Wargaming Ancient and Medieval Periods

Book Review

by Donald Featherstone.(8 3/4" x 5 3/4" 143 pages; 31 maps. David and Charles £ 3.95).

This book follows the style of the author's earlier work BATTLE NOTES FOR WARGAMERS published in 1974 by David and Charles, in describing the course of fifteen battles, in this case of the Ancient and Medieval periods, and then explaining how to re-fight them on the wargames table in an historically accurate manner. Recreating historical conflicts is not merely a matter of setting up a terrain resembling that on which the battle was fought, then assembling two suitably scaled-down armies and letting them fight it out that is a wargame and not a historical reconstruction. The varied factors that influence events must be considered in correct chronological order; standards of morale assessed for each formation plus an ability rating for commanders.

The text makes allowances for the fact that hindsight allows the results of these historical battles to be reversed, by including "Military Possibilities" for each battle, stressing salient points at which a little bit of luck or some quite reasonable alternative occurrence could have completely turned the tide of battle. Undoubtedly there is a great attraction in attempting to refight the best-known battles of military history but the scaled-down limitations of our armies and terrains transform these simulations into far from realistic reconstructions. It is far better to select "smaller" battles where the relatively limited numbers and size of the terrain make an accurate reconstruction a very feasible affair thus the author has chosen fifteen highly representative conflicts each displaying the major characteristics of the armies and their tactics. They range from Kadesh in 1288 BC, when Pharaoh Ramses II of Egypt defeated the Hittites in one of the earliest recorded battles and the first known instance of a tactical out-flanking movement.

Then there is Leuctra 371 BC; the crossing of the River Jaxartes 330 BC; Ticinus River 218 BC; Cynoscephalae 197 BC; Taginae AD 552; Stamford Bridge 1066; Lewes 1264; Bannockburn 1314; Morlaix 1342; Auberoche, 1345; Neville's Cross 1346; Shrewsbury 1403; Verneuil 1424 and St. Albans 1455. Each battle is described and its wargame reconstruction considered, a map of the original battle and a map of the suggested wargames terrain accompanies each section. The book is completed with appendices advising on rules, terrain and availability of wargames figures whilst its bibliography is sufficiently extensive to allow the reader to expand his knowledge of any desired battle. This is the first of a series of similar books intended to cover the "smaller" battles of-history from the earliest conflicts of the Ancient world up to the present time; the second in the series WARGAMING - PIKE-AND-SHOT PER10D is to be published in the Autumn.

(Obtainable from the author at 69 Hill Lane, Southampton SOI 5AD, personally inscribed and autographed to purchaser, at £ 4.20p (overseas £ 4.50p; $13 U.S.A.).

Book Reviews

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© Copyright 1976 by Donald Featherstone.
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