Authorised - Bill's Monthly Column

August 2003

Hello again. It's been a fairly busy month for one reason or another, including several hospital visits and being out of town for part of the time, but I finally found time to write another column. Wolfblade is now undergoing final checks and being typeset and looks all set to be out at Gamesday this year. If anybody wants a signed copy, come along and see me once you get there.

Chotebor

I would particularly like to say hello to everybody I met at the Czech national convention in Chotebor. It was a lot of fun. I appeared on a couple of panels, and got to watch a few anime films which is something I don’t get to do as often as I would like. In particular it was a pleasure to see Laputa, the Flying Island again. This was the first anime I ever saw, way back in the 80’s, and it remains one of the best. It’s a beautiful story beautifully told of a young boy and a young girl’s quest to find the flying island of the title, and it involves a lovingly detailed world oddly reminiscent of the depression, air pirates, flying battleships and all manner of other fine stuff. I cannot recommend this one highly enough. If you get the chance to see it, you should take it.

Combat Mission 2

I have been playing this fine simulation of the Eastern Front for over a month now. Finally something has surpassed Up Front in my estimation of the best WW2 tactical combat simulator ever; a truly great game, with a very simple mechanic for generating the maximum dramatic tension. You input your orders and then watch the movie of them being executed in real time. The turns are one minute long, and during that time you can do nothing but watch the inevitably fatal consequences of your decisions for your bold lads. It sounds strange but it’s a mechanism that really works. The simulation is wonderfully detailed and feels real, it's dramatic and not being able to interfere as you watch makes things nail-bitingly tense. You can also play it over the Internet. 

I have had a few battles with Robin Dews, supremo at Warhammer Online, and the High Overfiend Andy Chambers himself. Our confrontation over the snowbound steppes will remain long in my memory, as will Andy’s particularly nasty trap in the grotto of doom, where half a platoon of Soviet sub-machine gunners ambushed my scouts. There was also a particularly terrifying encounter with a tank in there as well. Still, in the end superior German firepower won out. 

I look forward to the rematch intensely. If you have even the slightest interest in WW2 simulations, take a look at www.battlefront.com

Moorcock

In the past month, I have been reacquainting myself with my collection of Michael Moorcock’s early work, and as ever, am enjoying it immensely. I just breezed through the Runestaff series and loved it as much as I did when I was 13. This does not happen to me very often. The saga of Dorian Hawkmoon’s conflict with the Dark Empire of Granbrettan has been criticised by a lot of people, not least Moorcock himself, but I really like. It has an atmosphere all of its own. I mean what’s not to love about a world of ornithopters, flame lances, immortal Emperors imprisoned in their throne globes, and legions of beast-masked warriors being thwarted in their efforts to conquer the world? 

Reading Moorcock is always an education in writing technique. His mastery of plotting, in particular, is well worth noting. It’s not that he does anything particularly different from other writers, he just does it really well. Looking at a Moorcock plot and comparing it to most others is like looking at a BMW and comparing it to a Ford Anglia. They do the same thing, it's just one does it better.

Anyway, I have burbled on long enough and I must go and pack for my visit to the Carpathians. Back next month, hopefully with tales of high adventure in the mountains.  

All the best

Bill

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