Publisher: CoolMiniOrNot
Editor: Kevin Clark
Pages: 69
MSRP: $6.99
I’ll say I wasn’t familiar with Ravage before our trip to Origins this year. I suppose the reason behind this is the independent fantasy and science fiction miniatures magazine was only published in French. That is until now! The first issue of the U.S. edition of Ravage hit newsstands a couple months back (the second issue is now available as well) and let me say it’s a doozy!
Ravage is an independent magazine so they’re free to tackle anything table top gaming related and the first issue is chock full of goodness! Along with plenty of photography to get the creative juices flowing, the initial issue has articles on Warmachine, Dust Tactics, Puppet Wars, Confrontation: Phoenix Edition, Infinity, Mercs, The Adventurers: Pyramid of Horus, Gears of War, Mansions of Madness, and a lot more!
*Whew* That’s a whole laundry list of games crammed into 69 full color pages!
I’ll also point out unlike many foreign language magazines translated into English – which experience poor translation, making for an odd read – the U.S. edition of Ravage is well done and the text flows pretty nicely. I’ll mention Bryan Steele has taken over the editing duties as of issue two.
The only complaint I have is simply while reading Ravage I wanted more, more, more! At $6.99 the price is right for the amount of info packed into the magazine and truth be told, it’s nearly a steal since you won’t encounter a lot of filler.
Pros: Excellent photography; Jammed with loads of articles; Not focused on one studio or publisher
Cons: As you finish the magazine you’ll wish there was more pages of the overall excellent content
Score: 9.5
**
Publisher: Lock ‘n Load Publishing
Editor: Jeff Lewis
Pages: 60
MSRP: $39.99 print copy, $15.99 PDF
The latest issue of Lock ‘n Load’s Line of Fire magazine is mainly focused on Forgotten Heroes Vietnam Second Edition with quite a few in depth articles. As Line of Fire is a house organ, you’ll find issues of the magazine are chock full of articles about all things LnL with little page space devoted to titles from other companies. This isn’t to say you’ll never see something from other publishers (there are a couple of reviews outside the scope of LnL, Band of Brothers and Singapore 1942) but this simply isn’t the overall philosophy of the magazine. The latest issue clocks in at 60 pages.
If you’re a fan of Lock ‘n Load, and Forgotten Heroes Vietnam in particular, you’ll find issue twelve is a must buy! As far as the FHV coverage you’ll encounter a look at Long-Range Recon Patrols (LRRPs), a discussion of ground operations in Vietnam, a battle report of the “River of Perfume” scenario, three new scenarios, and an in depth review of the title. I usually find it a bit strange when I read a publisher owned magazine which includes a review for a title from that very same publisher. Honestly, can you imagine the publisher printing a review saying their game stinks? Um… Highly doubt it. I will point out I really enjoy FHV and scored it pretty high, and agree with the overall review, so it’s not that big a deal the review is included.
All in all if you’re a fan of Lock ‘n Load this issue is worth a buy although the pricing for the physical copy is a bit high. If you own FHV then you owe it to yourself to pick up Line of Fire #12 but if you don’t have the game, or any others from LnL, you’ll no doubt take a pass on the magazine.
Pros: Lots of info and scenarios for Forgotten Heroes Vietnam Second Edition; Good articles about LnL titles; A bonus mini game
Cons: Not much appeal for those who don’t own FHV or other LnL titles; Price for the magazine is a bit high
Score: 7.5 (out of ten)
I may have let the quality of the content as well as my past experience with translated magazines color my opinion a bit. Having read a few issues of the atrociously translated Spielbox probably factored into my thinking. I can say Bryan Steele took over the duties of editing the mag as of the second issue so you can see if he brings and improvement. If I can prejudge based on his enthusiasm in out interview, I think you should see a bump in the text quality.
Having ordered Ravage online I have to say that I was very disappointed. Unlike Jeff, I found that the first issue was in great need of a competent proofreader, as quite a bit of it was left as if it was translated by a google program…
Content-wise the magazine is excellent and I will be buying the second issue as well, but if it suffers from the same problem I will not be buying any more.
I would say that your opinion of the first issue was more than a little colored. The writing in most articles was barely readable. I haven’t gone through the second issue yet, but I’m definitely going with 3 strikes and you’re out on this thing. Of course, I have my own bias in that I don’t trust Mr Doust to provide good service. Yes, I’m still carrying a grudge from the whole New Wave Games disaster. He still owes me some Confrontation cards. And unfortunately, this first issue reminded me of just how little effort seems to go into his products.
I’m not sure how my opinion can be construed as “colored” as we have no affiliation with the folks behind Ravage outside of doing an interview with Bryan at CoolMiniorNot and posting news from them from time to time. I simply appreciate a minis magazine, in English and available easily in the U.S., that isn’t just a house organ.
I can’t chime in one way or another as to the New Wave Games comment as I’m not familiar with the situation…