Influential Books

    Herein I am following a theme started by a blog post by Nundanket on his Horse and Musket Gaming blog  about 2 weeks ago, in which he cited two or three books that have been the most influential on his wargaming life. Since then, several of the blogs that I follow have picked up this theme, and I have found each and every post in this regard most interesting. This prompted me to add my own offering to the theme, which follows forthwith! 

   For as long as I can remember, I have loved books, and was a voracious reader. Similarly, I have always loved games and been fascinated by history. Unlike many others, I was never much interested in either modeling or playing with toy soldiers... until an act of serendipity! As I have related previously in my series of posts, "Of Dice and (Tin) Men", which starts here, I was browsing the stacks at our well stocked Public Library, a very frequent pastime of mine as a boy, when I came upon the book that changed my life, at least in the wargaming sense. I was an avid chess player as a boy, and was looking for books about chess strategy, when I chanced upon the tome below:

The Library copy was of course in pristine shape. I was thrilled acquire this copy form the library of a family freind, Dr. Edward Schortmann, years later. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, it has been well loved! 

    This book, published in 1962 and read by me circa 1966, revealed the world of miniature wargaming, of which I had previously been completely unaware. In simple but exciting prose, Mr. Morchauser set forth the background of wargames, their key principles, the types and kinds of miniature figures then available, and how to obtain them, and three closely related sets of rules for what he termed the Shock Period (antiquity up to about 1700), The Horse and Musket Period (1700 - 1914), and the Modern Period (World War 1 and beyond). I was hooked from the first pages, and have never looked back since then! 

    It turns out that Joe was the editor of LOOK magazine, a major US magazine published in large format that used striking pictures to covey much of its stories. Its coverage of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War was particularly influential. He even managed to get an article published in LOOK about Wargaming in 1960There are a number of articles by and about Joe on the Tabletop Talk site (TT was the title of one of Jack Scruby's several wargames publications). Joe attended Bard college in Dutchess County, NY, and settled in Puoghkeepsie,NY; both of which are within an hour or so's drive from both where I grew up and where I have worked the past 36 years. While at Bard College, Joe was exposed to Professor Gerard de Gre, another of the "Old Guard" of  Historical Miniature Wargaming, and that ingirted his interest in the hobby. It turns out that Gerry became the regular wargames opponent of Charlie Sweet, who I was privileged to meet at the end of 1973, courtesy of my (then new) wargames freind, Joe Fish. There is more about Charlie in the "Of Dice and (Tin) Men" series, and an upcoming blog post. 

    Curiously, I have never played a game with Morschauser's rules. Considering their pivotal role in my personal wargames history, this is a deficiency I plan to remedy shortly. Stay tuned to these pages; I have at least a couple of such games in the pipeline!  :-)

    The second book was also a somewhat chance encounter. Not long after discovering How to Play Wargames in Miniature, I was reading the Book Review section of the Sunday New York Times. At the time, the entire Sunday Times weighed about 5 pounds, and unlike most guys, this was my favorite section; I never even looked at the sports pages, LOL! This particular Sunday, there was a review of a book about Napoleon. I realized that I knew next to nothing about the man; in US schools, he receives brief mention as the successor to the French Revolution, his involvement in the Louisiana Purchase, and the background to the War of 1812, and that's about it! It is little wonder that Americans in general are famously ignorant of World history. In any event, my next trip to the Library resulted in my taking out several books about Napoleon, but the key one was The Campaigns of Napoleon, by David Chandler.  

Another find in the Public Library; this is my personal copy, acquired many years thereafter.

    This book of course requires no real commentary when talking to any wargamer with even a passing interest in the Napoleonic Wars. I read the book from cover to cover (1,000+ pages) in less than a week. After that, I checked it out of the Library at least a dozen times over the years, probably more! I was fascinated with the man himself, and the incredible scope of the Napoleonic Wars, and the countless nations and personalities involved. It certainly cemented a lifelong focus on the Napoleonic Wars for my Wargaming activities. My current Napoleonic Collection is nearly 8,000 figures, and  will top out well over that in the end. I must have over 100 books related to Napoleon, the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic Uniforms, etc., but if I could keep just one, it would be this one, ands down!

   My first armies were 25 mm painted flats from Aloys Ochel in Kiel, Germany. I found the black and white pictures of the flats in Morchauser's book very appealing, and had little confidence in my artistic abilities. The cost of the figures was very reasonable as well, and the catalog was reasonably easily understood with teaching myself a bit of German. However, over time I wanted more control of which regiments were depicted. That was fueled by the next book.

My copy, acquired circa 1970. The quality of the bindings wasn't great, and there are inaccuracies, but the volume of information and the artistry were and are superb for the price!

    One of the great things about Joe's book was the listing of manufacturers and wargames periodicals. I quickly subscribed to the old NEWA Courier and Don Featherstone's The Wargamer's Newsletter, as well as Jack Scruby's on and off again publications. In one or more of them  there was a review of this book, which I purchased immediately. The variety and color of Napoleonic uniforms depicted was astounding!  I sold all my flats and started building and painting armies in 25mm, chiefly wargames figures by Jack Scruby, augmented with a few Hinton Hunt figures. 

This second volume came out a year or so after the first. 

    With the help of these illustrations (and teaching myself to read some very basic French), I settled on the French and Austrian Armies as my primary forces, augmented by some Bavarians and Russians.  All manner of Confederation of the Rhine troops followed, along with Portuguese, Brunswickers, Danes, Swedes, Prussians and more. My original flat armies were French and British, but I didn't paint any British figures for almost 30 years after that! However, they were eventually added in due course, followed by my Spanish Napoleonics a few years ago. I still plan to paint hundreds more  Napoleonics in the next few years. Lead addiction is a real thing, as many of us can attest. 

My favorite centerfold.  Well, almost!  :-)

    Many other periods and armies have followed, as chronicled here on my blog, but Napoleonics have always been my first love. With the inspiration provided by the paintings of Fred and Liliane Funken, it is easy to see why! Thank you, Joe, David, Fred, Liliane, and countless others for the joy of this somewhat eccentric but glorious hobby of ours~!