New books from the History of Wargaming Project

Today's post included a thick-ish padded envelope containing two books from John Curry of the 'History of Wargaming' Project. Both were eagerly awaited by me ... and a quick glance through them indicates that I will not be disappointed when I get around to reading them.

The first book is THE BRITISH KRIEGSSPIEL (1872): INCLUDING RUSI'S POLEMOS (1888) EARLY WARGAMES VOLUME 2 (ISBN 978 1 291 53126 8) and it was edited by John Curry.

This book is 170 pages long and is split into the following chapters:

• Foreword by Doctor Peter Perla
• Introduction by John Curry
• Map Manoeuvres: An Introduction to Kriegsspiel (1839)
• The Rules for Kriegsspiel by Captain Baring (1872)
• The German Game of War (1878)
• Aids to Kriegsspiel (1897)
• The Dangers of Kriegsspiel and Political Officers (1899)
• War-Game Maps (1888)
• Bellum, an English Kriegsspiel Variant (1909)
• Kriegsspiel and the Teaching of Military History (1890)
• The Game of Polemos (1888)
• Lieutenant Henry Chamberlain's RN New Game of Invasion (1888)
• Appendix 1: The Kriegsspiel Charts for Captain Baring’s 1872 Game
• Appendix 2: The New Game of Aldershot, a War Game Mystery
• Appendix 3: The Game of War (1858)
• Kriegsspiel Bibliography

I had a role in producing this book as I contributed much of the material for the chapter about POLEMOS, including word-processing and checking the text for the rules.

The second book is PHIL DUNN'S FURY AT SEA: RAPID NAVAL WARGAMING INCLUDING PADDY GRIFFITH'S ONE-EYED NAPOLEONIC NAVAL RULES (ISBN 978 1 291 51026 3) and is also edited by John Curry.

This book is 107 pages long and is split into the following chapters:

• Foreword by John Curry
• Wargaming Memories
• Phil Dunn’s World War Game
• Over Open Sights
• The Battle of Yellow Sea Scenario
• Tabletop Jutland 1915
• An American ‘Jutland’
• The Battles of Leyte Gulf
• Sandhurst’s One-Eyed Napoleonic Naval Rules
• Conclusion: Dodgy Dice and Shooting
• Appendix Review of Phil Dunn’s Sea Battle Games: Naval Wargaming 1650 – 1945 Revised Edition
• Bibliography of Naval Wargaming Books

I am looking forward to reading both these books over the next few weeks ... and I am sure that they will prove to be popular with all those wargamers who have an interest in either or both the history of wargaming and naval wargaming.