With the new King Arthur movie out, there surely must be wargamers wondering what figures and rules they can use for this period. Over on the Yahoo Group ArthurWarList, John Acar has published a review of the Glutter of Ravens rules for Dark Age Britain:
I recieved the book in the mail from Outpost Wargaming Service in about a week. Well done since I am in the USA and Outpost is in the UK.
The book consists of 2 parts. Part 1 is a set of wargame rules that are taylored to Dark Age Britain. Part 2 is a source book on all things military during the Dark Ages in Britain.
The wargame looks pretty interesting. The game plays in a scale not too different from DBA. The units are called warbands. There are 4 kinds of warbands. Heavy Cav, Light Cav, Heavy Inf, Light Inf. Warbands have 3 characteristics. Formation, Aggression and Strength. These attributes determine how well a unit fights given a combat situation. Strength is always used for the second and subsequent rounds of combat. Formation is used for the defender in the first round of combat and for missile defense. Agression is used for the attacker in the first round of combat. D6, Average die and D10 are used for combat resolution. There are plenty of army lists and the rules are dotted with examples of play. I have not played the game yet but it does look very interesting and is a fresh approach to ancient and medieval warfare.
The source matterial is top notch. The author is very good about not making any leaps of faith like many historians are prone to do. He logically backs up his conclusions with historical evidence. There are some color plates at the end of the book with some sample combatants of the time. They are not to the quality of Osprey publishing but they are very useful never-the-less. As a military refernce for the time period, this section is among the best IMHO.
Now for the bad...there is always bad isn't there? The only gripe I actually have is that the book is not bound very well at all. It comes on standard paper and is glue bound to the binding with a plastic cover on the front and back. Unfortunatly, some of the pages have already come appart. This one is definitly going to be placed in a 3 ring binder before long. I could send it back but I suspect that I will have the same problem no matter how many times I have it replaced.
Dispite the glue binding, this book is a must have for all interested in gaming the Dark Ages in Britain.
Grade A- (points off for the binding issue)
Cheers!
John
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
The only gripe I actually have is that the book is not bound very well at all. It comes on standard paper and is glue bound to the binding with a plastic cover on the front and back. Unfortunatly, some of the pages have already come appart. This one is definitly going to be placed in a 3 ring binder before long. I could send it back but I suspect that I will have the same problem no matter how many times I have it replaced. Dispite the glue binding, this book is a must have for all interested in gaming the Dark Ages in Britain. Grade A- (points off for the binding issue) Cheers! John
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