Daily Archives: February 4, 2012

One book for the Napoleonic Wars…surely not!

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I personally own more than one hundred text books and over ninety military books and several period original books on the Napoleonic Wars.  This has taken me many years to assemble and in the case of some titles a lot of begging and bartering to acquire.  Those I have told of this collection have said to me ‘its impossible for me to get this amount of material, its beyond my scope, my budget, my sanity to collect it and anyway I need it right ruddy now!’.  So with that in mind I am recommending one title for the Napoleonic Wars, one book, that if you need it now and cannot get many others then it is the only one you really need.

The Napoleonic Source Book by Philip J.Haythornwaite 

This is a book that I picked up in a second hand shop for less than a pound in Paisley a few years ago,while on the scrounge with my best buddy Jim Brittain, and while it is out of print there are many copies around that you should be able to find using the normal means for less than ten pounds.  It is a superb big paperback with about four hundred pages divided into several big sections.  While I will not list contents at length, here they are by section and intent:

The Campaigns – A history of the period from the French Revolution to the Hundred Days including Battle List and the War at Sea.

Weapons and Practise of War – All the weapons of the period, diagrams, usage, formations, medical, at sea, artillery.

The Nations of the Wars – By alphabetical listing from Anhalt to Wurzburg all nations with history, regiments, service arms, uniforms.

 Biographies – All the famous and less so commanders of the Napoleonic Wars.

Sources – The titles the author used in his research.

Miscellanea – Calendars, Equipment, Expenses lists, Measurements, Artillery Tables, etc.

My own copy has about five hundred hand written notes on it linking it to other titles I own.  I used my copy as my primary tool in the writing of the background of the fantasy black powder World of Valon for Flintloque 3rd edition’s new titles.  I recommend this book most whole heartedly…get it!

GBS

Typhon Hoplite added to my collection!

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This week I made the first addition to my personal wargame collection for quite a while.  I had been really busy with getting the latest three USE ME titles out and onto the market and as a result my own hobbying had taken not only the back seat but really the boot (or trunk if you prefer).

So with this in mind and with me own paint brushes gathering dust from inactive use I went along to Painted-Miniature.com and got my hands on a 50mm scale Typhon Greek Hoplite, code TY03 (only 9.00GBP).  You can see the fellow above in this post and lovely he is too.  Stood on a 40mm wide round plastic base he was delivered to me totally finished so I am able to get him right into play against my Hydra, Shades and other mythological goodness.  Painted with acrylics and with a matt varnish (I do not like silk finish if I am honest, makes photos a bugger to get right) he is armed with a Spear and a Shield (Hoplon).

I think I might be getting more pro-painted as requests for my time in writing have meant less and less gaming.  In fact if you take out playtesting it comes down to almost nil since last summer.

GBS

 

Rim Mercenaries Concepts – 15mm.co.uk

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Way back in the way back when…well 2009..a new pack of miniatures was added to the HOF 15mm Science Fiction range over on 15mm.co.uk.  This pack was HOF54 Rim Mercenaries and though fairly plain it has many uses and has been a good seller for the company.  You can see a picture of this pack below (the pack contains ten pieces mixed from three poses).

15mm.co.uk and I choose which new miniatures to make based on the main upon customer requests.  I get many messages saying ‘can we have variants of this’ or ‘some new that’ or ‘this would be cool’.  So I tote them up and the top two or three get commissioned and become white metal reality!

This time has come again in time for April 2012 releases and this time it is the Rim Mercenaries who are up for expansion with a possible eight new poses being considered.  Here an an extract from a conversation between myself and O.G.Joel (author of UM003, UM004, UM007 all in USE ME ).

One thing I’d love to see in 15mm.co.uk’s miniature range is some expansion for the Rim Mercenaries and Post-Apocalyptic Survivors (my second and third favorite ranges, respectively, after the Greys of course). They’re excellent figures, and I could very easily fit them together with my QRF BTR-70’s (the Mercs look Russian, after all), but what they’re missing are good command and heavy weapon packs to spice them up. I think that their expansions should be relatively conservatively armed with low-tech weapons – RPG-type rockets and heavy machineguns for the Heavy Weapons pack; a Merc Commander, Comms Officer and maybe a few Squad Leaders for the command pack.

By the end of this chat we had all decided upon a Command and Support Pack to be designed the sculptor who created the original three, Elton Waters.

I will keep you all informed of progress.

GBS