Friday 2 January 2015

Classic Wargames Book No. 60

Today was something of a rare day for me. I managed to find another outstanding item for my classic wargames book collection in a local second hand book shop, in good nick and at a decent price. To find something I didn't already have was quite surprising as that has never, ever happened before.

Here's what I picked up... Sea Battles in Miniature by Paul Hague.


To date I've only managed to scan it but it looks pretty darn good. There are not that many books on naval wargaming for a start and they all hark back to Fletcher Pratt in one way or another as this one does. Sea Battles in Miniature offers a comprehensive overview of naval actions from galley warfare right though to the early 20th century with a decent chunk devoted to age of sail and ironclads as well.

As is quite typical of books from this period it is a combination of potted history, author's rules and supporting material all intermingled into chapters divided roughly by time period. Today those rules, OOBs and supporting material would normally be split out into different sections, and often into separate tomes i.e. the ubiquitous "army book" or "force supplement" favoured by some many modern publishers and game designers. Back in the early 80s you got the lot in one jam packed 160 page book. Maybe that was not such a bad thing...

Cheers,
Millsy

10 comments :

  1. Millsy
    This is one of my favourite war gaming books. It's chock full of great ideas and wonderful AARs.
    Enjoy
    PD

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  2. I agree, one of my long standing favourites that I picked up for 50p in a second hand bookshop in Portsmouth UK while on holiday many years ago!

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  3. The 15mm Trireme battles are awesome...I love the rules for losing oars and the instructions for building ships.

    My School Library had a cop way back when, and I too recently managed to add a copy to my shelves...a great book,

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  4. Excellent find... Fond memories of getting this out the local library which had good selection of early Wargaming books..

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  5. Well that's all very encouraging I must say. There might not be much painting done today!

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  6. I'm currently reading this book (finally, I bought it in the early 80s). The Napoleonic section is good, based on recent games I have played with other rules, the rules in this book deserve more consideration.

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  7. It is a great book, good find.

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