Slingshot Report

I previously mentioned I would update this blog, along the same schedule for committee meetings, with my progress report on Slingshot.

I manage the content of Slingshot from a single large spreadsheet. When I get sent material, I put the wordcount and other information in the spreadsheet. From this I get a vague idea of how much material I need to "fit" in the next issue, and can juggle the articles accordingly (writing some material as necessary). I can also work out if I'm short of material on a particular area (typically a gaming system) and can chase up accordingly.

The wordcount for Slingshot does vary: the average since 258 (when we went to 60 pages) is about 54,300 pages per issue, or 922 words per page (the actual page number since 259 has been 59 pages, the last non-cover page being used for events).

So, some numbers:

- Right now I would seem to have enough material for about the next two and a half issues, although new material is always welcome, and it allows me to maintain a better balance of material (so don't stop sending it!)

Games variety:
- of the material available for future use (across all issues): 26% DBA, 25% FoG, 18% WAB, 8% DBMM, 7% CCA, 6% WMA, remainder is other.
- of the material printed from 257 to 265: 15% DBMM, 14% DBA, 12% FoG, 10% WAB, 8% AMW, 6% Armati, remainder is other
- overall: 16% DBA, 14% FoG, 13% DBMM, 12% WAB, 7% AMW

Figures:
- of material available: 63% 28mm, 20% 15mm, 18% 2mm (! - actually one article)
- overall, including above and printed, since 257: 73% 28mm, 14% 15mm, 6% 20mm, 4% 6mm, 3% 2mm

Authors:
- top 5 write 35% of material (material printed since 257 plus material available for future issues)
- top 10 write 51% of material
- top 15 write 63% of material
- top 20 write 71% of material

As for the next issue, I'm still waiting on the illustrations. I expect a laid out version to go for proof some time next week.

Mark

Games Coverage Update

This is what I have, before 259 goes to press. So in each case the first bar shows what's available (in terms of submissions, by aggregate number of words), including the content of 259. The second bar shows what's already printed, and the the third bar shows the overall number. It's really the first bar which indicates the health of what I'm getting, in terms of submissions. Per the previous post, there's now plenty of FoG, and suddenly plenty of Warmaster Ancients. And not enough WAB.

Another Games Coverage Update

Another update - a recent surge of articles for a variety of systems, plus various reports for the SoA Battle Day (which of itself encourages variety, given that the same battle is played across a series of tables with a variety of different rules) has left us looking pretty healthy. I'm a bit surprised by the drop-off in articles about AMW though.

ABC = Arcane Warfare. The above should be a good guide to the contents of the next Slingshot, as I'm putting it together this week.

Games System Coverage - Update

A slightly different, and updated, view of the current state of contributions ... now three columns per system, with the first showing unprinted material, the second material already printed, and the third is the sum of the first two, indicating overall contribution per system. Right now, I'm about 2 weeks from finalising the next Slingshot and have enough material to make an issue (or will have when I've written my bits) but would like to get some more material for, in particular WAB, WMA and DBMM, to get some variety. Note the surge in FoG material since the last chart (one battle report, two reviews). I have some Impetus material promised also (but not here yet).

I've added Day of Battle (DoB) and Days of Knights (DoK) since right now I have an article for each in the next issue, and it's good to have material for lesser known systems. Anyone out there who would like to write about systems not on the above list, feel free - I'm keen to promote variety.

Games System Coverage

As promised previously, some statistics on the gaming material I get sent. The chart here measures all the gaming material I've had, by system, by wordcount, since taking over as Slingshot editor. The "available wordcount" is the currently unpublished material. Some of it (for example Paul Burton's DBA campaigns articles) sit in a queue, since they're meant as a series. Most of it though is a measure of what I'm currently being sent. The "overall wordcount" includes the material unpublished at the time I took over from Nik, the "available" unpublished stuff, and material which arrived in the intervening period, and was published in either 257 or 258.

The "misc" category includes game systems not currently tracked in the main chart - there are for example articles using the Day of Battle and Days of Knights rules. It also includes general gaming articles such as the "design roundtable" in 258.

258 having just gone out, the cupboard is somewhat bare. Hopefully, the material will come to replenish the supply. I do in particular get a nice steady supply of DBA articles. And it's still the case that the numbers are so small that one article can skew them. That Armati spike is one article. But if you're wondering why your favourite system isn't getting the love - see above.

Anyhow, I plan to proactively seek new material for those systems not currently covered. Hopefully the numbers will look a lot healthier in a few weeks.

Slingshot Covers

Apart from the change of cover format on Slingshot 258, you'll notice something perhaps more controversial, which is that it has a 28mm miniature on the cover (kindly provided by Warlord games, so even more controversially, it's a plastic miniature). Are we going down the Wargames Illustrated route?

At the point I took over Slingshot, there were relatively few of the trademark pen-and-ink illustrations available for cover duty. In fact, by "relatively few", I mean none. The cover of 256, Nik's last issue, is actually a re-use of a previous illustration. For 257, we attempted to process a relatively low resolution picture from the Ermine Street Guard (a British group of Roman army re-enactors) to make it work for black and white, which I think worked reasonably well, but isn't ideal.

258 gave us a further issue, because the potential quality of picture is very good - the covers are (or should be) photo quality, and protected with laminate. And, as the first colour picture, we wanted to make a splash. I looked through the stock of illustrations we have, which were apposite to the material. I have some pictures of museum artefacts which work in colour, but none that matched the content in the magazine. I've been promised some more re-enactor photographs, but none arrived in time. We did have some miniature photos which were very good indeed. The one which most fit the cover format was the Warlord picture, and the Warlord miniatures are reviewed in the magazine. Having been through the exercise, it makes sense as to why Wargames Illustrated, Wargames Soldiers and Strategy, etc, use miniature shots on their covers - the artistic focus in the wargames hobby is primarily on painting figures, not drawing illustrations.

This isn't an apology for using miniatures on the covers; I intend to use them again moving forward. But to reflect the magazine's range of content, covering both pure historical articles as well as gaming, I plan to rotate the covers between historical and museum material, re-enactment shots and pictures of figures (and for that matter illustrations if they're good enough). The design is intended to allow use of "un-colourful" content such as marble statues - the background colour for the cover will also be rotated so hopefully that compensates for the sometimes reduced colour in the cover shot.

I'm including here a draft cover which I'm unlikely to use. The picture is of a statue of Augustus, and the photo was taken by me in the Berlin Pergamon Museum, on a recent visit (more shots shortly to be available in the website gallery, when I finish setting it up). Anyway, it shows the intent for the other types of cover we may use going forward.