I enjoy reading well-written fantasy novels – in fact the whole LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy was read to me whilst I was at Primary school – but it is not a genre that has every attracted me from a wargaming point of view. I know that there are some excellent and widely-used rules for fighting large-scale fantasy battles – HORDES OF THE THINGS (HOTT) and WARHAMMER immediately spring to mind – and that Games Workshop produces a vast range of fantasy figures, but fantasy wargaming has never appealed to me.
I suspect that the reasons for this are related to the use of magic in some shape or form in the rules (although why this should be a problem for me, I do not know) and that they are all set in a vaguely ancient historical setting. Battles fought before the invention of gunpowder have never held any particular fascination for me. I have – on occasions – fought wargames set in what is usually referred to as the ‘Ancients’ period, and have generally acquitted myself fairly well … but although they were enjoyable I have never bought or painted a single figure for the period.
It is therefore all the more surprising that today I bought a copy of THE COMPLETE CHRONICLES OF CONAN (Gollancz [2006] ISBN 978 0 575 07766 9).
So why did I buy this volume of collected stories?
First and foremost it is because of Tony Bath and his Hyborian Campaign. As a younger – much younger – wargamer I was enthralled by what I read about the campaign. This was not just a collection of battles; this was a real campaign, with political infighting, broken alliances, and lots and lots of ‘characters’. This interest was recently revived when Rudi Geudens made the text and images from the original campaign available via the Internet. Secondly the wife of a very good friend of mine was intimately involved in its publication. Thirdly I had been given some money as a Christmas present, and I decided to buy something that I would not otherwise have bought.
I look forward to reading these stories with interest.
I suspect that the reasons for this are related to the use of magic in some shape or form in the rules (although why this should be a problem for me, I do not know) and that they are all set in a vaguely ancient historical setting. Battles fought before the invention of gunpowder have never held any particular fascination for me. I have – on occasions – fought wargames set in what is usually referred to as the ‘Ancients’ period, and have generally acquitted myself fairly well … but although they were enjoyable I have never bought or painted a single figure for the period.
It is therefore all the more surprising that today I bought a copy of THE COMPLETE CHRONICLES OF CONAN (Gollancz [2006] ISBN 978 0 575 07766 9).
So why did I buy this volume of collected stories?First and foremost it is because of Tony Bath and his Hyborian Campaign. As a younger – much younger – wargamer I was enthralled by what I read about the campaign. This was not just a collection of battles; this was a real campaign, with political infighting, broken alliances, and lots and lots of ‘characters’. This interest was recently revived when Rudi Geudens made the text and images from the original campaign available via the Internet. Secondly the wife of a very good friend of mine was intimately involved in its publication. Thirdly I had been given some money as a Christmas present, and I decided to buy something that I would not otherwise have bought.
I look forward to reading these stories with interest.
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteFantasy stuff. Uh-oh.
I'll proof your Fanstasy rules when they are ready. And they will be ready. Sometime.
Enjoy the genre. There are no limits.
Like drugs, the first one is free.
You are doomed.
Jim the also-doomed-occasionally.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI have no intention of taking up fantasy wargaming ... but I have often wondered what the attraction for it is.
Having read about Tony Bath's Hyboria Campaign, it seems to be just an 'Ancient' campaign using what we would now term imagi-nations.
Perhaps the stories will enlighten me. I won't know until I have read them!
All the best,
Bob
Hey, that's one of the editions I've got.
ReplyDeleteAlthough mostly an Ancients fan, I'll admit to liking fantasy nearly as much, but more for the stories.
Just as in historical wargaming, there are many degrees of fantasy wargaming. On the one end of the scale, you have the style in which players shop around from an army list, and then put 2 armies against each other; their only casus belli being the fact that the rules publisher dreamed up a universe in which every race is at war with any other race. That style of wargaming, which more resembles tournament argaming, is indeed also not my cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is also fantasy wargaming at the other end of the wargaming scale: well-researched, although not based in history, but based in fiction created by a good fantasy author.
Middle Earth is of course the most prolific example. The amount of background material, notes, drawings etc., all from the primary source (i.e. prof. Tolkien himself) can be considered as a 'historic record' if I may use that term.
The wargames resulting from such a study, can indeed be also totally internally consistent, and can provide the same level of intellectual curiosity and challenge as historical wargaming does.
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteI've not read the Conan books at all, but if you like well-written Fantasy novels I'd recommend the trilogy of books by Joe Abercrombie. No doubt you can find them on Amazon (they are called The First Law Trilogy, I believe). They're by a modern writer, and are one of the best things I've read for many a year.
Sorry to add to your reading 'to do' pile, but I just couldn't resist recommending them as excellent!
Craig
Xaltotun,
ReplyDeleteI hope that it is a good as I have been told it is.
All the best,
Bob
Ph.D.,
ReplyDeleteAs you say, good fantasy fiction is first and foremost good fiction. If I can believe it whilst I am reading it, I will enjoy it.
It was the 'back story' in Tolkein's book that made them so credible; that and the fact that the stories hark back to the myths and sagas of our own history. The best fiction has a core of truth, and all his books had that. As such, they do have 'history' at their core.
Thanks for your very thoughful comments.
All the best,
Bob
CWT,
ReplyDeleteI am always on the lookout for new writers whose books I have not read, and I will certainly try to find some of Joe Abercrombie's work if you think it is worth looking out for.
Thanks for the recommendation.
All the best,
Bob
I think I am probably echoing the comments you have seen already in that 'good' fantasy - well written, 'feasible' background etc is perfectly viable for gaming purposes and I think Phil Barker in the HOTT intro mentioned something about research into fictional backgrounds being little different to historic or something similar (I dont have the rules to hand). Complex magic rules dont do it for me either which is why HOTT handles it so well by acknowledging its existance and incorporating it into the whole rather than almost as a sub game.
ReplyDeleteYou could try it using either HOTT or Table top Battles and all those plastic Lord of the Rings figures so there would no cost. Yet.
All the best,
Ogrefencer.
Well done Bob fro bringing this to my attention,
ReplyDeleteJust ordered from Amazon - which surprisingly was cheaper the The Book Depository.
Apart from my foray into Battlelore, I now have Wizard Kings from Columbia Games, which seems to be a well throughout concept and has excellent geomorphic maps.
Male Anon
Ogrefencer,
ReplyDeleteYou never know ... once I have read the book I might well give fantasy wargaming a try!
One thing that did strike me when I opened the book was the map that forms the inside cover. Like the map in 'Lord of the Rings', the first thing that I thought was 'can I use this for an imagi-nations campaign?'
HOTT is - in my opinion - one of the best sets of generic wargames rules ever written. The fact that it can be used for almost any conflict from 2000 BC to the present day (and beyond) shows that its basic and simple mechanisms are very felxible. When you add those types of mechanisms to a grid - as in Table Top Battles - you have something that I think is as near a perfect set of wargames rules as you can get ... with the possible exception of Morschauser!
All the best,
Bob
Male Annon/robertpeel999,
ReplyDeleteI am glad to have brought this book to your attention, especially as you also know one of the driving forces behind it.
I must admit that I had forgotten BATTLELORE, which is surprising as I own both MEMOIR '44 and BATTLE CRY. I do not know anything about WIZARD KINGS; perhaps you could write a blog entry about?
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
ReplyDeleteI'm very fond of the Conan stories, I think Howard is often underrated in the canon of adventure literature. I've never really regained my interest in fantasy wargaming, but I was thinking the other day that Command & Colors Ancients would make a very serviceable Conan wargame.
Conrad Kinch,
ReplyDeleteI have yet to read the Conan stories (they are next in the pile of books to read that is on my bedside table) I cannot comment on how good they. However, as they are still in print, there can't be too bad.
I hope to have a game using 'Command and Colours Ancients' sometime soon, and I assume that as it comes from the same stable as 'Memoir '44' and 'Battle Cry' it should be a good game.
All the best,
Bob