When is a book not a Book

By no means all of the Military Book market  consists of wargamers . Indeed, experience would tend to tell me that the 'wargaming end'  is only a small part of that market. Other sectors might include Militaria collectors, military modellers and simple student of military history, by no means all of whom spend their leasure time fondling little metal and plastic men .... and tanks.

This caused me to wonder how many wargamers actually collect 'serious' military history books. I know plenty who do  but I also know  of chaps whose main source of 'knowledge' is a rulebook or an army list.  Though  all of the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society have respectable libraries of their own. Now in the current climate are  games rules and army lists  'books' in other than  mere physical appearence? Ater all their function is closer to that of an instruction manual!

 Army lists can be the  worst- and I speak as someone who has written a few. At their worst they are like the instructions in a box of flatpack furniture with bits missing on the instruction sheet - despite the fact that you have one of those bits in your hand but no idea how it fits in. You know the army had unit A in it but the author of the list has either denied it exists or had missed it out, yet you have one there in front of you. Worse yet is when these lists are tailored to a specific 'game', as we are now seemingly supposed to refer to rules.Now just to be clear I am only talking about historical wargaming here where the parameters are the  specific historical period (or should be)  rather than some game designers flight of fantasy here, should he so choose said designer can go completly off piste.

 This train of thought was begun as I re-read a  rather useful 2 volume set  from my collection of regimental histories. This one being the Gordon Highlanders. I picked it up at a show about a decade or so ago and it is very detailed about such useful stuff as regimental strengths on a given date- so you are not in the least tied to the so-called 'standard' unit'  if you choose not to be, as many such histories have that kind of detail. This history also covers the services of the regiment including some of the lesser known battles of the Peninsular War  , especially those of the later stages in the Pyranees and southern France. Oman of course also covers them as does Napier and while I have both on my shelves Oman consists of seven or so large volumes and Napeir 6 smaller ones. The print in the latter being a bit on the tiny side these days ! 

One of my smaller bookshelves in what I laughingly call my 'studio'

There is also the point that Rules and Army Lists have very little style about them and none of that all important- at least to me- but indefineable, atmosphere. Why should they? They are instruction manuals. They do not try to conjour, in the minds eye , the sight of the Scots Greys and Gordons on that day in June 1815 or Piper Findlater winning his VC 82 years later and half a world away ,as his regiment stormed Dargai heights (that bit is in volume2). No, that is not their function, they are simply the bare -often very bare- bones of what we do. Instructing perhaps but not really informing and certainly not entertaining.

This does not mean they are without use- of course we need the rules and some may choose army lists rather than actual history.  They can be a very useful starting point , though I can't recall any set of army lists I have including anything as useful as a bibliography. 

I'm told that there is a part of the hobby known as 'list building'. It seems to pertain to those fellas who use  arcane points systems as part of the intruction manual in order  to build their armies- something I have not done since about 1984. Too dry and fiddle-farty for my taste, though I appreciate it has its uses especialy  if you are a competition player. To be fair an injection of eye-candy  into rules and army lists had had something of a beneficial effect but even the prettiest can only at best graduate  from instruction manual to 'picture book'.

Another one in the 'studio' 

The current fashion for publishing multiple army lists for a given set of rules can be somewhat annoying especially when the core rules are 30 quid a pop and army lists a similar price-  I wonder if  you have the cash to buy the armies after that little lot. If you are not careful you have dropped a ton  or two without noticing. I say that speaking as a bloke who has done exactly that with real books but never with mere rules or army lists. After all if you have the books you don't need the army list , you can make your own using actual history. It might be a bit harder in parts but it is a lot more fun.

Another boolshelf- with regimental history and other useful stuff.

So no they are not really books. They are a useful adjuct to them perhaps similar in physical form and sometimes even vaguely attractive but without the depth or life of the real thing.

And you know ... one day I will get around to putting them all in subject order.. one day. 

A Big Shiny One.

  It has been some time since I did anything of any comsequence to my 'Shinyloo' project though I have been adding a figure or two here and tthere and even aquiring  a few lots of 'pre-loved' items- in some cases very pre and not very loved. Best of the lot - and in good nick was a lot containing 10 Minifigs 30mm French Guard Chasseur a Cheval on Minifigs 30mm horses.  This little lot, when finished will double the size of Napoleon Shinyparte's Chasseur regiment- and unlike those I already have will be on the correct horses. 

A bunch of recently finished shiny additions Left to right 30mm Minifig, Connoisseur Mameluke on Willie horse Connoisseur Mamluke  on Stadden horse, Minifig 30mm Chasseur on the correct horse and Minifg Chassuer on Stadden Horse..
 Comedy caption - 'You can't shoot at us - we have posher trousers than you!'



Next a short video clip showing the 44th Foot. Mostly Stadden 30mm with a couple of Minot 30mm in there as well. Still a tiny bit to do. Another drummer and perhaps a fifer and Drum Major. Most urgent being to make all the sabot bases the same colour- the paler green, and add a new phinial to the Kings Colour. These have been in their boxes for a few years.

Hoping to get the whole collection out for a game or two this year- maybe even at a show. We shall see. 

First of 2025.

 So I did manage to get a few things completed over what might be loosely termmed the holidays.  There are some additions to 'Shinyloo' which need to be photographed but here are some 40mm Thirty Years War French cavalry with a matt finish - to prove that I have more than one bottle of varnish! 

 The models are a mixture of Sash and Saber and my own Romanoff models and one of the troopers is a Drabant model on a Sash and Saber horse.  There is a fair amount of bits swapping here too, pistol holsters are my own and the cornet finial is a 28mm Front Rank item. The actual cornet is a slight repaint of an oversized 28mm paper item .

These represent the Queens Cavalry regiment in about 1643- though the cornet may be a little later.still more of these to do though including a trumpeter.

Next up for this slowly growing collection will be some artillery I think. But then again I might do some more cavalry as I like painting horses. 

Last Posting This Year.

 OKAY. Thats it for 2024 the last post is in the bag for me to take to my Post Office.

 That is the lot.

 Carole and I are haveing a fortnight off. We will get back to work on or around January 4th  2025

 Now aside from a bit of downtime I want to get some writing done-  got a book to finish and 2024 was a bit of a bugger in parts what with one thing and another so here's hoping for a better 2025.

Frederick the Great- The Short Version.

 Battleground 2024.

Through Rain and Snow and Gloom of Night ......

Well perhaps not gloom of night but plenty of the white stuff then rain . The first part of the  trip to Battleground at the Middlesborough Sports Village on November 23rd was - shall we say - interesting. The whole journey under normal circumstance should have taken about an hour from my house. So 2 Hours 20 minutes later we finally get into the carpark. The weather had turned from snow to rain and sleet but we made it.

So now to the game.

 Jim the Builder was in the chair and plumped for a 10mm Seven Years War game with his rather spiffing collection of little fellas- about 2000 or more on the table as it turned out. Prussians against Austrians and Russians. Models mostly Old Glory  Grandscale 10 as you would expect. All painted by Jim.

Early in the game- Russian on their ridge looking at the Prussian masses adancing against them. 

Initially we had expecte four members of the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society to be present - but only 3 made it . A power cut in his area because of the snowfall meant Andrew the Tekkie had to bail at the last minute.

This meant that Shaun took the Prussians and I the allied forces. I slightly outnumbered the Prussians but they had superior artillery. As it happened I had an advantage of terrain thought that was not apparent at first perhaps.

The Austrians start their long march. 

 I place the Russians on the ridge with their cavalry on their left then the Austrians continuing the line with the mass of  Austrian cavalry on the left flank . My 'tactial plan'  was to do a sort of reverse Leuthen- or was it a reverse Rossbach? sending the bulk of my cavalry aroud the lake and hopefully into the Prussian flank. The Prussian plan seemed to be to beat the artilleryless Russians off their ridge then fall on the out of position Austrians.

The Austrian cavalrygoing round the lake.

Rules used were Warfare in the Age of Reason with a ferw local amendments to suit the smaller scale.

In the event it was a right ding-dong affair. The Russians took something of a pounding but gritted their teeth and hung on by the skin of same  mixing my metaphor as I write ! All hung on them being able to hold out until the Austrian main assualt went in which because of the distance it had to cover- and some sterling resistance by one Prussian cavalry brigade took a mite longet than I'd hoped but in the end all went well (sort of) and the last untouched Prussian brigade was thinking darkly about how it had become the rearguard. The remaing Russians were in no fit state to pursue though the Austrian cavalry could have made life hard for the Prussians to get clear. However  night had fallen- as in the show was closing-  and it was time to pack up all those little fellas and get back home in the rain- which did take only a little over an hour.

Hard pounding  The Russian in trouble hanging on- but only just.

The Austrians finally mange to get to their objective /

Battleground is afince local show and enjoyable and well run by Leon of Pendraken. I hope we will be doing another demo there next year.  Mind you I hope the weather is better nd the cafe is a bit more efficient. 

Retro English Civil War.

  A recent FB post on that  splendid  'Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Group' group  once again mentioned the almost legendary TV series 'Battleground ' of the late 1970s.So far the only TV series featuring  Historical MINIATURES Wargaming. There have been others doing it with computers and one rather poor effort with maps , sandtables and coloured counters but this is still the only show with toy soldiers at its heart. It is ublikely that we will ever see its like again. For the record there were 6 episodes made by Tyne-Tees TV four of these can be found on YouTube. Take a look.

Mixed unit of Hichliffe and Garrison. The Garrison Pikemen have had the cast pikes replaced. 

However this post is a bit more personal. Some years ago now  my wife Carole bought an ECW collection  for me one Christmas. This collection contained some of the units which had featured in the 'Edgehill' episode of that series  and further in the Ospey 'Naseby' book by Peter Gilder and Stuart Asquith.

A couple of the guns hiding behind some more modern gabions. 

Prince Ruperts Charge- some later additions here by my hand. 

 

A Green Regiment - again Hinchliffe and some Garrison. I think these were originally Duncan Macfarlane's 

Recently changing my computer to a much needed newer model I fear I have lost some of the pictures I took of the collection . However here are  some I found. More will appear  even if I have to take new ones . 

Some of the cavalry- Hichliffe Foremost 'Prince Ruperts Charge' 

 A few more of the cavalry - placed upon the issue of battle wherethey form part of the front cover

I do have more to take picture of. A unit of Cuirassiers - all on rather small identical horses- as well as more infantry.

And Finally... The photo in the Naseby book with the Kings Lifeguard of Foot and the actual models .

Shinyloo- Cavalry

  I thought I'd take a few pics of some of the still growing 'Shinyloo' collection. Since I had recently restored a couple of rather battered Minot 30mm French Cuirassiers as well as a couple more Stadden Scots Greys, then some pics of those two units having a bit of a barney seemed apparopriate. 

Frecnh Cuirassiers .Minot with the extravagant movements Stadden next to them and 3 Willies on Stadden horses behing. The Trumpeter is also a Willie. 

A'Helicopter' shot with a few Hincliffe /Foremost Carabinieirs added. 

Now  Napoleonic purists might wail and gnash their teeth and I would not blame them but this will not be as bad as  Ridlyscottaloo after all this is not Waterloo but Shinyloo- like Waterloo only shinier!

Enter the Scots Greys !

 For those unfamiliar with my 'Shinyloo' project it is rather more a pastiche of how my wargaming might have been in the 1970s if I could have afforded it back then. So now it is pure self indulgeance. 

 Scotland Forever perhaps? 

The vast majority of the models are 30mm Stadden ,Willie, Minot or Minifigs with a few Hincliffe and Connoiseur becasue they look good.  Almost all bought second hand and some in shocking condition so the poor chaps often need more than a little TLC. Shiny because back in the 1970s a decent properly matt varnish was almost unobtainable and shiny gloss varish protected the models much better than dodgy matt and gave them a rather nice porcelain look and feel.

Also somehow these older models with their distinctive individual styles look better shiny.