Skip to main content

Yet another "Old School" book to read. . . Oh, the pain!

The last week has been kind of quiet here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen. Too many student papers to read/mark and company from out of town for a few days meant that it was difficult to get any painting time in during the evenings. But, it hasn't been a complete loss here either. . .

Another wonderful little book arrived in a short while ago -- Introduction to Battle Gaming (1969) by Terry Wise. A brief once over reveals what looks to be like lots of interesting reading and plenty of black and white illustrations to peruse too.

Best of all, the copy I received is in "Like New" condition and was had for less than $20US! Can you believe it? All I can figure is that the bookseller was not aware of what he had, because I've seen copies of this little gem elsewhere for a heck of a lot more than that!

And just when you thought it couldn't get any better, the latest issue of Battlegames was also in the same batch of mail today. So, this evening will be very full indeed after some more painting and a progress photo or two right here. Good thing that the Grand Duchess has a conference paper to finish for an upcoming trip to Toronto, so my conscience shouldn't hurt too much! ;-)

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…
It is so nice when you get a nice buy like that.

I know that I've been extremely lucky in a few finds.

My hardbound copy of "Charge" was only $4 in a used bookstore because someone had "highlighted" the rules and it lacked the dust jacket.

I got my copy of "The War Game" (complete with dust cover) for $7.50 from a fellow who was clearing out his books about 20 years back.

And I got the Peter Young "The War Game" (about various battles) for $6 in another used bookstore. No dust jacket, but in great condition.

I doubt that very many others have grabbed these for less. . . . Now if I could just find Featherstone's "Solo Wargaming" or the Funcken's "Lace Wars" guides for decent prices . . . *sigh*.

I've never come across them in used bookstores, but as I say, sometimes one can find gems.


-- Jeff
1:57 PM
guy said…
Well done. I always greatly enjoyed Terry Wise's books and columns. He wrote a wargaming column in the late 1970's early 80's called Observation Post in Military Modelling magazine which eventually was taken over by Stuart Asquith. I believe he went on to run a book shop in Yorkshire.

I always rummage in the book boxes at charity fairs etc in the hope of finding a treasure. I have been fortunate in finding a few over the years but I am still seeking Don Featherstone's Campaign book. I know it is out there!

Regards,
Guy
4:32 AM
Giles said…
What an amazing diorama! I love these old books.

Giles
9:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And We're Off!!!

  Arrrgh!  Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus.  Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown.  More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart.   I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands.  In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands.   As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff.  Depending on ...
5 comments
Read more

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

    A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century.  And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed.   The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area.  Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are.  Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors.  Grrrr.  As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered.  For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...
3 comments
Read more

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text .  I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well.  Now, we're getting somewhere.  I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas,  Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave.  I can't do that." -- Stokes
1 comment
Read more