Just before I broke my leg, I bought a copy of Patrick and Earl Boal’s DAD'S GAME: OLD SCHOOL TABLETOP WARGAMING RULES but never got around to reading it until now as it had been left on my worktable in the toy/wargame room.
The book is mainly scanned images of the rules written by Earl Boal in the 1980s. Most of the text is typed – although there are some handwritten annotations – and survived because they were kept in plastic ring file pockets. The book ends with the text of a letter containing a battle report that was sent by Earl to his son (Patrick) along with a number of black & white photographs of a wargame they had fought some months earlier.
As to the rules … well, it is stated clearly in the introduction that they were based on the rules in Charles Grant's THE WAR GAME.
However, the Boal's adapted them so that they could use the wide variety of figures in their collection. This is borne out by the photographs of one of their wargames which shows Napoleonic soldiers fighting troops armed with pikes!
I bought these rules out of simple curiosity … and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the short booklet that contains them. In my opinion, the price – which is £3.22 from Amazon – is very reasonable and any wargamer who enjoys using Charles Grant’s rules should enjoy reading this publication.
DAD'S GAME: OLD SCHOOL TABLETOP WARGAMING RULES was written Patrick and Earl Boal and published by them in 2023 (ISBN 979 8 3978 8259 0).
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Hi Bob
ReplyDelete"Old School" written in the 80s! It makes me feel very old, the 1980s seems main stream to me. To qualify for "old school" they would have to be 60s or early 70s.
regards
Paul
regards
Paul
Thistlebarrow (Paul),
DeleteSome younger wargamers think of anything that dates from before 2010 as ‘Old School’! For me, it’s anything that dates from before 1965!
All the best,
Bob
Interesting one there Bob, I have never come across that one before, will have to do some digging.
ReplyDeleteDonnie McGibbon,
DeleteI used a version of the CHARGE rules when I was in my late teens, and reading these rules reminded me of some of the modifications I made to the original rules.
All the best,
Bob
I purchased a copy as well. I really enjoyed the mixing and matching of different periods.
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteIt seemed to me that allowing troops from different periods or eras on the same tabletop battlefield was not really very different from a Colonial wargame where rifle -armed European troops were fighting spear-armed tribesmen.
All the best,
Bob
Bob -
ReplyDeleteI bought a copy of the Charles Grant book way back in 1976 - in my view one of the five classics of the war games genre. My own 'Old School' rule sets owe a great deal to Mr Grant - and to Brig. Grant and Lt. Col Lawford's 'Charge!' Both - together with ideas filched from the 'Wizard's Quest' and the SPI 'Terrible Swift Sword' game system.
One of the charms of The War Game and of Charge is the writing style, conversationally engaging, and not taking itself too seriously. Of the 'five classics' I mentioned, I have three, Don Featherstone's 'War Games' being the third. The two I am missing are Featherstone's 'War Game Campaigns' and H.G. Wells's 'Little Wars'.
I may yet get myself a copy of the Campaigns, book - to complement my copies of the Tony Bath and C.S. Grant campaign books...
Thanks for the reminders and the memories, Bob!
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteI could not agree more! I also own the books by Grant, Lawford, Young, and Featherstone and borrowed liberally from them when I wrote my first rules.
I have tried to emulate their style of writing and presentation in my books, working on the assumption that if I enjoyed the way they wrote, others would.
If you can, buy copies of those campaign books. They are full of great ideas.
All the best,
Bob