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[Leman]

  What larks!

[Womble67]

Tabletop Wargames - A Designers and Writers Handbook by Rick Priestly and John Lambshead

Rick Priestly is without doubt an important force in wargaming. It is also evident from his writings that he is not that willing to look beyond his own ideas of what wargaming is all about. After all this is the man who dismissed the Franco-Austrian and Austro-Prussian Wars as of little interest to wargamers, and this in a rulebook written for that period (although the First Carlist War gets an entire chapter, but then he is mates with the Perrys).

What is my impression of the above title. Well, I read on to page 72 before hurling it aside in frustration. The first  chapter was quite generalised. The second was devoted to scale, and went into a great deal of tedious detail but without really making anything clear. Chapter three was on the language of wargaming. He made a great deal about grit (never come across that expression before, until I realised he was talking about friction in wargaming, a concept I have come across in numerous articles). Again this chapter left me feeling that he was saying a lot but the substance was quite limited. Chapter four was on dice rolling and again went into even more tedious, mathematical detail about probability and bell curves etc, but can be summed up thus - D6 great, everything else is rubbish. He even stated that he could not think of any set of rules which now use the Average Dice (ITLSU, HOW, Piquet) because it had been discredited. I did not get to the end of chapter four. Two pages into chapter five I flung the book (and I am renowned for treating books with a great deal of respect). The book unashamedly tells the reader what a marvellous set of rules Warhammer is, plus lots of other rules he's had a hand in (and some, like Warmaster and Black Powder are good) but it is far too self congratulatory. There are also numerous photos of wargames figures: all 28mm in absolutely superb and non-wargameable scenery, even though he states quite early on that the war-games table should not be unduly cluttered. Most of the photos had little relevance to the text.

In conclusion this book would not enable me to write a set of rules. It is far too Warhammer-centric. It does not do what it says on the tin. Verdict 2/10. 

You're not the first person i've heard who's not happy with the book it was on my shopping list

Take care

Andy

[paulr]

Here's a nice little bedtime read for Pendraken fans:
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/when-jimmy-saint-recommended-this-as.html

I'm surprised at you FSN, promoting such inaccurate literature

[FierceKitty]

I miss average dice, though I admit there are satisfactory ways of reflecting the factors that were their raison d'etre without extra equipment.

[Leman]

I think you are right FK, but there are ways which do not involve buckets of dice. I admit that buckets of D6 are great fun; take the PP RFCM family of rules for instance. Nevertheless I would hesitate to call buckets of dice an elegant system.

[paulr]

Buckets of dice do tend to give you average results but when they go to the extremes 

[Leman]

Last year a friend of mine was on the receiving end of six 6s and a 5. Game over.

[FierceKitty]

My army will have what yours is having!

[KTravlos]

Finished Adam Zamoyski's "Rites of Peace". It was na interesting read. The author is quite arrogant, but he is also good. He did a good job mixing the anecdotal social and cultural history of the 1813-1815 period and the Congress of Vienna with the political and diplomatic one. Despite being a 600 page book it was breezy read. And while he did not persuade me fully to give up the transformation thesis (Schroeder, and bit less Kissinger), he does offer the best critique. Thus a good counterpoint to the transformation exponents.

Still going throught Outbreak of First World War, and reading Horton's "The Balkan Wars" on the second Balkan war for BBB scenarios.

[Roy]

Charlie Smithers in Africa.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A4A407U/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Blurb:

THE NUMBER 1 BEST-SELLER!

"Humorous and highly entertaining" ~ The Review

Harry Flashman, step aside, old son. Make way for Charlie Smithers.

"Poetic prose and humorous undertones that are wildly entertaining." ~ Serious Reading

The time is the nineteenth century. The place, the Serengeti Plain, where one Charlie Smithers – faithful manservant to the arrogant bone-head, Lord Brampton (with five lines in Debrett, and a hopeless shot to boot) – becomes separated from his master during an unfortunate episode with an angry rhinoceros, thereby launching Charlie on an odyssey into Deepest Darkest Africa, and subsequently into the arms of the beautiful Loiyan...and that's where the trouble really begins.

Maasai warriors, xenophobic locals, or evil Arab slavers, the two forbidden lovers encounter everything that the unforgiving jungle can throw at them.

"A truly engaging read that will keep anyone's attention from the hilarious beginning until the last word. I highly recommend this 5 star novel." ~ Chapters & Chats

[kipt]

Finished "Corps Commanders in Blue: Union Major Generals in the Civil War", edited by Ethan Rafuse.

Has a chapter each on;
Fitz John Porter
Joseph Mansfield at Antietam
Charles Champion Gilbert at Perryville (how many of you have heard of this officer?)
George Meade as Corp commander
James McPherson at Vicksburg
William Franklin and the XIX Corps
Joseph Hooker in North Georgia
Winfield Scott Hancock  in the Overland Campaign

all by different authors.

Different perspectives on what is usually written about these officers.  Don't always come off as well as their better known moments.

The hardest for me to read was about Franklin.  Didn't hold my interest as much.

[kipt]

Also finished "Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War" by Eliot Cohen and John Gooch.

This was a very interesting book.  It has 5 examples of failures;
American Antisubmarine Warfare in 1942
Israel Defense Forces on the Suez Front and the Golan Heights, 1973
The British at Gallipoli, August 1915
The Defeat of the America Eighth Army in Korea, November-December 1950 (this would be of interest to all the Korean War postings in Pendraken, but the book is not readily available - printer 1990).
The French Army and Air Force, May-June 1940

This is not just blaming the Commander, but investigating everything that could go wrong.  Each vignette has a matrix, showing where failure occurred, form the highest political level to tactical commanders.

[pierre the shy]

Also finished "Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War" by Eliot Cohen and John Gooch.

This was a very interesting book.  It has 5 examples of failures;
American Antisubmarine Warfare in 1942
Israel Defense Forces on the Suez Front and the Golan Heights, 1973
The British at Gallipoli, August 1915
The Defeat of the America Eighth Army in Korea, November-December 1950 (this would be of interest to all the Korean War postings in Pendraken, but the book is not readily available - printer 1990).
The French Army and Air Force, May-June 1940

This is not just blaming the Commander, but investigating everything that could go wrong.  Each vignette has a matrix, showing where failure occurred, form the highest political level to tactical commanders.

This must be an interesting read Kipt - in at least 3 out 5 cases I'd say lessons were learnt and reasonably quickly applied - USN ASW (e.g. USS England in 1944 sinking 5 Japanese submarines in as many days), Did the IDF's 7th Armoured Brigade lose? I thought they held onto the Golan Heights - pretty close run thing IIRC?, In Korea the UN forces retreated a LONG way back from the Yalu,  always retrogressively but fought hard - e.g. USMC at "Frozen Chosin".

[KTravlos]

Finally finished The Outbreak of the First World War. It is a good collection of essays by political scientists and historians, and has a good set on the applicability of preventive war to the First World War case. The essay by T.G.Otte on the preceptions of Russian might by the other major powers was very very interesting. Also good was Ronald P. Bobroff on Russia and the decision to go to war. A good counterpoint to Sean McMeekin. All in all a good read and a useful tool for my students.

Reading Dorothy Gies McGuigam "Metternich an the Duchess". This is the last book I need to read for my Vienna-Utrecht paper. I am a bit burned out from reading. And I still have "The Hapsburgs" and "The French Revolution" to read, plus the books I am reading on Kindle on the 1848-1849 Italian War, and the Second Balkan War.

[kipt]

In some answers to Pierre the Shy, Golan was a near run thing.  The last brigade of Israeli armor came quite late.

As far as the American antisubmarine problem, the author was talking about the Atlantic, where we lost so many ships to only 11 U-boats.  It bettered the America score in the Pacific by 10:1 or so and the US had many more boats.

The ROK, according to the author, did extremely well against the North Koreans, but were terrified of the Chinese.

Now, finished another very good book, "Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan", by Clay Blair, who was a submariner himself.  Every patrol is discussed (the book is 1071 pages with the index).  Good thing we are going to continue our GQIII Solomon's Campaign on 10/29; I need to fire torpedoes.  (I am Japanese and we are getting spanked, hard).

This book compares to "United States Submarine Operations in World War II" by Theodore Roscoe., but is in more depth.  Roscoe is all theaters while Blair is Pacific only.