Over the holidays, a number of history and wargaming related books fell into my possession. Some arrived with a thud on my doorstep in boxes; others were received as gifts. In total, a very good mix of reading and reference material.
First up are four books from my youngest daughter. I can always count on her to pick off a few selections from my Amazon Wish List. Brilliant girl, that one!
Kiley's Uniforms of the Roman World will make a good reference for my burgeoning interest in Roman history and the painting of said figures. Varney's book on Grant's treatment of Rosecrans piqued my interest when I first saw it released. I brought it with me for evening reading while away at the main office.
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| Selections from daughter #2 |
My youngest sister is also a clever gift giver. Many years ago while she was living in England, I sent her a long list of books to shop from while browsing book stores across the pond. Well, she still maintains that list and dutifully crosses off a book or two with each passing Christmas or birthday. These ECW pamphlets are great little works for scenario design.
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| Selections from sister #3 |
The next five books were snatched from eBay at bargain prices. Even though I don't play either Warhammer of Field of Glory, I find these army list books to be valuable additions compatible with many rulesets.
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| Warhammer support material |
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| Field of Glory support material |
Armies of Ancient Near East and Armies of Macedonian and Punic Wars both were found on eBay. Both books are excellent resources for gaming either period. Great reference material and might be the best one-volume works for wargamers on either period!
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| WRG Wargaming Guides |
Also incoming was one Funcken uniform book, Morschauser's War Games in Miniature, and Lieven's Russian Against Napoleon. Lieven was a Christmas gift from Kevin.
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| Funcken uniform book |
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| Morschauser and Lieven |
The bookshelves in the game room are overflowing with books and rulesets. Books are seemingly multiplying in piles on the floor. Given the proliferation of books and reference material, we decided to buy several bookcases and move the book collection upstairs into the formal living room. Since the formal living room is rarely utilized, why not make it into a library? I could not argue with such clear logic. Bookcases are on order and should arrive within a fortnight.
Moving the books from the game room also allows me to recapture additional gaming space. The game table will remain at 12' by 6' but I may see a noticeable increase in space around the table. The painting alcove should gain a bit of space too.
Good solution, don't you agree? The only downside is that the game room and painting area will be separated from the library by a set of stairs. Once the library is relocated, my office, library, and game room will each be on a separate floor.
That is an impressive hoard. I've had my eye on the 'Uniforms of the Roman World' book for a while, it's just a pity I don't have any generous sisters!
ReplyDeleteHaving book-buying family is a treat!
DeleteFabulous haul! I want to get the Duncan Head title but I recall it's a bit pricey. I should take a peek at eBay and see if I can get an affordable copy.
ReplyDeleteMy copy came via eBay and I paid $25. I don't know if that pricey or not but seemed reasonable to me. The is really a terrific source.
DeleteThats a great price! Ok, I have to go in and figure out how to have eBay alert me for something like this. Can't be that hard, can it?
DeleteYou should be able to easily set up a search for just this item. I know I have "watches" for many distinct items.
DeleteNice pick ups! I don't play WAB anymore(Impetus now), but their books are the benchmark in quality and a must have in ones collection and is why I own them all. The El Cid is simply brilliant and my personal favourite, closely followed by Age of Arthur and Shieldwall but they all are great. Need to get 'Uniforms of the Roman World'. I have the AWI and Nap one and really like them both.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
I prefer Impetvs as well. The Roman book looks quite useful based only upon a cursory review. It is a big, heavy book full of uniforms, armor and weapons.
DeleteMany great titles there, Jon.
ReplyDeleteIt was discovering Morschauser's book in my local public library way back in 1967, entirely by serendipity, that got me started in our wonderful if eccentric hobby. I still think it is a great introduction to the hobby for novices. Curiously, I've never played a wargame using his rules, something which I really must remedy some day!
Peter
This is my second copy of Morshauser's book. I like the notion of gridded games although I think I would lean towards hexes.
DeleteWhen I saw your gridded games, I immediately thought that you may have been influenced by Morshauser. I haven't tried his rules either.
To me, he is one of the pioneers.
Among other things, he pioneered the whole idea of gluing our soldiers to bases.
DeleteFor a long time in the 1870's and 198-0's,. our house Napoleonic rules were based upon Frappe! by Ray Johnson and used a 3" hex grid board. I still like gridded games for the way they speed up play and reduce arguments about facings, cone of fire, angle of attack and so forth. If I do ever play a game based on the rules in his book, it will definitely be a gridded conversion of them!
After having gamed the Command & Colors hexed based games for quite some time and coming from a boardgame background, I agree completely with you assessment. Hex based games offer faster play and decrease ambiguity. I am very tempted to expand my gaming to include more hex/grid based games.
DeleteOh, and the influence for the gridded games in my case was definitely Charlie Sweet... who was himself certainly influenced by Joe, both being of the true "Old Guard" of the hobby.
ReplyDeleteWhich came first: gridded miniatures gaming or gridded boardgaming? did one influence the other?
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