Harbinger Magazine 23
This is the latest issue of Harbinger, a magazine published by Griffin Miniatures, a sometime miniatures company (their current focus is mainly the magazine, although they do provide promotional miniatures for subscribers and collectors).
Before going on , I think the magazine is generally pretty good, though slightly expensive for what it is, and to back that up I do have a subscription. The main negatives are that, for the price, it's light on material, much of the content is written by the advertisers and the production values are, at best, semi-professional.
The front cover advertises Harbinger as "the only independent miniatures gaming magazine". Maybe the only English one, if you agree with the independence comment ... it's not a house magazine as such but much of the article content is actually supplied by the advertisers. It also claims to be "certified - evil empire free". Setting aside this somewhat immature characterisation of Games Workshop, more than half the miniatures in the gallery section are actually GW. Typically the news and reviews sections have also covered GW material (and rightly so, speaking as the consumer). The cover also advertises an article on painting "Rouge Trooper" (sic) and you can find further basic sub-editing failures in the inside content (as you can on this site, before anyone starts ...).
Articles:
News section includes new releases from Dark Sword (Elmore masterpieces, whoever did the paint jobs needs to work on faces), Crocodile (the Tethru, mentioned elsewhere), Urban Mammoth, Aberrant (Rezolution Wave 4), Eastern Front Studios, Wizkids, Mongoose, Rackham, Privateer and Magnificent Egos. Almost all of these entries are written by the companies in question, to the extent that they use "We" to refer to themselves, and the UM one includes a reference to "insert picture", presumably as an instruction to the editorial team.
Savage Worlds skirmish rules. I can't really comment on this article; I don't particularly have an interest in the game. The article is written by Shane Hensley, SW's creator.
Battleground scenario. Battleground isn't a miniatures game, it's a card game (it claims to be a "miniatures game without the miniatures" - as I write this article I'm drinking a gin and tonic without either gin or tonic but with some additional tea). The cards, judging from the full page advertisement on page 4, use weakly rendered Poser art. More than half the scenario is White Dwarf style fluff. The article is written by Chad Ellis, designer of the game. Awful.
Confrontation - introduction to the new Confrontation box sets. Written by Graham Clarke, of Simple Miniatures, the game's UK distributor (and if you're in any doubt, an advertisement for them immediately follows the article). Despite this, Graham is a regular contributor and the introductory articles he writes on the game are consistently very good, as is this one. The starter and initiator boxes include elements for the Wolfen and Dirz factions, the starter being at 150 points and the initiator set being at 200 points. After half a page on what good value these sets represent (a subject occasionally returned to) it's actually also a good article about army building. There's then a scenario, written by Mark Lankham and Jamie Roberts (who are actually on the Harbinger staff) for Sessair vs Drune.
Wargods - an article by Marike Reiner (a Crocodile employee) on painting a Basti Heroine (WGE-133) in the style of a Siamese cat. Great article, by someone who knows what they're doing. Followed immediately by a Crocodile advertisement.
Full Thrust - again a scenario for a game I don't know (in this case a starship miniature game. Again, half the two page scenario is fluff. They really need to crack down on this.
Masterclass Painting - excellent article on basing. I believe this is a Harbinger commissioned article - Tammy Haye, a well known painter and the article's author, freelances for them occasionally. This is followed by another masterclass, on painting a Foundry Rogue Trooper model, written by Kevin Dallimore (Foundry's house painter). Unsurprisingly he uses Foundry paints. You can find an advertisement for his new painting book at the end of the news section. A decent article, about a model I'm extremely unlikely to buy.
Spotlight - a regular feature on manufacturers is in this case an article written by Darkson Designs' Crystal Kingery. Pretty much a puff piece for their AE-WWII line. On one hand, I didn't know this line particularly well, so I now know a little about why it exists. On the other hand, I'm still not that interested. A pity, since Darkson's painting guide is actually the best on the market (I haven't read the Foundry one to compare, having said that).
The Showcase section has painted images from Rackham (3 miniatures), GW (6 - referred to as Games WQorkshop at one point, probably to cover up the evil empire link), Reaper (1) and Trifon Miniatures (1). Trifon is an Argentinian miniatures company that I hadn't previously heard about - the Goblin Quixote model shown is pretty interesting. As throughout, the production values get in the way, but in this section it's probably worse. Harbinger really needs to think about how it presents images and text for readability, and less about keeping their production staff interested. White backgrounds, simpler headlines, consistent look and feel and more content, please.
Finally, the Reviews section, written in house and generally to a high standard, covers Darksword's Elmore Masterworks set 7, Elmore Mountain Giant, Tactical's Narcotics team, and a number of Urban Mammoth's miniatures, all in good depth. Same comments on production values as the showcase though.
All this may read as negative. It's not meant to be (or not overly so). We do need an independent gaming magazine, or at least one which isn't beholden to a particular manufacturer. And it needs to be economically viable. On the other hand we also need the content therein to be as useful to the reader as it is to the advertiser. Which means better content, better design, better production, and a little more genuinely independent editorial.
Before going on , I think the magazine is generally pretty good, though slightly expensive for what it is, and to back that up I do have a subscription. The main negatives are that, for the price, it's light on material, much of the content is written by the advertisers and the production values are, at best, semi-professional.
The front cover advertises Harbinger as "the only independent miniatures gaming magazine". Maybe the only English one, if you agree with the independence comment ... it's not a house magazine as such but much of the article content is actually supplied by the advertisers. It also claims to be "certified - evil empire free". Setting aside this somewhat immature characterisation of Games Workshop, more than half the miniatures in the gallery section are actually GW. Typically the news and reviews sections have also covered GW material (and rightly so, speaking as the consumer). The cover also advertises an article on painting "Rouge Trooper" (sic) and you can find further basic sub-editing failures in the inside content (as you can on this site, before anyone starts ...).
Articles:
News section includes new releases from Dark Sword (Elmore masterpieces, whoever did the paint jobs needs to work on faces), Crocodile (the Tethru, mentioned elsewhere), Urban Mammoth, Aberrant (Rezolution Wave 4), Eastern Front Studios, Wizkids, Mongoose, Rackham, Privateer and Magnificent Egos. Almost all of these entries are written by the companies in question, to the extent that they use "We" to refer to themselves, and the UM one includes a reference to "insert picture", presumably as an instruction to the editorial team.
Savage Worlds skirmish rules. I can't really comment on this article; I don't particularly have an interest in the game. The article is written by Shane Hensley, SW's creator.
Battleground scenario. Battleground isn't a miniatures game, it's a card game (it claims to be a "miniatures game without the miniatures" - as I write this article I'm drinking a gin and tonic without either gin or tonic but with some additional tea). The cards, judging from the full page advertisement on page 4, use weakly rendered Poser art. More than half the scenario is White Dwarf style fluff. The article is written by Chad Ellis, designer of the game. Awful.
Confrontation - introduction to the new Confrontation box sets. Written by Graham Clarke, of Simple Miniatures, the game's UK distributor (and if you're in any doubt, an advertisement for them immediately follows the article). Despite this, Graham is a regular contributor and the introductory articles he writes on the game are consistently very good, as is this one. The starter and initiator boxes include elements for the Wolfen and Dirz factions, the starter being at 150 points and the initiator set being at 200 points. After half a page on what good value these sets represent (a subject occasionally returned to) it's actually also a good article about army building. There's then a scenario, written by Mark Lankham and Jamie Roberts (who are actually on the Harbinger staff) for Sessair vs Drune.
Wargods - an article by Marike Reiner (a Crocodile employee) on painting a Basti Heroine (WGE-133) in the style of a Siamese cat. Great article, by someone who knows what they're doing. Followed immediately by a Crocodile advertisement.
Full Thrust - again a scenario for a game I don't know (in this case a starship miniature game. Again, half the two page scenario is fluff. They really need to crack down on this.
Masterclass Painting - excellent article on basing. I believe this is a Harbinger commissioned article - Tammy Haye, a well known painter and the article's author, freelances for them occasionally. This is followed by another masterclass, on painting a Foundry Rogue Trooper model, written by Kevin Dallimore (Foundry's house painter). Unsurprisingly he uses Foundry paints. You can find an advertisement for his new painting book at the end of the news section. A decent article, about a model I'm extremely unlikely to buy.
Spotlight - a regular feature on manufacturers is in this case an article written by Darkson Designs' Crystal Kingery. Pretty much a puff piece for their AE-WWII line. On one hand, I didn't know this line particularly well, so I now know a little about why it exists. On the other hand, I'm still not that interested. A pity, since Darkson's painting guide is actually the best on the market (I haven't read the Foundry one to compare, having said that).
The Showcase section has painted images from Rackham (3 miniatures), GW (6 - referred to as Games WQorkshop at one point, probably to cover up the evil empire link), Reaper (1) and Trifon Miniatures (1). Trifon is an Argentinian miniatures company that I hadn't previously heard about - the Goblin Quixote model shown is pretty interesting. As throughout, the production values get in the way, but in this section it's probably worse. Harbinger really needs to think about how it presents images and text for readability, and less about keeping their production staff interested. White backgrounds, simpler headlines, consistent look and feel and more content, please.
Finally, the Reviews section, written in house and generally to a high standard, covers Darksword's Elmore Masterworks set 7, Elmore Mountain Giant, Tactical's Narcotics team, and a number of Urban Mammoth's miniatures, all in good depth. Same comments on production values as the showcase though.
All this may read as negative. It's not meant to be (or not overly so). We do need an independent gaming magazine, or at least one which isn't beholden to a particular manufacturer. And it needs to be economically viable. On the other hand we also need the content therein to be as useful to the reader as it is to the advertiser. Which means better content, better design, better production, and a little more genuinely independent editorial.
posted by MiniBlogster at 8:04 PM
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