Hobby Magazines - Ironwatch Magazine

On my journeys through the web I found another Fanzine which immediately caught my attention, namely the Ironwatch Magazine. This is a magazine made by Mantic fans with the support of Mantic itself. Not long ago Issue No. 9 was published. Time to have a closer look at it!
Technical things first: Every issue is available via Scribd, Google Docs or even to download via Dropbox. The older issues are a bit longer than the newer ones, but the latest issue has 53 pages of Mantic geekness. They are completely free of advertisements (other than the Mantic stuff to say) and are fully colored. And if you have questions about the magazine there is a place in the Mantic forums for that.

The issue itself seem to follow a "standard build": There are some articles about the latest stuff from Mantic (tournaments, competitions, kickstarter etc.) then some battle reports/scenarios for the different games, some alternative rules (e.g. for sea battles),  a column for wargaming chatter (I really like the title "Hobby chatter from a hairy old gamer") and in the latest issues some painting advice. There is also some fan-fiction to read, some in the Kings of War universe some from Dreadball some from Warpath.  Everything is illustrated by fan-painted miniatures/artwork or even official artwork from Mantic.

I don't want to go too deep into details about the latest issue but one thing I really like about the magazine: It seems fully supported by Mantic although fandriven. Something you can clearly feel while reading. I'm really impressed and wonder why I haven't found this stuff earlier. If you don't know it already: Go have a look!


A personal note: I grow more and more a fan for Mantic. They offer not only some really playable and easy to learn rules, they work with the community and have some big things on their list. OK, they work heavy on Kickstarter (not really sure if this is a bad one) and some of their sculpts are horrible (but it gets better and better), but in Geekness they are like Games Workshop was in the Nineties, when I started Wargaming for the first time. That's why I pledged for the Kings of War-Kickstarter and can hardly resist the new Deadzone-Kickstarter.


So long,
Paradox0n