We do not plan to release it as an electronic paid for document. Though if we reach a stage where issues sell out we may provide them for free or a small charge in a type of electronic format. As you would expect from Alternative Armies we need to make a profit and cover our costs but we are not in the business of high pricing. Some electronic format publications are just as expensive as print ones, we believe that if you pay your money you should get something tangible for it in your hands. Each issue of Barking Irons will have retail price of £3.00 a copy which is really good value for so much content in print. We do not intend to make direct sales of the magazine through our websites cost a lot in postage. We are well aware that our fans are all over the globe. With this firmly in mind we will place new postage options on our websites called ‘Barking Irons Magazine’ which will make a reasonable charge based on three locations (UK, Europe, Rest of World) for an order containing only the magazine. As you will know we have no control of postal charges but this will ensure a good package sent via airmail which will reach you fast. So whither you are in the UK or the USA or even New Zealand it’s a reasonable flat charge. Will Barking Irons take submissions from the public? Oh Yes! In fact the first issue has a large modelling article by terrain expert Tony Harwood (see his blog for more about his great work for Flintloque and other games). The magazine will have limited details of how to make submissions but the full terms are available from us as a PDF upon request (email Alex Scott on
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). While we do not pay for material we do offer recompense in product form for your published efforts plus of course a gratis copy of the issue with your article in it. So if something is worming in your brain that you always wanted to write or draw or theorise then let us know! Please tell us what is in Issue One of Barking Irons! No! Ha, only kidding. I will not spoil the surprise and tell OITW readers all that is in Issue One of the magazine but here are a selected few things from its line up to whet your appetites until it comes out; · Death in the Snow – An in-depth look at the latest Flintloque 3rd edition game book.
· A review of War in Catalucia by Dave Toone.
· The Fur of Moskova – A full Flintloque scenario set in the Witchlands for one player.
· Fast Food and Faster Bullets – Part One of a Mission Arc for Firefight 2.0.
· Get with the Cult – Human Cultists Army Template for Alien Squad Leader (ASQL)
· Bring Forth the Heroes! – Theory and Mechanics for best use of Heroes in Age of Might and Steel (AoMaS) When can we all expect Issue One of Barking Irons to be released? The first issue of the magazine will be out in March 2010 and then monthly after that. Well I hope you all enjoyed that Q&A and as always feel free to contact me directly with questions, or let Craig know if you would like something in particular to be the subject of this column.
So until the next column, keep playing, keep having fun and make sure your Flints are sharp and your Loques greased! Gavin Syme
Ferbruary 2010 Webmaster's Note You can contact Gavin Syme at Alternative Armies about Barking Irons or about anything else he's mentioned here on
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The Notables Yahoo group can be found here and Alternative Armies' webstore can be found here. |
