Below is a copy of a short review that I put up on Amazon UK for this book. It is fairly typical of the other (two) comments so is brief. Funnily enough three reviews on the American Amazon are very favourable.
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"There are nice things to be said about this book. It is well produced with nice pics and easy to read. It has some interesting wargame ideas and at £8 is good value for money. What it is not is a working set of wargame rules. As that is what it is sold as, I feel that a ** is fair. At one level it is retro with the chatty style of a 1960s Charles Grant book but it has much more complicated ideas that desperately need explaining. It reminds me of club rules that work fine when a veteran member of the club is there to umpire and explain the game play. But that is just not good enough for a modern commercial rules set where some poor benighted purchaser such as myself has to try to figure out how a game turn is put together.
The system would seem to be astonishingly bureaucratic and you're going to need written records for every single squad. Do we really want to go back to clipboards and chaps in cardigans?
By all means buy it as a set of chatty wargame `articles' with nice pics in one volume. But expect to do a great deal of work to turn it into a playable game"
"It reminds me of club rules that work fine when a veteran member of the club is there to umpire and explain the game play." - That is exactly how I've often described Contemptible Little Armies (2nd edition - I haven't seen the new edition...).
ReplyDeleteI've been back and forth on whether to order this or not. At that price I kind of feel like "How can I go wrong"? On the other hand... I HAVE rules for the period that I'm totally happy with, do I REALLY need another set of rules taking up space in my over-stuffed game room?!
Anyway, glad to hear your impressions. Thanks for posting them here!
Tim, what rules do you use?
DeleteI use sort of a mash-up homebrew set of rules stealing elements I like from Contemptible Little Armies (2nd Ed), Ever Victorious Armies, and Black Powder. We sometimes call it Ever Contemptible Victorious Little Black Powder Armies (of Doom!)... but only when we're being silly (which is most of the time...).
DeleteIt works really well as long as I'm there to umpire and explain game play... and I've also learned to simply not invite certain people who just don't know how to "play nice"...
Dear Tim
DeleteSounds fun, and yes, gaqmes like this are for fun not football-like competitiveness.
J
Thanks for this review John. Coincidentally today I just bought Too Fat Lardies' WW1 rules, Through the Mud and Blood, which comes with a free interwar supplement called Triumphant Banners for uses such as Irish Rebellion and civil war, German civil war of 1919-1921, and VBCW. The Osprey book might be a good accompaniment as a sourcebook.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Mike
Dear Mad
DeleteBe inteested to hear how you get on.
J