"Books Not Written" Topic

Stimulated by the "books every wargamer should own" poll. What books do we need which aren't on our shelves because no one's written them (yet)? I have three suggestions:
1) The WWII Battle Book--scaled maps of WWII brigade and division engagements with OOB and a brief description of the situation, not specific to any rules set.
2) The Build a Game Book--possibly only a long article, walking a wargamer through all the choices involved in finding or writing a set of rules which will let him fight out his favorite battles on his available table with his troops.
3) Consolidated Grant--all the classic Charles S. Grant scenarios suitable for warfare in a specific period above skirmish level with variants in terrain and OOB all in one place. (Comes in H&M and "Moderns" versions.)

What else are we short?

I like your #1 suggestion, but want that for the sharp end, with platoon, company, and battalion level engagements, situational info, OOBs, and maps.

Looking for Normandy in 1944, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and the Russian Front.

Minor Battles of the Napoleonic Wars.

Everyone gets all hung up on the huge battles, but there were loads of smaller engagements that would be a better fit with the size of the average table and the number of units you can put on it!

+1 Cerdic.

Nice one, Cerdic.

Thresher, I suspect you'll kill your idea with overspecificity. Consider a book of "Eastern European Plain" tactical maps with a selection of German, Polish and Russian OOB. There are places there which saw German against Poles, Poles against Russians and Germans against Russians multiple times. Same thing works for Belgium and and adjacent areas of France and the Netherlands. For that matter, you could toss in some WWI possibilities for either of those.

Normandy I'll concede is unique, though you could do interesting things with OOB.

We need some more current books on the hobby. Grant and Featherstone wrote quite a while back. Things have changed and advanced since then, so we need some recent books on wargaming.

"Militant Hypnotism – How to transform non-gamers into your best gaming buddies"

The kind that will paint up the armies and terrain then bring it over to your place to play. And will bring snacks, can't forget that.

I'd second a full collection of all the Tale Top Teasers and other Scenarios (e.g. Programmed scenarios) by both Grant Snr and Grant the younger! [There may be people unaware that C. Grant and C.S. Grant were father and son!]

Well-balanced scenarios that typically offered options for play in 2 or 3 periods (Ancients, Gunpowder, Moderns) that were not tied to any rule system in particular – they are as valid and useful today as when they were written almost 50years ago.

New books that did a similar job would also be very welcome.

Grattan, I'm interested. I've got Hyde's Compendium and Priestley & Lambshead's Tabletop Wargames on my shelves. Have you got an author in mind? Or an advance you think we're missing in our books?

You need Hyde's Campaigns Book.

It is impressive and goes from small almost no paperwork campaigns to "this will run for the rest of your life if that's what you want it to do " campaigns

Oh, and that should have been "Table Top Teasers" of course!

Scenario book on the Hundred Days campaign for battalion level games. Would have historical and plausible battles in it.

The Consolidated Featherstone

A new history of the FPW.

A new uniforms and flags of the AWI.

Uniforms and flags of the War of 1812.

Quatre Bras form the French point of view in English.

A new history of the SYW.

Dictionary of Historical Wargaming.

RP,

Not really, I guess I don't see any "great" in the hobby today publishing books like Grant and Featherstone did. Mayne I am wrong.

I think that with Wargaming Compendium and now Campaigns – both mighty tomes of lore – Henry Hyde may well have picked up that "wargamers who write significant wargaming books" baton.

No, I am not Henry Hyde.

I'll confess I'm balking at Henry's Campaigns book. It's a lot of money for something I don't normally do, and old magazine articles will often provide a good simple battle-generator campaign. Possibly Christmas, where I often treat myself to one more expensive wargame item.

Grattan, that's why I asked. My own suspicion is that between them Wells, Grant, Young, Featherstone and Morschauser pretty much laid out the possibilities. We can tweak things--even write better rules and better scenarios--but unless you include RPGs as miniature warfare, I'm not sure anyone's blazed a new trail in the past 50 years. It's been more a matter of exploring options.

But I've been wrong before.

HAve you looked at the works of Buck Surdu with his Combat Patrol game? That's innovative! (and fun)

Any title entitled "A new history of any period" gets an automatic "pass" from me!

Cerdic, keep hitting the cheap old magazines in flea markets. I'd certainly pay for a nice bound volume in a uniform format, but single small battles at a dollar each are not to be despised.

Osprey Men at Arms Napoleon's German Allies: Wurttemberg