The knight who saved England, William Marshal and the French Invasion, 1217 by Richard Brooks

Published by Osprey in 2014 retailing at £12.99

Richard Brooks is a free lance military historian with a reputation for writing analytical military history based on fresh research of original sources. One of his previous books, The Battlefields of Britain and Ireland, is considered the definitive work on the subject. His biography on Fred Jane (founder of Jane’s Fighting Ships and the Fred Jane Naval Wargame) is recognised as outstanding. Therefore, I was very interested when I heard about his new book by Osprey.

This book covers one of the lesser known heroes of the medieval world, William Marshal. He was a right hand man for three kings and the regent for a 4^th. He was loyal to kings, respected by practically all, a fearsome knight at tournaments and a formidable general. His achievement in preserving England as a separate country is important today.

Based in part on The History of William Marshal, the first biography of a non-royal layman in medieval times, the work weaves a complex and detailed tale about the life and time of William Marshal. It covers the tournaments, the intrigue and politics, populated by accounts of the sieges and battles.

There are a number of factors that (to me) make Brooks’s style so interesting. One is his ability to bring together discussion of competing historical sources. Some historians simply state this is what happened, but Brooks outlines if there are different views before giving a reasoned decision which account he deems most likely. Another aspect is the narrative is interspersed with detailed analytical work on the technical aspects of early medieval warfare. Brook’s wider military knowledge is used to place this in a more general context, such as the analysis of the rate of march set against that achieved by armies from other periods of military history. Basically, in times of need, medieval armies could move very rapidly.

I have taken a close academic interest in the critical battle of Marshal’s career, The Battle of Lincoln (1217). This was a very important battle for England in the medieval era and 36 pages are devoted to a detailed investigation of this urban battle. Brooks has done some detailed battlefield walking and this is reflected in his excellent account. A criticism of the book is perhaps the map of Lincoln should have been included in with the chapter about the battle, rather than at the front of the book. I read half the chapter before I remember to check for the map in the front. Perhaps there should have been a note at the start of the chapter reminding the reader of the location of the map. However, this is just a minor point in a very enjoyable book.

 For those interested in medieval history, I whole heartedly recommend this particular book.

Donald Featherstone Memorial Weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre March 2014

Since Don Featherstone, one of the founding fathers of wargaming left the field of play, there have been a lot of memorial events to mark his passing. For example, Christ Scott, Michael Curry and I ran a stand about his books at Warfare in Reading last year.

Don's life long friend, Ron Miles, wanted a trophy to be awarded annually in Don's name. So in collaboration with Henry Hyde (editor of Miniature Wargames), Mark Freeth (the Wargames Holiday Centre), Chris Scott and I, a plan was hatched to run an annual weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre Basingstoke . It fell to Henry and Mark to organize the detail and make it happen.

The event was run in March 2014. 28mm figures, huge terrain boards, rules pasted onto the walls, the event was run in a friendly style that the early wargamers would have valued.

At the end of the event, the trophy was awarded unanimously to one of the early wargaming legends, Charlie Wesencraft. In his eighties, the spritely Charlie was energetically engaged all weekend (even if his character figure was killed). Don's daughter Jane presented the award, which also included Don's lucky dice, a free subscription to Miniature Wargames and a free return to the holiday centre next year. Two runner's up received copies of Don's last book on Wargaming Commando Operations.

The presentation was captured on video and is On YouTube.

Good one Henry Hyde and Mark Freeth, Don would have been pleased with the event.

Looking for early wargaming rules from 1960's and 1970's- can you help?

During the 1960's, 1970's and early 1980's, there was a large range of short, usually A5 wargaming rule books. Some were produced by Skytrex, Navwar, Minifigs etc.. but others were individual wargamers sharing their creations with the wider world. There was one about roleplaying bunnies, wargaming with dinosaurs, early attempts at ACW, medieval and ancients.

My quest for these old rules suddenly started with  the realization if I do not capture some of these now, within a very short space of time, the majority will be gone for ever. In some ways, the history of wargaming project has been a race against time to find some 'lost material'. I ordered a copy of Tacspiel (an unplayable wargame used by the USA in Vietnam War to devise tactics). After I published this obscure text, the archive contacted me as they had lost their copy. If I had not got it to print, it would probably have been lost. It has since been used by various military historians for the operational analysis data it contained.

Some of the classic lost material the project has published includes:
   Donald Featherstone's Wargaming Commando Operations, the book was never published before my edition.

   The Fletcher Pratt Naval Wargame, we had all been using the 1933 version of the rules, not the 1939-45 previously unpublished version.

   The various professional wargaming rules on my site,

    The story of DBA, the list goes on, with many of my books having various pieces added to them. .

Future classic material will include a lost book by Charlie Wesencraft (ACW) and a lost set of rules by Phil Dunn (world war). I have many more 'lost' sets of professional military rules to produce, some of which I suspect I have the only copy in the world. Some were given to me as they were throwing them out of the archives into the bin and a few vigilant wargamers thought of me in time to intercept them.

So my hunt for the early wargaming rules from the 1960's and 1970's is now on. They will be added to my digital library, but I cannot imagine most to them being posted on the internet for the foreseeable future due to copyright issues. The History of Wargaming Project reproduces old material with consent of the estate or the author. The only exception are short extracts as permitted by UK copyright law (and generally accepted by most countries around the world).

In addition to the published material in the more than 50 books/ rules sets, I have a growing digital archive of huge amounts of wargaming material. This is not for publication, but bona fida researchers (e.g. a wargamer producing new rules) can have access to assist them in their work. One day, a university will have this material in their archive to assist war studies students. Well, it is nice to have a dream.

Table Top Sale and Game 11 May 2014 Bristol

On Sunday 14th May I will be selling books etc at my local wargaming Club's Table Top Sale. This is basically a wargaming carboot sale. After the sale, at around 1.30pm, I will be putting on a participation game. I will have my latest new books for sale and will be happy to chat about the History of Wargaming Project.

The sale details will be posted at Bristol Wargaming Club

When a modern wargames becomes real - Ukraine Crisis 2014

For interest I was gaming a potential crisis in the Ukraine. The scenario was an East West confrontation over dividing the country.

At that point I did not know that Ukraine, while not a member of NATO, had a memorandum of understanding with NATO. The question of whether this is legally binding to commit NATO to military action if Ukraine is attacked is one for international lawyers. However, there would be huge moral pressure on NATO to support an ally under attack.

So I was a little surprised to find the real world crisis is starting to resemble one of my wargames. Obviously, in my game, Russia could not stand up for long against a determined effort by NATO based in Poland. When faced with defeat, Russia started to deploy its heaviest weapons and my game stopped at the point of the crisis becoming Armageddon.

It is a somewhat surreal experience to see one of ones wargames played out in the real world. I just hope the politicians are operating at their finest to avoid this crises escalating down a one way path to a confrontation neither NATO nor Russia wants to face.

Cyber Wargaming at CDANS Conference January 2014

The situation. I was at a major IT security conference that focused on strategic issues including cyber-warfare. The first three days demonstrated most countries are developing plans to deal with the threat and many, including the UK, are building cyber weapons as fast as the programmers can go. A new cold war based in the cyber world has started.

The conference organizer strode up to me with a look of despair. One workshop presenter was still on the plane between Switzerland and the UK. So with an hours notice to prepare a session, what could I do? The answer was play a cyber war matrix game.

International audience, most not gamers, generals, civilian analysts all grappled with the idea of playing a game. Fortunately, I had the second edition of my latest book with me. Co-authored with Tim Price, Dark Guest, Training for Cyber War, gaming internet based attacks, vol 1 has the simplest possible training games around this new domain of warfare. So I pulled the matrix game out of the book, prepared some briefs and off we went.

The game was loud, confused, engaging, the audience loved it. They asked me back next year to present some more cyber wargames. My only comment is that some of the countries representatives were very quick to think of offensive cyber war tactics...

Trading at the Penarth Wargaming Show, wales UK, Sat Jan 25th 2014

I will be at this show with a large range of wargaming books.

25th January 2014 at the Cogan Leisure Centre, Cardiff - See more at: Show website