Ragnarok Hits The Six-Oh!

Over the last few weeks I have been working hard to bring Ragnarok 60 together. As you are (hopefully) aware Ragnarok is the journal of the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamers which has a somewhat irregular publication schedule. This is down to a mixture of factors but largely down to getting people to write stuff and me having the time to edit and DTP it. That said I think it looks pretty good and the content is usually very interesting as it is written by gamers with a love of the games rather than companies trying to sell them.

I've got a couple of pages left to finish off before we go to print but I thought I'd give you a heads up so you have the opportunity to get on board before its printed.

Contents are as follows:

Into the Big Meg - a look at the new Judge Dredd Miniatures Game with scenario.
The Shopping Trip - a Flintloque scenario, Orcs v Othari
Zombies!!! Triffids!!! - introducing Triffids into Zombies!!!
Crystals from Dinom - Stargrunt scenario set in Traveller universe
The Scramble for Africa - an Aeronef campaign
The Fall of the North - the Dunlendings in LOTR
Death to the Strawheads - scenario for above
Blink! - Doctor Who scenario
Episode 25D - Space Vixens From Mars scenario set around the 1966 World Cup
Tanks v Tyrannosaurs - Lost Lands battle report
Out of the Abyss - Kings of War scenario
Confessions of a Serial Flasher - collecting Flash Gordon miniatures
Gruntz Revisited - a detailed look at the Gruntz rules and battle report

If this sounds like your kind of thing, you can join here.

Fatherland and Beyond...

Many moons ago I wrote an article entitled Deutschland Uber Alles which appeared in Ragnarok 9. It looked at the possibilities of wargaming in the alt-history world of Robert Harris' Fatherland novel (a highly recommended read if you haven't read it). Reading Guy Saville's The Afrika Reich on the train today my brain started pondering the possibilities again.

Fatherland is set in the 1960's following a Nazi victory in the west and an ongoing guerilla war east of the Urals. The idea of playing some games in the latter struck me as promising some alt-history fun and I did start collecting some models as part of a small project.

For the Germans I though Cold War East Germans would be perfect. the helmet they wore was a late war German design and the AK47 is really only a simplified Mp44. For armour I picked up a couple of old Airfix Leopard tanks, my thoughts being that the C2 version with its rounded armour would look great in WW2 three colour camo! The only stumbling block I came across was infantry AFV's, something I still occasionally ponder about.

By the sixties defeated Britain is nominally independent but allied to Germany and I considered the idea  of a British Volunteer Force out in the east with Centurion tanks (Airfix again...)

For the Soviets, a a mix of WW2 and Cold War types in camo suits would be needed. I did buy a JS3 to use as a battered old tank for the guerillas. I still fancy making it up and adding field fitted armoured skirts... The Americans are supplying the Soviets guerillas as is their wont so some M113's with US advisors on hand can be easily sourced from Vietnam ranges.

Of course Afrika Reich (as you will know if you have read it) is set in a different timeline and on a different continent, but some of the possibilities suggested in the book would certainly lend themselves to some great alt-history games.

Ragnarok 59 Put To Bed...

I finally got Ragnarok 59 off to the printers today (only eleven months late!). I have edited the SFSFW journal for two stints previously and had no intention of ever doing so again due to real world time issues but with no one stepping up to the plate after Nick Whittock's editorship I have found the mantle thrust once again upon my shoulders!

The editing and typesetting was largely straight forward this time around and a great deal easier and better looking than the hand typed, Letraset titled first volume I started the thing with twenty years ago!

Unfortunately what seemed straight forward when creating the full colour PDF that will go to Wargame Vault, was problematical as I tried to convert it to an internal black and white print ready format for the printers due to Apple's wonderful Pages software not being a clone of Word and things I know how to do in seconds in Word took a bit of working out in Pages. But I got there eventually...

If you are interested in F'/SF wargaming I would encourage you to join (click here!).

Ragnarok is the longest running independent F/SF wargaming journal by a long stretch and most readers seem to think it is of interest. You will be able to buy the PDF in due course from Wargame Vault (or for a token charge if you are a SFSFW member and want a PDF to go on your iPad) but there is nothing like a paper journal to read down the shed/on the loo, is there?

So what is in it? Issue 59's contents are:

Aftermath - Fantasy Battle scenario
Burning Down The House - Dirtside II scenario
The Drake Incident - Star Trek battle
Messing About On The River - generic fantasy campaign
To Keep Man, Man - the Instrumentality of Mankind
The World Needs Heroes - superhero wargaming
Aeronef over Guahan - Aeronef scenario
Crush Your Enemies - Conan wargames
Assassination - Killzone scenario
Far Trader - Traveller ships in Full Thrust
Fantasy Air Wargames Rules Set - the winner of the 2011 SFSFW rules writing competition

Ok, on with issue 60, let's see if I can get that out before Christmas 2013! :-)