Posts Tagged ‘Wargaming’

Fall of the Goblin Empire (FoGE) is my entry for the SFSFW’s fantasy wargaming competition.  A game of goblins and their varigated, varied and highly unreliable flying machines. Here are a couple of the opening paragraphs that set the scene for a game of goblins going up-tiddle-ee-up coming down-tiddle-ee-down-down…

Ask anyone and they will tell you Goblins are mad, bad braggers, they have an anger in their eyes and can’t hold their drink. What most won’t tell you is they’ve good reason. When chroniclers write out the ages of the world somehow the age of
goblins gets misplaced. Yet there was a time (as any drunk goblin will tell you at length) when the little green folk ruled all the world and everyone in it for over a thousand years. Of course no one pays any attention because who believes a drunk goblin?

Yet it did exist for a thousand years. Eventually, as happens to all empires, the great goblin empire lost its grasp on the land.  In its last days the goblins retreated to the floating isles protecting their most valuable asset: the magical metal goblinic
famed for its ability to lift many times its own weight off the ground. They were fortunate that the islands also produced some iron, flax cloth, vast mounds of guano and some natural gasses. There they fell back into ancient tribal feuds and so the
goblin empire fell. Soon after that they turned to the bottle.

The latest issues of Ragnarok (The Magazine of the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargaming) arrived by post today. An interesting mix of articles including Daleks, Zombies, SF Armoured warfare, Fantasy Naval and Luna Exploration alongside the regular rules and miniature reviews.

My article, The Panzerfauste Song Book, takes up more pages than I thought it would. If I’d realised how long it is I’d have split it in two!

The SFSFW’s been busy on the WWW today launching the SFSFW blog and SFSFW twitter to go along with the existing SFSFW web site and SFSFW Facebook page.

Issue 53 of Ragnarok, the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamings magazine, is out now and includes an article by me – When Ants Attack – for use with the game Tusk.

This issue, and the last three back issues are also now available from Wargames Vault as PDFs.

Issue 52 of Ragnarok the SFSFW‘s journal of fantasy and science fiction wargaming landed care of the Post Office today. My first Rag cover. It wasn’t a picture I’d done expecting it to be used on the cover but John liked it and wouldn’t let me fiddle with it. I’ve got a couple more illustrations inside on David Crook’s article &Inventing Armageddon – An Overview". I’ve only had a chance to take a quick glance but it looks to be a pretty good issue.

Edit: I’ve posted a larger version of the steam mech picture now.

1… I remember far too many useless facts for my own good but can’t remember a thing if I’m on a quiz team.
2… Being in high up places doesn’t bother me. My fear is unsteady high places I may fall off.
3… I’ve just joined the moderating team at Cornucopia3D and will mostly be looking after the python forum.
4… This year I’ve been a professional internet developer for 10 years which is a bit scary.
5… My website is called impworks because of a convoluted story that boils down to my mum calling me an imp because I was born in Lincoln, which has a famous carving of an imp in the cathedral.
6… I’m can’t wait for the DVD of Hot Fuzz comes out. I know I missed some film references. Go and see it. Ignore any bad reviews. They are just wrong.
7… The last fiction book I read was Buying Mackenzies Baby. Not my usual cup of tea but I enjoyed it.
8… I live in a street that is named after a general in an area that sounds like the name of a famous battle and I used to organise a table top wargaming show.
9… I’m working my way through all three seasons of Between the Lines on DVD. So far I’m pleased to say it doesn’t look dated.
10… My broadband was broken for two weeks. I don’t know how I lived only a dial up connection.
11… Needles don’t bother me. That doesn’t mean I have any intention of having any stuck in me for any uneccessary reasons though.
12… I’m looking at how this list is coded and I can’t help myself thinking why not use a list element. I really have been coding html for too long.
13… I can’t remember what the word for not remembering the names of things is.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. christine
2. Ryan Velting
3. Raven Vampire Nightclub
4. Michelle M Pillow
5. Shannon
6. Jenny
7. Kim Rees
8. amy
9. robinsonk
10. SheSchenker
11. Loretta
12. Danger
13. Sybil

Came across a little shareware application that will take simple 3d models and produce a design for a paper mesh of the model. It can read a lot of fairly standard formats like wavefront object (.obj), lightwave (.lwo) and 3d studio (.3ds). It can also read some texture maps too. I’ve not got anything to show for my playing yet but it looks to be quite fun. I’ll probably spend the $35 to unlock the ability to save projects sometime this weekend. I can see potential for making stuff for wargaming and friends kids too. If your interested take a look at the Pepakura Designer web site.

Ragnarok Issue 50 landed through my door today with articles on wargaming Ragnarok, combat engineering for Dirtside 2, a scenario for Space Vixens From Mars, the Ottoman air fleet in Aeronef and the usual regular review columns. Steve F’s last issue as editor (thanks for the hard work over the last 10 issues Steve) before John and Sue W take on the mantle of editor.

Roll on the next fifty Ragnaroks. I’m off to read my copy and then come up with an article idea or two…