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Wednesday 8 September 2010

... but the deliveryman said, 'Sign here, please.'

After a somewhat eventful day at work, I thought that my problems were going to be never-ending when I drove up to my house … and found a delivery van parked right across the driveway! I was none to pleased, and strode towards my front door in high dudgeon … to be greeted by a friendly deliveryman who had a large parcel for me!

My bad mood evaporated in an instant, and I was only too pleased to sign for the parcel. He even apologised for parking in my way … which made me feel even better about life.

Once inside – and after a fond greeting to and from my wife, I sat down to open the parcel. It contained three books that I had ordered online, and that had been delivered far faster than I had expected. The books were …

SPANISH CIVIL WAR TANKS – THE PROVING GROUND FOR BLITZKRIEG, written by Steven J Zaloga and illustrated by Tony Bryan (published by Osprey as No. 170 in the ‘New Vanguard’ series [ISBN 978 1 84603 512 8]) …

WARGAMING ON A BUDGET – GAMING CONSTRAINED BY MONEY OR SPACE by Iain Dickie (published by Pen and Sword Books Ltd. [ISBN 978 1 84884 115 4]) and …

THE GAMES OF WAR – A TREASURY OF RULES FOR BATTLES WITH TOY SOLDIERS, SHIPS AND PLANES by John Bobek (published by AuthorHouse™ [ISBN 978 1 4343 3028 4]).

My love of the Spanish Civil War made the purchase of the first of these three books a ‘must’, but I hope that the other two will be of interest for different reasons. As I am now fast approaching the age when I will finally retire from work, I am conscious that my wargaming may well have to be less eclectic and more focused when it comes to what I can afford. A quick glance through this book indicates that there a quite a few ideas that I might find useful, and even if some of the things that are featured not applicable to my particular circumstances at present, that may well be in a few years time.

John Bobek’s book is an altogether different sort of publication, but one that nonetheless would appear to have ideas that I will find useful. From what I can gather, John Bobek has used wargaming in schools to help teach history – something I myself did years ago – and the rules I have glanced at seem very suitable for enthusiastic but possibly not very knowledgeable participants. They also seem to place quite a lot of emphasis on the use of simple mechanisms and fast-play (again, very suitable for a young audience) which is also something that is of great interest to me.

As yet I have not read and of these books, but I look forward to doing so over the next few weeks.

4 comments:

  1. Glad to hear something went well for you! I look forward to hearing more about the last 2 of these books.

    -Ross

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ross Mac,

    I hope to read through them in some detail over the next few days, and if I get time I will write a short review of each book.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looking forward to your reviews of these books. Bobek is pushing his book hard on Boardgamegeek.com (as well he should, I suppose).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Itmurnau,

    I have started to read Bobek's book, and it has much to commend it. I hope to write a fuller review in due course.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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