Saturday, 22 September 2012

Welcome back to an old friend (and hello to some new ones)


Ooh, shiny! I am very pleased with each of these new additions to the collection.

During the early to mid 1980s one of my favourite wargames books was Sea Battles in Miniature by Paul Hague (ISBN 0 85059 414 6), published by Patrick Stephens Ltd. I borrowed this on numerous occasions from the local library but for some reason never got around to owning a copy. That depressing state of affairs has now been rectified with he recent acquisition of a copy of the same courtesy of Ebay. In truth, I had forgotten just how good this book is. Not only does cover naval wargames from the ancient era up to WW1, complete with suggested rules for ancients, Napoleonics, 1880 era ironclads and WW1 but also some ideas for campaigns and even how to scratch build models. In short, it is a great 'one stop' title and I am so pleased to have this once again - especially as the eBook version that was able to be downloaded for free from the net has disappeared. I am certainly hoping to get lots of ideas from this book for rules for my own naval adventures.

The other piece of welcome news was that my first set of the base version of Heroscape (well the tiles anyway) has arrived and so I can now start to plan the desert terrain I have been wittering on about.

I should point out that both of these arrived on the day that my current contract of employment ended and so served in a very timely fashion to raise a smile against the backdrop of my unemployment.

Still, Prorsum et Sursum as they say.
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12 comments:

  1. Peter Douglas22 September 2012 at 15:57

    DC

    The Hague book is one of the essentials in my library. It's a wealth of ideas for all gamers and not just seadogs.

    Enjoy

    PD

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  2. David Crook22 September 2012 at 16:03

    Hi Peter,

    I plan to spend some quality 'me time'in the man cave reacquainting myself with this! I had forgotten about the ironclad stuff which was even more of a pleasure.

    All the best,

    DC

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  3. Sean22 September 2012 at 22:54

    I too have this book. A great addition to the library. If I recall correctly he had a fun campaign rule about the city states consulting the augury to see if they would sally forth and give battle.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Geordie an Exiled FoG23 September 2012 at 09:28

    I am ultra envious regarding this book

    It was my sacred tome from the lending library when I was a kid, literally reading the print off its pages

    It was the spark that lit my naval wargaming interest providing a "this is what you can do" moment that caused me (at 14) to make tiny little balsa wood dreadnoughts WWI :)

    Oh glorious days !!!

    PSsst: How much did it cost?

    ReplyDelete
  5. David Crook23 September 2012 at 09:42

    Hi Sean,

    That's the one! I am chuffed to bits to have this at last and I know that a 2nd edition was produced so I will now be on the lookout for that as well.

    I noticed, perhaps unsurprisingly, that I have more naval wargames books than land based in the collection!

    All the best,

    DC

    ReplyDelete
  6. David Crook23 September 2012 at 09:45

    Hi Geordie,

    The strange thing about the cost of this was that a good friend of mine picked up a copy for £7 a couple of weeks ago - mine was £14.99 - and prior to this I had seen it going for silly sums like £30 plus. It was available as a free eBook download for a while but has been pulled - presumably due to copyright reasons or similar.

    Back in the day we fought a lot of actions in 1/3000th using the WW1 rules. Great times for sure.

    All the best,

    DC

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  7. Michael23 September 2012 at 13:16

    An excellent volume, there is a second work "Naval Wargaming" Paul Hague published in 1992 (ISBN 1-85260-143-4). No, I'm not selling them ;)Uses hexes for a number of periods, particularly Ancients and U-Boats.

    ReplyDelete
  8. David Crook23 September 2012 at 13:29

    Hi Michael,

    The second edition will certainly be one for the collection - especially given my liking for anything on hexes. Thanks for the heads up re the ISBN - I will take a look for this asap!

    All the best,

    DC

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  9. Peter Douglas23 September 2012 at 15:13

    DC

    My favourite items are the commentary about the "likeable but inept" commander of one of the galley fleets.

    And I want to fight the campaign for Pong Ho.

    Cheers
    PD

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  10. David Crook23 September 2012 at 15:30

    Hi Peter,

    In my opinion comments similar to "likeable but inept" when describing a fictitious commander is the stuff of wargames legend. Pong Ho will be receiving some attention (at least I will reading about it) but in all honesty, I am just going to let the whole book wash over me and see what comes out afterwards.

    All the best,

    DC

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  11. Colin T25 September 2012 at 13:37

    This was a fabulous book. The WW1 chapters in particular were hugely inspirational for me. I've often wondered whatever became of the author - does anyone know?

    ReplyDelete
  12. David Crook25 September 2012 at 13:59

    Hi Colin,

    I know that a second edition was published in 1992 but as to the whereabouts of the author I have no idea. The book was available as a free ebook for a while but was pulled - presumably due to copyright reasons - so I believe that the author is still around somewhere.

    All the best,

    DC

    ReplyDelete