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Post by gregorius on May 12, 2021 23:19:04 GMT
Sharon Penman's 'Here Be Dragons' is one of my favourite historical novels. Don't know about its historical accuracy, although it's supposed to be fairly accurate, but a good read. I think that "When Christ and His Saints Slept" is my favourite. Love the Anarchy period. Cheers, So I've decided on Penman's The Land Beyond the Sea. It's early days yet, but I'm quite enjoying it. As Amalric has just died in chapter 3 I'm theorising that the bulk of thebook will cover Baldwin IV's reign and perhaps into Guy's and the Battle of Hattin. Cheers,
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Post by nangwaya on May 13, 2021 8:56:43 GMT
Just finished reading "The Portable Wargame" by Bob Cordery, and looking forward to trying out the Late 19th Century rules he has. Just received in the post: The Solo Wargaming Guide - William Silvester Developing the Portable Wargame - Bob Cordery Donald Featherstone's Solo-Wargaming and ordered: One-hour Wargames: Practical Tabletop Battles for those with limited time and space - Neil Thomas Hi. I’ve been using Portable Wargame and Developing PW for about a year now. Lots of fun. There ARE holes in the rules, but the basic foundation is simple and rock solid, so you can tweak things to suit yourself. I’ve used the Later C19th rules for ACW, 1864 Schleswig, 1866, Zulu Wars, Sudan campaigns etc. Love ‘em. Have also tweaked/adjusted to suit myself. Some QRSs have been placed in the files section of the ‘The Portable Wargame’ groups.io site. Also Simon W from this forum ran some ancients games with me over Zoom, and from this we tweaked a few rules, giving another QRS expanding on the DPW set. And recently there’s been a Pike and Shot book, with an excellent ECW set by Alan Saunders, using Portable Wargame as the root. One Hour Wargames is a brilliant book....the rules are simple, but work, and the book is worth buying just for the 30 (yes 30!) scenarios, which I’ve also used for Portable Wargame and DBA. Very versatile. There’s a groups.io for that, too, under ‘AMW and other Neil Thomas Rules’. Enjoy!! Good to read your post Martin and how much you enjoy the book, and also about the shout out to the Pike and Shot book, as I was also looking at picking that up. The one Hour Wargames book arrived yesterday, and those scenarios remind me of those TableTop Teasers. Oh, and thanks for mentioning the sites as well. I stumbled across Bob Cordery's site when I was looking for reviews of the book, and was surprised how recent much of the material is. Cheers!
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Post by martin on May 13, 2021 13:39:48 GMT
Yep, I think Bob only published a couple of years ago....the rules might seem ‘old school’ to some, but they’re only recently available, and darned good, too.
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Post by nangwaya on May 13, 2021 17:11:12 GMT
Yep, I think Bob only published a couple of years ago....the rules might seem ‘old school’ to some, but they’re only recently available, and darned good, too. I am glad he included a game report "The Hun For The Mahdi". And for the "One Hour Wargames" book... love that he has a chapter about each period, becuase I have massive gaps in many of the periods, and specifically was nice to read how the Pike and Shot one came about.
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Post by martin on May 13, 2021 17:23:29 GMT
Yep, I think Bob only published a couple of years ago....the rules might seem ‘old school’ to some, but they’re only recently available, and darned good, too. I am glad he included a game report "The Hun For The Mahdi". And for the "One Hour Wargames" book... love that he has a chapter about each period, becuase I have massive gaps in many of the periods, and specifically was nice to read how the Pike and Shot one came about. QRSs sent, Chris.👍🏼 The Hunt for the Mahdi game report gave a very good indication of ‘how to play’, so yes, very useful indeed. OHW - his rationale for the rules is key, I think....very clever, too, but beware the Pike and Shot if you plan to play ECW / TYW. The rules as written seem more 1500’s than 1600’s. I wrote a revision for ECW (drops the swordsmen category, adds dragoons etc, and Reiter are less high speed), but I think the original would work well for Elizabethan Ireland, eg. Or French Wars of Religion....
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Post by macbeth on May 17, 2021 2:33:47 GMT
After 'A Choir of Crows' which I enjoyed I have started reading 'The Timeline of Medieval Warfare' which gives an overview of military history of Medieval Europe with a timeline at the bottom of each page.
Cheers
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Post by macbeth on May 24, 2021 4:39:02 GMT
I finished 'The Timeline of Medieval Warfare' and it did give me some additional useful factoids for use I am now about 1/4 through 'A Brief History of the Private Lives of the Roman Emperors' by Anthony Blond. It gives a brief rundown on Roman society and then gives all the juicy bits of the lives of the Julio Claudian emperors. I have just finished the first overview of society (sex/slaves/the army/the Jews/the Games/Law) and am about to start on the great men themselves. Cheers
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Post by macbeth on Jun 1, 2021 0:01:23 GMT
Well - as is the usual for the 'Brief History' series - 'A Brief History of the Private Lives of the Roman Emperors' was a good read and I picked up a couple of new facts.
From there I then read '1066: A Guide to the Battles and the Campaigns' by Kelly DeVries and Michael Livingston - a good, up to date, analysis of the period.
Now I am reading 'The Battle of Hastings' by Jim Bradbury - so far a very good analysis of the lead up to the battle.
Cheers
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Post by gregorius on Jun 1, 2021 23:38:52 GMT
Well - as is the usual for the 'Brief History' series - 'A Brief History of the Private Lives of the Roman Emperors' was a good read and I picked up a couple of new facts. From there I then read '1066: A Guide to the Battles and the Campaigns' by Kelly DeVries and Michael Livingston - a good, up to date, analysis of the period. Now I am reading 'The Battle of Hastings' by Jim Bradbury - so far a very good analysis of the lead up to the battle. Cheers The 1066 books sound interesting David. Cheers,
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Post by macbeth on Jun 2, 2021 3:58:13 GMT
Both have been quite good Greg.
I am about 3/4 of the way through the second one.
Cheers
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Post by gregorius on Jun 2, 2021 4:10:41 GMT
Both have been quite good Greg. I am about 3/4 of the way through the second one. Cheers Bradbury is such an excellent historian. His Medieval Archer and Medieval Siege are very good indeed. Cheers,
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Post by macbeth on Jun 4, 2021 22:03:48 GMT
I finished the Bradbury ('The Battle of Hastings') and am now well on the way to the end of 'Never Greater Slaughter: The Battle of Brunanburgh and the Birth of England' by Michael Livingston.
I loved Hastings and am very much enjoying Brunanburgh.
Cheers
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Post by nangwaya on Jun 6, 2021 18:21:37 GMT
I just finished reading the third Cadfael book "The Monk's Hood", which occurs in and around Shrewsbury just after the siege of Shrewsbury in 1138, with the backdrop of the struggle between King Stephen and Empress Matilda.
This is an area and part of history I knew nothing of before diving into these books, and it certainly has my interest in doing some wargaming relevant to what I have been reading.
Ellis Peters is one heck of a good writer!
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Post by gregorius on Jun 7, 2021 0:15:06 GMT
I just finished reading the third Cadfael book "The Monk's Hood", which occurs in and around Shrewsbury just after the siege of Shrewsbury in 1138, with the backdrop of the struggle between King Stephen and Empress Matilda. This is an area and part of history I knew nothing of before diving into these books, and it certainly has my interest in doing some wargaming relevant to what I have been reading. Ellis Peters is one heck of a good writer! They are a great series of books Nangwaya. It's a pity that she died before bringing the series to a conclusion. Cheers,
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Post by macbeth on Jun 7, 2021 6:14:14 GMT
Well I knocked over Brunaburgh on Sunday morning - a great read, although I found the end chapter where he discusses the objections to his theory that locates the battle on the Wirral peninsular and then looks at alternate sites. I don't think that he and Michael Wood are friends Great read though. Now I am about 1/3 of the way through something light - The Crime Book - a Dorland-Kindersley illustrated reference about crime, both organised and spontaneous. Cheers
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