Wednesday 16 January 2013

The War Gamer by Charles Grant


Published by Ken Trotman 

Pages 191 plus covers 

This book has become one of the major classic war gaming books written by Charles Grant, one of our first pioneers of war gaming in Britain.
First Published in 1971 by A&C Black Limited, this was reprinted in 2007 by the Publishers Ken Trotman and it contains some extra text and a couple of coloured pictures.
Although the pictures and maps are all mainly black and white, there is a new introduction by his son Charles Stewart Grant and a set of eighteen century rules.

I received this book back in 2011 at Christmas and It has taken me quite a while to finished reading it. The reason for this is that the book is not heavy going but I seem to read a bit and then put the book down until I have another spell at reading. So in a year I have completed this book and it’s a great book to read.
The book starts from basic requirements for a game with knowledge to what the Infantry Cavalry and Artillery did in the 18th century warfare.
The book then goes on to constructing terrain (if you like DIY) and the effects your army has over them. Charles then goes on to Maps, Pioneers, River Transport and casualties.

At the back of all this there is a simple set of rules for you to play with. This section was not printed in the original book but I think that it raps the whole book up at the end. These you can add to or in fact take the bits out that you don’t need, but this sets you off in the right direction if you are waiting to make your own rules for your war game. It’s another book that I am glad that I have in my collection.

Thursday 10 January 2013

Well done Model Hobbies


Well how’s that for service. I ordered my very first figures from Model Hobbies on Friday and when I got home on Tuesday night I had a card through the door from the Post office to say that they could not deliver it and its waiting back at the local Post office. Yesterday I picked up the package from the Post office on the way home from work and was really pleased with the order. The only problem with the order is that four of the seven boxes had been crushed in the box when they were packed. Other than that, I am well pleased with the order and will order some more via Model Hobbies in the future.

So what did I order, well they are all from the new HaT Napoleonic range three boxes of 8174 Brunswick Cavalry in grey plastic, two 8197 Prussian Hussars also in the grey plastic, one 8279 Nap, Mounted Officers in cream plastic and one Nap, British Command 8304 in red plastic and they are all in the new soft rubber/plastic that HaT have been using for some time now.

I must say that all of the figures are sculpted well and the details are all very clear with hardly any flash on them. So it’s time to get my finger out now and start my 2013 painting.

Friday 4 January 2013

New Recruits are coming!


At last the new Napoleonic HaT sets have arrived in the UK and I have already put in my order. Now I have never ordered any products over the internet, but I am so looking forward to these sets that I could not wait any longer for them. I shall let you all know when they arrive. I have also brought the February issue of Miniature Wargames as it has a free copy of Battlegame inside this month. So the spending has already started for the New Year. I do hope that 2013 is going to be a good year for my hobby.

Thursday 3 January 2013

Happy New Year


Well 2012 just flew by and here we are back and at the start of a new year.
I hope that you all had a great Christmas as I did with all of my family. Once again eating too much lovely food and sitting in front of the TV, life has to get back to normal.
With my Christmas presents I did get a couple of war game related items from my family and they are a book “Scenarios for wargames” by Charles Stewart Grant and another Conflix building, the Barn. It was a great shame that HaT did not get the new Napoleonic figures to the shops in time for Christmas but at least I know that I will be able to buy these when they do.  

Now as I said earlier in another post, that I am not going to give you a long list of things that I would like to active this year, as I know that I will never get near the target. But saying that, I do have a couple of regiments to finish off before I can even think about starting any new units. I just hope that 2013 will be better in the painting department than last year to bring my painting average up to speed.