"English edition of WARGAMES SOLDIERS & STRATEGY ceases ?" Topic

Just got an email from Caliver saying the English edition of WSS has ceased publication – anyone know more details? Is it true?
Is this a victim of the recession or just a normal rationalisation of the wargames mag market?

Thats a shame as I really liked that one…
Mind you all the ones I like close all the ones I don't like that much continue..
So what do I know about anything..

Guess time to hit Caliver and get all the back issues…

Hmm, hadnt heard, but that is a shame,. I had written several articles for them, and found them to be great to work for. I havent heard this news yet, I subscribe through OMM here in the US, so I guess we will be getting news shortly…

- I wonder why?

Probably sales did not cover the cost of translating and printing a second version.

Shame. I didn't buy every issue, but almost every one.

The crisis has hit very hard the publisher. He wants to cut costs in order to survive. The English version had good sales, but not enough to justify keeping it. It's a pity.

Wow! I would think that the English version would greatly outsell a domestic Castilian printing. Weird!

In my Smith's, there are 3 copies at the start of the month on the shelf and 3 at the end ! so from a local perspective it does not shift.

Those of us who have english version subscriptions will now get…what ???

A. The Spanish version instead.
B. Our money back. (pro-rated of course)
C. Nothing but fond memories

Dave's email said subscribers should contact him (if through Caliver) or OMM (presumably if you're in the States)to discuss your options.
I don't think you'll have a problem getting a refund or goods to the value of your remaining subs if you are with Caliver (and I can't imagine OMM being any different).
Just seems such a shame.

Ugh!!!

Just after discovering the magazine for the first time due to Allen Curtis' Rise of Rome articles…

Ditto to what Rassilon said.

:(

Thats a surprise move!
I had been speaking to Guy Bowers at Salute and while he mentioned a few internal difficulties from the start of the year, he seemed very positive about the future of the magazine in general!
It's a pity that this has happened as I enjoyed all the articles in the magazine.

I used to buy it a lot, but frankly it wasn't as good as WI or MW. For a start it seemed thinner, and the quality of the translation seemed to be getting worse as time went on. I found a couple of articles unreadable.

So, something I'd put up from Smiths if it seemed itneresting, but not a 'must buy'.

A great shame it's folding though – it did deal with some unusual subjects.

I wonder why there aren't more electronic based magazines?

(yes I know BattleGames now is both)

What a bloody shame….I admit agreeing with normsmith there always seems to be a few left at the end of the month (less my purchase of course)in Smiths. Can I take it that last month was the very last?

Not sure whether #54 will be released or not as yet.

Here's what I received from Caliver. Looks like it's from WSS:

IMPORTANT NOTICE RE WARGAMES SOLDIERS & STRATEGY

The ENGLISH edition of this magazine has ceased publication. At the moment there is confusion as to whether or not 54 will be released.

SUBSCRIBERS should contact ourselves or ON MILITARY MATTERS if you had it through them. You have the following options

1) swap your remaining issues to another magazine

2) have any remaining credit recorded against future purchases

3) have a refund

At the moment we have a fair selection of back issues.

-Dave

That's unfortunate! Articles in the earlier English issues betrayed DIY translations by non-native English speakers, and without the benefit of some attention by an English-language editor.

I wonder if things would have turned out differently, if they had involved proper Spanish-to-English translators and an English-language editor sooner? Yes, their costs may have been higher, but the improved quality might have increased sales…

So, just do the translation, convert to a pdf and sell over the net…not exactly rocket science is it.

So, just do the translation, convert to a pdf and sell over the net…not exactly rocket science is it.

That sounds like it would be above and beyond my computer capabilities, so yes, it is rocket science. At least to me.

I'm not surprised.

Always sad when anything in our small pool goes belly-up, but not surprising. I will always remember the dreadful translations, but above all, the 'War of 1812' article peppered with AWI pictures. To me that said everything about the magazine really.

That's a pity--I think it was WSS that drove the quality of the other mags!!

"To me that said everything about the magazine really."

That's a little unfair to the new UK editor, who had turned it around. The Spanish company didn't give him a fair shake, either: only two issues, I think, before pulling the plug.

Allen

That's not so, Allen. There have been an English editor since April 2008.

The early translations weren't done by Spanish speakers, either. They were done by an American. I knew the guy; he was from Boston, Mass., if I recall properly, though he lived in Madrid. His problem as a translator was that he used a translation software to speed his output, and those times he didn't check the translation or when only gave to it a cursory look, the translation resulted in an unreadeable manuscript. The problem was solved when in April 2008 all the management of the English version was turned upon an English editor, who also comissioned the articles from English-native speakers (I have translated several of those articles into Spanish for the Spanish version of the magazine).

Mind that I am not totally aware of the economic problems of the publisher, but I know one thing for sure: he is a (to be polite) not a very clever man. The biggest mistake was that he couldn't let the English version to be directly printed in the UK or the States. When I was editor of the mag, three years ago, I proposed him to look for a local printer; send to him the PDFs and then he would send the final mags to the distributors -SAGE or WHSmiths-. However the publisher couldn't hear talk about it. He is such control freak that printed the English version in Spain, and then he sent the magazines to the UK and to the States. Since the English editor took over the English version of the magazine the process was: he prepared the contents of the issue, then he edited the articles, send them to Spain as Word documents, and then here the publisher did the layout, the printing and the distribution. The costs were too high, indeed. The earnings didn't cover the expenses most of the time, and when they did the return was too small to justify the amount of work. Bad business policy, in my opinion.

My 2c.

"That's not so, Allen. There have been an English editor since April 2008."

Unintentional irony aside--sorry, but I was referring to the most recent UK editor. WSS's Spanglish was getting hammered here in August 2009 (#46):

TMP link

…and was showing improvement by December 2009 (#50):

TMP link

So maybe Guy has had a couple more than a couple of issues. But I don't believe it's been more than that. And he *had* turned things around, as he said he would here, in response to the Editor's criticism:

TMP link

But he's not been the *only* English-speaking editor, and therein lies readers' past problems with the magazine, I suspect.

Earnings should not be an issue, but we needn't go into that. Let's just say that actual expenses have been less than expenses committed to.

Allen

Some of the problem was possibly the dossier format – if the dossier interested me, I bought it. If not – no.

Basileus66 explains one thing – why the magazine was so expensive. It has fewer pages than the two British magazines for the same price…

As I said, it's a shame to see it go, because it's a magazine from a non-Anglocentric POV and thus deals with different periods of history. Maybe I'll just have to brush up on my Spanish…. :)

I really enjoyed the mag, even when it was only in Spanish. Most of all I enjoyed the fact it was a Spanish magazine with a subtly different focus to the usual suspects. Even after it went to an English edition it was good, however I started to miss the odd issue about six issues ago as it had become just "another" magazine that wasn't doing anything different. The dossiers were good, especially when covering such as the Carlist Wars which hardly got a look in in the British mags.

A sad loss all the same.

Ok Gents,

An official announcement forwarded to me from Revistas Profesionales has been given to Bill. In that announcement the magazine is 'on hold'.

Allen thanks for the defence, you know the score. Basileus66 it sounds like we may have had similar issues regarding trying to negotiate with the parent company, mine were also unsucessful. I can see why Revistas wanted to print all of their (fifteen plus) titles in Spain rather than abroad.

On content, well that was turning around (from what feeback told me) after the gap left when the previous UK Editor left. We had a multiformat approach planned to cover several games systems in one article, which started with Rise of Rome (which covered WAB, Crusader and Impetus).

On translation, again it just needed a proper system in place and run articles past fluent English speaking wargamers. That had been set up.

The Dossier format was a good idea (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) but not be the only thing in the magazine. A mixed and varied format is what we finally aimed for.

As Uk Coordinator, I only had three issues (December, February and April) to turn her around. We had an excellent team in place and many good contributions coming through. I can only judge that we must have been doing something right as I have had four separate offers (so far) from sources for my and my contributor's unpublished articles.

My sincere thanks to all of you who offered support to WS&S in the past and my gratitude to the patience and understanding of my contributors and the distributors.

Guy Bowers
Former WS&S UK Coordinator

Guy,
Sorry to hear all this, and my apologies if I pre-empted a formal announcement – I was just very surprised when I got the e-mail note about it and wondered what others knew.
Shame you didn't get a full crack at it.
Best wishes
Guy

No problem Guy!

You should have the right to know the score. As has been hinted at elsewhere on TMP, there are interested parties who are looking at the future of the magazine. So we'll see what happens.

Guy

Did they complete publishing all parts of the Rise of Rome lists Allen? Or are some still to come only in Spanish??!!

What incredible timing. Bloody typical.

Unfortunatley not; we were halfway through. We also had some other surprises lined up but I hope these projects will reappear elsewhere if the mag doesn't resurface.

Thanks

Guy

Well that's sad but given basileus66 explanation of how the English versions contents and printed copy crisscrossed Europe I can't say I'm surprised!

Thanks Gecoren. Oh for crying out loud. We've waited years for Allen's Rise of Rome lists. He finally finds a way to get them out there and now this??!!! I for one don't read Spanish and a spanish version of the lists is of no use to me!
Jesus bloody wept.

So what's plan c Allen?

EDIT: (Having seen the WAB forum) Apparently plan c is to give up and leave WAB behind altogether. That is very very sad.

You will be missed Allen.

Nope. With WAB 2.0, the WAB community has exactly what it's been crying for. With the upcoming AoA volumes, they have the kinds of lists they want. No place for stuff like I've done.

Life is too short to worry about this sort of thing any more. Way too short.

Allen

@Allen: Have you considered publishing them in Wargames Illustrated?

I can't speak for others but what I want is the kind of wonderful information packed supplements such as Alexander, Arthur and gosh, well, don't you know, Hannibal and Rise of Rome. I realise one has to wait longer for those, but they are almost always well worth the wait, far superior products to their equivalents of other games.

Not everyone wants just basic lists and nothing else Allen. The wonderful content filled supplements that WAb can boast is one of the reasons why I love WAB and dislike the GW take over (because if they do to WAB what they do to their codexes, the page after page of real info will be culled).

So no, actually, AoA style might be a starting point, a stop gap, but for me that is all they are. I want PROPER supplements damn it!

There is ALWAYS room for the "kind of stuff you do" I LOVE the "kind of stuff you do"!!!!!! And I'm sure I'm not alone.

Yes a good perspective on the situation Basileus66.

In fairness it would be right to have IP concerns sending over a pdf file remotely as they would be nothing stopping extra copies printed off.

In recent issues there was a lack of advertising so it could be said the hobby did not support the magazine in this way. The additional revenue may have aided survival.

If RP do eventually pay me for my dossier & article, I will broadcast the fact here…

I notice RP seem to be in no hurry to pull the publication off their website…

Steve suggest take it up with Guy Bowers. He said he has undertaken to make sure all the past contributors are settled up before the title is sold off.

Ok just read Tabletop gaming News and the re-launch is 16th April at Salute under Guy Bowers as a bi-monthly

Take a look here:

wssmagazine.com/cms

Congratulations to Guy and Jasper for breathing new life into the title.

Henry
Battlegames
battlegames.co.uk