Thursday 2 February 2017

New book on Lionel Tarr's Wargame and Bruce Quarries Tank Battles in Miniature Vol 5 Arab Israeli Wars 1948-1973

Lionel Tarr's Modern Wargaming Rules 1939-1945  
 
Lionel Tarr (1920-2003) is widely recognized as the first modern wargamer, modern being 1939-1945. He first came to prominence when his rules were published in 1962 in Donald Featherstone’s classic book, War Games.  

This book contains much previously unpublished material about the Tarr wargame and his epic decade long WWII Eastern Front Russian Campaign. This wargaming campaign was almost as well-known at the time as Tony Bath’s Hyborian campaign. 

This book includes:

     The previously unpublished Tarr wargaming rules he first drafted in 1947 and modified until 1973.

     Donald Featherstone’s 1962 summary of the rules
     Reflections on the rules
     Tarr’s Armies: Russian and German Army ORBATs           
     Solo Wargaming Eastern Front Campaign             
     Wargaming the Battle of Stalingrad         
     Air warfare on the Eastern Front
     Various articles by Tarr
     A.W. Saunders (Tarr’s cousin) modern warfare rules from 1957
     Tarr’s Napoleonic Rules


I have also republished the classic Bruce Quarrie book on the Arab Israeli Wars

 
Bruce Quarrie (1947-2004) was a prolific author and military historian. He wrote over forty titles, mostly on the Second World War, and edited many more. Len Deighton described him as "one of our most meticulous and well-informed historians”.


This outstanding work is a detailed introduction to the Arab-Israeli Wars between 1948 and 1973. That area saw four major campaigns, of which those of 1967 and 1973- the so-called ‘Six Day War’ and ‘Yom Kippur Wars’- are of particular interest to wargamers. These wars involved large tank battles with Centurions, Pattons and M-60’s vied for battlefield supremacy with Arab T-54’s and T-62’s. It provides detailed technical information on the weapon systems deployed by the Arab and Israeli forces. Their organization and tactical use, together with numerous suggestions for their accurate recreation in miniature. The book includes wargaming rules for these conflicts. 
 
 Bruce Quarrie’s classic book on wargaming the Arab-Israeli Wars has been reproduced by the History of Wargaming Project as part of the Tank Battles in Miniature Series.

2 comments:

  1. I look forward to reading Lionel Tarr's book' and have already ordered a copy!

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  2. Comment by David Bradley who supplied some key Tarr material.

    "May I congratulate you on your efforts. I think you have produced the definitive collection of material on Lionel Tarr's contributions to wargaming. I very much appreciated your signed comment - I am just glad I had the sense to send my Lionel Tarr "archive" to someone who was in a position to make it available to the wider wargaming community. Thank you also for including a host of supporting material, such as Ed Saunders' rules and Charles Reavley's "Space Time Continuum" which were important influences on the development of Lionel's rules - which provides added value to the book. Also for the photographic material you have been able to include. The one of Lionel standing by his sandtable - which I think measured six foot square - being particularly impressive. Heaven knows the weight of the sand! Lionel's floors must have been particularly robust! I am also glad you were able to include the ORBAT listing for Lionel's German and Soviet armies.

    Did you do Lionel's writings (and by his extension his memory) justice? The answer is a resounding "Yes". Looking at the vast majority of "modern" rules available to todays wargamers one realises that all of them, to a greater or lesser extent draw on the mechanisms and methods developed by Lionel all those many years ago - so we all owe him a great debt. "

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