It seems that wargaming has entered into an 'up' cycle over the last few years as I have seen more and more material being released in terms of hardware and books on the subject. Osprey has been doing a set of scenarios for one of their games and this time has decided to do a series of books on the subject.

This first one is pretty much a set of rules and covers the Arthurian period of warfare. You know, the King Arthur times when England was in pretty constant turmoil from the various warlords of the time (dukes, barons, and princes) who controlled the countryside and gave only cursory acknowledgement to the King. It was also a time of raids from surrounding territories that were not under English control. After all, it was not that long ago that the area was under the rule of Rome.

I imagine that most books will follow a similar format to this one as Osprey series' tend to follow a specific format. This one opens up with a bit of a background to the period and covers what war gaming actually is. It then goes into the basics in terms of what is needed to properly play as well as some of the more common terms used in the game. I am sure that as one gets more involved and gains greater knowledge, much of this preliminary stuff will be second nature, but the book assumes one is pretty new to the genre, which is fine.

The next section gets into the actual game play. Setting up the field of play, determining who is attacking and who is defending, movement of units hit and defense points and that sort of thing. Quite important is how many troops a specific leader can control. It also includes some strategy in terms of movement as some units will move at specific rates and it is important to keep things coordinated. Some suggested units and sizes are also provided based on historic information.

The last part of the book covers a number of different scenarios. Frankly, it is quite complex as there are specific rules covering just about every contingency you can conceive. In the back of the book is a roster card that you can copy for use in the game. Throughout the book offers examples as well as diagrams and a number of nice color photos of figures that have been painted for this era and how some of the play areas have been embellished with scenery and changes in elevation.

It all makes for an interesting read for enthusiasts and an excellent way to get a nice set of rules for the time period.

August 2012

 Thanks to me for providing the review sample. For more on the complete line of Osprey books, visit www.ospreypublishing.com

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