Classic Wargaming books

[goat major]

The 1960s and 1970s seemed to be a golden age for books about wargaming. As an young urchin, my very small local library had more than 10 different books (how many would you find in even a big library today ?). The first wargaming book i ever read was by Practical Wargaming by Charlie Wesencraft. This wonderful little book had rules for every period from Ancients through to ACW. It had some great rules mechanisms (including mercenaries swapping sides in the middle of battles in the TYW) and was written in a seductive storytelling style. That was it - i was hooked and my airfix figures started to fight their way through the great conflicts of history. The pictures of Persians on elephants also started my 25 year love story with ancients (which has now temporarily lapsed for some reason unknown to me) Its now possible to buy the book again but i'm reluctant since it probably isn't as wonderfully perfect as i remember it.

My second favourite wargaming book from the 70s was Operation Warboard - i still remember seeing the advert in Military Modelling and sending off for for it. Now was the turn of my WW2 figures to slug it out over home made French towns made out of cardboard. The accounts of the battles are still classic with the assault on King Beach on D Day being replayed many times on my bedroom floor.

I've probably read most of the gaming classics over the years -but what are other people's favourites ?

[Steve J]

Airfix WWII Wargaming by Bruce Quarrie really got me into historical wargaming in the early '70s. I'd love to get a copy just for old times sake.

[fred.]

Operation Warboard was the book that got me started in Wargaming, probably early 80s. Me and my mate Alex used to pore over this on the school bus every morning. We played games that were far too big for the time we had. Hordes of unpainted airfix and esci figures, all single based. Far too many tanks in a small area. White polystryrene hills - on green chipboard. Birthdays often involved a trip to a DIY shop to get these!!! Great Fun.

The school library also had some of the Featherstone / Quarrie Tank Battles in Miniature Series. We tried adding some of these rules to Operation Warboard, mainly to make the armour rules more complex.  I bought the Western Europe version of Tank Battles in Miniature off eBay recently - it just seems rather odd now. With some very bottom up mechanics - calculating squad firepower by adding up rates of fire. And other areas that are very vague. It was a bit disappointing, compared to the memories.

[Leon]

Airfix WWII Wargaming by Bruce Quarrie really got me into historical wargaming in the early '70s. I'd love to get a copy just for old times sake.

I've got a handful of the Airfix books somewhere, I'll have a dig through them.

[Sandinista]

I still have the Airfix English Civil War book, sentimentality over reality 

[goat major]

the airfix guides series was excellent for its time - ancients, ECW, napoleonics, acw and ww2. I wasnt so sure about the acw rules though - i think they didnt involve dice which was a bit weird.I think a (very) cut down version of the WW2 rules also appeared in Battle/Action comic as well

[Bernie]

Hi

The cracking thing about Charlie Wessencraft's Practical Wargame is that he was the first wargamer I came across who for some of the games in the book took the top-down approach to rules design putting you in the position as a corps or army commander rather than the 6 battalions, a squadron and a battery. His systems were very neat and simple with only a few modifiers and would probably still be deemed innovative today. It still provides inspiration to some of the Realistic Modelling wargame rules that we produce for the 10mm gamers.

As an aside and a plug for John Curry's excellent History of Wargaming project on www.wargaming.co you will find many of the works of "The Don", Charlie Wessencraft and other wonderful writers of old

[nikharwood]

I had a good few of the Airfix ones - IIRC my favourites were the ACW & WW2 tank battles [was there a desert one - with an orange cover?] - I think I had the Napoleonic one as well...they were read & re-read...just wish I still had them 

The other book - that my parents bought me when I was about 11 or so - was Fantasy Wargaming by Bruce Galloway: really influenced me & my gaming as I was playing loads of D&D at that point as well...certainly made me want to fight Helm's Deep...which coincided nicely with me getting hold of some Prince August moulds & casting stuff to bang out hundreds of orcs on mum's gas stove...ah, nostalgia 

It's this one:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fantasy-Wargaming-Bruce-Galloway/dp/0812828623/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1299619005&sr=8-2

I reckon that one is still in mum & dad's loft somewhere...hmm...might have to go rescue that!

[Hertsblue]

Book that changed my life (which gives you some idea of how sad it was) was Charge by Charles Lawford and Peter Young sometime around the mid-sixties. By today's standards the game was crude - the units were composed of individual figures, singly based. Moving them must have taken half the game. But the pictures inspired me eventually to take up the hobby. That and Featherstone's Wargames, which probably sold more Airfix OO figures than any other volume until Airfix got around to publishing their own titles.

[Maenoferren]

how cool I totally forgot this one, I loved it 

[clibinarium]

I grew up in a small town in the eighties and early nineties, and pre internet I was only vaguely aware that there was something called wargaming. Nobody around me did it, and the TV gave me the impression that the odd millionaire might have a table full of figures. Wargaming as a game (rather than just display and dioramas) was caught only as a glipse of a repeat one summer of an old show, "Modeller's World" (?) presented by a guy who seemed like he could have been James Robertson Justice's affable brother (Bob someone?) Anyway it had a short section on an AWI game, and for me the rest of the world fell away for five minutes. That would be it for years.

One day in the tiny town library I found "The Wargame" and even though it already seemed ancient, I was mesmerised. So that was my introduction in print. At a guess I was about 15.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Don Featherston for me - still have a copy, the "battle" by Charlie Grant.

IanS

[NTM]

It was Featherstone for me too 'Wargaming Airborne Operations' was my first wargaming book IIRC.
My dad cleared out a lot of my stuff a few years ago and a few classics went with that. (To be fair I had left them at his house for 10 years after moving out and he did give them to the Burma Veterans Association)

[Maenoferren]

oh Wow moddellers world, totally forgot about that. I still have the book somewhere with all the cool plans and how to convert 54mm figures lol

[Squirrel]

Much the same for me really,  "Battle" by Charlie Grant first got me using proper wargaming rules with all my Airfix WW2 figs when I was about 9, then scouring the (very small) local library found several Donald Featherstone titles to get me going properly.

Fantasy Wargaming by Bruce Galloway got me hooked on fantasy wargaming, and it was a great read. RPG's came later for me.

CHeers,

Kev