Well you know there's such a lot of good ways to be bad

Regular readers (irony intended) will recall that I was not entirely convinced by Henry Hyde's assertion that the subscriptions to the newly merged Miniature Wargames and Battlegames would be handled properly. I was especially concerned because I had subscriptions to both. And, quelle surprise, I have been proved right. This morning I received two copies of the first issue of the relaunched magazine.

Henry Hyde

Anyway, after a couple of fallow weekends for re-enactors at the Armouries I had high hopes when I opened the blinds this morning to find all sorts of stuff going on. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that this lot appear to be real soldiers. In fact they are from the Royal Corps of Signals and are showing off their latest equipment.

All of which inevitably reminds me of Humble Pie.

There'll be some vibrations on your public relations tonight

Battlegames

I listened recently to the edition of the Meeples and Miniatures podcast in which Henry Hyde explained from his perspective the recent night of the long knives at Atlantic Publishing. One of the things that I was especially pleased to hear was his assurance that subscriptions - including for those like me who subscribe to both titles - would be dealt with properly. They hadn't yet quite worked out what to do, but the best team available were on the case.

Henry Hyde and the Battlegames editorial staff

Being an accountant, I have of course been reassured on points like that many times over the years. I wasn't in the least surprised therefore to receive two things in yesterday's post. Firstly, the last ever edition of Battlegames and, secondly, a letter from the publishers of the same advising me that I had only two issues left on my subscription and inviting me to renew. The future is safe in their hands.

Miniature Wargames and Battlegames

Well, your correspondent as ever has his finger on the pulse. Only a week ago - and unnoticed except by the large numbers of people who have commented on it across the blogosphere - it was announced by the owners that Miniature Wargames and Battlegames are to merge. Now wearing my accountant's hat I can understand the logic, but as a reader I am disappointed.

I enjoyed (most of) both of them. In the case of Battlegames this is actually despite the Old School (*) stuff rather than because of it. And Miniature Wargames had improved beyond recognition since being run by Andrew Hubback. They were different from each other - as indeed are WS&S and Wargames Illustrated - but who wants to read the same stuff all the time?

Anyway, that's not the only rhetorical question. Who will get custody of Mike Siggins?

And I feel sorry for Andrew Hubback whom I met once at Recon and seemed a very nice and patient chap. He needed to be to deal with the idiot who was haranguing him about the accuracy or otherwise of the Grenada game that Miniature Wargames had on display, boring everyone silly with his reminiscences of his time spent working on the Spice Isle shortly after the US invasion. Who was that tosser? Ah, yes, it was me. I remember now.

(*) There was an interesting thread on TMP not long ago where Henry Hyde no less drew an intelligent distinction between 'old school' and 'Old School'.