A Trio of Tomes

After the recent posts on Operation Warboard and how it plays, Andy very kindly loaned me three other books that he thought I might like to read. Knowing that this would lead to at least one blog post, I gladly accepted them and, without any comment on quality just yet, managed to rattle through them all over the course of a couple of days.

The three books then, are War Games by Donald F Featherstone, Wargaming World War Two by Stuart Asquith and Armoured Wargaming by Bruce Quarrie.

Aged by use, but still in decent enough condition.

I remember when £6.95 was expensive for a book...

So, first up, War Games. This is the oldest of the three and in both presentation and style, you can tell straight away that it is very much a period piece. That is not to say that it isn't useful, but given that it was first published in 1962 (this edition in 1973, with additional printings in '65, '67, '68, '70 and '72), some modern readers might be put off by the tone. I'll sum it up for you: It's your hobby, you enjoy it, make stuff up as you go along. And yes, that includes the figures!

I had some preconceptions of the contents of this book before I started reading it but what really caught me off guard was the guide to making your own moulds and, as follows, your own figures. At no point does he suggest making a copy of figures you have bought (that would be extremely dodgy), but he does suggest that if you alter existing figures to a type that aren't easily available (which seems to be very much a thing in those early days), you can then use that to cast your own. To a point, that makes sense, but not something that you would think would be suitable today. However, although the market for figures is now huge compared to the options available back in the 1960's, it did make me think about where a particular section of the figurine market is heading - namely the limited run skirmish type games, where at shows, you'll find figures breaking through the £5-6 per figure barrier with ease. Given the relative cheapness of 3D printers (or just go old school and use traditional moulds), how long will some companies survive charging such prices for models before an albeit limited section of the customer base decide "sod this for a game of soldiers" and go back to DIY methods. I am not saying that traditional manufacturing companies will go too, quantity, quality and scale of production will always mean that there will be the likes of Old Glory, Perry etc. But it did get me wondering if many, nay any, of the smaller boutique manufacturers have long term viability on a price basis alone. Then again, if the market decides that it can't be arsed and will pay the prices asked anyway, they have no cause for complaint.

Anyhoo, back to the book. It's has that grandfatherly tone that writers loved in the period, a cross between intellectual and condescending as hell, a balance Featherstone manages to keep just on the right side of easy to read. Once you get past the sections on figures, terrain and how to run a campaign, there are the meatier sections for rules - three sections covering Ancient, Horse and Musket and "Modern" (WW2) scenarios. They read quite well and I think that the TWATS could certainly get through two of the periods on a Saturday afternoon game. True, these are not the most complicated of rules but as this book is an introduction to war gaming in general, I have no issues with that. The appendices cover suppliers of model soldiers, a very small skirmish set of rules, further resources for war gamers, a list of books and literature for war gamers and a final section on the Lionel Tarr Periscope. Seems we can't get away from that particular gentleman's name in this period of the hobby...

Overall then, a worthwhile book and one that, despite it's dated approach, gives another variant of the back to basics gaming that I think the hobby needs to include in this day and age.

Something that can also be said of Wargaming World War Two, focused as it is on one period only. The layout is interesting, in that it begins with a chronological walk through of the war by theatre, at a suitably high level for space considerations but enough to give you pointers for campaigns, battles and events that you might wish to war game. Following that is a meaty section on the combatants, with specific details on force composition and organisation. We then get a technical information section on the equipment used by each participant. That takes you to page 114 before we get to the rules and scenarios. These are, once again, quite straight forward and could be worth a bash for an afternoon game. From page 138, we have a list of suppliers of figures and models, which brought back childhood memories of model shop visits as this book was published around that time when I first took historical wargaming seriously (1989). There is also a decent list of books given for additional reading which was nice to see.

Page 143 begins the naval side of wargaming, a much smaller section than the land based part but still with enough detail to get you started. Ending at page 165, there are some decent rules, a couple of scenarios and a smattering of suppliers listed for your model needs as well as another list of useful books.

Pages 167 to 190 finish the book with the air war, with the same organisation of the previous two sections, and again, whilst a little basic, give enough to get you started. And that is what this book is, in no way pretending to be the be-all and end-all for the period, just a way to get you started. In that sense, it is spiritually very close to the earlier Featherstone text and, indeed, Operation Warboard. After giving what they have suggested a go, it is then up to you to make of the hobby what you will. One thing of note is that the 16 years between the Featherstone and Asquith publications saw a vast expansion of model suppliers, most of which seem to have originated during the "golden" period of the mid to late 1970's.

Finally, we have Armoured Wargaimng and this turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. You see, what it advertises is armoured wargaimng. What you get is a (basic) history of the tank, its uses and a smattering of light technical details. That takes you up to page 113. The rules, they are 12 pages of text, followed by another 9 pages of stats. That's it, almost like the rules were an afterthought. Now I am not saying they won't be played, but looking at the values given in the stats, for example, you cannot kill a modern day 1980's MBT at all with a frontal shot. Never, not gonna happen. Hmmm... Still, they would be worth a go just to see if the mechanisms work but I will also add that the rules are for armoured warfare only - no infantry, no additional support per se.

Of the three, Featherstone and Asquith are most likely to get an airing in future games, whilst Quarrie will probably be given a miss, there being a distinct lack of content and finesse.

Thank you, Andy for the loan of these books, they have all been an interesting read, despite the aforementioned disappointments. It's always good to read up on how the hobby was perceived in the past and it does give an interesting comparison to the state of it today. Oh, and that you needed libraries. All three details texts that were out of print and recommended that you order through your local library. As quaint as that seems now in this day of Amazon, Abe and others, libraries did, and still do have a purpose, despite the disdain they seem to be held with by our elected elders and betters (cough!).