I always look forward to receiving my copy of PA even though historical games are rarely on the menu these days. Our group almost always comprises four players and as good multi-player historical games are few, the heavier German stuff is now the norm interspersed with 18XX and lighter games. Opportunities to play the huge backlog of two-player games we own are far and few between. This does not however prevent the occasional addition to the heap particularly as one (tarnished) silver lining in the cloud of Withering is the opportunity offered to cheapskate cossacks such as I to pick off bargains. A recent frenzy of unaccustomed acquisition brought on by the conjunction of a brief affluence and some very heavy discounting, included the relative oldies 3W's Henry V and the Decision Games AWI battles duo Rebels And Redcoats 1 & 2. The latter should be of interest to anyone interested in Saratoga reviewed in the last issue. The second set features the battles of Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights played on the same mapsheet. As there are another six battles in the box, this would seem to represent good value to anyone interested in the period. The system is basically move and assault, the latter representing a vicious combination of short-range musketry and hand to hand combat and seems similar to that description of that in Saratoga The defender's artillery can only fire after the attacker moves. Since ranges are short this means that the attacker can close in one move without coming under artillery fire until the assault resolution. I suppose this is justified by the small numbers of guns involved. A quick, solitaire run-through of the Bunker Hill scenario indicated that things seem to work. There are some special non-Chaotic requirements to oblige the British to make initial uncoordinated attacks. The graphic design, although attractive and atmospheric suffers from the too-small- hex syndrome which makes counter-handling irritatingly tricky. The battlefields, four in volume 1 and eight in Volume 2 are clearly and attractively rendered. The scale varies. Bunker Hill, the smallest, only covers 60 or so hexes, occupying a corner of the Brandywine mapsheet. Each battle has its own set of unit counters, each counter representing a named battalion or smaller formation with a spiritedly executed drawing of the appropriate uniform. Quite naturally some units pop up in more than one battle, but not always with the same values. It is particularly important therefore to photo-copy the counter-sheets before punching out. There are some succinct designer's notes. The S&T 30 Years War issue, has some useful descriptions of some of the battles. I was attracted to Henry V a) because it was cheap b) it was a mediaeval subject c) because Joan of Arc gets a look-in and d) apart from boring old Agincourt the other battles represented: Patay; Formigny and Chatillon, have things going not entirely the Goddons' way, not that I am partisan of course. The system is interesting, with pre-planning requiring the placing orders counters under leaders commanding assigned horse and foot. There are some independent units, usually missile troops. There are only about thirty-five units a side in each scenario. Loads of markers making up the counter numbers. I was particularly interested in the Patay scenario, the battle with the Pucelle in it. The history seems a bit wonky but I shall reserve final judgement until my acquisition of Alfred Burne's The Agincourt War, soon, wonder of wonders, to be published as a cheapo paperback and cited as a 'good source' for the battle in W.S. Scott's great biography of the Maid. There is a good literary recreation of the battle in Thomas Keneally's Blood Red Sister Rose, a novel well worth reading by anyone with an interest in the life of JoA. Someone recently asked for recommended historical novels, presumably those with a military aspect. I have a few suggestions that may be of help. These are all books I have enjoyed, but I have some funny tastes and read most of them years ago so caveat lector. War And Peace (Tolstoy). The War bits are magnificent. The Peace bits are wonderful and essential so do not skip them. The whole is much easier to read than its size would suggest. Henry Esmond (W.M.Thackeray) Set in Marlborough's wars. The Charterhouse Of Parma (Stendhal) The first hundred pages recommended by no less than Ezra Pound so I am in good company here. I read it in French but gave up after the first hundred pages, the war bit. I suspect Pound also did. (CHV: The rest is rather good, though it is hard to feel anything for someone called Fabrizio del Dongo, who sounds like an Italian porn-star). Charles O'Malley (Lever) Henty for adults perhaps. Hard to find though I should imagine. Charley, 'The Irish Dragoon' goes to the Peninsula and to Waterloo. As a lad I was bought a Henty-esque novel with the splendid title 'Blakeney Of The Slashers', also set against the background of the Peninsular War (I think). (CHV: Henty wrote some good stuff, very much influenced by which Ancient hero was "good" so that Hannibal can come across as being faintly British!). Oliver Wiswell (Kenneth Roberts): One of those long American novels. Set in the AWI the eponymous hero is a Loyalist (CHV: Good man!) Napoleon Symphony (Anthony Burgess) Very 'literary' and with a spectacular anachronism. Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer (Siegfried Sassoon) So it is a disguised biography? Old Mortality (Sir Walter Scott) There is a fair bit about the Covenanters. The battle of Drumclog gets a description. I think Scott is wonderful, although I suspect he is unfashionable nowadays. Avoid the mediaeval stuff. The Red Badge Of Courage. (Stephen Crane) The ACW anti-war novel. The Flowers Of The Forest (Thomas Keneally) The events and characters of the signing of the 1918 armistice form the theme of this. Also, I would recommend (not a novel) The Memoirs Of Captain Gronau. He was Welsh, not Prussian as I had thought before reading the book! He actually took part in the Guards' bayonet charge at Waterloo and distinctly heard Wellington's order. The book is full of that sort of stuff and he is regarded as reliable source I believe. Once again the civilian bits are as interesting as the military ones. Following your recommendation in a recent issue, I splashed out on the Veerbruggen book (£20.00 in softback). This has inspired me to resurrect my mediaeval skirmish rules. Incidentally, the bibliographies of the WRG's very useful Armies Of The Middle Ages Vol.1 and Armies Of Feudal Europe list a 1977 edition of this book, presumably in translation, as a source. The veil of an unknown language (in my case anything other than English, some French and virtually no Latin) is a most frustrating barrier. A subject of interest to me is the Teutonic Order. Some time ago I came across two scholarly works about it in the local antiquarian bookshop. Both were reasonably priced, probably because they were in Dutch. Encouraged by your enthusiasm, I bought the '1940' issue of Vae Victis. I agree the counter graphics are amazing, even if the squaddies all remind me of those consistently slick Letraset people that used to populate architectural drawings in my younger days. One slight problem though: the French units in my copy are missing their blue background. The poilus look as though they are running around in the snow (as opposed I suppose, to the sky). This spoils the effect rather. Are all the copies like this or have I picked up the bummer? (CHV: Looks like a bummer to me). Back to Perfidious Albion #100 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com