9 Dec 2013

The Wargaming Compendium - Book Review

For quite some time I've been meaning to post an embarrassingly effusive review of Henry Hydes's book, The Wargaming Compendium, which I got my grubby paws on earlier in the summer soon after it came out.



Now, this sort of generic "guide to wargaming" isn't normally the sort of thing that floats my boat - I'm no hard-core grognard, but I think that I know my way around a table, have painted just a few toy soldiers in my time, and have hardly enough days in the week to read the military history and hard SF which populate the rest of my to-do book and Kindle pile. So, why on earth would anyone want to add to that something which is basically a wargaming primer on steroids?

Well, for starters, the steroids have certainly helped this little idea of a book grow up into a strapping hulk of a coffee-table-gracing tome. Weighing in at the "wow, that's as much as a decent sized tool box" level, the whole thing exudes quality from the cover inwards. And it's the innards that really cut the mustard, with over 500 pages seemingly almost all of them carrying at least one colour photo or illustration to grace the text.

The book itself is divided, FoG-style, into sections which are colour coded by a small block on the edge of each page - starting off with a colourful introduction of how the author got into wargaming in the first place (a Britains cannon that fired match sticks if you must know) through "Basic Concepts" (stuff you can use to explain to a non-initiate what is going on) and then leading right into one of the best sections of the book - a History of Wargaming which could almost stand up as a (40-page) book in it's own right, containing a nice mix of geeky historical details from the 1800's plus some bang up to date moments of "oh, yes, I had some of those!" as well.

Other sections include "Choosing a Period" (which could easily be re-titled "all you needed to know about the periods you don't currently play but have occasionally thought about, in a nutshell"), "Assembling your Forces" (a well illustrated section on basic painting techniques, with an especially useful reference section on painting horses), and then a few chapters which go into detail of periods as diverse as the Wild West, Gladiatorial Combat, a map-based game in Ancient Greece and even a fairly full-on set of rules for 1685-1845 European combat, all well presented and written to clearly illustrate how the author has built up the rules from basic concepts to the finished game. The rules bits I did admittedly skip through a little - one day I might revisit them, but the periods are not that interesting to me and to be honest I almost felt like I had squeezed full value out of the book by page 255 (where they start) anyway!

The book then moves on with a canter through "Other Aspects of Wargaming" which have not already been covered, including naval, air combat, roleplaying and pulp actions, all again with excellent photos on every page before wrapping up with a "Digital" section which covers basic figure photography, and how to use and set up a basic wargames blog or website (what a good idea...!). Right at the back there are 30 pages (yes!) of reference lists, covering manufacturers, a UK show calendar and a list of UK museums amongst other things.

Where the book impresses most is to manage, somehow, to weave the "beginner" aspects into something which even a well seasoned old git like myself found genuinely enjoyable and interesting to read - often much to my surprise.

If you wanted to nit-pick, you could say the home-brew rules are a bit, well, home-brewed and cover periods that may not be of interest to everyone... but even skipping this whole section still leaves a 300+ page book! Some readers might also get a little tired of the writing style, which on occasion veers a little too far towards "so, dear reader, as you send forth your brave miniature troopers once more on their quest for glory for your burgeoning tabletop empire...." but to be honest even this a pretty forgiveable transgression, either on the basis that it is pretty clearly a consequence of the authors enthusiasm for the subject, or even that it sometimes lends an air of "HG Wells" to the whole proceedings anyway!

Bottom line is that you probably should add this to the list of "must have" Wargaming books, whatever your interest are - and this is a pretty short list which essentially comprises Harry Pearson's "Achtung Schweinhund!" (which now appears also to be available on Kindle), a Donald Featherstone or two and perhaps not much else.

And in any case, it's Christmas soon, so you could always send one of the links below to your better half as a suggestion for your stocking!

7 Dec 2013

The Winner Takes It All....? Warfare Match Reports

A musical treat as the long anticipated Abba/The Hives mashup comes to fruition as the Swedes attempt to reach heights of competence rarely seen, in 4 reports from Warfare 2013, taking on more Swedes, some Royalists and two lots of Spaniards..


Are the mighty Swedes going to prove to be Super Troopers? Or will it be a case of Hate to Say I Told You So yet again..?

(Note for regular readers, this report also features the apparently warmly welcomed return of Princess Madeleine of Sweden as leader of the Swedish forces in the post match commentary).

25 Nov 2013

PIRATES! The Buccaneers return in 4 more match reports

The "I can't believe it's a serious army choice" Buccaneers return in 4 match reports from the BHGS Doubles, taking on opponents from the year 1695 in a fury of pirate-based action.


See a 900AP Pirate army in action against non-historical and entirely infeasible opponents such as The Tatars, The Anglo-Dutch, The French and finally, The Poles and Lithuanians as Piracy reaches shorelines previously thought safe from the scourge of the Caribbean (especially the Tatars, on account of Mongolia technically being land-locked).

The reports even feature proper maps and stuff so you can make some sense of the action, as well as just being vaguely amused by the bits I've spliced into the reports..


19 Nov 2013

10 FoGR Army Lists now posted

Army lists from the competitions at Oxford and Reading now added to the FoGR Wiki:
Lists include:


8 Nov 2013

Get That Zimmer Frame Off of My Longship!

It's a first for Madaxeman.com as the game of SAGA takes full advantage of it's free bus pass to arrive bang on time for a 4-game, one day first outing to the seaside in 4 consecutive Viking-laden Battle Reports!


Marvel as the tactical inadequacies seen previously in eras as diverse as Ancient Egypt to the Pacific theatre of WW2 are replicated in painful detail in the Viking Age, and then relax by smearing yourself in Viking Hannibals Goose-fat of Criticism !



Online Reviews of these Match Reports

25 Oct 2013

That Pope is Far Away!

More one day action with the big boys toys, as Tilly tries to take on three opponents in a 25mm style TYW thingy at Farnborough 2013


Does the Pope end up on a rope?  Or will he manage to slip away...!

20 Oct 2013

Force on Force pictures

No science to this, just some pictures from a recent game of Force on Force played at the club. 6th scenario from Enduring Freedom if you are interested, with old-style Matchbox British Paratroopers (in 80's gear!) taking on the Vegetarian Liberation Army forces in Afghanistan










As usual, all images get larger if you click them ... 

17 Oct 2013

25/8mm ECW/TYW at Farnborough 2013

There are three battle reports on their way (eventually) but in the meantime here are a handful of photos I took from some of the other games at the recent 1-day competition in Farnborough. Click on any image bfor a bigger version...











12 Oct 2013

The French go to Southampton

A textbook Italian Wars French army, containing the mandatory Mikes Models Swiss Pike Kiel takes on three opponents in one day in the Southern League round held in Southampton.


See all the usual stuff, with the added bonus this time of a new commander for the French Army being deployed and using his extensive linguistic skills to explain his success - or lack of it perhaps..?

1 Oct 2013

Central London Wargames Club is running London's first Epic Minigeddon tournament!

A one-day tournament running on November 3rd:

Minigeddon is a fun and fast-paced supplement for GW's Epic Armageddon and great for newcomers and seasoned players alike, For more information and the official Epic UK sanctioned rule set please visit the Epic Armageddon London website. 

The tournament consists of 4 rounds of swiss-format, using 1000 points armies. Entry fee is £10 which helps the club to pay for the venue and terrain. There will be trophies for the top 3 players, best painted army and also the infamous wooden spoon. Lists can be chosen freely from the latest NetEA Tournament Pack 2013-08-07, EpicUK lists overrule where applicable though.

W've set up free pre-registration through Eventbrite. The event is limited to 20 players max, so secure your spot soon! More details about the event at the Eventbrite page or if you have any questions please write to Florian Hess

We're looking forward seeing you at the table! 


29 Sept 2013

Roll Call 2013

Yes, it may have been almost 3 months ago, but sometimes even for me the real world gets in the way of writing up match reports!



See how the Earlier Danish army did in 4 themed battles, as lots more Gendarmes than have ever been seen before take to the field, complete with some supporting Reiters !  (Apologies if the lists aren't in the Wiki - I may well have lost them in the last 3 months)

30 Aug 2013

Saga Vikings

Well, I've finally cracked and got myself a SAGA army, of course of Vikings. They ended up being painted quite quickly, and for those of you who have not been following my Facebook Page, here's the progress


The Saga Viking warband...early stage preparation as I finally get back to painting and playing...black undercoat sprayed on, using 2p coins and some Renedra bases I got in an army pack from Gripping Beast. This was taken August 20th. And why do Renedra bases cost more than 2p each ... ?


24th August - All the metal bits, and a first "colour" - in this case Coat d'arms Linen. This might be quicker than I expect... The figures are a mix of Gripping Beast and Wargames Foundry


25th August - Always interesting how much figures can change from this block painting stage to when they get inked later on.


25th August - Gloss poly varnish on the shields, in preparation for some Little Big Men transfers tomorrow - bit of bronze and gold on the jewellery, brown for the backs of shields and wooden spears and they'll be ready for Army Painter..


25th August - Ready for the shield transfers in the morning... Then the Army Painter magic by lunchtime...!


26th August - All glossed up with Army Painter (not the shields with stickers on them - they get clear poly varnish as a topcoat), and then outside to dry .. it's a nice warm day so maybe spraying matt varnish later ? The shield designs are from the LBMS "GB (Large)" and "Foundry, Artizan & BTD" ranges and really make a huge difference to the quality of the figures



26th August, almost all done.... A good weekends work.. all based with builders sand, awaiting some grass and the like on the bases.

I may add some more photos once they are totally done and on the table

16 Aug 2013

It's been a while - so, some Perry Knights!

After somewhat of a hiatus I've finally gotten round to adding some more content to this site. Nothing too onerous (for me) but here are a load of photos of 28mm multi-part plastic Perry Mounted Men at Arms, which I will be using as C15/C16 Gendarmes in FoG Renaissance armies.


I was wildly impressed with these models - a phenomenal amount of thought had clearly gone into designing each sprue to have huge variations in how you could equip and assemble the horses and riders to allow you to do a variety of troop types from each sprue


The horse barding included was sufficient to do every single horse in the pack of 12


There were just 2 riders who were unarmoured and which add a bit of colour to the formation


Everything was painted in a black spray undercoat, and a drybrush of Gunmetal, with some Gold highlights to bring them up a little


Army Painter Dark Tone gave them a blackened look after the drybrushing


 Very simple Gold details really makes them look more upscale than just plain silvered metal



Ready to rumble - hopefully I will only see them from this angle when they get on table!

28 Jul 2013

If Guillermo del Toro had ever seen this website...


Definitely worth seeing (but I'd skip the 3D version).

20 Jul 2013

Website issues - almost fixed!

After a lot of painful manual editing, the FoGAM Wiki, and both the 10mm and 15mm Galleries are back up and running  -  although all of them still have some incomplete or untidy looking bits of formatting, so please bear with any glitches you may come across. I've also taken out loads of dubious code that had gotten onto the site (on the 12th July - so if you accessed the site in the last 7 days you might have seen some security warnings - a reminder to keep your AV solution up to date if nothing else!)

The FoGR Wiki is also now fixed!

14 Jul 2013

Website problems

The Wikis and Photo Galleries on this site seem to be having some problems at the moment, and probably have been hacked with a form of malware. I've set up some redirects to try and take the site offline and redirect everything to this Blogger site (which is entirely separate so is not affected)  and will try and fix it over the next couple of days

In the meantime, in case the redirects don't cover all the ways in, it may be wisest to avoid accessing the wikis and photo galleries, as there might be something untoward hiding in there somewhere that could disagree with your PC..


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