Review: Ravage 4 (English Edition)

I have taken the time to read through this, the 4th edition of the English language edition of Ravage magazine. After I had given the 1st issue what can only be described as a lambasting, I thought it only just that I give this issue a once over, to see if, as I had been told, the issues had been fixed.

I have only recently got my hands on issue 4, as there have been distribution problems that have not allowed my FLGS to get issues 2, 3 or 5 in stock as yet. This in itself seems to be a strike against Ravage, as to make it with a paper magazine in this day and age, you really need to get it out on the shelves. However, since this may be a local issue, I'll leave it out of my consideration. So, with that aside, on with the meat of the review.

The production values for this magazine are top notch. The glossy look is great to show the wealth of images the pages contain to their best advantage.

Game Articles.

The first and largest article is an 8 page reworking of a review of the new edition of GW's 40K, I say reworking, as this is obviously a translation of an article written for the original French language version. The translation is superior to that by google translate in the 1st magazine, it has obviously been done by a human, but it has not been edited by a fluent English speaker, as there are quite a few slips where the writing doesn't flow well in English, and indeed some parts that just don't make sense.  As to the rest of the article, it give a thorough overview of the new edition, and how it varies from older editions, going into detail where needed. The only thing I would say, is that it is written for 40K players, it's not for those who are new to the system as throughout, there is an assumption that you know more about 40K and its universe than may be the case (I for one have never played it, but I know fine I am in the minority).

The attention given to the new release, Zombicide runs to 6 pages,containing 4 articles (one of which is a scenario) great introduction to the game, and of course, since Ravage is being published by Cool mini or not, who also edit and make the English version of the game, they are going to use the space to launch their products.

There's a nice overview of the Zombies! box game, which goes well with the theme of the mag (pushing Zombiecide), but again, it suffers in the translation/editing, as does the article on Dust Warfare, which is an otherwise good introduction to this game, and comparison to Dust Tactics.
I'll skip the rest, for fear of sounding like a broken record, but the wealth of games covered by the mag should be congratulated, as there are few magazines who cover this range of fantasy/non-historical games, be they board games or tabletop miniatures games.

Hobby articles.

These were fun, if a little wacky. The first is a Space Wolves, carry case. This was a diorama for 4 minis, that was made to be carried , and the minis taken out for use. However, this 'carry case' consisted of a cake box with 2 bloody great logs in it! For 4 minis in what is likely to be a rather much larger army? Really? I don't think it's all that practical. 9 out of 10 for imagination, 2 out of 10 for practicality. A nice diorama, but in no way portable.

The second was a painting guide, for a Nurgle axe. Nice, but as I noted in my previous review, better suited to a web environment. It seemed a little rushed on 1 page.

Overall, I wish Ravage well, but it's still coming up rather short of my expectations. It looks good, but the quality of the writing  is lacking. There are some fine bloggers out there who write better, and should be prodded to submit some articles for the mag. (In fact I think I should suggest that to some of them). The editing for the articles that were taken from the original French language magazine is also non existent. The translation is much improved (in that it is now done by a person, and not a machine), but it still needs to be given the once over by someone who's first language is English. I may be being harsh, and some may not even notice, but these are obvious to me, and may be accentuated by the fact I live in bilingual Montreal, where I face English and French daily, but if these guys want to make it in North America, they need to tighten up the ship.

There is definitely a niche to be filled by the range of games this magazine covers, as there is no other paper magazine out there right now, who is not house owned (although CMoN seems to be becoming a distribution house with their own agenda, if not focused solely on their own products), or focused on historical gaming, so please guys, take heed.

Magazines to Read

In a single trip to my FLGS, I picked up not one, not two but four magazines! Enough to keep me reading on the train for a few weeks to come. I don't usually mention my reading material, but this is the most recent issue of the English version of Ravage magazine that I have found. Issues 2 and 3 have been hard to get here it seems, but no 4 was in stock and is now in my hands. I mention this, as I posted a quite harsh review of issue 1 here, so I feel it'll be only fair to give this issue a read, to allow the editors to redeem themselves (apparently there's a completely new editorial team on board, and quite right too).

The other three mags were Wargames Illustrated 302, and 303 and No Quarter 46. A fine pile to read through on the train for the next few weeks, with plenty of content to get the juices flowing, so to speak.

Review: Ravage 1 (English edition)

When I started this blog, it was not with the intention of writing reviews of products, there are many better blogs and sites to go to for that. But once in a while, I feel the need to put my thoughts on a subject down on paper, so to speak. This is one of those times.

There was a bit of a buzz at my FLGS, particularly amongst the french crowd (as in those from France, not the local francophones per se) over the upcoming release of the 1st English edition of Ravage Magazine. This buzz convinced me to pick up a copy and have a leaf through. I wanted to like it, as there,s a distinct lack of magazines that cater to the range of mini games in the fantasy/sci fi bracket, at least magazines that are not tied to one particular company. Not only for the fans, but also to give these companies a published outlet for their own scenarios, backgrounds, etc.

The Good.

Okay, so on first impressions, this is a nice looking mag. Maybe a bit thin for the $10 Canadian I had to put on the counter, but the but the artwork, design and layouts are top notch. The quantity of games covered, as you can see on the cover above, is also impressive. All the big names are there. Most of which I play, and the others I have an interest in, if ever I have the spare cash and time to pick up another game. So colour me interested.


The Bad and the Ugly.

As I said, I want to have a mag that allows me an insight into the other games, to see what people are saying, and to inform me as to what else I might like, to this end, the first article I read was an introduction to Malifaux's Puppet Wars. A game that I want to know more about. The article was unreadable.

In what I can only assume was a rush to get the magazine out on time, they took a bunch of articles from the original French mag, and translated them. This is not a bad thing in itself, this is after all the English edition of a French magazine, in fact, I would expect them to do this. What I would not expect them to do, however, is to translate them using Google translate, and not even have an anglophone read the article through before printing it. This really is unacceptable.

The worst article for this was the Puppet Wars article, but the others that had been translated. Indeed, I suspect most of them, except for an interview with Raphael Guiton on the new edition of Confrontation fall into this category, and even there, one could say he didn't understand all the questions being asked of him.

But it's not all about the articles, it's about the painting! yes, I agree, there are some wonderful painting and modelling guides in there too. Only 2 of which I had previously seen online, and even here, the written English that accompanies the articles was badly translated. And here, we find the rub. I want this magazine to succeed. I really like the idea of having a magazine that caters to multiple fantasy and sci fi games and settings, with scenarios and the like, the problem is, in its current form, Ravage is not that magazine. For it to be able to survive in this internet age, where people skip from Blogs to forums to seek out painting and modelling 'how-to' articles. Where anyone can post their scenarios and reviews for multiple game systems. For any magazine to survive in this climate, it has to be flawless. Ravage US edition is far from flawless.

Is there anything this magazine can give us that was can't get in a better form from the internet? I hope so, and I for one want it to survive, but this edition had the air of a badly written local gaming fanzine, not a professionally published international magazine.

One last point is the article on Privateer Press's release of Wrath. As reviews go, it was fine, if not again badly edited, but with a cover date of April-May 2012 on the magazine, is it really all that pertinent to have a review of a 'new' book, who's actual release was July 2011?

I give this magazine (or at least this edition of the magazine)  2 stars out of 5. Only because I want it to succeed otherwise I would be tempted to give it 1 star. But for it to succeed in the internet age, it really has to do much better than this.

Putting my money where my mouth is.

"But Derek," I hear you say, "whining on the internet changes nothing!" I agree wholeheartedly with this, and I also believe, if you want to change something, you have to be proactive. So, instead of just leaving this article to float free on the internet to be read by some 20 or so followers, I will be sending an email to the editors, with a link to this post, and a sincere offer of help. If they require someone to read through their articles before print, I am more than happy to offer my services as freelance editor. Heck, I won't even charge them. At first.

Edit:
I hear that the editorial team was changed for edition 2, and things have improved. I'll wait off sending that email just yet.