Wednesday 16 January 2019

The Portable Napoleonic Wargame and the American Civil War


Here at last and available in multiple formats as per Bob Cordery's excellent blog

I arrived home from work last night to a most welcome surprise, albeit with one of those 'heart in the mouth' moments! My copy of Bob Cordery's latest book in the Portable Wargame series: The Portable Napoleonic Wargame.


Never a good thing to see but fortunately all was well.

I say heart in the mouth because, as you can see, the postal system was less than gentle with the package but mercifully the book was well protected and therefore in pristine condition.

Bob is going from strength to strength with his writing and this really is a peach of a book. It is very much in the vein of a tool kit for gaming the Napoleonic Wars in a variety of formats. I can do better than quote the back cover and say:

"This book has ten chapters, four sets of rules, three exemplar battle reports, four appendices, a bibliography, and over one hundred and forty illustrations."

I would urge anyone with an interest in the wars of Napoleon to buy this and even if that is not your thing then the chapter beginning on page 140 will certainly be of interest. Bob has listed all the wars up until 1865 that the rules could be used as a basis for and in fact, for my own purposes the Kurz and Allison 30mm Spencer Smith ACW project would be an ideal candidate. I would go as far as saying that any hardcore ACW gamers would find this book to be really useful.

In closing the only thing I would like add - apart from thanking Bob for publishing the book - is that I am REALLY looking forward to his planned Portable Colonial Wargame although this will be some time away methinks!

6 comments:

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Cool and salivating!

David Crook said...

Hi Geordie,

Be still your beating heart....

All the best,

DC

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

David,

I'm pleased that the book arrived safe and sound despite the ministrations of the Royal Mail.

All the best,

Bob

Archduke Piccolo said...

Thanks for the review, David! I've put in my order a week or so ago, and it's on its way. Looking forward to a good read, and maybe some games.

David Crook said...

Hi Bob,

It was fortunate that the bubble wrap was intact and the book was fine.

It is a very welcome addition to the Portable series and has inspired me in numerous directions!

Many thanks once again.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Archduke,

You will not be disappointed! Seriously though, there is a nice mix of game types contained within the pages and so it will have a broad appeal - even for the non-Napoleonic types.

I plan to use the rules for the ACW with my Spencer Smith project and I can see little reason why they should not also be used for the 18th century.

All the best,

DC