Editor in Chief Bill | 24 Sep 2016 12:56 p.m. PST |
Which fantasy novel has the right blend of combat and action, to appeal to wargamers? |
Rakkasan | 24 Sep 2016 1:20 p.m. PST |
I have always liked the Peshawar Lancers. |
Mako11 | 24 Sep 2016 1:33 p.m. PST |
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John Treadaway | 24 Sep 2016 1:40 p.m. PST |
Ummmmmmm…. Lord of the… (can't remember the last word. Oh yes…) Rings… John T |
D6 Junkie | 24 Sep 2016 2:40 p.m. PST |
Prince of Nothing series. link |
Parzival | 24 Sep 2016 3:04 p.m. PST |
Naomi Novik's Tremeraire series. Dragons in the Napoleonic Wars. Practically BEGS to be gamed. (But for me the best is still LotR.) |
Zagloba | 24 Sep 2016 3:06 p.m. PST |
Joe Abercrombie's "Heroes" |
Mike Target | 24 Sep 2016 3:08 p.m. PST |
Aren't combat and action basically the same thing? Shouldn't the question be "what fantasy novel has the right blend of combat/action and some other stuff, to appeal to wargamers?" |
21eRegt | 24 Sep 2016 4:11 p.m. PST |
The Worm Ouroboros by Eric(?) Eddison. Two rival factions (Witchland and Demonland) in an endless conflict. High adventure feeling vaguely Norse and ideas for army through skirmish level games. Published in 1922 to the language will seem stilted by today's "enlightened" standards, but a mighty fine read. |
Dynaman8789 | 24 Sep 2016 4:42 p.m. PST |
Lord of the Rings, can't recommend it. Pages and pages describing a knot on a tree or singing a song while battles always ended up with about a paragraph of detail tops. The Dragonlance novels though I am not really impressed with them otherwise. |
Weasel | 24 Sep 2016 5:57 p.m. PST |
Dragonlance, the end of the Elric novels, for skirmish gamers any number of Howard and Leiber novels, the Lyonesse novels by the phenomenal Jack Vance. And well, Lord of the Rings basically defined modern fantasy so hard to dismiss that. |
Zagloba | 24 Sep 2016 7:54 p.m. PST |
Ooh, I change my answer- the first 'Black Company' novel by Glen Cook. |
miniMo | 24 Sep 2016 8:37 p.m. PST |
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Winston Smith | 24 Sep 2016 9:14 p.m. PST |
Lord of the Rings, if you dont mind every single battle decided by a deus ex machina. |
DisasterWargamer | 24 Sep 2016 10:20 p.m. PST |
For skirmish Glory Road For Hollywood done mythology black blade blues – complete with dragons and a SCA For larger battles terry brooks shanara series |
CeruLucifus | 24 Sep 2016 10:49 p.m. PST |
Nearly all fantasy by Glen Cook has a substantial warfare element, including building and maintaining armies, planning campaigns, as well as battles. Black Company, Dread Empire, Instrumentalities of the Night, The Swordbearer. The Garret PI novels are in a civilian setting but warfare is part of the backstory. Several Howard Conan stories have battles: Black Colossus, The Scarlet Citadel, The Hour of the Dragon. |
Cardinal Hawkwood | 25 Sep 2016 2:20 a.m. PST |
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SleepyDragon | 25 Sep 2016 2:22 a.m. PST |
Elizabeth Moon – The Deed of Paksenarrion (mainly the first book Sheepfarmer's Daughter). While the series is about the development of one character the first is about her time serving in a mercenary company – roughly late medieval style, Italian city states. Some of the subsequent series also cover the continuation of the war from the first book. The battles and campaigns are described in sufficient detail for wargamers to set them up. David Eddings had some battles in the Belgariad (the first series starting with Pawn of Prophecy) but my recollection is that there were a bit vague. Stephen Brust's The Phoenix Guards is a nice homage to The Three Musketeers. If I recall correctly the battle is averted by battlefield negotiation, but enough is given of the set-up for a wargamer to go on with. Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series had some medieval style wars. Fletcher Pratt The Well of the Unicorn – older style but he was a wargamer! Harry Turtledove – the Videssos series – lovely big chunks of Byzantine history. Christopher Rowley – Bazil Broketail Glen Cook and ER Eddison have already been recommended. |
Gunfreak | 25 Sep 2016 2:30 a.m. PST |
The rise and fall of the romulan empire. |
MHoxie | 25 Sep 2016 3:28 a.m. PST |
The Lord of Light has good sci-fantasy battles. The Thomas Covenant trilogy (only read the first series) actually has good battle scenes. The Broken Sword (elves vs trolls). The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (cats vs zoogs; ghouls & nightgaunts vs moonbeasts and their minions). |
Cullen | 25 Sep 2016 3:46 a.m. PST |
Not a single novel as such but Moorcock's Hawkmoon series "History Of TheRunestaff" has challenging battles and many skirmishes. Suitable miniatures for this are lacking, however. |
Mike Target | 25 Sep 2016 6:54 a.m. PST |
Raymond E Fiests- Serpentwar Saga. |
ElGrego | 25 Sep 2016 11:02 a.m. PST |
Joe Abercrombie's "Heroes" Definitely, especially given that there are detailed maps of the battlefield in the novel. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 25 Sep 2016 12:08 p.m. PST |
Cardinal Hawkwood--there was a set of Lord Kalvan rules in the 70's: "Down Styphon!", which a lot of people used for straight pike and shot games. Winston--I'd have to argue with you there. Helm's Deep? Not unless you consider the Huorns such. To me, they're just another fantasy army,albeit one Saruman didn't take into account. Pelennor fields? Even after the destruction of the Lord of the Nazgul,there was a great deal of hard fighting. And the Black gate wasn't intended to be a battle at all,but a distraction. They marched there knowing they would likely all die. But see "The Battles of the Fords of Isen" in "Unfinished Tales". Dynaman8789--you've mentioned that muti-page tree-knot description before,but I don't remember it. Could you cite the page numbers,or at least the chapter,so I can find it? |
USAFpilot | 25 Sep 2016 12:14 p.m. PST |
LOTR is one of the greatest books ever written, but not necessarily a good source book for war gamers. I would recommend "The Atlas of Middle-Earth" by Karen Wynn. Besides many maps of the various big battles it also has information on number of troops and type each side deployed. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 25 Sep 2016 12:19 p.m. PST |
Karen Wynn Fonstad. Karen Wynn is somebody else. I second the recommendation,though all of the info in her book came from Tolkien,in one form or another. |
Dynaman8789 | 25 Sep 2016 3:29 p.m. PST |
I can't be bothered to read the books again to find it. |
etotheipi | 25 Sep 2016 3:49 p.m. PST |
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Winston Smith | 25 Sep 2016 5:07 p.m. PST |
Does someone show up at the last minute to pull the Good Guys' chestnuts out of the fire, when all is lost? Huorns and Rohirrim both count. |
evilgong | 25 Sep 2016 6:17 p.m. PST |
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chuck05 | 25 Sep 2016 7:09 p.m. PST |
There were a few battles in the Wizard King series by Chris Bunch. Those books made me take a look at Warhammer Fantasy 5th edition when all I was interested in was 40K. |
kabrank | 26 Sep 2016 5:33 a.m. PST |
Indeed Joe Abercrombie's "Heroes" is brilliant and cries out to be games also some of the battles in his First Law series would be good too. |
Patrick Sexton | 26 Sep 2016 9:02 a.m. PST |
The Lord of the Rings. The Conan novels, specifically the ones involving him as King of Aquilonia. The Lord Kalvan novels. |
Thomas Thomas | 28 Sep 2016 9:16 a.m. PST |
Sony of Ice and Fire provides a nice campaign setting and allows use of historical figures. TomT |
Anthropicus | 28 Sep 2016 10:45 a.m. PST |
Seconding Black Company series. Great books. |
Mithmee | 28 Sep 2016 1:08 p.m. PST |
Yup, the Black Company books. |
Thomas Thomas | 04 Oct 2016 8:57 a.m. PST |
Should also have mentioned Miles Cameron's "Knight" serias. He's a medieval reinactor and writes historical fiction so armor/weapons/tactics reasonable. Interesting fantasy opponent in "the Wild". TomT |
steam flunky | 24 Oct 2016 10:58 p.m. PST |
How come so many of you are mentioning The Lord of the Rings and not the Silmarillion? The Silmarillion is full of comabat from skirmishes to epic battles. |
Hafen von Schlockenberg | 25 Oct 2016 8:49 p.m. PST |
True enough. And spawned some figure lines--from Ral Partha,for instance. Also,Unfinished Tales contains detailed descriptions of Rohirrim military organization,and the battles of the Fords of Isen,in which Theodred was killed. But LOTR remains central. |