Slingshot 266

The latest issue of Slingshot is 266, publishing date September 2009.

The next issue will be the November issue.

This issue is 60 pages long, not including the cover pages. It's published in the same format introduced with issue 258.

The contents of Slingshot 266 are as follows. For games articles, I've indicated the relevant rule set where it's not immediately obvious from the title; with historical articles I've tried to indicate period if a similar issue applies.

• Guardroom
• Hannibal’s Masterpiece: The Battle of Cannae, by Patrick Waterson
• Crusader System Lists for Peloponnesian War, by Craig Woodfield
• Constantius II, Ammianus, and the Big Parade Part 2, by Jim Sye
• “Then Adab was defeated and the kingship was taken to Mari”: Mesopotamian Warfare Notes IX, by Alastair McBeath
• Callinicum 531AD with Commands & Colors: Ancients, by Andrew Lawrence
• Thinking About Romans – Part Four, by Adrian Goldsworthy
• (FoG) Society of Ancients Championship Battle Report: Alexandrian Macedonian v Classical Indian, by Richard Lockwood
• (2mm figures) Watch Your Armies of Thousands Conquer the Known World!, by Craig Dobson
• They’re Coming! A Warmaster Ancients Tournament Report, by Marc Adda
• Book Reviews, by Steve Brennan & Chris Webber
• Figure Reviews, by Richard Lockwood, Theo Roske, David Edwards & Mark Watson

Website Refresh

The Society of Ancients website has had a refresh for 2010. There may be some glitches in there; if so, let me know directly. Many thanks to Tim Mayall for doing testing work on the new site over the last few weeks.

As part of this, subscriptions for 2010 are now available from the store. 2009 subscriptions will continue to be available until after November's issue goes out.

Anyhow, hope you like it.

Got a Blog?

I've added a blog aggregator to the website, the idea is to pull together the various blogs kept by society members. In the starting stages right now, so there are relatively few on there. If you have a wargames or ancient history related blog, and you're a society member, contact me, either using the contact details in Slingshot or the contact form on this site (set the topic to "Website Stuff").

The aggregator is here. At some point I'll change the template to better fit with the rest of the site.

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

Society of Ancients Games day

GAMES DAY 2009

ELLES HALL

Farnborough

Sunday 20th September

Same venue as last year's AGM. This is an annual open invitation for a day of Ancient and Medieval wargames ... display games, pick-up games, Championship games ... Contact the organiser if you need to book a table.

Elles Hall, Meudon Avenue, Farborough GL14 7LE
Follow the events page link (here ...) if you need a map

All welcome - facilities available all day from 10.00.
Come along and join in.

Website Additions

The following items have been added to the website:
Under Battle Day:

• Battle Pack for 2004 (Gaugamela) - note the map wasn't high enough resolution; I'll work on updating it and revising this document
• Battle Pack for 2005 (The Sambre)
• Battle Pack for 2006 (Dorylaeum)

Under Downloads (in the Members Area):

• A revised high res main map for Age of Augustus (Slingshot 261)
• High res versions of the Age of Augustus Parthian and Barbarian maps. The Barbarian map includes several revisions supplied by Paul Burton, the author
• A high res version of the map for the Attila DBA campaign (Slingshot 258)

Website News and Blog Merges

Hi. I'm going through a process of merging the three blogs on this site, starting with merging in the website news area, which is easier. Slingshot News will also be merged at the point where I can work out how to move the posts over into this main blog. Website news is for any (medium to major) changes to the website, and in future, when new stuff is posted to the members area, some indication will appear here also.

Update: the Slingshot news blog is now merged in as well. There should be a couple of items per issue in this blog, one being the announcement and table of contents, the other being (a probably trimmed down version of) the editors report provided to committee meetings.