One of my lockdown deliveries has been War & Conquest. Now this bit is convoluted – I started painting figures to my music collection after radio became too distracting, then moved to classic fm to avoid more distractions of just listening! then encountered Meeples and Miniatures and Neil Shuck (by then 200 plus epsiodes under his belt). I am very late to a lot of parties – sometimes getting there long after they have finished so to speak. Gradually not getting too distracted until this guy emails Neil Shuck to say he’s gone back and listened from the start to M&M podcasts.
What? so there is a completely accessible archive?
So I started listening to them instead – the early ones. The problem was that back then Neil was more on about historic wargames and being a solo presenter devoted more minutes to pure reviews.
As a result I am buying bits and pieces – all of which were last in fashion in the Noughties! And spending more time listening than painting – uugh.
Since then I have acquired Memoir 44 (boardgame), Snowdogs (boardgame) and recently War and Conquest wargame rules based on Neil’s decade old review. Ok some review content is dated but I reckon a good game stays a good game. Neil has already moved on to Sword and Spear as his circa 2014 “go to” wargames rules for ancients but there was something about his review of War and Conquest.
I took a chance and bought them. I have read them and not been dissappointed. Quite simply I have not read a set of rules like these since “Charge or How to Play Wargames” by Lawford and Young.
It is the way they (both books) are written and presented that makes the connection for me plus the sheer enthusiasm of the authors for gaming with model figures across a table top.
In all other respects the two rulesets are strange bedfellows and this is not surprising being authored 44 years apart.
Hopefully I will play them and not be put off.
War & Conquest – epic battles in the ancient and medieval world – are written by Rob Broom and published by Scarab Minaitures. A 2011 publication that is exactly what Neil said back then – a book worth owning and reading in its own right – even if you don’t use the rules!
The Wargaming Erratic 