Alternative Armies - The Compendium No 1

This week I received my copy of the Alternative Armies - The Compendium No 1 which includes a number of Slaughterloo and Flintloque articles, some of which are already available from the Yahoo Group;

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/notablemembers/

I will start my review by stating that I am biased and believe the Flintloque game, figures and background to be one of the very best Non-Historical skirmish wargames available. I will also add that I have yet to finish reading the whole compendium.

For more information about Flintloque go to;

http://www.alternative-armies.com/index.html

The 64 page booklet is printed on good quality white paper and full of black and white images with a colour binding. The imagery is 'standard' Alternative Armies - that is a mixture of product photos, in-game shots and cartoon like drawings or illustrations. I would add that I personally find the latest batch of drawings to be less characterful than the initial or early Flintloque/Slaughterloo/Deadloque illustrations, but I am also aware that thing do change and move on.

The contents include a very good section on Mission Templates - short scenarios for easy game set up and play, which I found very interesting and I can see me using them as the basis of solo games. The next section contains rules for solo play, which are in the main available for download from the Notables Yahoo Group, but are still well written and again very simple. Other sections of note are the Scenarios (or Mega Scenarios for Slaughterloo) - The Battle of Bonibix, The Monich Bier Wars and the section on Balloons of the Ferach Empire.

The remainder details new releases, character classes, some expansion rules and adverts. Overall I would say that the publication is well worth the £6.00 cover price and for the Flintloque player a great source of additional information.

I do however have a couple of criticisms, the main one being spelling or grammar mistakes - I know that I also make the odd mistake, but in professional publications and with computer spell checks I do not believe that these mistakes should get through the proof reading stages. I have already commented on the quality of the newer cartoons, and hope that in the future these will improve, as will the quality of the painted miniature examples. I was also disappointed to see that a number of articles are actually available from the Notables Yahoo Group.

In summary, I was pleased with the total package and would recommend it to any Flintloque/Slaughterloo/Deadloque games or figure collector.

Tony