50 Years Young (and Lawford of course)

One of the most inspirational books in my library - this is the paperback version (not the soft back white cover edition) but it does have the coloured covers.

It is hard to believe but Charge! Or How To Play War Games by Brig. P. Young and Lt.Col. J.P. Lawford is fifty years old this year. That's right, fifty years old!

The influence this book has had on the Wargaming fraternity is profound and indeed, I am sure that for many gamers of a certain vintage it was instrumental in them immersing themselves in our hobby. I know from my own perspective that back in the early 1970's this book was part of my 'holy trinity' of titles that were almost on permanent loan from our local library - the other being Grant's Battle - Practical Wargaming and Terry Wise's Introduction to Battle Gaming (Featherstone was a later influence for me by a couple of years or so).

I have enjoyed many Charge! based games over the years and I am sure that the whole 18th century 'imagi-nation' trend owes this book a huge debt.

The book has everything - a potted history of the war game, basic and advanced rules with examples of play and a couple of highly enjoyable scenarios. The book finishes up with a brief guide to collecting and painting model soldiers and a list of suppliers.

It was and is a fantastic book and the wargaming fraternity owes the two worthies a huge debt for introducing us to 'a magnificent indoor sport'.

Enemy on the Euphrates

Fancy that, ANOTHER Arab Revolt - this time with Lawrence on the periphery.

Mention the Arab Revolt and one usually conjures up visions of Peter O'Toole and the haunting strains of Maurice Jarre's sweeping soundtrack - complete with camels. As much as I am interested in that particular affair there was a much bigger turn of events it what became Iraq after the end of the Great War.

At one point the Imperial garrisons faced an uprising of around 130,000 tribesman of assorted types, all hellbent on securing independence - or, to be more accurate, going back to how things were before the British got involved. The whole of Middle East was in turmoil after the defeat of the Turks and the British and French managed to make a pig's breakfast of handling the area.

From the gaming perspective this is a very rich seam to tap. For example we have armoured trains, river gunboats, relief columns, marauding tribesman, religious fanatics, aircraft and armoured cars. The British fought the Arabs and the Arabs fought amongst themselves so the potential from a gaming perspective is pretty darned impressive.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something a little different at the end of WW1 - it is certainly a seam I shall be tapping into.

13th February 2017

My son, my daughter and now my wife with yours truly grinning like a cheshire cat on catnip

Finally, after a 36 year engagement and several 'life events' along the way, Laurel and I have finally tied the knot. It was a fantastic day and I should also mention that it was also Laurel's birthday so we made sure there were two cakes to be eaten....

I could not be happier right now.